Return of the Abandoned Basketball God
I swept the dust across the gym floor, each bounce of the basketball striking the hardwood like a hammer against my heart.
There were my brothers, wearing the same jersey I once wore, dribbling, breaking through, slamming the ball down right in front of me. They laughed loud and proud, but their eyes kept flicking toward the broom in my hands.
"Hey, isn't that Holden? Top draft pick turned janitor?"
"Heard his old man's dying. Needs eighty grand for surgery."
"No wonder he came back to sweep floors. Guess life's cheaper than a basketball."
I kept my head down, picking up rubber scraps one by one. Sweat trickled from my forehead into my eyes, stinging like fire. No one knew I stayed in this empty gym every night until three a.m., shooting ten thousand shots, doing five hundred push-ups—just so my fingers wouldn’t forget how the ball felt.
Then came that practice game. The starting point guard twisted his ankle. The coach looked around, sneered: "No one else? Fine. Let the cleaner fill in."
The whole gym erupted in laughter.
I took off my work jacket, revealing my faded number 13 jersey underneath. The moment I stepped onto the court, time seemed to rewind—
I stole the ball, stopped on a dime, pulled up for a jumper. Shot from beyond the arc, nothing but net.
Silence.
Then I drove past three defenders and slammed it with one hand, the backboard vibrating with a low hum. When I landed, the entire arena was dead quiet—only my heavy breathing broke the stillness.
The coach walked over, face dark, and threw his towel at my face: **"Do what you're supposed to do."**
I didn’t move. The towel fell to the ground.
That night, I slipped into the coach’s office, hoping to find something—anything—my father might have left behind. Opening a drawer, I found a yellowed photo—me holding the championship trophy in high school, him standing at the sidelines recording on his phone, grinning like a fool.
On the back, a single line:
**"My son will come back to the court."**
I clutched the photo as tears dropped to the floor.
And just outside, on a bench in the hallway, my father sat in a wheelchair, cradling an old family photo of us when I was young. An oxygen tube ran into his nose, his breaths shallow and faint.
He stared toward the gym, lips trembling, whispering:
"I'm sorry… Dad couldn’t protect you."
I stood up, wiped my face, gripped the broom tight.
Turned around, and walked back toward the gym.
The lights were still on.