6

   I got home that night around six or seven. My grandfather was sitting on the porch swing. That ridiculous blue paint was actually starting to grow on me, I won't lie.

   As I was walking up those old steps I turned to my grandfather:

   "Hi!" I said.

   "How ya doin', Tyler?" He asked me. I could tell something was on his mind.

   "I'm doin' alright, how're you?" I replied.

   "I'm alright. Why don't you sit down with me, Tyler?" He said. You know when you're driving, and you know you haven't done anything wrong, but you still get nervous when that cop pulls out behind you? That's how I felt.

   "So Mr. Jones called me." He began.

   Uh-oh, there it is, I thought to myself.

   "He said that you and Katie were in a little bit of a relationship, is that right?" He asked me.

   "Yes sir, that's right." I told him.

   "Well, I know it's just been you and your mother growing up, so I figured you needed a little man-to-man about being careful with women." He said. I started to laugh.

   "I'm nineteen years old! I've had the talk." I said to him, still laughing.

   "Not that, Tyler." He began, with some urgency. "Any idiot can talk to you about sex, it's not that complicated to explain." He added. I was a little taken aback. This wasn't what I was expecting. I remember wondering what grown man could talk to a teenager so easily about such a, well, let's face it, uncomfortable topic for most people. "Listen, Tyler." He began again. "Sex isn't hard for you to figure out. What I'm talking about isn't contraceptives, and it's not a scare tactic about pregnancy. This is much more important. By now in your life, you've probably realized that men and women are very different, haven't you?"

   "Yes sir." I said.

   "Not many young men your age, Tyler, have any idea just how different men and women are. I've seen it in your grandmother and..." He was starting to tear up. "And I've seen it in your mother. Tyler, you can find every treasure man and God have ever known, every thing that you think you've ever wanted, and it would never be as precious as the heart of the woman you love. The heart of a woman is fragile. To hold it and protect it is the greatest responsibility a man can ever have. Listen to an old man's words, Tyler: never do anything without considering the heart of the woman you love." He was really starting to cry now. "I've done it. Countless hearts, beautiful hearts, have been broken. Your mother..." He paused. "Your mother did not have a man to protect her heart... make sure Katie does." He told me.

   I hugged him.

   I'll never forget that short little speech he gave me. It guided, and still guides, much of my life. It made clear to me things that I never understood. Some things are about more than just the physicality.

   "I will, Papaw." I said. That was the first time I had called him anything other than "sir".

   I started to cry, too. My grandfather was the first grown man I ever had care about me, and it touched my heart. It boggled my mind that this was the first time my mama let me visit him.

   I didn't know it, but my grandmother was watching from the window. She was smiling with tears in her eyes. What a wonderful thing it was to have a family.

   When my grandfather and I finally came inside, my grandmother wrapped us up in a hug. She smelled sweet, like vanilla extract.

   After a wonderful dinner of cornbread, green beans, and fried chicken, I stood up.

   "I'm getting pretty tired, I'm going to head up to bed." I told them. I walked around and hugged them both. "Goodnight, I love you both." I said, and I walked upstairs to my bed.

   That next morning I slept till about noon. I probably would've slept longer, but my grandmother rushed into my room with the telephone and woke me up.

   "Tyler wake up!" She said. "There's a boy on the telephone for you!"

   I was confused. Katie was really the only friend I had here, so I had no idea who it could be. My grandmother held her hand over the phone so that the person on the other line couldn't hear:

   "I didn't know that you knew Luke!" She said. I wondered how everyone in this dang town knew each other.

   "Who?" I asked, silently thinking to myself. "Oh! Luke!" I cried, finally waking up enough to remember meeting him at the tennis courts yesterday.

   My grandmother handed me the phone:

   "Hello?" I said.

   "Hey Tyler." I heard a voice on the other line. "It's Luke Burks, Katie's friend. We met at the tennis courts yesterday."

   "Oh yeah, I remember." I told him. "How's it going, Luke?"

   "It's going pretty well. Hey, I was wondering if maybe you wanted to toss the football around today?" He asked. "I know this may be weird, but I know that you haven't been here long, and you may not have met many guys yet that you could hang out with, so I just thought I could show you around.

   I was surprised to hear that. Most of the time nowadays people aren't that thoughtful. Maybe they're too busy to be, or maybe they just don't care. Either way, it doesn't happen much anymore.

