Hometown Favorite: A Novel

by BILL BARTON

  "Are you a spokesman for one, or do you speak for others?" Dewayne asked and nodded his head in thanks to the waiter who had brought him his cranberry juice.

  "I speak for me, but I know my team. I know what they're thinking when they listen to your God crap during interviews or you haggling about what endorsement you're going to do this week. Am I making this easy enough for you to understand?"

  Dewayne was in a public place, and worse, it was not a neutral place. It was Colby's territory, and it was well marked, so any outward display of the turmoil flaring inside his gut would not have been the correct path to follow. He wanted to smash Colby's face into the spinach dip appetizer, but thought that was not a suitable turn-the-other-cheek response to this plotted entrapment and verbal abuse.

  "I think I get it," Dewayne said. He sipped his drink but refused to eat any of the food set in front of him. "Yet one thing I don't get ... that it's your team"

  "It's my team until I decide different;" Colby said. "You can keep your God and your endorsements, but you're not taking the team from me:"

  Dewayne looked into the restaurant at the bustling crowd. They were Colby fans, and Dewayne felt the isolation. He dropped his head and looked at his folded hands, folded not for prayer, but fingers locked to keep him from taking his drink and pouring it over Colby's bald head. Still, Colby's harsh words gave him pause. Perhaps he had been naive and insensitive toward his teammates.

  "You know, Colby, I'm hearing you," Dewayne said, deciding to submit to the dominant male. "I'm sorry if I offended you or any of our teammates."

  "I just love this religious crap, the way you sling it around," Colby said, his scarcely disguised anger coming out in a blast of laughter.

  "You're angry, Colby, and I'm sorry, but I don't see God as the culprit'

  "Fancy words for a jock, but I got no use for God. I don't waste my time with God. There's nothing God can do for me I can't do for myself."

  "God could give you peace and make you happy," Dewayne said.

  "Save it for church," Colby said and finished off his beer.

  The hostess approached the table to check on the progress of consumption, and Colby rose from his chair and threw his arm around her waist, pulling her into his side.

  "Guess what? This is the only piece that is going to make me happy," he said, biting her ear, which got him an affectionate reaction. "I'll get the manager to call you a cab as I leave."

  Dewayne finished his drink and watched Colby and the hostess work the room as they made their way toward the exit, making his fans feel appreciated for keeping his bank accounts flush.

  After their conversation at the restaurant, Dewayne had steered clear of Colby for the rest of the season, but he did take Colby's advice about the endorsements. He told Rosella to put all endorsement deals on hold until the season was over. He did not need the distraction as the team approached the play-offs, and he wanted to be sensitive to his teammates. That gave Rosella free time to develop her skills at investing their current assets in profitable portfolios. With the help of a New York firm she was able to increase their wealth by 27 percent, take care of the baby, work at their church, and get Bruce and Sabrina all the places they needed to be on any given day.

  The biggest challenge Rosella had to face during this more relaxed time was the Houston traffic with Sabrina at the wheel. Sabrina had been complaining that she was well beyond the legal driving age, and Rosella agreed. So in the evenings, Rosella gave Sabrina her first driving lessons while Dewayne watched the baby, helped Bruce with his homework, and studied his playbook. Dewayne breathed a sigh of relief each time he heard the garage door open and the ladies return from their adventure. It meant they had survived the streets, but after the women were inside the house, he always slipped into the garage and walked around his Denali inspecting it for any scrapes or dings.

  One night when Sabrina bounded into the kitchen and lifted the car keys off the key rack, all excited about testing her driving skills for the first time on the freeway, Rosella begged off.

  "Robert Jr. has a slight fever, and I just don't want to leave him;' she said.

  Homework covered part of the kitchen table with Bruce and Dewayne bent over it, pretending to solve a difficult math problem by mumbling some bogus figures. Dewayne knew the silence in the kitchen meant that both women were staring a hole into the top of his head, and he did not want to look up. He had no desire to get into the front seat of his Denali with his teenage niece behind the wheel. If he were going to the hospital, it would be for slamming into another player on the field and not colliding with a vehicle on the street.

  Rosella cleared her throat and called his name. It was a summons, and Bruce started to laugh. Dewayne raised his head with a "do I have to do this" look plastered on his sullen face.

  "I'm thinking you need a little uncle/niece bonding time;" Rosella said.

  "But do we have to do it on the freeway?"

  "I'm really careful, Uncle Dewayne;' Sabrina said, which made Bruce laugh and caused a harsh glare from his big sister.

  "I'll help Bruce with his math. You two go on.,,

  Dewayne had to admit that Sabrina was careful and displayed a confidence and poise behind the wheel that he had not expected. As a reward for her excellent performance and for not frightening him, he took her to dinner at the family's favorite steakhouse. They had barely ordered their drinks before fans began to come up to the table asking for autographs or taking cell phone pictures of Dewayne and Sabrina out on the town. When they got home that night, the way uncle and niece joked about their driving experience, and the way Sabrina bragged of how cool it was to have dinner with someone famous in a restaurant, it was obvious to Rosella and Bruce that they had missed a good time.

