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The summer is still months away.”
    Mr. Peoples nudged me with his elbow and grinned. “That’s my point … get it? Even monthsfrom now, this haircut will still be nice and cool.”
    He began to chuckle. Already he had cheered himself up a ton.
    He started the clippers again.
    “More?” I asked, feeling sick.
    “Well, we can’t leave her like this, can we?” he said. “Gotta even her up. Right?”
    I couldn’t stand to look anymore, so I covered my eyes with my hands and waited until he was finished. After circling my head with the clippers about twenty more times, he finally shut them off.
    Slowly I opened my eyes. No! It couldn’t be! My hair was gone!
Totally
gone, I mean! I looked like a hard-boiled egg with a face!
    Mr. Peoples dusted the hair off my neck. “Well? What do you think?”
    I could barely speak. “What do I think about what?”
    “About your hair. What do you think about your hair?” he asked cheerfully.
    Stunned, I gazed at my hair lying all over the floor. “I think it looked better on my head.
That’s
what I think.”
    Mr. Peoples chuckled some more as he got the broom to sweep it up.
    I panicked. “No! Wait! Don’t!” I shouted. Then I jumped down from the chair and started picking uphair clumps and trying to stick them back on my head. I stuffed the rest in my pocket for later reattachment.
    Mr. Peoples laughed again. By now he was a regular jolly old elf.
    “You kill me, boy!” he roared. Then he held out his hand for the money.
    I slapped ten dollars down on the counter and ran home as fast as I could. My mother met me at the door.
    “LOOK WHAT THAT MAN DID TO ME!” I yelled, pointing to my head. “HE’S INSANE, I TELL YOU!
INSANE!”
    Mom covered her mouth with her hand. It was clear that she was trying not to laugh in my face.
    “The good thing about hair is that it always grows back,” she managed to say.
    “Yeah, well, that might be the good thing about hair, Mother,” I snapped, “but exactly what is the good thing about … NO HAIR?!”
    Finally, my mother started to lose it and hurried out of the room.
    “No! Don’t go! I need help here!” I called.
    A minute later, she was back wearing sunglasses. “I apologize. But the glare coming off your head was blinding,” she said with a straight face.
    “Not funny, Mom!” I blurted. “Not funny!”
    That’s when I remembered it! My baseball cap! I had to find my baseball cap!
    I flew down the hall to my room.
Please! Please! Just let it be where I can find it
, I prayed.
    I opened up my closet door. Yes! For once I had remembered to put it back on the hook where it belonged.
    Quickly, I put it on my head. It fell down over my eyes. But after adjusting the back strap, I looked in the mirror. Almost at once, I started to settle down. What a relief! I looked like a cross between Mark Grace and David Justice.
    I’m telling you, baseball caps are the invention of the century.
    Now, if only baseball caps could make me hit home runs like David Justice, everything would be perfect.
    I guess you could say that hitting a home run is a dream of mine. I don’t think it will ever come true, though. It’s pretty hard to hit a home run when all you can do is bunt.
    Bunt
. I’ve always thought that was such a stupid word. The first time I heard it I was only about seven. This kid on my baseball team was on his way up to bat. And before he left the bench, he turned around and said to me, “I think I’m going to bunt.”
    At first, I had no idea what he was talking about.But whatever it was, it didn’t sound good. I sat there and sat there trying to figure it out. And then out of nowhere, it clicked.
    Bunt? Wait a second! I bet it’s another word for “puke”!
    Oh, no! That poor kid’s sick and no one knows it but me!
    Quickly, I got off the bench and ran over to the coach. “Coach! Coach! I think Danny Patrillo is going to start bunting any minute!” I said frantically.
    The coach nodded calmly. “That’s okay,