Take One for the Team by Thomas Slater

Author:Thomas Slater
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Strebor Books

This was the first time I paid attention to all the billboards off the Lodge Freeway. Everything from casinos telling folks that it was okay for them to come and gamble their life savings away, to advertisements featuring some of Detroit’s finest professional athletes. The Detroit Pistons had Tayshaun Prince’s narrowed, light-skinned, freckled face gazing down from a gigantic billboard and reminding me of what my life could’ve been like, had I not torn up my knee. I was one of those jocks who didn’t continue his education. Lost all desire to graduate on that fateful day. I guess I could say that my desire to carve out an above-average living for myself in society had shattered also—right along with my ACL. Hence, I was unprepared for a brutal reality. I’d be rich if I had a penny for every down-and-out athlete who never factored in injury. Not stopping for one second to think about how one career-injuring setback could bring about a lower class of life, never-ending unemployment lines, humiliating wages, taskmaster-type supervisors and degrading homelessness.

I drove with my mind fumbling and stumbling down memory lane. I remembered the night I let a few moments of betraying passion come between me and my ex, Caliba—the one I should’ve been married to with a sack full of kids by now. The woman who should’ve been my everything. I hadn’t been responsible enough to handle a woman like her. My infidelities. The life of a Michigan State basketball superstar. Groupies flocking—catering to my every desire. People kissing my ass just to get a piece. I’d gained everything only to lose it all. Caliba had turned to drugs to cope with discovering my indiscretions. Her subsequent cocaine addiction. The destruction of a life. Caliba, a gifted student studying law. Her free-fall from a scholarly throne and landing into a hellish pit of depression and crack houses. Until she was no more fit to clean raw sewage. The drug overdose. A piece of me had been buried with her on that cold, rainy day in January.

I didn’t wanna sound like Fred Sanford, but I looked up at the cloudy skies and whispered, “Caliba, I’m coming to join you, honey. So save me a seat at the table.”

I was lost in the past until my present found the hell out of me. I answered my cell.

“Where the hell have you been, nigga?” Malisa asked in a nasty tone. Star-six-seven had disabled it and left me virtually in fear of answering. For every gadget made, there was always a way to circumvent it.

“You have a very nasty mouth.”

“I know that shit. I’m due any minute, and yo’ ass out there lollygagging somewhere.”

“You got your cousin, Kirk, there.”

“Nigga, that’s it! Kiss yo’ check goodbye. Friends of the Court will be seeing me real soon. And don’t worry about coming back here because yo’ junk gonna be on the street . . .” The phone sounded like it dropped. I thought the girl was just throwing a tantrum when I heard a scream.

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