  "We've been slaving over math while you two were out having fun," Rosella said with only a minor hint of envy.

  Dewayne agreed to make himself available for the next couple driving lessons. A week later when Sabrina announced that the school would soon be offering a driver's education class, both Rosella and Dewayne were relieved. They were ready to pass off the responsibility of teaching Sabrina the finer points of driving to an expert.

  Dewayne's declining endorsement deals so he could focus more on the final games before the play-offs did not prove to be much of an advantage for the team. The Stars split their last two games, giving them an eleven and five record. They only won the first game by a field goal-no touchdowns for Dewayne-and lost the second by fourteen points, with only one touchdown for the rookie receiver.

  It was a sloppy way to end the regular season, Coach Gyra admitted to the reporters at the press conference after the second game, but he pointed out that the Stars had made it to the play-offs, something not achieved in several years. He was grateful for the dramatic turnaround within one season and promised to make Houston proud in the upcoming games.

  "I don't know what happened. The offense didn't adjust to what the Chicago defense threw at them," Colby said. "How do you get confused this late in the season? I don't know. Ask Bible Boy Wonder over there." He wiped the perspiration off his head. "He always has an answer for everything."

  The locker room atmosphere was morose. The Stars had gone into the play-offs with an eleven and five record that won them home-field advantage for the first game, but Chicago had returned to Houston with a grudge against the Stars for their demoralizing defeat at the beginning of the season. The final score was 17 to 13, and Dewayne had scored the only touchdown late in the third period. The defense had done their homework and shut him down. Chicago had given back their previous humiliation.

  Before the Houston television reporter moved on to Dewayne, he asked Colby if this would be his last year with the Stars since he would now be a free agent. Colby finished the interview by giving the reporter several options of where he could stick his microphone.

  "I wish I could tell you why we lost," Dewayne responded to the interviewer's question. "I agree with Colby. I didn't make the right adjustm
ents to Chicago rolling out a linebacker in double team coverage. Chicago came to play the full sixty minutes. They were at the top of their game, and I can't take that away from them"

  "So what are you going to do with your time off?" the reporter asked, casting a cautious glance over his shoulder at Colby.

  "I'll be back in the weight room later this week," Dewayne said.

  She dropped her Bible and screamed the moment she recognized him. It took a few seconds to be sure her eyes were not playing tricks: no dreadlocks, no exposed muscled and tattooed flesh, no crew to flank his stride. A bright smile replaced his permanent scowl.

  When he spoke, there were no hard, clipped phrases, no profanity, especially not in the sanctuary of the Lord. From what she could tell, on the surface there were no more vestiges of the former life. Even his voice was different as he told her that he had met Jesus and Jesus had forgiven him. Jesus had given him a new perspective. Jesus had given him a new life. Jesus had helped him get out of jail shortly after his eighteenth birthday because Jesus had helped him become a model citizen while in juvenile detention. And once free, Jesus had given him a new location in which to live, and a marketable skill in computers had gotten him a job so that he could have an apartment and a car-both modest in price.

  There was only one thing Jesus had not given him yet, and that was Sabrina. That would be the last request he would make of Jesus. That was the last fleece he would lay out before the Lord to prove his goodness to him. If Sabrina came back into his life, then it would be complete. As God had proven himself to Tyler Rogan, so Tyler would prove himself to Sabrina, to her family, and to the world.

  He had been able to say all this to her in the back of the church where the Jobes were members.

  That Sunday, Dewayne had given the testimony of his life, and while hordes of people had surrounded him after the service, wanting to be close to the aura and catch a glimpse of the favored one, Sabrina had detached herself from the throng and gone to the ladies' room in the vestibule. When she had exited the bathroom, she was stunned at the sight of her former boyfriend. Her Bible fell to the floor and her hands went to her mouth to stifle her scream.

  "How did you find me?" Sabrina asked, her words muffled by her hand.

  Tyler stooped down and retrieved the Bible. He smoothed out the crumpled pages while he spoke. "Everyone in the country knows Dewayne Jobe. I just happened to see in the paper where he would be speaking at Quail Valley Church. I was here last Sunday and saw you, but ... ;" a slight choking in the throat, the misting of his eyes-a marvel Sabrina never thought possible-"after what happened back in LA, I figured you and your brother would be living with them. At least that's what I'd heard, and I just had to see for myself. I just had to take a risk and see if there was any chance for us. After all I've done, I don't expect you to forgive me, but I could never live with myself if I didn't try."

  "You ... you nearly killed my brother. You gave drugs to my mother. You made me love you," she said in choking whispers as she hit him on the chest with her fist.

  "I was an evil son of a-" and there he remembered the ground upon which he stood. "I was evil, and I am unworthy to ask for your forgiveness, let alone hope I might receive it. But if I'm lucky, if God grants me my last wish, and you can give me your forgiveness, then after that, maybe I can get your trust. After that, maybe your love"

  Across the lobby, Bruce waved for Sabrina to join them as they went out the doors into the church parking lot.

