Gramps had his back to the kitchen. Lucas saw his mom quietly come into the room with a big bowl of popcorn, then just as quietly turn and go back into the kitchen. Even though she’d offered to help, it was as if she understood that this was something between Lucas and his grandfather, at least for now.

“I don’t even know where you went to college,” Lucas said. “I don’t even know for sure whether you played point guard or not.”

“I was a guard,” Gramps said in a soft voice. “In those days, you weren’t a point guard or a shooting guard. You were just a guard.”

“See!” Lucas said, excited all of a sudden. “See right there! That would be a great point for me to make in the paper.”

“I never say no to you, son,” Gramps said. “Just let me do it this one time, and we can just devote ourselves to the season you’re playing, and not ones I played a million years ago.”

“Maybe you need to respect your grandfather’s wishes on this,” she said, “as much as they might disappoint you.”

Lucas understood what his mom was saying. He understood that she was right. He knew he was being more stubborn than ever. And he didn’t want Gramps to think they were having an argument about this. They’d never argued about anything.

“I just wanted to know more about you, Gramps,” Lucas said.

“But that’s the thing,” Gramps said. “You do know me.”

“Didn’t my dad want to know more about what you were like when you were younger?” Lucas said.

A sad look came across Gramps’s face, but then it disappeared as quickly as it had come.

“I just used to tell him what I’m going to tell you now,” he said. “That he was seeing my best self, and that’s all that should matter to him.”

Gramps stood up. It only took him one try this time to get off the couch. He came over and patted the top of Lucas’s head and said, “Time for me to go. If the weather’s warm enough tomorrow, maybe the two of us can go to the park.”

“Okay,” Lucas said.

In that moment there was nothing else for him to say. The park was a way for his grandfather to change the subject. Lucas’s mom told Gramps to drive carefully. He thanked her again for dinner. A couple minutes later they heard his car pull out of the driveway.

“I know that didn’t end the way you wanted it to,” Lucas’s mom said. “But he’s still the best man we know. And you do see the best in him.”

Then Lucas told his mom what he’d been thinking the last couple days, that he couldn’t help thinking this had somehow turned into a mystery.