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pick up Mr. Graham and Dakari, and I’m trying not to hold them up and be late ’cause of you. Now let’s go!”
    My dad could still make me do some things, but I didn’t have to like it. I didn’t know company was riding with us. Actually, that was going to make the journey to Atlanta much better for me. I hadn’t seen Dakari in a good while. He was my sister’s old high school boyfriend. Their on-and-off relationship was a trip! He wanted to play the field. Thankfully, my sister caught on.
    I’ll never forget the day Dakari and I almost got to fighting. I’d admired him for so long, but when he embarrassed my sister in public by breaking up with her in front of a big crowd at school, I stood up to him. I had to be a man. I had to let him know that when it came to my sister, I wasn’t having it. We didn’t actually come to blows, though. But ever since that day, Dakari has been givin’ me my props. He told me that he knew I had fire that would take me far.
    I didn’t know how this little father-son trip of my dad’s would go. The Grahams had just gone through a serious tragedy. Their oldest son, Drake, who was the starting linebacker for the Atlanta Falcons, got gunned down at a club in Athens. Dakari actually saw the whole thing. And from what my sister said, the brotha was still sorta messed up from it all.
    I didn’t talk to God as much as I needed to, but as we pulled into their driveway and my dad honked the horn, I silently talked to the Lord. “Oh, Lord. What am I supposed to say to these people? They gotta be hurt still. Not only was Drake a superstar around here, but he was family to them. How do you get over such pain? How, as a friend, can I say anything that will lift them up? Be with us in this car and even with me and my dad, because You know he’s trying my patience.”
    Actually, the ride down was real cool. Mr. Graham was laughing with my dad about this and that. Dakari was joking about crazy college life. It wasn’t until the conversation turned toward me that things got uncomfortable. Dakari had to ask the question that made my dad rattle off at the mouth. I hated that my father thought he knew what was best for me and that his decisions were the only ones that needed to be followed.
    Dakari said, “So, man, where you gon’ play college ball? I know those schools coming at you from every direction!”
    â€œYeah, Junior, who you gon’ sign with?” Mr. Graham asked me from the front seat.
    â€œAww, man, you know that boy don’t know,” my father cut in as if I was some baby not knowing my way home from nursery school.
    Shoot, I was practically a grown man! I’m ’bout to be out the crib, and he tryin’ to act. If I wanted to, I could get on MapQuest and find directions to any college I wanted to make a recruiting visit to. I could stroll into Duke, UGA or Miami solo. My pops wasn’t as needed as he thought he was, but I just let him ramble on.
    I looked at Dakari and said, “I narrowed it down to six schools.”
    â€œGeorgia’s one of them, right?” Dakari chimed in as if he’d be happy to have me on his team again.
    We slapped hands, sorta feeling each other. Boy, he was cool. I was glad he still thought I was.
    â€œI wouldn’t mind him going up there so his sister could keep an eye on him and you too, Dakari,” my dad said, still thinking of me as incapable of standing on my own. “But his mom is thinking of a more academic school.”
    â€œFootball and academics?” Dakari asked with a laugh. “You still gettin’ all them A’s without trying?”
    â€œLay off him now, Dakari. There is nothing wrong with a smart guy that can ball,” Mr. Graham said as he turned and looked at me. “That’s good, man. Keep it up. Many of these young brothers got talent on the football field, but ain’t got nothing upstairs. If