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the neighborhood swimming pool and the tennis courts and the jungle gym for the little kids, and then around to the basketball court.
    There is a kid playing basketball by himself. I watch him as we approach. He dribbles the ball to a certain spot, plants his feet, then looks up at the basket. He stays that way for a couple seconds, aiming, and then shoots.
    And then he gets the ball and goes to another spot.
    He makes every shot.
    I watch him do this a few times as Charlie and I get nearer and nearer. And then when we are about to pass by, he turns our way and it’s Sean.
    I stop for just a second, almost tripping. It’s only a second and then I recover. But Sean sees it and he looks up.
    He says, Hey!
    And he walks toward me.
    Charlie looks up from where he’s sniffing, one paw in the air. He sees Sean and then starts howling, like he always does with strangers. But he’s wagging his tail.
    Sean smiles at him. When he gets near, he swoops down with the ball under one arm and pets Charlie.
    Charlie’s tail wags even harder, and he licks Sean and whines and tries to climb all over him.
    Sean stands back up.
    He says, Mike, right?
    I say, Yeah.
    He holds the ball in both hands in front of him, kind of spinning it between his palms. He looks around at the park and the houses.
    He says, You live around here?
    I say, Yeah. On Whittaker.
    He says, Oh cool. I live just a few blocks away.
    I don’t say anything. I know where he lives.
    Sean spins the ball some more and then says, You wanna play?
    I say, What?
    He says, Basketball. You wanna play a bit?
    I say, Um.
    He looks at me.
    I say, I’m not very good.
    He says, Don’t worry about it. Come on.
    And then he turns and starts walking back toward the court.
    I stand there for a second and then follow him. Nearby is a sign pole, where I tie Charlie’s leash. He whines when I walk away, wanting to join me.
    I stand on the court, feeling really dumb and not sure what to do. I’m bad at sports and I haven’t played basketball since fourth grade, and even then I was pretty bad.
    Sean says, We’ll play Around the World. You know that?
    I nod.
    He says, Okay, first shot is from the side.
    He walks over to the edge of the court where he can shoot from the side of the basket.
    I hate side shots because you can’t bounce the ball off the backboard, so it’s a lot harder to get it in.
    Sean bounces the ball twice, looking down and planting his feet. Then he looks up, aims for a few seconds, and throws the ball.
    It rises and pauses and then falls again, all in a wide arc that looks like it’s guided by wind.
    There is the quietest
whoosh
as the ball passes perfectly through the net.
    I get the ball and walk over to where Sean took his shot, and I turn around and look at the basket.
    Charlie whines.
    I hold the ball in front of my face, looking just over the top of it. In my head I imagine the arc that my ball should make, the parabola that Mr. Gardings would make us draw in Algebra to describe it. I imagine the ball as a tip of lead on paper, going up in one smooth stroke, passing all the points allowed by its equation, ending with the net. I imagine a perfect shot.
    I bend my knees and throw the ball, and it goes up and comes down a couple feet short of the net.
    It bounces hard against the concrete, a loud smacking sound that echoes against the houses across the street from the park.
    The bounce takes it almost as high as the basket, and then it comes down with a muffled thud in the grass.
    It rolls a bit and stops.
    I don’t make eye contact with Sean.
    I say, I’m not very good.
    He smiles wide, coming just short of a laugh.
    I tense for a second before I realize it’s a friendly smile and he isn’t laughing at me.
    He says, Well, you just gotta put more into it and you’ll do fine. Trust me, I’ve seen a lot worse.
    I don’t know what he means by putting more into it. More what? But Sean gets the ball and throws it back to me. I catch it and realize he wants me to