Going the Distance (26 page)

By the middle of the season, I had come to realize someone up there was listening to me.

We had lost one game, and the crowds were getting larger and larger. It made us popular, but I have to admit, I didn’t pay attention to it. I was too busy with homework, running, and reading scripture to worry about something as silly as popularity. My dad noticed the difference and brought it up during dinner one night.

“So what’s up with you?” he asked as I gnawed at a chicken leg while skimming over my trig worksheet. I gave him a questioning look, and he gestured to the books on the table. “With you, all you do is work. I haven’t seen you go out once since you went to Dallas.”

A shadow crossed my mind when I remembered meeting Sam and all that nonsense.

“I’ve been busy,” I said, dismissing the ghost of Sam’s smile. “I want to win this year.”

“Well, yeah,” he said, trying to get my attention back. “But, Danny, all work and no play makes one a dull boy.”

I glanced up at him. “Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense.”

He gave me a look. “Did you just try to Bible me?” I looked down. “You did, you seriously tried to Bible me with verse and crap.” He got up and tossed his napkin on the table. “Okay, you’re done,” he snapped, closing my book.

“But I have to finish…,” I began to protest.

“I’m sure it’s due later this week, which means you have time now,” he said, making it obvious he had no patience for me trying to convince him. “Get up, get changed, and we’re going out to do something.”

“Like what?” I asked, wondering if other kids had this problem.

“Anything but schoolwork or reading the Bible,” he replied, grabbing our plates. “Go,” he said, seeing me still standing there. “I’m not kidding, we’re going out now.”

I grumbled as I stomped off to my room and changed.

When I got out, he had put on a windbreaker and was checking his phone. “You have a choice between minigolf, bowling, or a movie, but I warn you, there’s nothing good playing.”

“Dad, I’m fine,” I said, sitting down to pull my shoes on. “Seriously, I don’t need—”

“Minigolf. Bowling. Movie,” he repeated firmly.

“Bowling,” I said, choosing the least of the three evils.

We ended up at a local bowling alley, renting shoes and finding a lane. My dad’s shoes fit perfectly, and he was ready to go in minutes. I, on the other hand, was not so lucky. I had just turned eighteen, and I was now six seven in bare feet, bare feet that were a size sixteen. The guy behind the counter thought I was joking when I told him my size, but when he leaned over the counter to look at them, he realized I wasn’t. He gave me the biggest pair they had and wished me good luck getting them on.

I wasn’t going to need luck. I was going to need some kind of shrinking potion.

“Dad,” I said, with my heel still out of the shoe. “I don’t think this is going to work.”

He looked down and hid the smile on his face with a hand. “That’s what you get for having clown feet.”

I gave him a dirty look just as I heard a female voice behind me say, “You can bowl in your socks.” I turned around and saw a girl who looked familiar. “My friend is weirded out by wearing other people’s shoes, so she always just bowls in socks.”

“I know you,” I said, not realizing how stupid that sounded.

“I’ve seen you on base at the chapel,” she replied. “We’re in the same youth group.”

Now I didn’t just feel stupid but stuck-up, since I hadn’t noticed her at all. But truth be told, I wouldn’t have been able to ID anyone from that group. I had been so focused on school and the season that I hadn’t even tried making friends.

“I’m Danny,” I said, holding my hand out.

She kind of laughed. “I know, I’m Emma.” Her hand looked so tiny in mine that I felt like I was going to crush it. “Is that your brother?” she asked, looking at my dad.

My dad was looking for a ball so he hadn’t heard, and I laughed. “That’s my dad, but please don’t tell him he looks young enough to be my brother. He’d never let me live it down.”

“I’m here with some friends,” she said, gesturing a couple of lanes down. “If you guys want to bowl with us, it’s cool.”

“I’ll ask my dad,” I said hesitantly. “I’m not sure if this is like a bonding thing or we’re here to actually have fun.”

She laughed again, confused. “Okay, well, if you decide to join us, that’s cool.”

“Who was that?” my dad asked, watching her walk away.

“She’s in my church group,” I said, confused by the way I was so confused.

