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  For the longest my mother tried to teach me about the police and what I should do if I was ever taken downtown or stopped. She would stand me up hours at a time and cover different situations that could happen to me with them, saying, “Be courteous. Stay calm. Never admit to anything. Keep your hands where they can see them. Never reach in your pocket. Only tell them your name. They have to ask to search you or the car. Tell them to call your mother, and never sign anything.”

  Sometimes she would get angry with me because I could-n’t understand why the police would stop me if I had done nothing wrong. She would tell me, “It would take a man to make you really understand, but I’m all you have. So you need to listen to me and take my advice.”

  “So how long ago you talk to Tori?”

  “’Bout thirty minutes ago. She should be here any minute.”

  “Well, I’m goin’ to shower.”

  “Why?”

  “’Cause I want to have on something fresh when she gets here.” I looked down next to my mother and noticed the bills she had thrown on the table. “Hey, Ma, wouldn’t it be nice to have someone take care of all those bills for you?”

  “Don’t worry, baby. We’ll get through it, just like we always do.”

  “I bet a first-round draft pick could handle those for you and then some.”

  It took a few seconds for my mother to really hear what I said to her. Then she looked up at me while blowing her nails. “What did you just say?”

  “I’m going pro overseas. I’m putting my name in the draft. Barcelona called last night and said they were taking me number one.”

  I was preparing myself to go over everything with her that I’d thought about on my walk home. I waited for her questions, even an explosion of anger, but it never came. Mom was motionless, her eyes on me like I remembered them to be when I was a baby wearing Pull-Ups and holding my sippy cup. Then a tear rolled down her face.

  “You sure this is what you want to do, baby?”

  “Ma, you know it’s what I always wanted to do. I am thinking, one, no more than two years with Barcelona then the NBA. It’s the only way to bypass these rules and make money so I can take care of things for you.”

  She didn’t say another word. She stood up, wiped her tears with the palms of her hands, and gave me the longest hug ever. “I am so proud of you, Langston, so proud.”

  Chapter Five

  Need to Know

  By the time I was out of the shower, Tori had already come over and was sitting next to my mother. She was looking at the nail polish scattered around and listening to her blow up the fact that I decided I to go pro.

  “Ma, you told?”

  “You didn’t tell me not to.” She pushed with a big smile.

  “It’s all right, L. What mother could hold back that her baby was going pro?” Tori was excited and reminding me at the same time that she had my mother in the palm of her hand.

  “Not one I know,” my mother said. “I’m calling your so-called father next.”

  “No, no. Let me do it,” I told her.

  She looked up at me. “You sure? You haven’t called him since you were ten.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure.”

  She threw the phone over to me.

  I sat it down. “Uh-uh. I’m going over to his house to tell him.”

  My mother and Tori had blank expressions. They knew how I felt about my father. Thank God, I didn’t have to explain my decision, because there was a knock on the door.

  “What er’body up in here so happy about?” Jalen asked as soon as he walked in.

  “My baby goin’ pro!”

  Jalen played it off on the joke tip. “You just now finding that out, Reecy?”

  “You already know?”

  “What don’t I know? is the question,” Jalen boasted.

  Mom told him, “Boy, if you don’t shut up, talking all that mess . . .”

  “So, L, what’s up, baby? If you haven’t realized, you gotta lot of shit”—Jalen put his hands over his mouth then looked at my moms. “Sorry ’bout that, but a brother like me is excited too.”

  “Boy, go ’head and say what you sayin’,” she told him. “Maybe it’s something good.”

  Jalen put his hands in his pockets. “L, you got things to do, man, and look, I’m the man who going to help you out. I went over to the library, you know, and ol’girl who was, like, promising me last week at the party that she was gonna—”

  “Jalen, I really don’t want to hear about your skanks,” Mom said.

  “I don’t either. You should see them, Reecy.”

  My mother turned to Tori. “They nasty?”

  “Mmm-hmm. If you only knew.”

  “Oh, I’ll pass.” Then my mother turned and gave Tori some dap.

  “Y’all really need to stop hating. I gets mine.”

  “Yeah, you get it, all right,” Tori told him.

  My mother started to laugh. “But the question is, can you get rid of it?”

  This time Tori gave my mom some dap.

  “Are y’all putting a new comedy show together or something?” Jalen said. “’Cause if you are, let me be the first to let you know your material is wack.”

  “Jalen, finish, man,” I told him.

  “So, what you want to hear about? The girl at the library or this drama right here?”

  My mother nodded toward Jalen. “Okay, tell us about what you have in your hand, boy.”

  “First, I ran off some copies of this article where LeBron James is weighing his options about playing overseas and getting like fifty million a year. He thinking about going over there, play a few years, then back in the NBA. Not only that, Earl Boykin ain’t thinking about it. He just signed for like four million for just one year. And Josh Childress he got thirty big dogs for three years. Now, L, as I see it, with you going over there, they going to break you off no less than fit-teen mil a year, baby, so you might as well get that passport ready.”

  “L, are they payin’ like that overseas?”

