I went around to just about everywhere I thought Cal should be. I looked in every place he ever mentioned to me. I even hung one whole night outside his place to see if he came around. He didn’t.

I called Aggie, she sounded like she didn’t care if he was around or not. I asked her if she had seen him, and she said no. That’s all, just no. Then I asked her if he had said anything to her about where he might be. She asked me if I thought she was the FBI or something. I went over to Aggie’s place anyway, mainly because I didn’t know what else to do.

I sat on her stoop after she didn’t answer the bell. It was cool, and the clouds were making it darker than it should have been for the time of day it was. It looked like she was never coming home.

When I did see Aggie coming down the street, I tried to figure out just what I was going to say to her. I tried a couple of things in my mind, but none of them worked. She had a package in her hand. It wasn’t much, but I asked her could I carry it for her. She looked at me and didn’t say anything. Then she handed me the package. I followed her up the stairs to her apartment and watched as she fished through her bag for the keys and unlocked the door.

“You see him?” she asked after I had sat down.

“No.”

“You coming around looking for him here?” she asked.

“I guess so.”

“I don’t know why you bothering to look for him,” she said. “He ain’t no damn good.”

“He’s the coach,” I said.

“Oh, stop it!” Aggie put some water on for tea for herself. “You want tea or a beer?”

“I’ll take the beer.”

“You say he’s the coach. He ain’t the coach. He’s Cal. When you take off the title, that’s what he is. Cal. He tell you how we met?”

“Yeah.”

“Uh-huh. We met at this party, and he looked at me like I was something good to eat. Ran down the same old line you all use. ‘Baby, you so fine.’ ‘Baby, you this and that.’ ‘Baby, I need you so much.’ Walking around like he was king of the world. Didn’t know a blessed thing outside of playing ball, not a blessed thing.” Aggie poured the hot water into the teapot, shook the pot once or twice, and put it down on the table. “He wanted to go to bed with me, but he was afraid to ask. Funniest thing in the world. But he was nice and I liked him. The first time I let him stay overnight he took off his clothes and he had his basketball uniform on instead of underwear. I asked him if he was planning on dribbling somewhere.

“We got married and we had the baby and we had plans. That’s the way it comes for poor folk. First you get the baby and then you look around for the plan. We got a few dollars in the bank, and he was talking about buying a house. I got into buying all those magazines they put out on how to decorate your house. I was going to have Colonial this and French Provincial that. The whole thing. Then he got into trouble, and that was that.”