Page 44 of Base Block

“I was watching film of the Ryders’ defensive line. They’re impressive,” he said.

“But you can handle them.”

“It’ll be a fight.” His hands paused. “I was thinking about how strange it was, too. Five years ago, almost to the day, I was in a guy’s basement watching him package his pills to sell. I was going out as his protection and to make sure he got paid, but I hated him. He was laughing and saying that people had no idea what they were getting. He could have been giving them rat poison and he thought it was so funny. I thought of my mom, dying alone and probably poisoned by dirty pills, and I hit him in the mouth. It was kind of a sucker punch, but he had it coming.”

“He did. He really did.” I thought about the various drugs that I had taken with no clear idea of what they were, just like Callum’s mother. At least I hadn’t had a baby depending on me.

“And now I’m here, with you,” he went on. “It’s a crazy world.”

“Do you ever want more?” I asked.

“Like, a nice car? A house without squatters in it? Or do you mean stuff beyond material crap?”

I nodded. That was what I meant.

“Yeah, sure,” he said, and I turned in the chair so I could see his face. I also took his hands. “I think about the security of a bank account, for one thing. They were talking to us about classes for rookies on financial choices and I’m going to sign up to take them in the off-season.”

“That’s a good idea. But what about other stuff?” I asked.

“A lot of the guys are helping out their parents and grandparents, but I don’t have those. I don’t have any debts now that I paid off my credit card. Do you?”

I shook my head. “Like, long-term goals,” I suggested.

“Yeah,” Callum said again, “I have been thinking about my future. I have two years of junior college under my belt, which is an associate degree. I could go further, too. Nobody in my family ever did any kind of higher education. That I know of,” he amended. “My father might be some kind of genius, but I doubt it a lot because if he was so smart, he wouldn’t have gotten involved with my mother. But she was beautiful before the addiction started to show and he wouldn’t have been the first guy to get fooled by a pretty face.”

“I guess that happens.” I let go of his hands and stood, then started to organize my projects.

“What about you? Would you want to go back to school?”

“Probably not,” I said. “I didn’t really like it.”

“I never heard of anyone doing math in their head like you can. You’re really good at figuring stuff out, like how you went after that per diem and got it all organized. I bet you were good at your classes,” he remarked. “Didn’t you tell me that?”

“I was ok,” I corrected. “I missed too much to be good. And I messed around, too.”

“You got in trouble?”

“Yes,” I said, nodding. I started to lift the machine to put it away, but he took it from my hand. “Thanks.”

“Why?”

“Why did I get in trouble?”

“You know why I did,” he said. He put his hand on my back as we walked toward the bedrooms. “I was a little asshole who was taking a swipe at the world.”

“Were you actually little?” I wondered.

“When I was twelve, I was already six-two. I was only little in terms of mental abilities.”

“You’re no koala!” I said, and then explained their smooth brains.

Callum had followed me into my room and he sat on the bed as I took off my earrings at the dresser. “What did you do for trouble?”

How honest did I want to be? “I wanted attention,” I said. “I liked attention from boys.”

That didn’t seem to bother him. “You probably led them around by their…noses.”

“I was pretty back then,” I agreed.