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CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The afternoon was cool and sunny when Eddie’ s parents dropped off Justin and Nicole. The silence that settled in their absence was lifted. Eddie played some one-on-one with his son. Justin was getting much better and gave Eddie a run for his money. Sitting on the front steps of their home, Eddie caught his breath.“ You’ ve been practicing,” he wheezed.“ You still won,” Justin replied.“ That is why we only play to thirty.”“ From now on we play to fifty,” Justin smiled, and began bouncing the basketball on the concrete step between his outstretched legs.“ We can do that once and see how you feel when the ambulance carts your old man away.”“ Miss Jorgensen was at our school this past week and stopped by the gym. She gave Ryan and me some pointers.”“ What did she say?”“ Get the basics down and take ten minutes to work on them every time you have a basketball in your hands. Then she showed us what she meant.”“ You have been practicing.”“ Twenty minutes,” Justin smiled.
The face was that of a young man. Eddie marveled and remembered the picture in his wallet. Tanya asked Eddie if he had had the father and son talk yet. The timing never seemed right. At twelve years old Justin was a kid. When he turned thirteen he became distant. Now, almost fourteen, he appeared too grown up.“ What do I tell people when they ask what my dad does for a living?”“ What did you say before?” Eddie asked.“ I told them you were a Teamster because when I told them you were a truck driver, they said they hated truck drivers.” A spike was driven through Eddie’ s heart. Not because of people’ s perception of the job he held for twenty years, but because he had never noticed the impact his profession imposed on his son. Now it seemed pointless to explain all the things those people wanted were available because someone they hated made sure they arrived at the store. Unless you planned to grow your own groceries and make your own furniture from the tree you cut down with a sharp rock, you needed a truck driver. Better late than never.“ Name anything you see that did not come by truck,” Eddie said. Justin took some time and looked around.“ The grass,” he finally said.“ Seventeen years ago the grass came on wooden pallets as sod. It’ s one of those things you take for granted like trash collectors.”“ Next time I hear someone say something bad about truck drivers, I’ ll ask them how much they like their new tennis shoes,” Justin remarked, showing the expensive high top shoes he coaxed from his mother.“ They could just walk barefoot to school because a bus is just a truck that hauls a most precious commodity,” Eddie said, ruffling his son’ s hair.“ I’ m an associate for Melling and Associates, We handle commercial real estate,” he said, answering his son’ s question. They played one more game. Justin won by two points.
The dining room was filled with talk about San Antonio and beating dad at one-onone. The dishes were cleared and Tanya served cheesecake for desert.“ Okay Nicole. Let’ s talk about dating,” Eddie said.“ I didn’ t give it a whole lot of thought.”“ I have given it a great deal of thought.”“ I can’ t wait to hear,” Nicole said, the sarcasm was mild.“ Your mom and I meet the young man before the first time you go out. I don’ t mean an hour before. He comes here Saturday or Sunday and hangs out. If he is a nice