The Dog in the Freezer Read Online Free Page A

block every shot we attempted. But we came back and evened the score.
    It went back and forth that way. Dreyfus began looking sick again, and Coach sent me in to give him a breather. All my outside shots missed. Gregory kept barking at me. Stephens tried to steal the ball out of my hands, but I hung on. I wouldn’t let go. I ran with it and was called for walking.
    â€œIt’s not a football, Oshun,” Coach yelled. “Dribble the ball, bounce it, pass it!”
    At the half we were down fourteen points. Dad came over. “I’m taking Einstein outside. You’re doing great, son. You looked fabulous on the court.”
    â€œThanks, Dad.” I had to wonder about his eyesight. Maybe he’d been a dog once, too.
    In the locker room, Coach gave us another pep talk. We had to take more shots. Pass the ball more. “You guys are standing around too much.”
    â€œCoach, I’m going to puke,” Dreyfus said, and staggered to the bathroom.
    â€œWell, Oshun.” Coach looked at me, and he sighed. “Think you can get that practice magic back?” he said.
    I didn’t know what to say. There were no words.
    When we went out for the second half, Gregory had crawled under the bench. I saw the whites of his eyes. Do it for me, his eyes said. You’ve got to do it.
    Coach put me into the game.
    â€œThere goes the game, folks,” Ron sneered. “Greg-o-ree is playing.”
    I did what Coach said. I passed the ball. Whenever I was open, I took the outside shot. The Stephens playerskept jumping in my face, and I missed. I got jarred. I was tripped and fell a couple of times, but no fouls were called. Under the bench Gregory was curled up, shaking.
    Stephens was up fifteen points. Coach pulled me out and put Dreyfus back in, but he couldn’t do anything either. Stephens went up twenty points. Then twenty-five. Not a sound from our side of the gym. Then Dreyfus took an elbow in the midsection, and he went down and stayed down.
    Coach sent me in again. There was nobody else. He didn’t even tell me to do anything. The light had faded from his eyes. The game was lost. The Stephens team were high-fiving and grinning. I kept trying, but I couldn’t make a basket. Each time I grabbed for the ball, it was somewhere else. The Stephens players were toying with me. I kept lunging for the ball and they kept throwing it over my head.
    Somewhere in there, I stopped trying to play like a boy and started playing like a dog. I wanted the ball. I went for it. I went low. I went high. I scrambled. I got the ball. The first time I got it, I went for the basket, head down, dribbling, dodging, cutting one way and then the other. At the basket, I leaped up and dropped it in.
    I did it again. I was low, so I went under one guy’s arm and around two others, then leaped high. Again the ball went in. Their big guys blocked the basket. I kept leaping one way and then the other, the way a dog can leap, the way I leaped for the Frisbee when Gregory and I played. And the ball kept going in.
    At first, we were so far behind nobody thought it mattered. Stephens had the ball. They were passing. I saw the ball in the air and snatched it like a Frisbee in flight. Before any of their players could catch me, I was down court and had another basket. Afterward, Dad told me, “That steal was the turning point of the game. When you made that basket the whole gym started screaming and it never stopped.”
    Gregory Oshun was the hero of the game. I mean I was, but it was “Gregory” they were screaming. We won by only a handful of points, but it was enough. “Gregory! Gregory!” My name, his name, our name was being called from all sides. Someone was taking pictures. I was hoisted up and carried around the gym. I saw Tina. I saw Dad and Mom. Gregory was smiling at me from the bench. Everyone was smiling at me.
    14 ■ When I came out of the locker room, the celebration was still