“Man, what are you talking about?” Jalen wanted to know.
“I’m talking about the seventeen-million-dollar shoe contract that’s being faxed to my office as we speak.”
Jalen sat up and burped after another sip of brew. “Seventeen million?”
I couldn’t even talk. My tongue would not move. Toy looked at me. “Now, mister man, be your ass funny and don’t sign that.”
Come to find out, Toy had made the deal with a bigwig up at New Funk Apparel who he’d roomed with in his college days. They were kicking off their new line and told him the only way they were going to reach the young urban market was to sign a baller who knew the streets and could relate to their brand. When I asked Toy why he didn’t let me know about the deal in the works, he said he wasn’t going to tell me about it when I wasn’t signed to him, then give me the opportunity to go behind his back and broker a deal myself. And that’s exactly what I would have done.
I just didn’t trust Toy, but his deal was sweet, and it was a good first step to, at least, start giving him a little bit of credit.
We went home to tell my mother the news.
“Why y’all smiling so much?”
We were standing in the living room, and she was still working on some knitting or something she said she was going to sell on the streets.
“L and Jalen, if you don’t tell me why those grins are on your faces, I’m goin’ to—”
“Ma, you ain’t going to believe this.”
“No. What you two ain’t going to believe if you don’t get from in front of my TV is how much I can still spank that ass.”
Jalen looked at me and started to laugh.
“Now what is it?”
“Ma, I just got offered a seventeen-million-dollar shoe contract!”
If I only had a camera to capture the look on her face.
Chapter Fifteen
You’re My Girl
I flat out needed to tell Tori about the deal. I couldn’t let her sit up in the hospital and think her life had been ruined, because the shoe deal meant we both were going to be set for life.
Toy was already celebrating. He sent a car for us to come over to his place to sign the contract, but I needed to see Tori first. I didn’t care what it took, but I was getting up in that hospital room to my girl.
We had the driver park down the street from the hospital, so we wouldn’t draw attention to the car. The driver started tripping, talking about he didn’t want to sit in the hood in a limo. I could tell he was scared out of his mind. I probably would have been too. There were plenty of people in the streets that night, but I told him to lock the doors and get in the back and wait for us, and that’s exactly what his scared ass did.
When we walked into the hospital, we went straight to the elevators and up to the floor Tori was staying on. We knew that the nurse station was right in front of the elevators, so the nurses could see everyone coming in and out. We didn’t even talk about what we were going to do, but I knew, from coming up with Jalen, I was going to play off him and go with the flow.
When the elevator stopped, there were two nurses standing behind their station. One looked at us, and the other was busy checking a chart. We stepped out the elevator and there was no way we were going past the nurse, who was already looking at us like we were ready to start some problems. The good thing about it; they were not the same nurses who saw us earlier.
“May I help you?”
I looked down at Jalen.
“Ahh, yeah . . . I’m here to see Tori Hicks.”
As soon as the nurse looking at the charts heard Tori’s name, she got up all in our business and started barking at her coworker. “Check her list. You know she has a list,” she snapped. “Plus, she was like an emergency case with no insurance, I might add, so admin wants to schedule to see her in the morning for payment, or we’re going to have to send her home.”
It was clear as a painting that the two nurses didn’t like each other.
Jalen always had a knack for starting commotion. He said, “Damn! People don’t even like to speak right to people anymore, do they?”
The nurse looked up from the list and smiled. “They sure don’t, do they?” Then she looked over at her co-worker.
The evil nurse with the attitude looked over at Jalen then her co-worker and rolled her eyes at them.
“So what’s your name?” Jalen asked. Already, his mind had turned this thing into trying to get into some jeans.
“Monique,” she said, a flirty smile on her face.
Monique was fine in her nurse uniform. She had a short, black haircut, a real nice smile, and a whole bunch of body. There was no way Jalen was going to get any of that.
“So you sayin’ she got some kind of list or something ?” Jalen inquired.
The nurse with the attitude grabbed her chart and began walking away. “Yeah, it’s a ‘no admittance’ list.” Then she stormed off like she was mad at the world.
“Wow! You gotta work with her all night?”
I just smiled and let Jalen do his thing. All I wanted to do was get in to see my baby.
“All night, every night,” she answered. “I can’t believe they paired me up with that skank.”
“Damn! If I had to work with her, she wouldn’t be checking on rooms. Home girl would be in a room, because I would whup that ass, bust her all up,” he joked.
The nurse thought Jalen was so funny. I couldn’t believe she seemed to be feeling him.
“Look, my name is Norm, and this is Frank. I know he’s tall and a li’l weird-lookin’, but he cool. Our names are not on that list, right?”
Home girl skimmed down the list at rapid speed and looked back at Jalen and smiled. “No. You can go on back.”
Jalen pushed me on my way then winked his eye at me. “Frankie, you go ’head. I want to talk to Monique for a minute.”
Tori’s last name was handwritten on the door on a small card. The door was cracked open, but the room was dark, except for the television. I smoothed out my gear and put like three sticks of gum in my mouth. Tori hated when I drank beer without her, and trust, I had been.
