Chapter 30
Postscript
“So, Alex Darlington, how does it feel to win your first Slam?”
What can I say to the on-court interviewer at the US Open? What should I say? I’m overwhelmed, grateful, ecstatic, humbled, overcome with emotion. Words are both too much and not enough. Yet I manage a response, thanking my team, my opponent, the fans, the city.
“My overall response is one of gratitude.”
“No doubt at such a moment, Alex, your thoughts turn to Kenneth and Catherine Darlington, your late parents. The president and first lady would’ve been very proud of you.”
I finger the Russian-style cross that never leaves my neck, the one my mother gave me not long before cancer claimed her.
“I know my mother was, and I like to think my father would’ve been, too.”
“Did she talk to you much about
