Page 53 of ClickBack

The pleasure in her voice makes me wish I had seen them. Then she tells me about a client who sent her a photograph of a receipt so blurry she could identify only his thumb. She asked him to take it again. He mailed her the same picture, printed out.

“He used a stamp?”

“A stamp, Jarrett. He went somewhere and purchased postage rather than focus his camera.”

I start laughing and cannot stop. She tries to continue, then gives up and laughs with me.

“I have that man’s financial future in my hands.”

“He chose well.”

“His thumb is in excellent standing.”

By the time she asks about San Antonio, I have stretched out on the couch. I tell her about Mom trying to take a picture while crying and Von refusing to take the championship hat off even when he changed his shirt. I leave the phone out of it. She has heard enough about that.

“And playing there?” she asks.

“Still possible. Toronto wants to talk, too.”

“What does Javon say?”

“We agreed I’d talk to him before I made a decision.”

“But you haven’t.”

“He just won a championship.”

“When would you want him to ask you?”

I look at the photograph by the windows. Von made Mom laugh right before I took it. He does that more easily than I do, gets past whatever she is determined to be serious about. I remember standing outside the locker room with him, promising he would hear from me first.

“Before everybody else started asking,” I say.

“That sounds reasonable.”

She leaves it there. No instructions for how to be his brother. I rub a hand over my face and ask what she’s doing tomorrow night.

“That depends.”

“On?”

“What you’re about to ask me.”

“I want to take you out. There’s a night market.”

“A date?”

“Yeah. A date.”

“All right.”

I sit up a little. “All right?”

“You wanted a longer answer?”

“No. I like that one.”

We settle the time and place. She has errands first and wants to meet me there. I agree, then ask about the rink she mentioned Sunday, and somehow we spend another half hour talking about bad skaters who insist on helping other people and the year Von brought a basketball on a beach vacation.