“When did you first start running?” Susan leans forward and rests her hand on her chin. The same way she begins every interview.

“You’re going to have to ask my mama, because I swear I came out running.”

Mama laughs, nudging me, then mouths, It’s true. It’s true.

I chuckle. Mama’s loving every second of this.

“When you’re not running, you’re also working at a local radio station and have your own show Thursday evenings.”

“Yes. I love it. I’m planning to major in communications and media.”

“One day you could be interviewing me.”

“That’s my sister’s thing. I’m more behind the scenes. Audio engineering.”

“Brains and brawn, huh?”

He gives her a modest smile. Susan eats it up.

“Do track stars run in the family? There’s usually more than one. Am I right?”

Jamal swallows, stopping for a millisecond, but I’m sure only Mama and I notice.

“The men in the family have those genes for sure.”

Jamal’s talking about Daddy. Before we moved to Texas, Daddy had his own track glory days in New Orleans. His name kept his hometown business afloat in tough times, with customers wanting to help him out. After the flood, all that was lost. People left, and the local history was forgotten. Life was still hard a decade after Hurricane Katrina, so when Hurricane Veronica hit, we also left for good.

We evacuated to Texas, but Daddy never ran again. During his trial, they said it was his speed that got him all the way across town so quick. Daddy’s fast, but he’s not Superman fast.

I watch Jamal, nervous with how he’ll handle this.

“Well, they must be proud,” Susan says.

“He is.” Jamal hesitates after he says “he.” He looks directly into the camera, and I smile at his secret way of acknowledging Daddy, and his ability to sidestep additional questions is impressive. Jamal’s not going to let this interview go down like that.

I’m both proud and nervous. I bite my lip, regretting that I tried all week to persuade him to use this as an opportunity to talk about Daddy’s appeal. Now Jamal’s guarded, each word carefully crafted to avoid Daddy coming up.

“One thing I love about highlighting you, Jamal, is that you could have chosen to go anywhere in the country, but you chose Baylor. Everyone thought you were going to Track Town, Oregon, or North Carolina. Why Baylor?”

“I’m a mama’s boy. Plain and simple. Got my two sisters over there.” Jamal points to us. “And I can be home in less than four hours if I need to. What can I say?”

“I’m sure your family loves that you’ll be close. Let’s bring them out now.”