I didn’t show up for practice on Saturday. I sat in my room and listened to music and watched movies on the Internet. My mother kept asking me to do stuff around the house, but I told her to get lost. “If you don’t want to do what your mother tells you,” my dad confided, “don’t say you won’t do it. Just say you’re busy and you’ll get around to it later. Maybe she’ll forget she asked you and everybody will be happy. I know I shouldn’t tell you this, but it’s how your mother and I get along. You’ve got to learn how to handle women, son.” Great advice from my old man. I said I’d try to stick by it. The business about the guy getting beat up was a pretty big deal. It was all over the news. He nearly died. The news anchor on TV referred to me as “the unidentified caller, a young male who saved the man’s life.” Maybe I should have felt like a hero. But I didn’t.
