Fast Break Read Online Free Page A

here.”
    â€œLook at me,” the man said.
    Jayson looked up.
    â€œDon’t lie to me,” the man said.
    â€œIt’s the truth!” Jayson said.
    â€œDon’t make it worse, son.”
    Staring at him now.
    â€œDo I know you?”
    Jayson looked back down. “No.”
    â€œWait . . . I
do
know you. My team played a game againstyou in summer ball over in Moreland last year. Nobody forgets a kid who can play like you.”
    Jayson had nothing to say to that.
    â€œWe’re going to take a walk back to the store now,” the man said. “And when we get there, we do need to find your mom and figure out what to do about those sneakers you just tried to steal.”
    Jayson thought about breaking loose, making a run for it. But it was too late for that, especially now that the man knew who he was.
    The man kept his hand on Jayson’s shoulder as they walked back down Main Street. Jayson told himself he wasn’t going to cry in front of this man, even though he felt like crying for the first time since they put his mom in the ground.
    He walked toward the store and knew in his heart that he was being walked right into the Child Protective Services system. He didn’t know how it worked or where he was going, but he was smart enough to know that the game was officially over.

5
    THE SOCIAL WORKER, MS. MORETTI, sat across the desk from Jayson.
    They were in her office in Moreland’s town hall, on Broad Avenue, early Saturday night. It had been a few hours since Jayson had tried to steal the sneakers, but it seemed like everything that had happened since had happened fast.
    None of it had been good.
    The store manager, who’d told Jayson to call him Pete, like they were buddies, had asked him a lot of the same questions Ms. Moretti was asking him now. “How old are you?” “Where are your parents?” “Where do you live and who do you live
with
?”
    Pete had eventually called the Moreland police and told them what happened. He offered to drive Jayson over to Moreland himself, but the policeman said that’s not the way it worked. An officer would pick Jayson up and drive him to the Child Protective Services office at the town hall, and a social worker would meet them there.
    The social worker turned out to be Ms. Moretti. She had long red hair and glasses on top of her head. She went overevery detail of his life, asking every question twice, making sure she felt Jayson was telling her the truth.
    â€œYou said your mom passed away last month?”
    â€œShe didn’t pass away,” he said. “She died.”
    â€œAnd you don’t know where your father is.”
    â€œI don’t know
who
my father is.”
    â€œYou never even had a name?”
    â€œJamie.”
    â€œNo last name?”
    Jayson shook his head.
    â€œDo you know if he still lives in North Carolina?”
    â€œI asked my mom one time where he was and she said, ‘A bar.’”
    â€œSo you never had any contact with him?”
    Jayson shook his head and looked out the window, the lights of Moreland coming on. It occurred to him that he was only a few blocks away from Mr. Karlini’s store, where he’d convinced himself he was so good at stealing food that he could steal a pair of basketball shoes without getting caught.
    â€œAnd after your mom died, you lived with her friend Richie until he left?”
    â€œI told the man at the store all of this already, and then the police when they asked me.”
    â€œJayson?” she said in a soft voice. “I’m not them. I’m trying to help you.”
    â€œThen let me go. I’ll earn the money and pay the man back for the shoes, swear.”
    â€œWe’re past that,” she said. “You understand that, right?”
    He nodded.
    â€œYou’ve been living by yourself since Richie left. Weren’t you afraid?”
    â€œJust of ending up