Chapter 6
The Saturday morning following the incident with Carlos, Darren was getting ready to play basketball with his friends when he asked me to come with him. He’d made the offer before and, every time, I’d turned him down. Playing basketball with a bunch of black guys seemed like a losing proposition to me, so I decided to spare myself the humiliation.
“You know I’m not much of a basketball player,” I told him.
“So what? Come play anyway. The guys won’t be there today. It’ll just be you and me. One on one.”
“So instead of getting beaten by a bunch of guys on the court, I’ll just get beaten by you, is that it?”
“I promise I’ll be gentle.”
I laughed. “Yeah, right.” I’d seen Darren play in a pick-up game at a park in Evanston. He was extremely competitive and he played to win. I hi
