Three hundred

The rest of the time I count them and recount, and thank my guardian angel for this job.

My father thinks my hair and my earring, as expected, horrible. But he refuses to blame himself for having me on the Bollettieri Academy is. He will not admit that it was a mistake to send me away, and he refuses to talk about that I would be coming home. He just asks if I'm a fag.

No, I say, and go to my room.


Philly goes with me. He says he likes my new look. A coxcomb is better than bald. I tell him about my mazzeltje the plane.

Wow! What will you do with all that money?

I am considering buying an anklet for Jamie, a girl at Perry in school. The last time I was home, I could kiss her. But I do not know, I must necessarily have new clothes for school. These black and white checkered sweater, I can not long bear. I want to belong.

Philly nods. Difficult problem,
bro

He asks why I'm not there to hear, and there I want to hear, I have a mohawk and an earring. He sees my dilemma as something serious, my inconsistency as something normal, and helps me through the options to take. We conclude that I had the money to the girl publishing, and new clothes but forgot.

Once I anklet in my hand, I have regrets. I see myself when I'm back in Florida, with the few clothes I have. I say it to Philly and he nods.

The next morning when I open my eyes, I see Philly grinning hanging over me. He looks at my chest. I look down and see a pile of banknotes.

What is this?

I played cards last night,
bro
. Had luck. Won six hundred U.S. dollars.

And, what is this?

Three hundred. Go and buy some new sweaters.

Spring is my father that I participate in several minor tournaments, satellites, with an open qualification. That means that everyone can do and in any case a match to play. They are held in remote villages, very remote towns like Monroe, Louisiana, and St. Joe, Missouri. Because I was only fourteen, I can not travel alone. So send my dad with Philly, for me to chaperone and to play. Philly and my dad still believe that it will be something with his tennis.

Philly hires a beige Omni, which quickly became a mobile version of our bedroom at home: a half of him, one half of me. We travel thousands of miles, stopping only at fast-food joints and tournaments to play and sleep. We sleep anywhere for free, because in every city we stay with strangers, families voluntarily shelter. Most families are nice, but do overly enthusiastic about tennis. It is already crazy to stay with people you do not know, but it's very annoying to get to the pancakes and coffee just to talk about tennis.