“Pretty girl,” he said, putting his ball down. I looked over at him, and he shrugged. “What? She’s attractive for a girl her age, just a fact.”

I gave up on the bowling shoes and went over to find a ball. When I came back, my dad kept glancing over at Emma and her friends. “You know, if you want to go hang with them, it’s okay,” he said, smiling.

“You wanted to come bowling. I can’t just ditch you.”

“No, I wanted to get you out of the house before you went nuts. You interacting with kids your own age in a recreational activity is, like, the whole point of tonight.”

I looked over at them, and Emma smiled and waved. My hand waved back before I could stop it.

“Go on,” he insisted. “When a pretty girl waves at you like that, it means she wants you to come over and talk to her. Trust me.”

I looked at her and then back at him. “You sure?”

“Oh, just go!” he said, shaking his head. “Before I push you over there.”

Taking my ball, I walked—well, more slid—the of couple lanes over to where Emma was sitting. “Room for one more?”

Her face lit up, and she nodded. “Guys, this is Danny. He goes to my church.”

I waved and smiled, trying not to feel like I was invading their night.

That was how I ended up realizing I wasn’t completely unattractive to girls. Emma admitted after a few times of going out with friends that she thought I was cute but never had the nerve to talk to me at church. At first I was shocked because cute was not the word that popped into my mind when I thought of myself, but that was followed by the fact that I didn’t instantly reject the idea of liking her back. I mean, it wasn’t fireworks or the same animal urge I’d had when I saw Sam, but she was a nice girl, and I liked hanging out with her.

And at the time, it was exactly what I needed.

Emma’s dad was in the Navy and stationed on base as well, so we had a lot in common when it came to always being the new kid in town. She went to a different school in town, which made sense, since my dad had chosen my school because it was the high school that took basketball the most seriously, not because it was nearby or the newest. Emma had picked a different school. I liked having a girlfriend. It was comfortable to be able to put my arm around someone and have them tell me they thought I was attractive. She had been raised religious and was reserved when it came to sex, so she was thrilled to find I wasn’t in a hurry to get into her jeans.

The only person who didn’t seem happy about Emma was Nate.

“A girl?” he asked me over Skype. “Did I miss something?”

“No,” I said, trying to laugh the question off. “Maybe I’m bi and not gay. You ever think of that?”

He just stared at me through the computer screen for a few seconds. “I never thought about it at all, dude, because you like guys.” He saw the look on my face and sighed. “Look, Danny, if you’re really into this girl, that’s cool, and I’m all behind you, but if you’re doing this to cover something up, then you’re an asshole. That girl really likes you, and you—”

“I do like her,” I said quickly.

Too quickly.

“Okay, cool, man,” he said, a little dismissive. “If you like her, that’s awesome. I’m happy for you.”

“You don’t sound like it,” I shot back.

His eyes locked with mine through the screen. “That’s because I’ve seen what it looks like when you really like someone.”

My mouth went dry, and I started to feel queasy.

“Okay, I need to finish this homework,” I said, looking away from my laptop.

“Yeah, me too.”

“Talk to you later.”

“Sure.” And he logged off.

I ignored him and began dating Emma.

The season only got better and better. There’s something about having someone in the stands cheering for you who isn’t your dad that
makes you want to do better. Emma and her friends started coming to games and cheering for us, and I found myself playing better for them. It was about this time that recruiters started approaching me about college. The first was from Oklahoma, and they offered me a trip up to their campus to look around and see if I liked it. I was blown away, but my dad said to try to calm down and wait. They wouldn’t be the only ones.

He was right.

As the season progressed, different college recruiters came knocking on my door, so to speak, each one trying his best to convince me their school was the best fit for me. The amount of effort these guys put into trying to convince me just to go to their school to look was staggering, and I was overwhelmed.

My dad, on the other hand, was completely whelmed by the attention and fielded the offers as they came in. It was like a dream come true as brochures started to litter our kitchen table. One night he just stood there and stared at them all, a huge smile on his face, as I felt a warm glow in my chest that I had done it. I had finally done something that made him proud of me.

