We practiced hard for the next week and a half, and we were looking good. Cal knew what he was all about, but he was always on my case. It seemed to me that he would tolerate a mistake from anybody except me. If I didn’t pass right, he’d stop a play and make me do it over again. If I took a shot when I wasn’t supposed to, or if I didn’t get through a pick or something, he’d have something to say about it. Everybody else checked it out, too, and it made me feel uncomfortable. I liked what he was doing, and at the same time I didn’t like it.

We were supposed to get the uniforms on a Wednesday. Cal announced this at a meeting that I missed because my moms got sick and I had to take her to the hospital. The doctor said it was her pressure, and he gave her a prescription to have filled. I went and got that filled, and by the time I got to the meeting it was over. They had the meeting at Cal’s ex-wife’s house. He was trying to get back with her. Breeze said that she was only fair, but Ox said she was pretty nice.

“For an older chick she’s out of sight, man,” Ox said.

“What went down at the meeting?” I asked.

“We will have the uniforms on Wednesday for our first game,” Ox said.

“A game?”

“Yeah, we going to play Snakeskin and his boys.”

“I thought he was in jail.”

“He must have got out if he was because he’s going to play us.”

“You know what I heard?” Breeze asked. “I heard that everybody knows about the Sweet Man coming to our practice and about our getting new uniforms and everything! Not only that, but they all coming to the game to see our action!”

“Who told you that?” I asked.

“Everybody’s been saying it,” Ox said.

“Well, who told them?”

“Us.”

Breeze and Ox were both grinning, and I had to grin myself.

The day of the game we were all in the gym early. We ran through a few practice plays, and then we just sat around and talked. We must have done that for about a half hour before Snakeskin’s team showed up. Snakeskin, when he wasn’t so high he could hardly talk, had a nice game. He was quick in a way that was tricky. Some guys were quick, but they were so herky jerky you were always alert. Snakeskin, on the other hand, was smooth. He’d be moving the ball slow across the top of the key one moment and you’d be moving with him and the next moment he’d be around you, laying the ball against the boards.

Mr. Reese was going to be the referee, and he kept trying to get the game started, but we were stalling, waiting for Cal to show with the uniforms. We had all chipped in and bought a jacket for Cal with “Coach” printed over the pocket, and we figured we’d lay it on him when he brought the uniforms. We kept stalling, waiting for Cal, until Mr. Reese said that we’d either have to start the game or forfeit. So we played in sneakers and whatever we happened to have on.