“What were you doing up there?” Gramps said.

“You know I go up there sometimes,” Lucas said. “I like going through Dad’s stuff.”

Suddenly he felt as if he were back playing defense, and wasn’t sure why. Or what to say.

“You are stubborn,” Gramps said.

“Mom says I get it from you.”

“Probably so.”

“So is that you?” Lucas said.

“More like who I used to be,” Gramps said.

“Joe or Tommy?” Lucas said.

Gramps took a deep breath, let it out.

“They called me Joe back in the day,” he said.

Then he said, “Time to take you home.”

Without another word he turned and led Lucas out of the gym and to the place in the front parking lot where his car was. They both got in. Gramps drove them home.

Lucas was afraid to say anything himself until they were in his driveway. It was as if Gramps’s silence had formed this force field around him. But when the car stopped Lucas said, “Are you still going to have dinner?”

“I’m awful tired all of a sudden,” he said. “Think I might turn in early tonight. Please make my apologies to your mom.”

Lucas got out of the car, but didn’t close the door.

“Are you okay, Gramps?” he asked.

“Sure,” he said. “Just tired, like I said. Some days I feel all my years more than others.”

Because the door was open, the interior lights in the car were on, so Lucas could see clearly the look on his grandfather’s face. For a second, Lucas thought Gramps was the one who might start to cry.

In a soft voice Lucas said, “Why’d they call you Joe?”

He wasn’t sure his grandfather had heard him correctly, because he didn’t answer the question.

“He’s just a boy who got left behind a long time ago,” he said. He took another deep breath and let it out slowly. Then asked Lucas to please close the door.

“Good night, son,” Gramps said.

He drove away. Lucas stood there in the driveway and watched him go, wondering in that moment why “good night” had sounded so much like “good-bye.”

SEVENTEEN

Lucas’s mom tried to call Gramps when Lucas told her what had happened at the gym. Gramps didn’t answer his phone. That wasn’t unusual. Gramps had finally given in and purchased a cell phone, but he preferred talking on the landline at his apartment.

She was sent to voice mail on his cell. She got the answering machine at his apartment.

“He really didn’t talk all the way home?” Lucas’s mom said.

Lucas shook his head.

“He said they called him Joe?”

“Yes.”

“But didn’t explain why?”

“No.”