To Buy a Vow

by Chencia C. Higgins

  I had a short break due to the game, so I decided to make a quick trip to my hometown. When I boarded the plane, it was that balmy, breezy, seventy degrees, even at eleven at night. An hour and a half later, I stepped off into fifty-degree weather. I might have spent the first twenty-one years of my life in Arkansas, but I had gotten used to the warmth of Houston after living there for the past thirteen years. If it wasn’t for my cousin, Trina—whom I hired as my personal assistant a couple of years ago—packing my bag, I’d be freezing right about now. As it were, I was bundled in a coat that was heavier than anything I needed when I was further south but was honestly still not that heavy a coat. It was only fifty degrees.

  As a point guard for the Houston Clutch, I’d had to play in some cities where the temperature frequently dropped well below zero. They didn’t know anything about that down in southeast Texas, though. Anything colder than forty degrees and everyone lost their mind. Let the sky sneeze out a few flurries, and businesses and schools would be closed with a quickness. Well, not my business. A call center can close, but a professional basketball game is going to happen rain, sleet, or snow for the most part.

  If the coat I wore wasn’t reminder enough of how I’d changed since I was drafted to Houston, seeing my eldest brother, Jeremiah, clad in a short-sleeved, cotton t-shirt and a pair of cargo shorts definitely drove the point home. A wide smile spread across his face as we rounded the corner and he pushed off of the column he was leaning against. He spread his arms wide.

  “Baby boy!”

  I shook my head but returned his smile. It didn’t matter that I was thirty years removed from being a baby; Jeremiah would call me that until the day I died. We slapped hands and he pulled me into a hug.

  “What’s good, old man?” I jumped back and ducked as he bucked, pretending to swing on me.

  “Oh, I’m old now, huh?”

  I laughed. “Gotta be if I’m a baby, and you’re the oldest.”

  “Whatever, nigga.” He shoved me to the side and pulled Boobie in for a hug.

  Boobie was the entirety of my entourage. He didn’t have an actual title, but if I had to call him something, it’d probably be a bodyguard. I was a very low key individual and felt like I didn’t need a bodyguard, but being in the entertainment business all but required having one. However, if I was forced to hire someone, it would always be family. Boobie was also my cousin and Trina’s brother. Our mothers were twin sisters.

  “What’s happening, fam?”

  “What’s good, bruh?” Boobie pulled back, and I watched as the two of them did the same elaborate handshake they had been doing since we were kids. They were both the same age and the first-born of their parents, so I understood that they had a special bond. That bond deepened further when they added “line brothers” to their titles, as they both pledged when they attended college together. When they snapped their fingers and bumped chests, I knew they were done. I’d seen them do this almost my entire life and was used to it but still, I couldn’t resist teasing them as we exited the terminal and headed for the parking lot.

  “You didn’t show me that much love J, and I’m your brother.”

  Jeremiah glanced back at me and smirked. “You get enough love from everybody else with your attention-seeking ass.”

  I cracked up and we all laughed as my brother led us to his big-ass, candy-apple-red truck. Boobie jumped his eager ass in the front seat so I caught the back, but I wasn’t tripping about it. I took the opportunity to stretch one of my legs across the seat and lean up against the door, resting my head on the window and closing my eyes. It was only a short drive from the airport in Little Rock to my hometown, Pine Bluff, but I used those forty-five minutes to chill out. It was late and I was tired as fuck. I’d had a home game that night and afterward, only took time for a shower at the arena before Boobie and I hopped a red-eye.

  The truck jolted as Jeremiah came to a stop, and with a start, I realized I had fallen asleep. I couldn’t complain, though; I’d needed that nap. I glanced around and noticed Boobie’s absence. Jeremiah must have dropped him off while I was knocked out. I climbed out of the truck and raised my arms over my head in a deep stretch. The sound of a screen door banging caught my attention, and I looked down just in time to see a red blur cross the lawn, barreling toward me. I braced myself for the impact as if I was on the court and it was a fellow player coming at me instead of a five-foot preteen.

