Chasing rabbits

James’ dad was the first one out, dressed in slacks, a white button-down shirt, and carrying a sports jacket. James almost frowned as he noticed the smell of his dad’s cologne, Givenchy for Men. Like a moth to the flame, William was drawn to the ESPN highlights as they covered the previous evening’s NBA game between Houston and San Antonio.

James tried to start a conversation with him. “So, who do you think looks the best going into the finals: Houston or Orlando?”

“Orlando, definitely.” Replying automatically, Bill didn’t even look at James. “O’Neil and Hardaway are looking good, and they’ve only had one major injury. Houston struggled to get through the regular season and had two guys get hurt.”

“True, but Houston has been pulling off those clutch wins and both Olajuwan and Drexler have been playing strong. I don’t think that Orlando can shut them down.” James took the opposite stance to engage him in a discussion.

His father looked at him for the first time in the conversation. “What do you mean? Shaq is the scoring champion this season and Hardaway has been doing great in both scoring and assists. Then you have Grant and Anderson rounding things out.”

James looked his father in the eyes as he made his points. “Yes, Shaq is a scoring powerhouse and Hardaway isn’t a slouch, but they aren’t the only top scorers in the matchup and the raw numbers don’t necessarily indicate that Orlando will win. Yes, Orlando has won almost 70% of their regular season games, but 68% of those wins were home games, where they had the crowd on their side. Their playoff performance is similar, with them only winning 40% of their road games. By comparison, even though Houston has only won 57% of their regular season games, only 53% of those games were home games where they had home court advantage. In the playoffs, they won 70% of their road games. Altogether, it suggests that emotional momentum has less of a negative effect on Houston than Orlando and they’ll perform well, even under unexpected stress.”

He then finished up his point.

“And as we’ve seen in the playoffs, if you have a team that is more sensitive to emotional momentum, any mishap can be devastating. In the finals, it can have far more impact than during the regular season. In addition, it doesn’t help that it seems that most people have seemed to have already bet on Orlando winning. This means that Houston has less to lose and more to gain, momentum-wise. Moreover, let’s not forget that aside from trading Thorpe and losing Maxwell for Drexler--a net positive change--it is still the 1993 championship team. Remember, Olajuwan just outplayed San Antonio’s Robinson, the league’s season MVP, and has been a potent combination with Drexler throughout the playoffs. I think that Houston’s chance to win is at least as strong as it was last year and assuming that Orlando will just steamroll them is a big mistake.”

William looked back at the television where commentators seemed to echo the sentiment that this was Orlando’s year to establish their own dynasty. As a former football player, albeit only at the college level, his son’s analysis seemed to strike a nerve, even if he didn’t really agree with the conclusion. Then he looked back at James, as if realizing that his scrawny son, who had never seemed interested in sports, had actually spent more than two minutes arguing about the NBA championship finals matchup.

As James was verbally jousting with his father, his two oldest sisters were coming down the stairs. Cheryl in black jeans and a white, short sleeve blouse, with Rachael right behind in charcoal slacks and a grey, long sleeve t-shirt.

“Daddy!” Interrupting the discussion that William and James were having, Cheryl went to hug their father while Rachael seemed to want to roll her eyes at her sister’s obvious brown-nosing.

“Hi there, Sweetpea.” Their dad gave a one-arm hug to his favorite child and greeted his oldest. “Hi, Rachael.”

Karen came out to shoo everyone into the dining room. “Come in and sit down for dinner, everyone. Where’s Amanda?” She then called upstairs for their missing child. “Amanda!”

The youngest daughter’s voice came from upstairs. “Coming!”

A few seconds afterward, Amanda came running down the stairs, dressed in blue jeans and a white, short sleeve, button-down shirt.

Everyone quickly sat, starting with William at his usual spot at the head of the table, so James found his usual spot across from Amanda and sat down. Originally, he never paid that much attention to table manners at his age, but he now found it interesting--and annoying--to note that his father seemed to be preoccupied and checked his newton, barely acknowledging when Karen served him.

In contrast, his sisters thanked his mother and waited patiently, a clear indication of their mother’s rigorous efforts to teach them basic table etiquette. After James thanked her for his serving, he waited for her to sit, observing that after she cleared her throat, his father put his phone back into his pocket.

After a short grace, everyone dug in, the steady clink of utensils on their plates being the clearest testimony of their appetite. James made sure to compliment his mom on the roast, which led to his sisters following up with their own praise for her cooking.

Families are never really silent at the dinner table, even if they start off that way due to hunger. In this case, Cheryl started the ball rolling.

“Oh my God, I’m starving.”

Karen seemed a bit concerned. “Didn’t they feed you lunch?”

“Lunch was at noon and then we had four hours of skill checks, prop work, lectures, and team building.”

“What happened to all the snacks that we packed for you?”

Cheryl just rolled her eyes. “More than half of our squad didn’t even bring anything except stuff like pretzels, so all my food got raided by everyone.”

