Going Nowhere Fast by Gar Anthony Haywood Read Free Book Online Page B

please tell me what in the world you two are talking about?" I cried, feeling the tide of Bad Dog's interrogation rolling completely out of my reach. "Dozer Meadows was suspended from the team—all right, that much I understand. Which means he can't play ball, at least for a while, right?"
    "Right," Dog said.
    "For how long?"
    "Two weeks."
    "Says who?"
    "Says the coach. Terry Bell."
    "All right. Why?"
    "For conduct detrimental to the team," Joe said angrily. "For partying so extensively the night before last Sunday's game, he was only good for seven sorry minutes in the game itself."
    "He made a key tackle, though," Bad Dog said.
    "He threw up on the guy," Big Joe said.
    "It was a nine-yard loss."
    "In a game we lost by twenty-four points. To the Cincinnati Bengals. At home! "
    "I take it the Cincinnati Bengals aren't very good," I said.
    Joe looked at me and grimaced. "The Raiders were favored by twenty-one," he said.
    "Hey. 'On any given Sunday…' " his son reminded him.
    "So Dozer was suspended for two weeks," I said, trying to keep our conversation on track.
    "Yeah. And fined a thousand bucks. Strictly to save face, you know? Because the sports guys on TV, man, they must've shown the clip of him upchuckin' on Drew Archer's shoes about a million times that night. Over and over again, they ran it. Made you sick just to watch it."
    "Did you say he was fined a thousand dollars?"
    "Yeah. See, they—"
    "A thousand dollars?" I asked again.
    All of a sudden, Dog clammed up, finally realizing what he'd said.
    "Uh-huh. You see there?" Big Joe asked me, starting to bounce around on the balls of his feet as his blood pressure began to rise to new heights. "What'd I tell you, Dottie? What'd I tell you? He wasn't up for any job with the Raiders! He wanted that money so he could pay Meadows's fine!"
    "I told you—he's lookin' to kill me! I don't pay his fine and get him back on the team in time for the Steeler game this Sunday, he's gonna tear me apart!"
    "Why, Theodore?" I demanded, anxious to get the truth out of him before his father felt compelled to try. "Why does he blame you for his getting suspended?"
    "Because he was out partyin' with me last Saturday night," he said, blurting the words out before he could stop himself. "When I was supposed to be… well…"
    He shrugged, the way he had as a five-year-old whenever we'd ask him how he could do such a thing . "When I was supposed to be watching him, like."
    "Watching him? You mean following him?"
    "No. I mean watchin' him. Babv-sittin' him. Goin' everywhere he goes, to keep him out of trouble, an' stuff."
    "To keep him out of trouble? You ?" Big Joe asked, incredulous.
    "Yessir. Cubby said to hang with him all weekend and keep him away from booze, drugs, and women. 'Cause Dozer, man, he's got no self-control, right? He doesn't know when to quit."
    Joe started laughing. Hard.
    "Joe, get a'hold of yourself," I told him. But I was smiling when I said it.
    "It ain't funny, Pops," Bad Dog said sadly.
    "No. It certainly is not," I agreed, just before losing it myself.
    Bad Dog sat there and watched us, two old fools laughing and gasping for breath like drunks at a wine-tasting party.
    "I'm sorry, baby," I said to him when I was finally able to speak again, "but you have to admit, it is pretty ridiculous. Somebody hiring you to keep somebody else out of trouble."
    "Yeah? And why's that?"
    " 'Cause that's like hiring a rat to keep the mice out of the cheese," Big Joe said, ,wiping tears from his eyes. "That's why. Trouble's your middle name, boy!"
    The look on Dog's face said he wanted desperately to dispute that, but he knew it couldn't be done. His checkered past spoke for itself.
    "How did you get the job in the first place, Theodore?" I asked him.
    "I told you. Cubby gave it to me. We were always runnin' into each other at the Final Score, like I said, and every time we did, I'd bug him for a job on the team. Any kind of job, I said, I'll do anything you want, just ask.
    "So one