  “Hey, Unc!”

  I bent at the waist, wrapping my arms around my niece and straightened, lifting her up and squeezing tightly. “J-Baby!” Ja’mya was Jeremiah’s daughter and our parents’ only grandchild. Suffice it to say, she was spoiled as hell. With her long legs wrapped around my own, I crab-walked up to the door of the home I had grown up in. Jeremiah held the door open as I stepped over the threshold and laughed but didn’t say a word. He knew just like I did how much Ja’mya had us all wrapped around her finger.

  Just inside the door was the living room. My father stood from his seat on the couch, and I headed right for him. I tickled Ja’mya under one of her arms, and she released me, dropping to the floor dramatically and rolling away in a fit of giggles. I shook my head at her and looked up at the man whose genes I’d been blessed with.

  “Aye, Pops! What’s good, baby?” We embraced and I tried not to wince from how hard he slapped my back.

  “How’s my favorite son?” He’d been calling me his favorite son ever since I grew into my looks and turned out to be his twin, reincarnated. Each of my brothers favored my father, but I was his spitting image.

  “Awe, c’mon, Pops. Not that shit again.” Jeremiah shut the front door and stepped over his daughter to stand next to me. I slapped his shoulder.

  “Stop whining and let the truth be told, old man.” I laughed and jerked away before he could hit me. Pops threw his arm around my brother’s neck and dropped a kiss on his temple. He never shied away from showing us affection.

  “You know I love you, son.”

  Jeremiah sighed and I stifled a chuckle. We both knew where our father was going with this.

  “Yeah, I know. You just love him more.”

  Pops smiled wide. “That’s it!”

  Both J-Baby and I burst out laughing. Pops was just bullshitting, but he’d been teasing Jeremiah with that line ever since I was nine and Pops heard him tell me I was adopted. I skirted my brother and dropped down onto the couch, shrugging out of my coat and laying it on the seat behind me. J-Baby hopped up off of the floor and sat next to me, resting her chin on my arm. I pulled off her red skull cap and brushed a hand down her hair, and she beamed up at me. Pops sat on my other side while Jeremiah took the reclining chair.

  “How long you staying?”

  I yawned. “Just through tomorrow, well, today. I have to get back Friday morning to practice for the game. Y’all coming, right?”

  Pops nodded. “We’ll be there, right J?”

  We all had J names, thanks to Pops, but when he said “J” he was talking to Jeremiah. I was ‘Hawk’ and our middle brother, Jereth, was Jer.

  My brother nodded. “Of course, Pops.”

  I looked down at my niece, who was content to listen to the adults around her converse. “Are you coming, too, J-Baby?”

  She sat up and nodded vigorously. “Yes! Daddy said I can go this time!”

  I smiled. My heart warmed at the fact that my family would be in the stands as I played in what would probably be my last All-Star game on Sunday. Not my whole family, since Jereth was in another country but it was as close as it could get.

  “That’s what’s up.”

  I leaned my head back against the couch and yawned so hard, my eyes watered. Jeremiah stood up and handed Ja’mya her hat and jacket.

  “Alright, let’s head home, babygirl. Your uncle’s tired and he needs to get some rest.”

  “Aww.” She pouted but stood and put on the items he’d handed her. I grabbed her hand and squeezed it.

  “It’s all good, J-Baby. I’l
l see you later when ya’ll come over to kick it.”

  She gave me a mournful look as she zipped up her jacket. “Yeah, but everybody will be taking your attention, and I won’t get to tell you about my basketball game yesterday.”

  I glanced at my brother. She was right. It was unavoidable; someone was going to want my opinion on their favorite team as if I was an analyst, and it never failed that someone would try to give me their, or their son’s, basketball stats as if I controlled the draft. I raised my eyebrows at Jeremiah. I’d make some one-on-one time for my niece.

  “We’ll come by a little early so you can talk to him.”