  Jalen butted in before I could answer. “Yeah, they paying like that, with your lucky self. That’s if L decide to keep you around.”

  “Shut up, Jalen!” I told him.

  My mother put her arm around Tori.

  “Next I have some of those sports agencies that handle all the top stars, which we know you going to be. We got to get cracking and start calling them to let them know a brother like you goin’ to be available and you want to play one or two seasons overseas then we in the NBA. You heard what Toy said—They are goin’ to be after you. So it’s better if you contact the best first, and weed out all the rest.”

  “Toy?” My mother blurted out.

  “Don’t worry, Reecy. Toy is not an issue in this circle.”

  “Look, boy, I already let you slip up once in my house. Call me by my first name again and bet you don’t get a fat lip.”

  “Would y’all just hold up.” I looked at Tori as she laugh-ed at Jalen and all of his craziness. “Look, all I want to do is go tell the man who got my mother pregnant with me what I plan to do. Then we can sit down and talk about all this. Right here on the couch, okay.”

  Jalen was thinking and mumbled to himself, “The man that got your mother pregnant . . . that’s yo’ daddy, right?”

  “Somebody smack him,” my mother pleaded. “Just smack all the taste out of his mouth.”

  Chapter Six

  You Don’t Know Me

  Jalen had a few beers on ice in the car. When I found out, I made him drink them and told Tori to drive over to my father’s. I wasn’t getting caught up in the car, with him drinking and driving, when I was about to announce my entrance overseas.

  It didn’t take long to get over to where he stayed. He was on the East side but closer to downtown, in a neighborhood off Bryson Road. It was rough over there too. Lots of fools always beefing about some nonsense, and prostitution from time to time. I always knew where he stayed. One time, my mother had a job interview in Cincinnati, and
he watched me. I’d spent the day with him and hated every minute of it, and hadn’t been back since.

  I didn’t want to deal with what I knew more than likely was going on inside, so I had Tori by the hand for support. I also gave Jalen, like, three mints and some gum, to cover that beer up before knocking on the door.

  He answered.

  Damn! I felt myself squeeze Tori’s hand extra tight.

  “Hi, Langston.” He then looked at Tori and Jalen. “C’mon in, you guys. Your father will be down in a minute.”

  I couldn’t believe the man who got my mother pregnant was letting his boyfriend answer the door. It almost made me lose my mind. I looked over at Jalen, who was about to laugh about the way this guy was walking as he went to get the man that made me.

  My mother’s sperm donor’s friend, partner, or whatever you want to call him went by the name of Kenny. From what I knew about him, he was a lawyer. I really didn’t care to know anymore about him because he turned my stomach. I was just happy he answered the door and went into another room so I didn’t have to look at him. To me he was disgusting, and I didn’t like the way he tried to play me like he really knew me, because it wasn’t like that at all.

  After a long two minutes, the man that walked out on me and my mother finally walked into the living room, where we were sitting. On the real, his place was nice. He had hardwood floors running all the way through it and had it dressed up tight with lots of colorful art. It was just what was happening inside of the house that made it ugly to me because of the way he left me to be in it. If he wasn’t living up in there with the man, I could probably work through some of what he did to my mom, but not this way. There was no way I could.

  He smiled when he walked in and stood over me with his arms outstretched to give me a hug. I kind of smiled at him, but a hug, I was not giving.

  When he realized that a handshake was the only thing he was getting from me, he sat across from all of us in a chair. “You look good, Langston. What are you now, six-six, two twenty?”

  “Naah. Six-seven and a half, two forty.”

  “I don’t know where you got all this height and weight from.”

  “He’s blessed!” Jalen shouted out then smiled.

  “Jalen, how are you doing? How’s your father?”

  “I’m good, but he’s back in jail.”

  “I see. Did you bring me something to drink?”

  Jalen was surprised.

  “I saw you over at the drive-thru on Livingston.”

  “Oh yeah. I was getting some soda and some Gatorade,” he explained.

  Then he nodded in Tori’s direction. “So who do we have here?”

  Tori smiled. She knew how I felt about my father, but she didn’t have a grudge about it. She’d even tried once or twice to get me to open up to him, but I wasn’t having it. “I’m Tori,” she said.

  I let him know as strong as I could. “She’s my girl.”

  He picked up on my tone then ran some quick questions by me.

  “Okay, so what brings you over? Need anything? You’re still graduating, right? You pick a school yet? I’ve been waiting to hear something in the news about it.”

  “Yeah, we all graduate in a few weeks. Just came by to give you some news though.”

  He looked at Tori hard. “You’re not pregnant, are you?”

  Tori moved her head back a bit then shook it no, with kind of a snarl on her face.

  “No, she’s not pregnant, man.”

  He looked at her then apologized.

  “Look, I just came over to tell you that I’m not going to college. I’m going overseas to play ball for at least one year, maybe two, then to the NBA.”

  The forced smile he was trying to display to us quickly disappeared, and his voice dropped a bit. “Overseas?”

  “That’s right!” Jalen said. “L is going to set that league on fire. Then he coming back to the States and show what it is.”