I opened the door and slid inside. There was only one bed, and Tori looked like she was lying on her side, her back to the television, so it was watching her. I didn’t know what the hell to do.
I took a few steps toward her then stopped. I was looking down at her when the television set turned off, leaving me standing in the darkness looking over her. It must have been on automatic shut-off.
“Hi, L,” Tori said in a voice so weak.
I smiled a little. “Girl, how’d you know it was me?”
“I know you be rockin’ that Cool Water, that’s how.” She turned over in my direction very slow.
I stood there for a minute before saying anything. “You want me to get the lights?”
“No, no, leave them off, okay.”
I still hadn’t moved closer to the bed yet. “So how you doing? You feeling better?”
She waited before she answered. “I guess. What’s up with you?”
“Just been tryin’ to get in here to see you, that’s all.”
“L . . .”
“Baby girl, don’t say nothing, a’ight. Ma, told me everything, okay.”
I wanted to hit myself in the mouth when I heard Tori begin to cry. I stood there a while longer without a word, but I didn’t want her to scream and tell me to get out. I had to change it up quick.
“Tori, guess what?”
“Mmm-hmm.”
“You ready for some good news?”
Tori tried to gather herself. “I guess.”
“Well, listen to this. In a few minutes, I’m going to sign a seventeen-million-dollar shoe endorsement contract.”
When she answered me back, it didn’t seem as though she cared. Her voice was flat, dull, and groggy. “That’s good, L. I always knew it was going to happen for you.”
I took one step closer to the bed and finally could see my girl
’s eyes. I then tried to smile, but the razor cut marks on her face came close to making me cry. “Girl, what you mean, happen for me? This is happening to us.”
“You don’t have to say that you know.”
“Why not? It’s the truth.”
“’Cause, ’cause of what happened to me.” Tori rolled herself into a ball.
“It didn’t just happen to you. It happened to me too, and everybody else who loves you, Tori. We all going to be okay.”
“You’re saying all that now, L.”
“That’s right. I’m saying it now, and I’m going to be saying it forever.”
Tori looked at me. “Really, L?”
“You are my wifey, okay? What do I have to do to make you believe that?”
Tori didn’t answer.
I wasn’t leaving.
She finally looked at me the way she used to, and I sat down on the bed, and she reached up to me, and I held her until she stopped crying.
Chapter Sixteen
Raise Yo’ Glass
After spending some time with Tori, I was ready to take on the world. I made her promise me she would tell those fools in the hospital that I could come see her anytime I felt like it.
Meanwhile, Jalen got ol’ girl’s phone number at the nurse booth then came in the room and tried to make Tori promise she was going to walk the stage with us like we all had planned for graduation. Tori didn’t know if she was going to be up to it and said if she could, she would.
Jalen stood around and told a few jokes until she laugh-ed. Then we left.
We finally showed up over Toy’s. He had a loft over on the East side. It was a nice one. You could tell he had some work done on it, and when we walked in and I saw all the artwork on the walls, it gave me an idea to get my mother a house and fill it up with artwork.
There were like thirty or forty people over Toy’s. I was surprised to see them there, because the only thing I planned on doing was looking over the contract, signing it, and getting my million-dollar advance on the deal, minus Toy’s and Jalen’s cut. But Toy had other plans. He wanted to party.
“Here is really the reason we all gathered up in my spot tonight!” Toy yelled when we walked through the door. First, he reached out to shake my hand. Then he moved in quickly and gave me a hug, then Jalen. “Because you know if we didn’t have nothing to celebrate y’all wouldn’t be up in here drinking up all my expensive drink. Give these two brothers a hand and then excuse us for a minute.”
Everyone started to applaud us.
Toy took us in his living room that had these old antique doors with paned windows. He slid them back, and we walked in.
He looked at me then Jalen. “How’s everything goin’?”
“We cool,” I told him.
Jalen just nodded.
“C’mon . . . y’all going to have to let me in. I mean, gotdamn, we ’bout to sign this deal for sev-en-teen mil, baby! You not pleased with my work or what?”
“I guess, man, this all new to us, Toy. All I wanna do is play ball and take care of my mother and my girl.”
Toy stopped from sipping on his drink. “So how’s she doing? Your girl?”
I looked at Toy hard, trying to look through his face and glazed over eyes to see if he had anything to do with Tori getting raped. “She a’ight.”
“Yeah, she a soldier. She going to be all right,” Jalen told him.
“Then good. You all set then. We can sign this contract, fax it back, and by tomorrow, our money going to be in your separate account.”
“Separate account? What account we talking about?”
“The one your father—”
“My father?”
“Yeah, he came over and told me he already set one up for you. Wait a minute.” Toy walked over to his desk and handed me a package.
“What’s this?”
“Hell, if I know. Like I say, your pops stopped by here and gave it to me to give to you. Said some bull like, he doesn’t trust me, and make sure you get this. You got the whole damn family hating me, L.”
“Look, he ain’t family, a’ight.”
“Well, he sounded like family to me.”
I took the package from Toy and opened it up. It was a piece of paper with a bank account with my name on it. There was a note attached—Son, don’t ever let Toy put any of your money in his account. Watch your money around him. Always verify what he does. I know I haven’t been in your life like I should, but at least take my advice.
