He didn’t say anything else, and I didn’t say anything. We just sat there for a minute.

“This is a nice little place you have here,” Mary-Ann said.

“What, er … what can I do for you?” Cal asked.

“Like what?” I asked.

“Well …” He looked over at Mary-Ann. “Is Mary-Ann your lady?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” I said.

“Man, well, why didn’t you say something?” Cal stood up and came around the desk and shook Mary-Ann’s hand. “Now I’m really glad to make your acquaintance, young lady. I didn’t know why he brought you here. I thought she might be a backup guard or something.”

Cal broke out some sodas, and we sat around and rapped for a while, and they hit it off real nice. It made me feel good, and when I took Mary-Ann back over to her mother’s place, she was really happy.

“Look, I want to tell you something about Cal,” I said. “But you got to keep it between you and me, dig?”

“Go ahead.”

“He used to play pro ball,” I said.

“Uh-huh.”

“Uh-huh?” I looked at her. “I tell you the guy used to play pro ball and all you can say is uh-huh? He played with the Big O, he played with cats like Twyman and Baylor. This dude was so bad they wrote him up in all the papers and stuff.”

“Hey, that’s really good!” she said.

“You don’t even know what I’m talking about, do you?”

“I know all the words, Lonnie,” she said. “But I don’t know how they feel coming out of you, dig? I mean, I just don’t have anything that makes me feel that way. You got your heart set on playing pro ball, and I’m still waiting to set mine on something.”

“Yeah. You know Cal could give me … not give me, not even teach me … what am I trying to say?”

“Help you.”

“Yeah, that’s right. He could help me with my game and everything.”

“You gonna let him?”

“Am I gonna do what? Sure, that’s what it’s all about,” I said. “He thinks I can make it, too.”

“I’m surprised.”

“Surprised? You seen me play, woman. You don’t have to know that much about the game to know I can play.”

“Not about your game, Lonnie All-Star. About you letting somebody help you.”

“I don’t need that much help,” I said. “He’s just showing me a few things, that’s all.”

“Things like what?” she asked.

“Like … I don’t know, just things,” I said. “Don’t make a big deal over it.”

Mary-Ann was right about me not letting a whole lot of people help me. I didn’t let people help me because I didn’t need it mostly. Besides that, it was just like Cal said, nobody gives you something for nothing. They’d either have something they’d want you to do for them or they’d want you to hang around them and act like you’re grateful. I didn’t know if Cal was going to turn out that way or not, but I really wanted to check him out. The cat really wasn’t into that much, but I was really digging him. Yeah, he seemed okay, but I was still checking him out.