  “So you’re going to forgo your education to pursue some hoop dream?”

  Tori held my hand extra tight.

  “Yup. I got a call from the front office of Barcelona. They want to take me number one.”

  He was silent.

  “What?”

  “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t know if you’re ready. You’ll be playing with grown men, Langston, in another country.”

  “I play with them all the time, and all the rims all over the world round and the backboards square.”

  “Not on this level. It’s a whole different game.”

  “Yeah, I know that’s why, as soon as graduation is over, I’m going over to start working out and get in the flow of things.”

  He paused and started thinking. He started to say something but turned his head and waited a few seconds. “So it sounds like this is pretty much a done deal? Nothing can be said to hold you back?”

  “I made up my mind last night, told Barcelona I would love to play for them. Just told mom, and you were next on the list.”

  “And how does your mother feel about it?”

  “She’s cool with it. Told me the sky is the limit.”

  Kenny walked in from the hallway, where he was all up in our business. He peeked out and said with his feminine voice, “Of course, she is.”

  I stood up. “What you say about my mother?”

  “I just—”

  At the moment his voice was giving me the creeps, and I didn’t want to hear it anymore so I cut him off and just snapped. “You don’t know me, you understand ? And you don’t know my mother. So you don’t have a right to say a damn thing about what the hell goes on in my life.”

  Kenny’s boyfriend told me to calm down.

  “Calm down? Forget that! First of all, I didn’t come over here to ask your permission, man. I came over here to let you know my plans for my life. My life . . . the life that you thought wasn’t good enough to stick around for because you felt you wanted to lay up in here with this punk.”

  Now he was on his feet too. I was waiting for him to swing, so I could knock his ass out.

  “You better watch your mouth, boy.”

  I inched closer to him and felt him move back an inch or two. “Or what? What you going to do to me?” I turned around grabbed Tori by the hand and lifted her up out of her seat. “I’m out of here.”

  Chapter Seven

  Up in Here

  Jalen wasn’t bumping his system on the way home. All we could hear was the tires rolling on the pavement. With a cigarette dangling from his lip and one eye squinted to keep the smoke out, Jalen tried to keep his other eye on the road. Tori was sitting in between us in the front seat. I could tell she was trying not to cry. She always hated drama. Most of the way home I just looked out the window. I couldn’t wait to get away. The man that made me was just that. I decided it was probably the last conversation I would ever have with him.

  When Jalen pulled up in front of my unit, I couldn’t believe Toy’s car was parked in front. We stepped inside, and there was Slick Willy sitting on our couch, talking to my mom.

  “What you doin’ here, man?”

  Toy looked at my mother with a fake smile then back at me. “Congrats on your decision to turn pro. I see you finally decided to take my advice.”

  “Man, what are you talking about?”

  He looked at my mother again, trying to draw her in. “I was just telling Reecy how I’ve been talking to you on and off about this very subject.”

  Mom was sharp and to the point. “And I was just telling you, Toy, my son has told me all about you and your advice.”

  Toy looked at me then back at my mother. “Oh, is that right?”

  I nodded at him.

  “Well, good. Then you know what kind of a future I think L has.”

  “Yes, I know he has a very bright future, Toy. He’s worked very hard for everything he’s gotten so far.”

  “And that’s why I decided to come here, Ree
cy . . . when I heard he took my advice.”

  “You didn’t have a thing to do with it, Toy,” Jalen told him. “Stop trying to get in, man.”

  Toy tried to brush Jalen off. “Like I said, when I heard he was going pro, I wanted to come over and let your mother know everything she will be up against.”

  I didn’t notice until then, but our phone had been ringing off the hook since I walked back in the house.

  “Mom, aren’t you going to get that?”

  “Baby, that phone has been ringing like that since you left.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know. I just called a few people, told them about your decision, and ever since, it won’t stop ringing.”

  “Reecy, you want me to get it?” Tori asked.

  “Reecy?” Jalen looked at my mom, waiting for her to blow, but it never happened.

  “Tori, take a message for me, baby, okay.”

  Tori looked at Jalen and smiled then walked into the kitchen to get the phone.

  “Like I was saying, I think it’s time you sit down and start to look at things from a business perspective.”

  My mother asked, “Like what, Toy?”

  “And what makes you think I wanna sit down with you?” I asked him next.

  “That’s what I’m saying,” Jalen added.

  “Because you should, young brother. I’m from the hood. I understand your needs, and I’m qualified to tell you the odds and ends of marketing on the pro level that will enable you to maximize your profits.”

  “Oh, the money. Now we’re getting down to it,” I told him

  “But you’re not saying anything, Toy. What do you want from my son?”

  “Reecy, you know I only want the best for him and, of course, you. I want to represent L. I want to be his agent and get him the most money from the team that drafts him, and endorsements that are sure to follow. Look at the boy! Tell me he couldn’t sell anything you put in his hands.”

  Tori walked back in and gave my mother a written message from the phone call. Then the phone started to ring again, and she went back to it.

  My mother asked him, “So when do you want us to sign?”