  “Yes!” She jumped into my arms and hugged me tight then squeezed her father. “Thank you, Daddy!” She bounced across the room to hug my Pops’ neck. “Bye, PopPop; I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  We said our goodbyes, and they disappeared out the door. Jeremiah’s truck revved up loudly in the quiet of the night. Pops looked at me, half-asleep on the couch. He swatted my knee.

  “Get some sleep.”

  I nodded; he didn’t have to tell me twice. I was upstairs and in the bed of my old room in less than five minutes. I made sure my phone was muted and buried my head under the pillow. In no time at all, I was out like a light. My first thought when I woke up seven hours later was that my parents needed to invest in blackout curtains. The sunlight was streaming directly into my eyes with only the blinds and a sheer, gauze-like curtain at work to block it. The enticing smells of breakfast hit my nose, and I stretched, laughing when my feet hung a foot over the end of the mattress.

  My parents had upgraded me to an extra long mattress when I was in high school, but I was 6’1” when I moved into athletic housing on campus at the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff at eighteen and continued to grow another three inches until I was twenty and entered the draft. I slid out from under the warm covers and shuffled into the bathroom to empty my bladder and brush my teeth. When I made my way downstairs, I found Pops sitting in his reclining chair reading the paper and drinking a cup of coffee.

  “Morning, Pops.”

  “Good morning. The ladies from the church brought you some breakfast.” He nodded toward the kitchen and I took off with a grin.

  In the kitchen, I found two square aluminum pans covered in foil. One held a French toast casserole that smelled heavenly and the other held an egg, vegetable, and potato casserole. Those church ladies loved making casseroles, but I wasn’t complaining. I scooped a hefty amount out of each pan onto a plate and carried my meal into the living room. Once I’d made a dent in my plate, I addressed my father.

  “How is everything?” I didn’t elaborate; he knew what I meant. How was business? My business.

  I owned several rental and retail properties across Arkansas and Texas that were managed by my parents and Jeremiah and two vacation rentals in Mexico that my brother, Jereth, managed. My parents had been in the real estate business for longer than me and my brothers had been alive. The way they saw it, land was wealth and they needed to put themselves in a position to get some. It was just a natural inclination for my brothers and me to follow in their footsteps, although I took a sports detour, of course. Pop’s official career was working at the paper mill in town, but he started taking classes to earn his real estate license as soon as my mama obtained hers.

  My parents met when they were teenagers. Mama was a student at UAPB, and Pops worked at a barbecue spot down the street from campus. Even while wearing a hair net and a sauce-stained apron, Pops was able to charm Mama out of her phone number, and they soon started dating. Pops said that he knew Mama was going to be his wife the moment she walked into the restaurant, but he didn’t tell her that until he could do something about it.

  “Sabrina never asked, but she knew I wasn’t making much at that restaurant. She never asked for anything from me and never frowned at any of the cheap gifts I gave her. That’s why as soon as I was hired at the paper mill, I took my first check and bought her a ring.”

  Pops had been telling that story to me and my brothers since we were five years old. He impressed upon us the importance of finding a woman so amazing that you wanted to be a better man so that you could deserve her. That story was why I never got caught up with girls as a youngin’. Yeah, I was focused on basketball—which actually brought more girls my way—but outside of Mama making sure all of our free time was filled with classes at SEARK, Pops’ story was always on my mind.

  Then, there was DB. DB was my Pops’ ace boon from way, way back, long before Pops met Mama. He’d been the best man in their wedding and, even though he hadn’t been married at the time, was christened as each of our godfathers. DB was the uncle we didn’t have since Pops was the only male in a family of five children, and Mama’s twin sister was her only sibling.

  While Pops was schooling us on how to spot the right woman, DB was telling us to avoid them altogether. It went from “Leave them girls alone”, when we were kids, to “Women ain’t shit”, as we entered high school, to finally “Fuck bitches, get money” once we were started working, and I was preparing to enter the league.

  My brothers and I laughed about it as kids, but that last one took root in me once I hit college and started showing up on national television. Girls started coming out the woodwork, and I couldn’t help but hear DB’s voice in my head as they tried to sweet talk me. I could see the dollar signs in their eyes from a mile away as I heard, more times than I could count, how they had a crush on me “since forever” but had just built up their courage to say something.

