Underdog (10 page)

“Were you trying to make it bounce like that?” Ashton yelled out as the guy stared at him. “Was that some sort of trick shot or something?”

“You should learn to shut up, Ashtray,” the guy snarled.

“And you should learn how to shoot!” Ashton snapped back.

“What are you doing?” Kia hissed.

“Nothing, just explaining to this big gorilla that he needs to practice shooting rather than styling!”

The guy turned up the intensity of his glare but didn't say anything.

“Okay, next basket wins!” somebody yelled out.

The big guy trotted to his end of the court but kept an angry eye on Ashton as he ran back.

“Are you trying to get yourself killed?” I asked.

“From him? I'm not scared of him.”

“If you're not, you're stupid,” I said.

“You calling me stupid again?” Ashton demanded. He swung around and glared at me with a stare almost as intense as the one that had just been aimed at him.

“Of course he's calling you stupid,” Kia said, stepping in between us. “And you have to be pretty stupid to pick a fight with a guy that big.”

“I told you, he doesn't scare me. Matter of fact, none of the guys on this court scare me. Come on, you little babies!” Ashton yelled out. “Can't one of you make a basket so we can play?”

I couldn't believe what he was saying. Bad enough that he was insulting the biggest guy on the court, but now he was taunting everybody on the court. Did Ashton have a death wish, and more importantly, would Kia and I be included in that wish?

Thank goodness the players were all so intent on the game that they didn't seem to notice what he'd yelled at them. The players moved up the court again without anybody scoring. It suddenly seemed like everybody was interested in playing defense. There was
a steal at one end and then a blocked shot— it was trapped against the glass—and then another steal. It looked like the defenses on both teams had collapsed into the paint, stopping anybody from driving and daring them to put up a shot.

“Give it to the big baboon!” Ashton yelled.

“Shut up, Ashcan,” the guy threatened as he ran back to get on defense.

“You should focus on the game and not on the fans!” Ashton screamed after him.

“Ashton, you really shouldn't be bugging him,” I hissed. “He could kill you…he could kill all of us.”

“You afraid of him because he's black and you think all black guys carry weapons or something?” Ashton demanded.

I snorted. “I'm afraid of him because he's so big he doesn't need any weapons to kill us.”

“He's big, but that doesn't mean he's tough. He's just a pussycat.”

“A tiger is a type of pussycat, but I'm not messing with one of those whether they're orange, black, white or green.”

“Look, he has the ball!”

The big guy grabbed a rebound and started up the court. He moved like a rocket and it was clear that nobody was going to beat him to the basket and—he pulled up and the members of the other team scrambled past him, blocking him from driving. Why did he do that?

He looked over at Ashton, smiled and then turned back to face the net. He was way outside the three-point line, but it looked like he was going to shoot. He put up a long, long ball. It spun ever so slightly with backspin as it sailed through the air and down and swooshed right through the basket, nothing but net!

His teammates all yelled and screamed and then rushed over and mobbed him with high fives, back slaps and a couple of chest slams.

The big guy looked over at us. He had a big, goofy smirk on his face.

“Talk about a lucky shot!” Ashton yelled out. “Were you even aiming for the basket or was that like a really, really bad pass that just went in by accident?”

I shuddered at his words as the big guy's smirk changed to a scowl and he started walking toward us. “I told you to shut up, you little Ashtray!” he growled.

“Who's going to make me shut up?” Ashton demanded.

If that wasn't the stupidest question I ever heard in my whole life, I didn't know what was.

As the guy came forward, both Kia and I backed a few steps away from Ashton. I had to fight the urge to simply turn and run for the hole in the fence and not stop running until I was inside my house…inside my house, with the door locked, hiding under the bed. Why had we even come here and whose stupid idea was it in the first…oh, yeah, it was my stupid idea.

Ashton didn't budge even a half inch as the guy came right up to him, towering over his head. He just stood there, his hands on his hips, glaring back at the guy. This was either the bravest or dumbest thing I'd ever seen. Possibly both.

“Do you know what I'm going to do to you?” the guy asked ominously.

“I'd like to see you try to do something,” Ashton replied.

Like lightning the guy reached out, grabbed Ashton, lifted him up off the ground and—

“You leave him alone!” Kia screamed.

The expression on the face of the guy registered the shock I was feeling.

“Put him down this minute!” she demanded.

The guy chuckled but didn't release his hold on Ashton, whose feet dangled a good foot off the ground.

“I said put him down!” Kia yelled.

He dropped Ashton to the ground. “What if I pick you up instead?” the guy asked.

“Leave her alone!” I yelled as I stepped forward, putting myself between Kia and the guy.

He now looked doubly shocked. “Whoa, it's like a gang. A gang of little, tiny, white people.”

The whole group that had been on the court was now standing around us, watching, grinning, laughing.

“You leave them alone!” Ashton yelled and pushed the guy—who didn't even budge as Ashton bounced against him.

“Leave all of us alone!” Kia repeated.

He looked down at Ashton and then cast a hard look at Kia and me.

“I wasn't planning on doing anything to the two of you,” he said. “But I was planning on doing something to him.” He pointed at Ashton. “And nobody, and I mean
nobody
, is gonna stop me.”

He reached out and grabbed Ashton again, lifted him up and kissed him on the cheek!

“Don't do that, you big goof!” Ashton yelled.

He put Ashton down, and Ashton wiped his cheek with the back of his hand.

“What's wrong with me giving my baby brother a real big hug and a little kiss?”

“Your brother?” Kia and I echoed.

“Yeah, my brother.”