After some verbal sympathy, Karen said that she would call the other moms and remind them to pack some healthy snacks for their girls. Amanda also chimed in, though her team wasn’t quite so unprepared. They had just underestimated just how much work they would put in during the first day of camp.

Karen reminded her to avoid being complacent. “Well, your coach told me last week that she had really high expectations for you, but that you’re going to have to get in better shape for high school. Even if you’re really talented, there’s three middle schools feeding into Hartwood. There’s bound to be a lot of great girls on those teams. Even if only half are serious about trying out for junior varsity, you’re going to have more competition than you’re used to.”

Nodding in agreement, James knew that his mother was right. Even in his original memories, it had been obvious that Amanda had been worried about tryouts.

As James listened to the conversation he realized that what Amanda needed to do was to put on more bursts of speed and have the leg strength to drive her forehand, get more height on her serve, and have more explosive movement. She would, he knew need to work on arm strength, leg strength, back and core muscle work, but she also needed to incorporate more plyometrics in her workouts. He kept his peace on it, not yet in a position of privilege to be able to comment confidently on these things. Even though he knew what he did about sports and that actually turned out to be quite a bit. Magic ... heh.

“James, you alright?”

He blinked and looked up at Rachael; “Yes, why?”

“You’re awfully quiet.”

“Thank god,” Bill rumbled sarcastically, James gave his father a wry look and ignored the barb. Instead, he refocused his attention on Rachael, musing about her question.

“I can tell there’s something on your mind,” she reiterated, he hated it when she focused on him, because he felt like a microbe under a microscope.

He nodded, “I was thinking about all of this exercising.”

“Really?”

He shrugged, “I want a body for tryouts.”

The room went quiet and suddenly he became oddly self-conscious.

Never shy to point out bullshit when she heard it, Rachael asked a pointed question. “Since when have you been interested in tryouts, String Bean?

He knew that this was a very reasonable question and, truth be told, the original James at this time wouldn’t have known much of anything beyond what was covered in health and fitness during class and PE. However, because he had wished for advanced knowledge that included this area, he was prepared for this and wanted to use it to segue into his own fitness plans.

The big issue that he was fighting was his anchoring bias, this was how the family perceived him as to how he perceived himself. He had even been back for one day and that was not enough time to exhibit real change, so the family would still see him as a mouthy and apathetic teenager. The first time around, that’s who he was; he didn’t give a shit about his friends, family, or even about having a girl.

James was discovering that the old adage, ‘everything is relevant’ was somewhat true. Having a more mature mind though meant that he was wiser in thought and experience and less impulsive, which should mean he wouldn’t be as quick to anger as he was in his past. He could think first and act after developing a plan, at least in theory. There were other advantages that came with knowledge: rationality, etiquette, and logical thinking, leading to a wider range of options. Options being a true double-edged sword.

He sat back and sighed, the cogs working in his mind. He couldn’t straight up and tell them that he wanted to go out jogging in the early mornings as he would be laughed out of the house, up until that point he had shown little to no interest in it. If he could get them to suggest that he do these things, then even better. As the Baron had said in Dune, “Perverting common wisdom is the hallmark of all great conspiracies... ‘

James settled on that as his plan then and decided to take the curve ball she had thrown back at him and metaphorically threw it back in her court - “Well, you sort of answered your own question there.”

She frowned, “I did?”

“I’m tired of being a string bean, I want to be athletic and strong, I would like to be able to tell Max at school to go fuck himself and not worry about having the shit beaten out of me afterward.”

His mother gasped, “James, language.”

Rachael nodded, her eyes flickering between mom and then back at him, and finally said; “If you’re serious about this, we can help, that means some jogging to improve endurance and cardio to improve VO2 Max. You’ll need to start with bodyweight exercises to improve your muscle strength and tone, but eventually, you’ll need to move to free weights in order to increase power through muscle fiber recruitment.”

Karen looked at her husband to ask him. He had been the athletic type while she had been the more academically minded of the two. “Bill, does that sound right?”

He didn’t even look up. “Mmmhmm.”

“William!”

He sighed and looked up from his magazine that he had been half-heartedly perusing, annoyed that he was forced to actually participate, so he threw his two cents in with a sigh. “Karen, my major was business management, not kinesiology or sports science. But she sort of sounds like our trainers. They were always giving us different exercises to improve power and speed, not just calisthenics, running, and weights. Are you planning to go for football?”

“I’d like to try for it if I can,” James shrugged. “I don’t know what I can do between now and the August try-outs, if I can’t get strong enough for them, I’d like to continue for the next batch.”

That sounded reasonable to his father, he probably didn’t have any faith in his son having the sort of athleticism that he had or the desire to work at the program over the summer, but if his son was interested in sports that was a lot better than nothing. So, he nodded his head.

