A Son's Tale

“Don’t you think she’s pretty?”

“Of course!”

“She’s worth a lot of money, someday, you know.”

What was this? Was the kid selling his mother? Was it something he did a lot?

“I would hope no one likes her just because of that.” He stole the ball from the boy and took it downcourt. Shot. Missed.

“Sure they do.” Sammie rebounded, but tossed the ball back to Cal for another try. “That’s why she doesn’t date.”

Holding the ball midair, Cal stared at the boy. “She told you that?”

“No, Grandma did. And she didn’t really tell me. I heard her telling Grandpa.”

It took a lot of willpower to keep Cal from asking what the older man had said. Because it would be wrong to use the kid that way.

“So why don’t you like her?”

He was prepared to play ball and dig weeds. Not to have an intimate conversation. Boys didn’t have those. Not in his family, anyway.

He made his next attempt at a basket. “I do like her.”

“Then you want to date her?” Sammie rebounded, jumped and missed, rebounded and jumped again.

“I’m seeing someone.”

“Yeah, that’s what she said.” The boy missed again and took the ball down the driveway to bring it back up for a fresh try. He made the basket from the foul line.

“She talked to you about dating me?”

“When I asked, sure. Mom talks to me about everything.”

Probably not quite everything, but it was good that the boy thought so.

“If you weren’t seeing anyone, would you date her?”

Cal had never known there were so many minefields on a basketball court.

“She’s a student of mine in school.” He made a right-handed hook shot, rebounded and went for the left. Which he missed.

“But she’ll be out of school before my real school even starts again. She’s graduating.”

Cal knew that.

Sammie stood there, a four-foot-something wizard, bouncing the ball back and forth between his hands.

“What’s with all the questions about your mom’s love life?” Cal finally figured out that he had to take the offense here or lose all control of the conversation.

“I dunno.” Shrugging, Sammie took another shot. They played a little one-on-one and then the boy said, “It’s just that she never dates and I know it’s because of me.”

“How do you know that?”

“Grandpa said so.”

“To your grandma?”

“Yeah.”