  Yeah, okay.

  That was a lie if I ever heard one. I don’t think I had ever met a shy woman. Not in Pine Bluff and not since joining the league and moving to Houston. I’m sure they existed but not in my world. Even as a youngin’, girls—and grown women, who shouldn’t have even been looking our way—would compliment me and my brothers on our good looks.

  Listen, I wasn’t a narcissist but I knew that I was a good-lookin’ dude. All three of us inherited my mama’s smooth mahogany skin and my father’s height and slim build. We also inherited male pattern baldness, but it wasn’t until five years ago that I finally acknowledged my plight and shaved my head bald, following in the footsteps of my father and older brothers. When the four of us were together, heads turned. If it wasn’t for the fact that Pops’ beard had started getting a little gray, we’d be mistaken for brothers.

  As it were, rarely did we all end up in the same room. I lived in Houston, but outside of work, had no problem getting up to PB to see my family and the same was true for Pops and Jeremiah. Mama traveled back and forth between Arkansas and Texas, acquiring properties and was currently in Dallas. The one who was missing was Jereth. He’d relocated to Mexico a couple of years ago to manage the rental properties I had purchased in Los Cabos. I’d intended to have them maintained by a property management company but some things went down out here in Pine Bluff and my acquisition of the properties created an opportunity for Jereth to get away.

  I was deep into the conversation with my father and pleased to hear that everything had been going well when the front door opened.

  “Well, if it ain’t another bald muthafucka!” I looked up to see a grinning DB standing at the door as the screen door slammed behind him.

  “DB!” Instinctively, I stood, placing my now empty plate on the end table, and went to him for a handshake and a hug. He held the embrace for a couple of beats longer than I expected, and I looked at him curiously when he finally let me go. What was that about? He must have seen the question on my face because he smiled and shook his head subtly. Okay then, later.

  “It’s good to see you, young man.” I stepped back and he moved further into the room, claiming the seat that I had abandoned. I brought my plate into the kitchen and rejoined the two most influential men in my life. “How long we got ya for?”

  I dropped to the arm of the couch. “Just today.”

  “That’s it?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, I have to get b
ack to work.”

  “Well, I definitely understand that.” He was quiet for a moment and again, I wondered what was going on with him. In all of my thirty-four years, he’d never been quietly contemplative, instead, speaking a mile a minute whatever was on his mind. I looked at my pops who shook his head. That only confused me.

  “You good, DB?”

  He looked up at me as if surprised that I was still in the room. Was he that gone in his thoughts? “Huh? Yeah, Hawk. I’m good.” Then he grinned. “So when am I going to get some grandkids out of you?”

  I laughed hard at that. He was the last person I expected to ask me that. “Wow, man. Et tu, DB?”

  He shook his head. “No backstabbing intended. Just genuine curiosity.”

  “Nah, ain’t no such thing as ‘genuine curiosity’ when we’re talking about kids. Kick it to me straight, old man.”

  “Aye youngblood, this old man is just concerned about your legacy is all.”

  My eyebrows furrowed. “My legacy?”

  DB looked around the room. “We got an owl in here or something?”

  “Ha!” I laughed but I was still confused. I wanted to dig deeper, but DB shook his head with a long sigh and changed the subject. His line of questioning worried me, but I shook it off and allowed him to pull me into a debate about whether or not the changes to the All-Star game were necessary.

  Not even an hour went by before J-Baby came barreling into the house. She regaled me with the highlights of her game and had Jeremiah show me a video of it from his cellphone. I was proud of my niece. I could see from the video that she had been working on the techniques I had shown her over her winter break when my brother brought her down for a visit.

  Soon, more family started showing up at my parents’ home. Extended family from both sides poured into the house, carrying trays of food into the kitchen and lining up bottles on the bar in the corner. I usually kept my drinking to a minimum, but my family had shown up to see me, and I planned to kick it with them all night.