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“Officially?” I ask.
He nods.
“Two.”
“Unofficially?” he asks, and I grin.
“You know I can’t speculate.”
“That’s what I figured.” He tips back the rest of his beer and asks a passing waiter to bring him another. “So, what are you going to do when you’re done? What is it you love?”
“Man, you’re lobbing all the hard balls at me,” I say, scrubbing my hand down my face.
“Dream with me. What’s that part of your life look like?”
I try to picture it, but it’s fuzzy. And then I start to see it: a backyard. There’s a swing set and a large deck. A grill going, friends over, drinking craft beer and shooting the shit while kids play. Wives come out of the house, carrying food and picking on their husbands with love. Then Faye walks out, her belly round, cheeks pink, carrying a little boy with equally pink cheeks and a mouth covered in cherry Popsicle juice.
“You’re so easy, man,” Alan says, with a good-natured laugh. He sips his fresh beer, passing me another.
“Are weddings contagious?” I ask.
“They are if you want them to be.” He grins. “I proposed to Celine after a wedding we went to in Cartagena.”
“Aw man, don’t tell me you’ve been to Colombia. I would kill to go there.”
“You should go,” he says with a wide grin. “It’s a gorgeous country.”
“You want the truth?” I ask.
He nods and I lean in.
“I would love to see all of it. Obviously.”
“Obviously.”
“But I really want to see a Tejo match.”
“Oh my god. I think you’re the first person I’ve met who knows about Tejo!”
Tejo is, in a word, insane. And it’s at the very top of my list of obscure sports I want to witness firsthand. I first saw a game of it on some obscure YouTube channel, where two guys were trying things that might get them killed. It was equal parts hilarious and horrifying to watch them throw the steel disc at thebocin, which is really just a metal ring rigged with explosives.
“Tell me you saw one?”
“Of course I did. But don’t tell Celine,” he says, lowering his voice. “I promised her I wouldn’t, and when I came in late from the bars with my buddies that night, she asked if that’s what I was doing and it led to the argument that led to my proposal.”
“You’re a romantic!” I heckle and we both laugh.
“So, you’re into obscure sports?” he asks. And that gets me going. Alan has traveled widely and seen more sports than I have. But he hasn’t spent much time in Portland and when I tell him about the work ethic of the dragon boat racers, he’s hooked.
“This is it, man,” he says.
“What?”
“This is your thing.”
“My thing?”
“The thing you love.”
