text: Nine brothers--a full baseball team. From ages seven to eighteen, their presence turned a group into a crowd. Each personality differed from the rest, making it impossible for anyone to mix them up. Even the twins, Reece and Rivers, made sure no one dared mistake one for the other. Each day was a new, undiscovered game to be discovered. Though they all favored their own sports in their own seasons, spring was the time when all schedules aligned--baseball season. Arlo, nine and a half years old, stood over home plate. It was after school, just before the season started, so the wind was bitter and rosy noses were visible under their hats. Sawyer prepared his next pitch, the ball shifting in his frozen fingers. The twin’s tall figures loomed over left and right field, all eyes watching, waiting for the next move. Sawyer wound up, the ball flying from his hands. Despite his young age, Arlo's fingers itches at the bat. When the bat and ball connected, it felt to Arlo as if he had hit it to the very clouds--which could have been very possible with how low they sat in the sky that day. “Run, Arlo, run!” Micheal shouted from first base. Arlo realized he had stood stationary, his bat still in hand, watching the ball soar. Not his first homerun, but certainly one of his favorites. His fingers and toes numb, Arlo ran as fast as he could. The boys in the outfield were shouting to those in the infield, but the ball was nowhere to be found. Out of breath and smiling, Arlo ran back to home plate. “Where is the ball?” Judah shouted behind Arlo, his catcher’s mask on the ground. Judah’s curly hair stuck out at odd angles from underneath his hat, just like Arlo’s. Rivers and Everest had jumped the weeded-over fence at the back of the field, disappearing into the trees. Several minutes later, they hadn’t returned, so all the boys remaining in the field made their way towards the fence. Reece and Sawyer peered over, calling out to locate Rivers and Everest. Judah, the eldest, hopped over the fence to look for them. “Stay here unless I call for you--they probably are looking for the ball farther in and can’t hear us.” Leaving with those instructions, the remaining six boys stood around Arlo congratulating him for his hit. Ten minutes later, according to Moses’s watch, neither Judah, Rivers or Everest had returned. No longer did they concern themselves with the excitement of the homerun, but the missing brothers. “What should we do?” asked Sawyer. “Go look for them, of course,” Replied Reece, already half over the fence. “But Judah said to stay,” Moses whined anxiously. Arguing ensued. Arlo, Reece, and Owen all wanted to go look for them, while Sawyer, Moses, and Lincoln were nervous and undecided. “Maybe we should go tell Mom?” Lincoln whispered, his small round face near tears. The brothers stopped their arguing, looking at him like he was insane. Lincoln turned red and buried his face into Moses’s shirt. Rubbing the back of his neck, Reece rejoined the group on their side of the fence. “Maybe only half of us go?” He offered, still not backing down but calming for Lincoln’s sake. “But what will the rest of us do if you don’t come back?” Sawyer questioned, crossing his arms. “Go tell Mom?” The boys remained silent, thinking through the plan. “We will all go. That way we can search faster and keep an eye on everyone,” Sawyer decided for everyone. Moses and Lincoln looked at each other nervously, but agreed. Looking above the high fence, each one made his climb. When Arlo found himself on the other side of the fence, nothing was different from the times he had climbed over before; weeds covered the ground and sunlight shone through the trees. Rivers, Everest, and Judah were nowhere to be found. “Let's look towards where the swamp should be...the one with the alligators,” Reece suggested, walking away from the fence. “ Alligators? ” cried Lincoln. “Yeah--well, not really. Blake next door said he hopped this fence once and hiked all the way towards a swamp three miles away,” explained Moses, following Reece. “And apparently it had alligators.” The boys searched for forty more minutes until they found the missing brothers. Judah, Everest, and Rivers had found the ball--and a dragon. Reece, Arlo, Owen, Moses, Sawyer and Lincoln stood with their mouths open. The tiny red dragon romped through the fallen leaves, the beaten baseball in its mouth. Everest was on his hands and knees, miming a dog to play with the dragon. Rivers held a stick, trying to pry the ball from its mouth. Judah stood nearby, the tips of his hair charred and black. “Did I really hit the ball this far?” Arlo exclaimed, grinning at the ball in the dragon’s mouth. Laughing, Rivers shook his head. “We have been following this little guy for hours--Judah almost scared him away when he found us. The ball was only a little ways beyond the fence.” The brothers stood in a circle in awe of the dragon. “Why didn’t you call for us? We were worried you were abducted by aliens,” Moses fretted, though not entirely concerned, instead watching the dragon spit shoots of fire while prancing about the ball. Each boy took his turn rolling and tossing the ball for the dragon, losing track of time--except Moses of course, who had been checking his watch every few minutes. Thankfully for the sake of childhood memories of the young boys, Moses kept his mouth shut as the hours passed by. It was only when the bottoms of their bellies began to rumble that they decided they must bid their goodbyes. Promising to return the next day, if the weather permitted, the boys climbed back over the fence. At the back of their minds, they hoped the dragon would follow them home--even though they knew that their mother would make them send him back.