The big guy lifted Ashton up again, this time even higher, and planted a big, noisy kiss on his forehead.

“You're his brother?” I asked, not believing what I'd just heard.

“His big brother. His biggest brother.”

“I didn't know. We didn't know,” Kia said.

“I'm not surprised. I'm so much better looking than Ashton that we don't even look like brothers.”

“Shut up, Jamal!” Ashton snapped.

“Who's gonna make me shut up?”

“Me!” Ashton rushed at his brother, swinging and kicking and practically spitting. Jamal swept him off his feet, spun him upside down and held him up by his legs!

“Let me go!” Ashton screamed.

“If I let you go, you'll fall on your head and that could damage the pavement.”

“Let me go!”

Jamal continued to hold him with one hand and began tickling him on the stomach. Ashton stopped screaming and began laughing and shaking and squirming, trying desperately to get away.

“Stop…stop…tickling me!” he yelled between the laughter.

“What's the magic word?” Jamal demanded.

“Stop tickling me…or…or I'm going to pee!”

“Not exactly the magic word I was looking for, but good enough to get you down.”

He stopped tickling Ashton, flipped him back around and dropped him on his feet once again.

“You know, even Ashton wouldn't be stupid enough to pick a fight with somebody my size. Although to be honest I wouldn't put it past him. He's got himself in some strange situations over the years because sometimes his mouth starts moving way before his
brain is in full gear and he says the dumbest things.”

“Shut up, Jamal!”

“Who's gonna make…okay, we've already done this. So are you going to introduce me to your friends or are you going to be rude as well as stupid?”

“Shut up…fine,” Ashton said. “Okay, this is Kia and this is Nick.”

Jamal reached out and shook hands with Kia and then offered his hand to me. My hand practically disappeared into his huge mitt.

“Nice to meet you both. Do you two live around here?”

Ashton started laughing. “Come on, Jamal, look at them.”

“I am looking at them. Do you have a point or are you just running off at the mouth again, baby brother?”

“Do they look like they live around here?”

“I don't see why they couldn't.”

“They're white,” Ashton said.

“Oh, my goodness!” Jamal said, sounding shocked. He bent down so he was at our level
and looked directly at me, eye to eye. “Do you know that? Do you two know that you're white?”

I didn't know what to say or how to answer that. I giggled nervously.

“You're a real funny guy,” Ashton said. “Real funny.”

“Funny is good. Stupid isn't. So they're white. Big deal. You make it sound like there aren't any white people in this neighborhood. But if I'm not mistaken, your friend Brian from two floors below us is white, isn't he? And if you look around, aren't there at least half a dozen white guys here on the courts?”

“But there aren't many white people in the complex,” Ashton said.

“Not many, but some,” Jamal said. “To say there are no white people living here is just wrong, and I don't know why you'd even say that. There are probably the same number of white people living here as there are blacks who live in my neighborhood.”

“Isn't this your neighborhood?” I asked.

“I guess in some ways it will always be my neighborhood because I grew up right here,
but I haven't lived here since I graduated from college. My wife and I have a house over on the west side, close to my school.”

“But if you've graduated from college, why do you still have to go to school?” Kia asked.

“It's important the teacher shows up or things tend not to get done.”

“You're a teacher?” I asked.

“Both me and my wife. Emma teaches grade six and I'm a grade three teacher.”

“Grade three!” I exclaimed.

“Yeah, grade three. Is there something wrong with me teaching grade three kids?” he asked.

“No, of course not. It just seems like you're so big and they're so small,” I tried to explain.

“Tiny. I've got a couple of kids in my class who are smaller than the lunch I pack. Good kids though. My wife and I both love going to school every day. Of course she'll be taking some time off soon. We're expecting our first and second child.”

“First and second?” Kia asked.

“We're pregnant with twins,” he explained.

“We?” Ashton asked, sounding shocked. “Last time I checked, your wife was the one who was pregnant. Although,” Ashton said, reaching out and patting his brother on the stomach, “it does look like you could be somewhere around six months pregnant yourself.”

Both Kia and I started laughing and Jamal smiled. That smile was much nicer than his scowl and a lot less scary.

“I am putting on a little bit of weight since I haven't been playing ball as much,” he admitted.

“A little weight? Watching you running the court is sort of like watching one of those super-slow-motion replays on television.” Ashton began pretending he was dribbling a ball in slow motion.

“There's still one thing I don't understand,” Jamal said. “You two seem like nice kids, so why are you hanging around with my brother? Couldn't you find somebody better to be your friend?”

“No,” Kia protested. “We like Ashton a lot.”

“You must be good friends,” Jamal said. “Good enough to try to step between him and me. You two didn't know we were brothers when you tried to stop me. That took guts.” Jamal turned to Ashton. “You got yourself a couple of good friends here. If they're not from the neighborhood, where did you three meet?”

“On my driveway,” I said. “We invited Ashton to play basketball with us.”

“So you two are players.”

“Good players,” Ashton said. “They play on the Mississauga Magic rep team.”

“The team you're on,” Jamal said.

“The team that I
was
on,” Ashton corrected him.

“Was? Why aren't you still on the team?” Jamal asked.

“Lots of reasons.”

“I've got time. Explain to me the lots of reasons you're not on the team,” Jamal said.

“That would take too much time,” Ashton said. “I just came here to play some basketball.” Ashton turned and started to walk away
when Jamal reached over, picked him up off the ground and spun him around so he faced us again. For a split second it was like watching a cartoon as Ashton's legs continued to walk while he was suspended in mid-air.