The one thing James didn’t want to do was sneak around in the mornings and try not to get caught, if anything it was a pain in the ass. But asking his father anything, usually resulted in a straight-out no. So, James had to be careful here, what he needed was for his father to was to think it was his idea and suggest it to James.

“If I were to start how would I go about that?”

Rachael chipped in, “If you’re serious about this, you would need to prove it.”

“How?”

“Start jogging.”

“That’s it?”

“Early in the morning.”

“How early?”

Dad snorted interjecting the conversation, “I don’t see you doing it, personally, but the best time is five thirty, that’s when I went jogging to get into shape.”

‘Gotcha,’ James thought with an inward smile.

“In the evening,” James asked hopefully, already knowing the answer to that question.

“You wish,” Dad grinned, “in the morning son.”

“Damn.”

“If you want the dividends, you’ve got to work for them,” Bill shrugged.

“Dividends?”

“Varsity, cheerleaders.”

James nodded, “that’s just a by-product of what I want.”

“Which is?”

“Getting fit,” James responded. “Okay, I’ll place a wager then, if I can jog at five thirty every morning for the next week, I can work out with you three to get fit and go for tryouts?”

Rachael nodded, “That sounds fair to me, dad?”

“Sure, I’ll up ante, if you pass the week, I’ll throw in a 50 for you.”

James whistled, “That’s one hell of a wager.”

Bill nodded, “Yup, the one thing I know is gambling and the one thing I’m sure of is that I’ve got is a straight flush.”

James inclined his head.

“And if I lose, I do all of your washing for one month, no bitching.” James sat back, having thrown down the gauntlet, they exchanged looks and a deal was made.

He turned to mom and asked her what she thought about the idea...

“Well, that sounds like a good idea to me! Also, it couldn’t hurt if we all tried to exercise together as a family.”

Now that wasn’t so appealing to his dad, who only wanted to be left out. “That sounds great! You and the kids should exercise together, maybe even knock off a few pounds.” Noticing the frosty look on his wife’s face, he amended it. “I mean, if you think you need to.” Since Karen pointedly looked down at his own growing waistline, he added some self-criticism. “Actually, I’ve been really busy at work and could use a little exercise myself. However, there’s a gym at the plant that I can use during lunch to get in a workout and lose a few pounds for the summer.”

Karen tactfully changed the subject, “Speaking of the summer, Jacqueline is coming over to stay with us for the Fourth of July.”

At this news, James’ sisters squealed with excitement and, almost simultaneously, started asking when she was coming and for how long. Jackie was the black sheep of their mother’s family, but for the girls that just meant that she was more indulgent of them, and their mother usually put up with it.

William, who looked like someone had pissed in his bowl of Cheerios, finally interrupted after a few minutes. “So, where is she staying?”

“Well, since the basement room isn’t done,” Karen made it a point to stare at her husband for a moment, “she will probably have to stay in one of the girls’ rooms.”

There was an awkward moment as his dad focused on finishing the food on his plate, while the girls looked at one another to decide who was going to give up their privacy for a week while Aunt Jackie stayed with them.

At that time, James made an “ahem” to break the silence and made his proposal. “Well, how about I finish the basement for Aunt Jackie?”

If his comments on exercise hadn’t gotten looks, his volunteering to finish out the basement had everyone staring at him. It wasn’t that he had so much free time that he wanted to do it, but because he wanted to trade his labor for some summer classes and exercise equipment.

Karen was positively agog. “You’d do that?”

His father was similarly surprised but had a more practical view. “Really? Why? What’s in it for you?”

“Quid pro Quo,” James shrugged.

“Ah, not selfless then?”

“I never said it was,” James retorted. Bill blinked and nodded his head, truer words had never been spoken.

‘Clever,’ Bill thought with a grin.

“But then is anything?” James continued. His dad inclined his head, so true. “Besides, it’ll give me something to do, it means that one of the girls won’t have to share her room, and there are some things that I want to do and buy.”

“How much?” William focused on the only important thing to him.

“They’re offering a youth boxing program and a youth judo program this summer at the community recreation center. The classes aren’t expensive, but participants have to supply their own gear. Also, I was hoping to get some other basic exercise equipment. So, classes, gloves, headgear, and a gi with a belt for starters.”

“And what sort of exercise equipment are you looking at?”

“An exercise mat, bench, jump rope, and maybe some free weights. Also, I’d like to set up a corner of the basement for an exercise area.”

His mother seemed a bit thoughtful and tapped her lips a few times. “Bill, don’t you have your old exercise equipment downstairs?”

“We do?” James was surprised at this news. He knew about the box of his dad’s old Playboy magazines, but didn’t recall any exercise equipment at all ... or did he? He searched his memory for what was in the basement--aside from some old toys, furniture, and boxes of miscellaneous items--and came across memories of an old mini-refrigerator, an old multifunctional exercise bench, some free weights, and a treadmill, though he wasn’t sure if it still worked.