  As Sabrina moved to rejoin her family, Tyler stopped her, laying his hand gently on her arm. He gave her his card-an actual business card with his name listed as an employee of a professional company specializing in website design for upand-coming hip-hop artists to help market themselves and their music on the Internet-and told her not to tell her family that he had gotten this new life and moved to Houston. He wanted to prove himself to her first. If he could win her back, then he would take the next step to win her family. One step at a time, he had told her, no need to rush, and no need to let her family know they had met; it would be their secret until it was time to be revealed.

  "Call me;" Tyler said. "There is so much I want to tell you, so much I want to do for you" And he disappeared back into the sanctuary.

  When the family was piling into the car, the first question asked was who the young man was in the lobby. Sabrina said it was someone from the church, new in town, working for a website design company. When Dewayne commented on the "clean-cut" quality of the young man's appearance and Rosella mentioned the cuteness factor of his overall countenance, Sabrina could not hold back the smile that insisted on having its way on her face. She fiddled with Tyler's card inside her purse all the way home, studying it like a forensic scientist and rubbing her fingers over the embossed lettering. It was no cheap card with its high-quality paper stock, nice lettering, and a phone number. She memorized it, dialed it on her cell phone, and let it ring once before she clicked off the connection. The number seemed legit. When Bruce asked who she was calling, she told him it was just a friend.

  For the next test, he would need to answer the phone. She delayed this test until she got home, and implemented it in the privacy of her bedroom. She still disconnected the call once he answered, but his "Hello's" were a small validation. It only took seconds for him to return the call to the mystery number and to identify himself on Sabrina's voice mail, and say perhaps the other party had misdialed or gotten the wrong number ... or perhaps not. In any case, he would be happy to speak with them about any professional or personal needs they might require. This made her giggle. How did Tyler get so professional? When did he get to be so polite? Maybe it was Jesus.

  "You believe people can change?" Sabrina asked her family one month, five dates, and multiple phone conversations after the epiphany on the Sunday morning. "I mean, Jesus can change anybody, can't he?"

  "What are you talking about?" Dewayne asked, home from doing the latest in a series of television commercials for the national credit card company. The company had built a sixspot campaign around Dewayne that would air next season and had signed him for $1 million per spot with a $5 million signing bonus before the first sixty-second advertisement was even in the can.

  This was Sabrina's first test to see how the family might react to the entry of a former villain into their lives. It had taken some serious persuasion on Tyler's part. Persuading Sabrina to continue to see him after their first date had not been so difficult. They had to keep their encounters brief and semisecluded. He drove her by the downtown office building where he worked and pointed to the fortieth floor. The company he worked for was expanding into the record business, he told her, with a recording studio in LA, and he would be required to make regular trips to the Golden State with new artists he had discovered. Twice he took her out to dinner-modestly priced restaurants, the first time they had ever eaten out somewhere that wasn't fast food, the first time they could hold a menu in their hands instead of read from a lit-up billboard hung above a cashier's head, the first time for a real waiter who brought food to their table and didn't speak through a mechanical voice box. When she asked about any obligations he might have to the juvenile justice system in Los Angeles, he showed her his most recent round-trip plane ticket-Houston/LA for a monthly checkin with all the appropriate people who were monitoring his progress. They were all very pleased with his new life, and six months from now, if he stayed out of trouble-and it was very important to him to stay out of trouble, to show the fruit of a reformed life-these trips would be business-only excursions that would not include visits to his probation officer.

  These were all impressive selling points for Sabrina, but she still could not tell her aunt and uncle the truth about whom she was seeing. The lies were simple, she was meeting with friends from church, friends from school, but she knew she could not keep up the subterfuge and the subject would soon see the light of day. Every time they were together, he treated her with the utmost respect. There was never any hint of drugs. There
was no demand for sex; they went no farther than holding hands and the good-night kiss when he dropped her off by her aunt Rosella's borrowed car at the suburban park where they always met.

  Tyler and Sabrina always kept a safe distance from each other at church, not wanting to arouse suspicion. Even though she thought it a bit unusual that he didn't seem to have many friends-only the few people she saw him speaking with at church or the fellow workers he spoke of at his job-Sabrina was grateful his former LA posse was out of the picture.

  In spite of all these positive experiences, Sabrina had still been reluctant to raise the subject of Tyler's transformation with the family. What convinced her to move forward on the matter was her own mother. Even though no one had laid eyes on her in more than six months, Bonita had begun to communicate with the family by letter four months into her rehabilitation. She allowed no visitors-Franklin and Joella could not have even five minutes with her, and this was Bonita's choice. There was never a phone call. She said that to be seen or heard until she was truly ready would retard the positive changes she was making. She did not confess to a "come to Jesus" moment nor did she refer to the sins of her past and ask for anyone's forgiveness. She just said she was making positive changes in physical health and general well-being that the doctors and social workers confirmed, and she would continue to remain in contact with infrequent and short epistles of her improvement.

  When Tyler inquired after Bonita and Sabrina commented on her mother's recent correspondence and improved condition, he mentioned that after his release from detention, he had gone to see Bonita at a halfway house where she was staying. He could authenticate the status of her change for the better.