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“He needs to be back,” the employee says stubbornly.
“I know. I’m working on it.”
“Can you work faster?”
“Not unless you want me to carry him out.”
I click off and watch for another minute. My team sinks the final basket.
“That was solid,” I tell them, clapping each player on the back.
One of the guys pants his way over to the bench, grabs a Gatorade, and drains it.
“Okay, five-on-one,” one of the other guys says, pulling the guys around him and squaring off against me.
I laugh. “You guys are good, but you can’t take me.”
“Let’s try.” They look at one another, nodding. “You first, old man.”
They call me the same thing I called Coach, and my brows lift. “Now you’re fucking with me.” I grab the ball and dribble, running around and dunking it before snapping it back to them at half court. “You’re up.”
He takes it, one of the other guys screening me so he can get past and take it to the basket. The guy on the bench holds up his phone and records our game.
By the time we finish, it’s dark. I’m tired in a way the workout earlier couldn’t tire me out.
When I sneak Coach back into his care home, muttering every apology I know, the staff looks ready to kill me. It was worth it.
After showering, I pull up the offer from New York.
It’s not objectively terrible.
I head for the second bedroom in my condo. The one time I came back since the move, I grabbed more stuff. Didn’t even move out the trophies or old jerseys or photos. Rummaging through them, I find the first trophy I ever won, back when my entire life was ahead of me.
I won it at basketball camp. Like those kids today, all I wanted was to play. I was high on getting better, on feeling as though I fit in.
I click out of my email and into my texts.
Clay: I was at camp today. Thought of you. Remembering when we went swimming.
Dots appear almost instantly.
Nova: Was that all you remember?
My breath sticks in my chest.
Clay: I remember your smile.
Nova: I remember your tattoos. Your hands. The way you said my name.
I close my eyes, watch it play in my head like a movie.
Clay: That was a good day.
Nova: And today?
I turn it over.
Clay: Today was a good day too.