The fact that all these colleges were watching made me play even harder.

As each game passed, we got closer and closer to State, the pot of gold at the end of this rainbow. I trained harder, prayed more, and just hoped I had enough to get what I wanted. Emma was supportive as hell. She was stoked to be dating “a real live basketball star,” as she put it. I didn’t want to get a swelled head from all the attention, but it was getting hard not to. Every week there was an assembly in the gym, and the entire school cheered us on. There were signs with my name on them. For the first time in my life I was someone, and it felt great.

We took the championship for our district and headed to the playoffs for State, where the real fight would begin. We went to Austin and spent the next couple of days getting used to the gym while holed up in a hotel. My dad took some leave and rented a room a couple of blocks away. It was after an afternoon practice that he pulled me aside and said there was a recruiter here wanting to talk.

“Right now?” I asked, wiping the sweat off my forehead. “It can’t wait until after tonight’s game?”

He gave me a Cheshire cat smile and said, “You’re going to want to talk to this one now.”

I showered and changed out and met him in the parking lot. We drove to a pretty nice Mexican place to eat. When we showed up, we were told there was a private table already reserved for us. I gave my dad an impressed smile as the waiter walked us to the back of the place to a sectioned-off dining room. He slid the doors open, and there were three men in suits talking, but I didn’t even notice them.

Nate was sitting at the end of the table, smiling like a loon at me.

I looked back to my dad. “These guys are from A&M?”

He nodded and turned me around to face the men. “Gentlemen, this is my son, Danny.”

They all stood up and shook my hand, patting me on the back and saying they’d heard a lot of nice things about me and all that. I just kept glancing over at Nate, and he winked at me once as he took a sip of tea. They introduced themselves as Mr. Peterson, head of the athletics department; the oldest one was Bud something, who was from the alumni committee, whatever that was; and the last was Patrick Nunnely, head coach of the basketball department at A&M. Once we got settled, Mr. Peterson said, “So, Danny, hell of a year so far.”

I nodded. “Just playing my hardest, sir.”

Nate snickered slightly but covered it with a cough.

Nunnely glanced at Nate for a second, giving him a silent warning, and then looked to me. “Well, I’m not going to beat around the bush here. We want you for our team, and depending on how tomorrow’s game goes, we’ll be able to tell you how much we want you.” I cocked my head, confused as to what that meant. “You win tomorrow, and I not only guarantee you a full ride, including room and board, but Bud here can make sure you never need anything again. Your car from this year?” I shook my head. “Well, you’ll never have that problem again.”

Bud smiled and nodded. “If you can make it to State tomorrow, I’m pretty sure I can convince the alumni association to make sure you’re more than taken care of. Our players need to concentrate on things like school and practice, so we make sure everything else is handled.”

“And if the team loses?” my dad asked.

“If he loses, I’m certain we can still find a place for him on the team, but it will be harder to convince them to be so generous with an untested freshman. Players are rewarded on skill, merit, and loyalty. Something Nathan here has told us you possess in spades.”

I glanced at Nate, who shrugged and said, “In all honesty, I was pretty drunk when I said that, so I could be wrong.”

We all laughed at the tension breaker.

Peterson waited until the laughter died down. “The bottom line is this, Danny. Play your heart out tomorrow, and you’ll be rewarded on your performance.”

It sounded so simple at the time.

After dinner my dad talked with the men while Nate and I took a walk outside. “Thought you were mad at me,” I said as we took in the Austin night.

“Mad?” he asked, not looking at me. “No. Maybe disappointed but not mad.”

“Why can’t I like a girl?” I asked him, stopping right there on the sidewalk.

He looked back at me, and I could see the profound sadness in his eyes. “If you really liked her? You could, but we both know you don’t.”

“But you know what the Bible says about being gay,” I countered. “It’s a sin, and I would be—”

“Stop,” he said abruptly, and I realized I had been wrong. He hadn’t been mad at me before. Now he was mad at me. “I did not take you to church so you could learn to hate yourself. That place is not a place of hate, and if all you got out of that book was that you were an abomination, then, boy, did you read it wrong,”