First Round Lottery Pick (3 page)

When I got home around six, my mother was doing her nails. There was no room left on the couch because she was all spread out, doing her toes and whatnot, so I plopped down on the floor across from her after I kissed her on the cheek.

“ 'Sup, Ma?”

“Hey,” she said. She was watching a movie too while polishing. She finally looked over at me before I could see what she was watching. “So where you been?”

“Huh?”

“You heard me. Where have you been?”

I didn't know if she had already got a call from someone who saw me creeping with Katrina or what. “School, talking to Coach.”

She gave me a long stare down like she didn't believe me.

“What?”

“My phone has been ringing off the hook since three o'clock. Did you tell Tori you were going to meet her someplace?”

“What?”

“Tori's been calling you. How many times I have to tell you, Langston? You tell a woman you're going to do something then, boy, you make sure you do it.”

I couldn't help but snicker at my mom.

“Don't you dare laugh. You know I taught you better. I hate to think you're trying to be a player up in here like the rest of these no-good men.”

One thing's for sure, a mother that's been wronged by a man definitely will let a young black man know the deal without biting her tongue. My mother did all the time.

“I just told Tori I would meet her at the library. I'll go over there in a minute.”

“Too late.”

“What you mean by that?”

“She's coming over here.”

“Why?”

“'Cause I told her to.”

“For what?”

“So I could see her, talk to her.”

“Ma, you just like Tori 'cause she's a virgin.”

“What's wrong with that? That means she respects herself. Plus, she looks like me.”

“What?”

“You know how fine your mama is, and you went out and found a girl that looks just like her. I ain't mad at you.”

“You are buggin'!”

“Our eyes are brown, we keep our hair fierce. Everybody at the games say we look alike, so get over it.”

I glanced at my mom and tried to see what she was talking about. I didn't see it, except for maybe a little around the eyes, and skin color. But all I know is, growing up, the men around The Vil would try to get in good with me, hoping I would take a liking to them so they could step to her, always calling out, ‘Golden Brown,' to her.

When I was around nine or ten, that's when I started to walk behind my mother if we were outside, so those fools on the block couldn't look at her butt. She didn't figure out what I was doing until I was about fourteen. She told me there was no reason to hide her from those fools' eyes because they didn't have a chance at getting with her because she already had a man, and that man was me.

“I see you lookin' at me, Langston. Now admit it—Don't I look like your girl?”

“Okay, okay, you look like Tori.”

“No, no, she looks like me, and don't you forget it.”

“Okay.”

“And she's the one you should be concentrating on, instead of some of these chickens running around here doing everything and everybody.”

“What you mean by that?”

“You know what I mean. Don't try to play your mama.”

My mother had never been afraid to get all up in my business. She always told me my business was hers until the day she died. It was the price I paid for having a mother in her thirties with a whole lot of street wisdom behind her. She knew things, lived things, and was able to relate them to me, which a lot of times kept me from taking the wrong step. It was as though my mom knew what I was thinking before I even thought it because she knew what our surroundings were about and the type of trouble I could get into.

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.”

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.”

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.”