WE’D gotten to the point at home where we were eating cereal for almost every meal, and I really didn’t want to live through another week like that, so I asked Pop to cover for Dad while I dragged Dad to the Shop A Lot.
I’m not sure why I picked that time to bring it up. Maybe it just felt too big to hold in anymore. “You know that student MacSophal?” I said. “The one you talk to a lot?”
“Patrick,” my father said.
“It’s not Patrick, right?” I had to be careful here. I definitely knew it was wrong to eavesdrop, and that was how I had gotten all my information.
“What are you talking about?” Dad asked, eyes on the road. “Patrick MacSophal, Group H.”
“Well, that’s sort of a weird last name, right?”
“I don’t know. Is it?”
“Zeke and I think MacSophal is actually J-Mac, that steroid pitcher.”
“And how did you come up with that?”
“I guess it was really Zeke who figured it out.”
“Did you tell anybody else?”
“Who would we tell?” Did Dad picture our friends at school as some big, connected posse? Our world was a small world, after all. And anyway, I hadn’t even shared the confirmation with Zeke. “So can you help me understand why you’re letting a drug-using, steroid ex-athlete attend BTP? The guy was practically thrown out of Major League Baseball—”
“Casey, what are you talking about? He wasn’t thrown out. He left.”
“After Rhodes told everyone that MacSophal was the one giving him drugs.”
“All he was guilty of is being accused of something. How come you’re so fast to say he’s guilty?”
“How come you’re so fast not to?” I said. Everyone knew that J-Mac left baseball because he was caught red-handed. You didn’t need to overhear his confession to Dad to know. He disappeared like a coward because he was ashamed.
“Well, we’re here,” Dad said.
It felt ridiculous to even consider getting out of the car and pushing a giant shopping cart around, filling it with food. This conversation was too important. I turned to face him.
“I don’t get it. If you knew it was him, why would you let him come to your school? He’s a cheater. Taking drugs and giving them to other people isn’t only breaking the law, it’s cheating. It’s giving yourself an unfair advantage over your teammates. It seems pretty obvious that he’s guilty. So I don’t understand why you would let a bad guy like that anywhere near the school. You always talk about integrity. What kind of integrity does J-Mac have? He’s the anti-integrity.”
“Casey. Whoa. You weren’t there. You don’t know what happened. How do you know who’s guilty and who’s innocent? Doesn’t a journalist need to listen to all sides of the story and present it honestly and fairly?”
“An innocent guy doesn’t disappear. He clears his name,” I said. “I don’t get why you’re defending this jerk.”
“Because everyone deserves a second chance,” he said.
We got out of the car and slammed our doors. “And you need to call your mother again.”
Unreal.