I looked over to Jalen then put the note back into my package and stared Toy down again.
“So you straight?” Toy wanted to know.
“Yeah, we good. Now, where do I sign?”
Toy took me over to his oak desk and swore to me that this would not be the last endorsement deal we would sign together. He said he looked it over and everything was legit. Then he started bragging about his law degree, and how he was glad he’d finished school so he could do his thing with his new agency.
I told Toy to leave me and Jalen alone while we looked things over. I took my time reading the contract, which was thorough and had all kinds of restrictions, like being associated with drugs and any criminal activity, which would automatically terminate my contract.
“So what you thinking, L?” Jalen wanted to know as he paced around Toy’s office, looking at certificates and diplomas on his wall.
“Man, it’s right here on paper. They want me to pimp their brand, Jalen. Photo shoots for magazines, lace them up on the court if I want. And there’s a bonus if the product takes off and I decide to sign on the clothing line they are going to have off the ground after next season. What do you think?”
“I think you should sign then”—Jalen looked into the party—“But after three years, L, I want to get you away from this slimy-ass Toy. I mean, I don’t trust him, and I damn sure don’t like the fact that somebody came to him to tell us where Tori was.”
“True that.” I put my arm around Jalen. “But we got her back now. And after I sign this and my contract to play ball, we don’t even have to take his calls. We’ll just string him out.”
“Unless he comes through big again,” Jalen said.
“Exactly. Then we’ll just cash the check.”
“And string his ass out a li’l more.”
It was like two in the morning when I finished reading the contract. Toy said he didn’t care and called his old roommate then faxed the signed contract back to him. Toy put him on the phone. I vaguely remembered his name when he played basketball. He averaged nine points a game but was more interested in business than basketball during his playing days.
I felt good about signing after talking to him. He at least brought a little cred to Toy’s crooked ass.
The party was still going strong after we sent the fax. Everyone was having a good time, and by the time I looked around, Jalen had him a plate of food.
For a long time I was used to being the center of attention of peeps my age, but this was different. I was standing amongst grown folk fifteen, twenty years older celebrating what had happened to me, and it felt good.
All of a sudden Toy asked everyone to gather around in a circle around me.
“Listen up. I know I’m a little bit drunk. Okay, you’re right, I’m tore up. But this feels good, don’t it? This is special because a lot of people have played ball that we know, especially us being old heads now. We’ve had a few pro players. There have been so many who never had the chance, but if given the right grooming and opportunity would have made it to the league, just like Langston Holiday is going to do. So, saying all that, I want to pay homage to the ballplayers who have went on to the pros and those who have laid the legacy down in Columbus of fine ballplayers, you know, the brothers who have given us the chance to see the best basketball in the country. So, what I would like to do is just go around the room and everybody just hold up your glasses and let’s salute whoever comes to your mind who brought heat on the courts in our city. The ballplayers that we
know and love that have paved the way for my man Langston Holiday to become what he is today.”
Everything was quiet, except for was a funky jazz tune playing by Miles Davis. I heard Toy mention some homie named Foley, the bass player making it come to life like there was no tomorrow. Toy pointed to the first person to his right, and everyone just started naming legends of the city who could all ball.
Hearing all the names brought back to memory stories I had heard coming up, and I became choked up. It gave me another reason to promise myself I would not let their legacy down, because it lived through me.
The first person said, “Dewey Milton.”
The next said, “Gregg Bell.”
The next, “Rocky Craft.”
And they just went on and on mentioning names, including, Curtis Craft, Todd Penn, The Davis Twins, Robert Tatum, Hank Cornley, Adam Troy, Eric Troy, Terry Poindexter, Herb Williams, Samaki Walker, Bruce Howard, Bob Harris, Randy Clarkson, Charles Jones, Paul O’Neil, Tino Richards, Phillip Miller, Kenny Battle, Daryl Delaney, Roy Bobo, Reggie Rankin, Lawrence Funderburke, Eric Hilton, Marvin “Bean” Walker, Eric Shepard, Nate Harris, Mike McKinney, Troy Hitchcock . . . .
Chapter Seventeen
All Mine?
Graduation came and went so quickly, I didn’t really believe it was going down. It was just like I thought it would be—a lot of people happy as hell they could move on with their lives, others crying and so confused to what was really going on, they could have used another year of classes.
Tori showed up though. She called me that morning after we sat up in her hospital room almost all night begging her to walk across the stage with us.
Jalen drove to the hospital. I walked inside, pulled out a wad of cash and paid all her bills, then rolled her right out of there and into Jalen’s ride. We had talked about this day since freshman year, but we didn’t expect to be paid and rolling in a brand-new, sparkling Escalade.
The Escalade was Jalen’s. He took his piece of the cut from my shoe contract for being my handler and went out and bought a smoking black one with all the tricks, including the spinners, that put Toy’s to shame. Plus, he got all of us cell phones, including my mom, that worked on the same network, so we could stay in touch at all times. He even had the nerve to be calling his business Black Ice Management Inc.
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