Continued from yesterday

*******

He was such a dependable friend.  The two of them searched for almost ten minutes without any luck. Joe said the Park Keeper would probably understand if they apologised and explained what had happened but Luke wasn’t ready to give up yet.

“This pavement goes downhill,” he said.

“No it don’t, it’s flat,” Joe disagreed.

“Give me your ball,” said Luke.

He placed it gently on the pavement and it started to roll.

“See! It’s slightly downhill.  If we follow your ball it will lead us to mine.”

“Ok,” said Joe, and they followed it.

It went past the chip shop and the laundrette; past the pub and the bingo hall.  Joe looked back over his shoulder.  He couldn’t see the park gate anymore and was a bit worried.  Mrs Walker had told them to

1. stay together and

2. stay in the park.

He couldn’t do both so, after very little deliberation, he decided that ‘stay together’ was the more important rule.  He hurried to catch up with Luke.  The ball continued to trickle on but was slowing down because the slope levelled out just before it reached the main road.  Joe’s ball came to a stop against a bulge in the asphalt.  He picked it up and put it in his pocket.

“So where’s yours?”

“It must be here somewhere,” said Luke looking around.

His logic was flawless.  The ball must have rolled in this direction.  But it was nowhere to be seen.

“Well at least we tried,” said Joe, “I think we should prob’ly be gettin’ back to the park.”

“Just one more minute,” said Luke, “I know it’s here.  It must be.”  Suddenly he realised “someone prob’ly accident’ly kicked it.  It’s prob’ly gone across the road!”

“Oh no!” said Joe as he looked at the busy traffic, “we’re not goin’ to cross the road!”

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Continues tomorrow 😀 but if you can’t wait, you can read the whole story here