“He said one time that he wore his defeats like medals,” Gramps said. “Said he learned more from them than he ever did from his victories.” He nodded again. “I always kind of liked that one,” he said.

He walked out to his car. But a minute later, he came back.

“I’ve been meaning to ask this,” he said. “But that letter your dad wrote—could I have it to keep?”

Lucas smiled. “You shouldn’t even have had to ask.”

He ran upstairs and got it out of the top drawer of his desk. When he came back down, he handed it to Gramps.

“This really does belong to you,” Lucas said.

Gramps accepted it as if Lucas had just handed him a trophy.

“After all these years,” Gramps said, “it finally got delivered.”

Then he left.

As soon as he did, Lucas’s mom got on the phone and called Mrs. Moretti and told her that Gramps was back in Claremont. Ryan’s mom said she would call the other board members and tell them. An hour later, she called Lucas’s mom back and told her there was going to be a board meeting, open to the public, the next night at Claremont Middle.

As soon as she told Lucas that, he went upstairs and started making some calls of his own.

THIRTY-FOUR

They held the meeting in the library.

They invited Gramps to attend. Mr. Dichard, the chairman of the board and Richard’s dad, told everybody in the library that Sam Winston had declined the invitation, saying that he didn’t feel the need to come to defend himself as if appearing at some kind of trial. But, Mr. Dichard said, he’d thanked them for offering him the opportunity.

“Sam said that we all know who he is,” Mr. Dichard said, “even if we didn’t know who he used to be.”

Mr. Dichard was the president of the Claremont National Bank, and had played high school basketball with Lucas’s dad. He and Mrs. Moretti were the only parents of seventh-grade players on the board.

There were seven board members in all. They were the ones who would vote on whether or not Gramps got to coach in the championship game. A few of the other board members briefly spoke. They all agreed that not only shouldn’t he coach the game, he shouldn’t be allowed to coach at any level of Claremont town basketball ever again.

“I understand Sam’s sentiments,” Mr. Dichard said when it was time for him to give his opinion. “But without sounding too harsh, the fact is that Sam committed a crime against basketball, no matter how long ago that happened. And I frankly don’t see as how someone like that should be teaching our kids values, about basketball or anything else.”

Lucas and his mom were seated in the front of the library. Mrs. Moretti sat next to them. After Mr. Dichard finished his remarks, it was Jen Moretti’s turn. She stood and addressed the other grown-ups in the room. And Lucas.