It was a beautiful, warm summer day and my six year old niece was happily playing in a small pool that was in my backyard. She was spending a few days with me and knowing that she was coming I had gone out and bought a few small toys for her to play with in the pool. One of the items that I picked up was a bright yellow beach ball with a smiley face on it which she began calling Mr. Smiley.

My twelve year old daughter was outside with my niece so I had gone in the house to do a few things. Not long after I heard my niece yelling for me so I ran to the window to see what was wrong. When she saw me she started frantically screaming "Mr. Smiley, Mr. Smiley is is going down the driveway!" I ran to a window facing the driveway and sure enough there was Mr. Smiley blowing down the driveway. Now I"m not sure why I tried to rescue this ball because we live off of a very busy four lane road where the average speed is about 50mph. But I did.

I ran out my front door just in time to see Mr. Smiley heading out of the driveway right into the traffic of the very busy road. Now I'm worried thinking Oh no! Mr. Smiley is going to cause an accident! As I stood there watching from the sidewalk Mr. Smiley is getting hit by car after car knocking it further down the road. Finally, after about fifty feet and one more good hit, Mr. Smiley takes a right and rolls down a side road coming to a stop about twenty feet down in a patch of grass off the road. So I think to myself okay if I can get across the road I can get the ball back for my very upset niece. After about five minutes I get my chance and very quickly run across the road. At this point I started walking because after all Mr. Smiley was just sitting there...I had plenty of time.

When I was about half the way there a car comes down the road and pulls off to the side. Not thinking much of it I keep on walking and then much to my disbelief a man gets out of the car crosses the street and picks up Mr. Smiley! Well, I was speechless as I stopped and just watched this man get back in his car with Mr. Smiley and drive away. I couldn't believe that after braving the traffic for a ball that cost me about a dollar someone actually stole it!

When I got back to the house my niece was anxiously waiting and looking at me expectantly she asked, "Did you get him, did you get Mr. Smiley?" I just looked at her wondering how to explain what happened and said, "No, I'm sorry but Mr. Smiley has been kidnapped!" We did get a new beach ball, she named it Mrs. Smiley! (: