Free The Reunion by Dan Walsh Page A

unexpected turbulence.”
    This announcement came just in time. He was bent down, wrestling his laptop from the case under the seat, when he heard a familiar voice in the aisle. “Hey, Dad, how’s it going back here?” It was Jake.
    “Doing okay, I guess.” He looked up and smiled. “I guess you guys are having a hard time squeezing into these seats.”
    “Especially Tommy Haynes. He’s our center.”
    “He’s six-five, isn’t he?”
    “Six-six now. His knees are literally up by his face.”
    “You doing okay? I mean . . . with the flight?” He and Jake had talked this through already, how Jake felt about flying since his mother had died in a plane crash. Jake nodded. “So where you going,” Dave asked, “to the restroom?”
    Jake looked down at the empty seat next to Dave. “No, I came back here to be with you. I figured once we landed, we wouldn’t get much time together. You know how crazy it’s going to get.”
    “Oh.”
    “Is that okay? I see you reaching for your laptop. Do you need to get some work done?”
    Dave looked down at his laptop bag then up at Jake. “Are you kidding? Here, I’ll move over.”

15
    F our days later, the basketball tournament complete, Dave saw Jake off at the airport for his return trip to Florida. Jake’s team hadn’t actually played at all that final day. The Panthers had won their first game, lost the second, then were eliminated on day three. It was hard for Dave to even write about that third game.
    After the first quarter, the Panthers never got closer than twenty points. Jake got to play seven whole minutes there at the end. He’d only made the second string, which meant he only got in the game when his team was twenty points ahead or twenty behind. At the buzzer, Jake looked into the stands and found Dave. Seeing the smile on Jake’s face, you’d never know his team had just been thoroughly trounced and eliminated from the tournament.
    Because they had, Dave and Jake got to hang out together on day four. They’d stayed with the team the whole time, watching the finals, but no one seemed to mind Dave tagging along. He suspected the guys had known he was there reporting for the newspaper back home; they wanted to see their names in print.
    Dave had all their names woven into the stories he’d sent back to Harry, and quite a few pictures as well. That was the real purpose of the trip, for the paper, anyway. So the folks back home would buy up all those extra copies of their sons, grandsons, and cousins playing basketball in Houston. But for Dave, it was about spending time with Jake. It still affected him, days later, thinking about that moment in the plane when Jake chose to sit with him over his friends.
    Today, Dave started Phase II of his trip.
    He was still in Houston, driving south down the I-610 loop for an interview with John Lansing, the former Vietnam War hero and present oil executive. The GPS on Dave’s rental car led him off the interstate, through an upscale business zone, then through the exclusive Bent Oaks neighborhood where John and his family lived. Some of the homes on this gorgeous oak-lined street were extremely nice; the rest were mansions.
    John Lansing’s house was just ahead on the right. As Dave pulled into the driveway, he got the sudden impression that he had rented the wrong car. The green Ford Fusion didn’t deserve to be parked in front of a place such as this.
    He stood a moment, gawking. The house was bigger than most of the yards in the subdivisions back home. A banner of ivy draped across the front, neatly trimmed around the French windows and over a double front door made of polished bronze. After ringing the doorbell, Dave half expected to be welcomed by an old English butler.
    Instead, it was Mr. Lansing himself, wearing a big Texas grin, a plaid long-sleeved shirt, and dark blue jeans. He was taller than Dave had imagined. “There you are, Dave. Right on time. I like that. Come on in, come on in. Any trouble