The Adventures of Frankie

“Great practice coach,” Frankie said as he slid his baseball glove over the end of his handlebars. His dad would kill him if he wasn't polite to the coach. Respecting your elders was probably his number one rule. Especially when that elder was doing something out of the kindness of his heart, like coaching Little League for free. Frankie tapped ...

Frankie’s dad ruffled his hair as he walked by the breakfast table, “Get’n a little long there kid.” A flat spot on one side from sleeping on a wet head, Frankie pushed aside the curls so he could see his Fruit Loops. “I want you to take your brother to the barber shop to get a haircut after school. I ...

Mom and Dad’s car lights shined through the dining room windows. That’s when Frankie noticed the juice from the wiggling pile of worms headed for the edge of the table. He shot a hand to the line of liquid just before it dripped onto the floor. He wiped it back towards his first harvest from the golf course. Picking up ...

“FRANCIS, get down here!” After three times of asking nicely, Annette, Frankie’s mom, deferred to his father to get him downstairs for breakfast. “What’s wrong honey?” she asked as he plopped down next to his younger brother. “I hate school,” Frankie pouted. “Now Frankie, this is your first day of middle school, how can you say that already? I loved ...

Both hands gripping the wheelbarrow, sleep still thick in his head, Frankie twisted to wipe an eye on his sleeve. Never excited about getting up early on a Saturday morning, but for a new bicycle, right now he’d do just about anything. It didn’t take long and he had a blanket spread out on Scrawny’s front lawn with his Pokemon ...

“FRANCIS, RONNIE, GET IN HERE!” Frankie’s father yelled out the front door. The two kids were taking their sweet time wandering over from Scrawny’s house. When they finally walked through the door, inside Frankie’s parents were sitting in the living room looking as though they were ready to chew them out for something or other. For the life of him, ...

"Dad, can you take me to the batting cage?" "Again? Frankie, that's the third time this week." "Yeah, I know, but next week we start softball in gym class. I gotta be ready!" Last spring, Frankie was a pint-sized player and Rita the Red Head's brother, Brad the Bully, didn't let him forget it. He was always the pitcher and ...

Frankie wiped the grease off an open end wrench before dropping it in the toolbox. He’d catch the dickens if his father found any of his tools dirty. With the tool box back in its proper place in the basement, he was ready to give his hodge-podge of a bicycle another try. Scrawny Ronnie was off on his mountain bike ...

  Paulette kicked a pine cone down the wooded path along the river as Penelope chased after it, kicking up dust with each of her fuzzy paws. This was the shortcut to her best friend’s house. Rita the Red Head lived on the wrong side of the tracks in one of the ramshackle shanties on the thin strip of land ...

Every few days during the COVID-19 lock down, we will publish another new story for families to enjoy! (See the list at the bottom) Reading was difficult for me as a kid in junior high and high school, I guess my brain is not wired for reading. It was so bad that I never intended to go to college. In ...