   "Sure thing." I said. "That sounds like fun." I was genuinely excited.

   "Great. Do you remember how to get to the high school?" He asked.

   "I think so." I said.

   "Do you want to meet up there in an hour or so?" He asked.

   "That sounds good." I said.

   "Awesome. I'll see you then." He said, hanging up.

   I threw on some black basketball shorts and a grey UnderArmour t-shirt and I headed downstairs.

   "Is it alright if I go throw the football with Luke?" I asked my grandmother.

   "Where at?" She asked.

   "The high school." I told her.

   "That should be fine." She said with a smile. "Be safe."

   "I will be." I promised her.

   I grabbed some breakfast: two bananas and tap water, and then headed out to my car. It was hot. The sun was directly above me and it was blaring. I had a feeling a grey t-shirt was a bad idea given the fact that I was already sweating. Other than the heat, it was nice out. There wasn't a cloud in the pale blue sky.

   Muskogee really was a nice little town. Not many people live there now, but it's still as pretty today as it was then. There were a lot of little shops and stores in the town. I recently discovered The Dog House, a local snow cone place that stood in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart about half a mile from the house. It was one of those little portable stands. I kid you not, to this day I have never had a snow cone as good as the ones they made at The Dog House. On my way to the field I made sure to stop by and grab a strawberry one since it was so crazy hot. I stopped by the old Texaco gas station to grab some sunflower seeds. Gatorade and sunflower seeds, those were my addictions.

   It was a little before noon when I passed the tennis courts and parked by the football field. I was a little early, but Luke was already sitting on the fifty yard line with his back turned to me.

   The field was fairly nice, though nothing compared to ours. The grass was real, and a little overgrown. It was brown and patchy in some places. The painted lines were fading. The scoreboard looked pretty new. It was sleek and nice, sitting just beyond the north end zone. There was an old brown track surrounding the field, just like you see on most high school fields. Just beyond that, the fence encircled everything. To my left were the home bleachers. They were metal and pretty old. They extended from about the thirty yard line to the opposing thirty yard line. The grey seats looked hot and uncomfortable. At the top of the bleachers there was an old announcer's booth, about the size of a Port-A-Potty. To my right, were the opposing bleachers. They were fairly identical to the home bleachers, just without the announcer's booth.

   "Luke!" I called out. He seemed to be in his own little world. I was walking through the gate and onto the track.

   "Tyler!" He called back. Just as I stepped out onto about the five yard line, Luke tried to launch the football to me; it was about a forty-five yard pass. It made it twenty-five yards and then bounced the remainder of the way to me. I laughed loudly.

   "Shut up! I'm a linebacker, not a quarterback." He said, laughing.

   "I'd stick to tackling." I said jokingly. I picked up the football and tossed it on a line the rest of the forty yard distance to his chest. My arm hurt a little, but it wasn't hurting like it had been.

   "You got quite an arm there. Especially for such a little guy." Luke said, laughing as I got closer to him.

   "Aw, you shoulda seen me a year ago. I was good man, real good. I even had a full ride to a small Division 1 school, Western Michigan." I told him.

   "Well dang. What happened?" He asked. I cringed a little, remembering my last game. I could see the lights, I could hear the breath leave the crowd. I could feel it all.

   "It was our homecoming game last year. The first play of the second half. I dropped back to pass, but someone up front missed a block. I got blindsided on my left side. My head slammed into the ground, then my should. The next week I had a concussion, a torn up shoulder, and no scholarship." I told him.

   "Oh man. I'm sorry, dude." He said.

   "It's all good." I assured him. I didn't like pity.

   "Well you looked pretty good on that last toss." He said.

   "Thanks. Yeah, I can throw all day from about ten yards out, but any further and I'm good for about five throws. After that, I throw like an eight-year-old." I laughed.

   "Well then, we'll throw from ten yards out." He said laughing. I laughed too. "So what brings you out here?" He asked.

   "My mom just kinda shipped me off, said I'd have fun." I told him.

   "Just out of the blue?" He asked, sounding surprised.

   "Just out of the blue." I confirmed. "I had never even met my grandparents." I added.

   "Wow." He said, obviously surprised.

   The rest of the time we were there we kept talking, but not about anything as serious. I had fun with Luke. I was comfortable around him. We were fast friends.

   After about an hour, we parted ways. We both got tired pretty quickly in that heat. I was drenched in sweat. I needed a shower.