Lucas looked at his mom. She put out her hands and shrugged.

“I thought he’d be happy,” Lucas said.

“Maybe it’s the memory thing,” she said. “You know he gets frustrated when he can’t remember things, and even embarrassed.”

“I know I could probably come up with another subject,” Lucas said. “But he’s the subject I want.”

“The older you get,” she said, “the more set you get in your ways.” She lowered her voice. “Go easy with this tonight. He seems more tired than usual. Maybe that comeback took more out of him than you.”

Gramps was at one end of the couch in the living room. There was a game on the television set. Lucas plopped down at the other end.

“What are you watching there?” Lucas said.

“Michigan State against Syracuse,” he said. “Curious to see how State attacks that Syracuse zone.”

There was a time-out in the game, and a commercial appeared on the TV screen. Lucas’s mom called out from the kitchen, saying she was making a cup of tea and asking if Gramps wanted some. He politely declined.

“You know, Gramps,” Lucas said, “I didn’t mean to spring the idea of my paper on you. But I really think it will be fun.”

Gramps sighed.

“You know what’s another sign of knowing you’re really old?” he said. “Talking about old times more and more. I see it with my friends. I sometimes get the idea that they think the best things that will ever happen to them have already happened.”

“But you’re never like that,” Lucas said. “I just want to know more about stuff that happened to you.”

Gramps turned now. He smiled, but looked tired.

“Find a player you admire instead,” he said.

“But it won’t be somebody I admire as much as I do you,” Lucas said.

“I appreciate that,” he said. “But you know what else I appreciate with young people like you, son, especially when they look at sports? That you think the good old days are now. So learn up on LeBron, or Steph, or Kawhi. I’d help you with a paper like that, and maybe learn a few things about history myself.”

“But we could work on one about you together,” Lucas said. “You always say that history makes you understand the present better, and not just basketball history.”

“You understand me just fine already,” Gramps said.

He reached for the remote next to him. The game was back on. Gramps muted it.

“I’m a lot more interested in what you’re going to do next than in what I already did,” Gramps said. “You want to know who really keeps me going? You do. You’re the only one who can make me feel young, the way you and your teammates did in that game we played today.”