Annie glanced toward Seamus, who kicked at the dirt. He had never really apologized for hitting her. Aaron and Walter looked sheepish also.

Finally Raj broke the silence, pointing toward the Messingers. “So what do you have to do in that game, then? Just hit the ball?”

“Ain’t you never seen baseball?” Seamus said.

“We have cricket in England. Bigger bat. Games take years sometimes.”

“Years?” Aaron said.

Raj nodded. “And it’s always a draw.”

The three boys looked confused. “Sounds dumb,” Seamus said.

Annie wished Raj would stop saying things like this. The boys were trying to figure out how he was different and how he was the same, and he wasn’t really giving them much to hold on to.

“Annie’s brother was really good at sports,” Seamus said. He was clearly trying to make friends again. Annie had heard about what had happened with Cal in the pool hall and felt awful.

Suddenly, someone shouted, “Incoming.”

Tad Messinger, showing off to his sons, had hit a huge line drive. It was flying toward Mrs. Olsen, who shrieked, closing her eyes and covering her belly. The ball would have hit her, but Raj casually put out his hand, which the ball struck with a loud smack. The little bomb crater of ducking people filled in again as Raj held the ball out curiously in front of him.

After a thoughtful moment, he said, “Ouch.”

“Jeezle peezle,” Walter said. “He caught it bare-handed.”

Jimmy Messinger, the seven-year-old, was running out as the cutoff. Raj took one step and hurled the ball with an effortless, fluid motion. It sailed so high and fast over Jimmy’s head, he fell backward with surprise. Tad, who wasn’t expecting the ball, had to dive off the plate as the ball clanged into the fencing behind him.

A bunch of people in the line laughed. Everyone was staring at Raj.

“Whoops,” Raj said.

“Man alive.” Aaron gaped at him. “You threw that ball three hundred yards.”

“How’d you learn to throw like that, Raj?” It was the first time Seamus, or any of the boys, had called him anything but Roger.

Raj shrugged. “Used to throw a ball a lot in England, just against a wall.”

Seamus whistled, shaking his head. “You should play for us.”

Aaron was getting excited. “Yeah, we should tell Coach M.”

“He can’t play for us,” Walter cut in quietly.

“What?” It took a moment for Aaron to understand. His gaze sliding off Raj, he murmured, “Well, man, bet he can spank that ball too.”

Raj looked like he wanted to crawl out of his skin. What an odd mix of privacy and showmanship he was, Annie thought. Happy to ham it up until the attention got too direct. Overwhelmed by a rush of pride and affection she put her arms around his neck. Instantly her head was jerked back by a sharp tug at her hair. She glanced around, furious, to be met by the livid, horrified face of Widow Snyder. She noticed a number of other people staring at her also and realized how what she was doing might look. She let go of Raj. A moment later Lew joined them in the line. Annie felt those eyes all around her. Here she was, with a dark foreign boy and the mad boy who had tried to kill her father.