The little boys of summer

Asher's elephant had fallen asleep for his afternoon nap, but now he heard something.  It was a plinking, cracking sound that came every few seconds.  Crack!  Then a pause.  Plink! Then another pause. Plink! And after another pause, crack!  This was not the sort of noise Asher's elephant had heard before.  Nor was it the kind of noise one wanted to hear during a nap.  So Asher's elephant opened his eyes and he spread his ears out to try to get a better sense of what was going on.  He could hear the swoosh of something through the air and then that loud noise again.  He peered out to see what was going on.  Before his eyes was a broad yard; no, it was a field, and on it a number of little boys stood.  Some were crouched down into little squatting stances and others were rolling their heads around, staring aimlessly into the sky.  Asher's elephant noticed that they all had big brown or black gloves on one hand.  They also wore different hats on their heads, but each had a long brim in the front.  After a moment Asher's elephant found the source of the noise he had heard.  The "plink!" drew his gaze to a little boy who was twisted all around like a pretzel.  The little boy unwound himself like a boa constrictor and raised a stick, no, a bat, above his head.  A tall man, who also wore a hat, stepped forward and put a white, round orb onto the top of a thin black pole.  The little boy grimaced at the sphere.  Then with his whole body clenching, he flung his torso and arms around and with a "crack!" he sent the perfect ball into the blue sky.  It raced with a flash up and then slowed down as it turned back to the earth.  Now the little boys were hopping around and darting back and forth.  Several of them eased towards one another as though they were dancing together.  The ball plopped down into the grass and rolled a few feet until one of the boys reached down and picked it up.  With all his soul and with all his frame he hauled the ball back into the air, almost lifting himself up off the ground, as the ball went soaring back towards the tall man with the hat.  A buttlefly floated on the air, and the little boys started to chase it.  Asher's elephant wanted to chase it too.

See the first Asher's Elephant story children’s book: (board book) http://bit.ly/cjepRz and (kindle) http://bit.ly/axIzeK