The Crossover

Even though the Wildcats are down by seven at halftime, they are not worried. In “The Bet, Part One,” Josh notices a “familiar look” (32) on JB’s face and knows he wants to make a bet. JB gives a clue as to what might be at stake by touching Josh’s locs. In “Ode to My Hair,” Josh’s love for his locs is so strong that he declines any bet made against them.

“The Bet, Part Two” establishes the rules. If the game is tied and JB gets the ball to score the game-winning shot, he gets to cut off Josh’s hair. If JB loses, he’ll have to walk around pantless during lunch at school the next day. Those stakes are too risky for JB, so he revises: if he wins, he gets to cut off one loc of Josh’s hair, and if he loses, he’ll moon a table of sixth-graders at lunch. The bettors agree to the terms and the game ensues.

In “The game is tied,” JB makes the game-winning shot, to Josh’s chagrin. “In the locker room” shows readers that JB has located Coach’s red scissors and is prepared to collect on his bet. “Cut” positions Josh at the center of his chanting friends preparing for JB to cut one of his precious locs, but something goes awry. In “ca⋅lam⋅i⋅ty,” the noun is described as “An unexpected, / undesirable event; / often physically injurious” (39).

Josh reveals that JB has not concentrated while cutting his hair and has mistakenly cut off five locs instead of one, leaving a bald spot on the side of Josh’s head. Once his mother sees it, she instructs Josh’s dad to take him “to the barber shop / on Saturday / to have the rest / cut off” (40).

Every once in a while, JB and Josh’s mom lets the family choose a place to eat out, and this time, their dad chooses Golden Dragon, a Chinese restaurant with a buffet. In “Mom doesn’t like us eating out,” she quietly controls the food intake of her husband by editing the buffet for him and removing the salt from the table, all while scowling at JB for messing up his brother’s hair.

When she instructs him to apologize, JB offers a half-hearted apology that only increases the tension at the table until their dad tells one of his corny jokes and laughs so hard at it that the others can’t help but laugh too. As their dad continues with a basketball story they’ve heard many times before, JB gets up and brings back to the table three packets of duck sauce and a cup of wonton soup, offering it to Josh. Even though Josh had not asked for it, it is exactly what he wanted.

In “Missing,” Josh tries to make sense of his lost locs but can’t seem to make things add up again. He keeps them beneath his pillow, counting them nightly, and adding a tear each time. In search of a box to keep his cut locs in, Josh’s mom directs him to her bedroom closet to use one of her hat boxes. Instead, Josh discovers his dad’s safety box full of paraphernalia from his basketball career.

In “The inside of Mom and Dad’s bedroom closet,” JB walks in on Josh snooping and joins in the search. They rifle through articles celebrating their father’s records and fame in the European basketball league. Even though they have seen their dad wear his championship ring, they have never touched it or worn it themselves, which they take turns doing as they continue to search the contents of the box.

They stumble upon an envelope marked “private,” and decide quickly to open it together. In one letter, they discover that the LA Lakers invited their father to try out for the team; in a second letter, they discover their father had patella tendonitis and elected not to have surgery, effectively ending his career.

In “pa⋅tel⋅la ten⋅d[o]⋅ni⋅tis [PUH-TEL-UH TEN-DUH-NAHY-TIS] noun,” Josh explains his father’s ailment: “The condition / that arises when the muscle / that connects the kneecap / to the shin bone / becomes irritated / due to overuse, / especially from jumping activities” (48). Also known as “jumper’s knee,” Josh understands that the ailment is what caused his dad to go “[…] from a superstar / with a million-dollar fadeaway jumper / to a star / whose career / had faded away” (48), and he wonders why his dad never elected to have surgery to correct his knee.

Shedding light on the family activities in “Sundays After Church,” readers experience the weekly pick-up game with Josh, JB, and their dad, surrounded by “regulars / and rookies” (50). “Basketball Rule #2” is a random text from Josh’s dad wherein he lists ten lines of two words each that exhibit clipped but insightful advice: “Play hard / Practice harder” (51).

Josh sports his new haircut in the lunchroom in “Girls,” causing passersby to do a doubletake, unable to tell quickly who’s Josh and who’s JB. The twins joke that people can tell the difference between them by who can make free throws (JB) and who can dunk (Josh). When a new girl in pink Reeboks approaches their lunch table, JB loses all ability to talk. Josh jokes that even though his brother can’t speak, it’s clear what he’s thinking.

In “While Vondie and JB,” the friends debate about the attractiveness of the new girl while Josh finishes both his and JB’s vocabulary homework. When the conversation finally turns to Josh, he states that the new girl is “pulchritudinous,” which he defines in his next poem as “[h]aving great physical / beauty and appeal” (54-55). Josh has never had a girlfriend but is very curious when the pulchritudinous new girl talks to his brother.

In “Practice,” Josh and JB’s basketball coach inspires them with a quote from The Art of War and leads them in several training drills. Coach tells them that whoever wins the wind sprint drill will not have to practice today. Even though Josh is the fastest on the team, he lets Vondie win because he wants to practice even harder.

In “Walking Home,” Josh peppers his brother with questions about whether or not he thinks they’ll win the championship, why their dad never had knee surgery or why he can’t eat certain foods, and if JB wants to play to 21 when they get home. JB, although annoyed, answers every question. In “Man to Man,” Josh and JB go one-on-one in their driveway with Josh taunting his brother until their mom makes Josh come in to clean his room.

In “After dinner,” Josh and JB’s dad takes them to the rec center to practice their free throws. Three college students ask their dad for an autograph and Josh challenges them to a game. JB bets 20 dollars in their favor. “After we win” reveals not only did Josh, JB, and their dad win the challenge, but the girl from school with the pink Reeboks is also practicing her game. JB goes to talk to her and Josh is certain he likes her.

In “Dad Takes Us to Krispy Kreme and Tells Us His Favorite Story (Again),” JB asks their dad whether he should be eating doughnuts since their mom didn’t want him eating certain things. Their dad responds, “What your mother doesn’t know / won’t hurt her” (63). He goes on to tell one of his favorite stories about when the twins were 3 and he took them to the park to shoot free throws. A park attendant offered to lower the hoop, and their dad refused, watching his 3-year-old twins sink baskets with the park attendant watching in awe. “Basketball Rule #3” instructs the twins to “Never let anyone / lower your goals” (66). Their dad encourages them to push past other people’s expectations.

“Josh’s Play-by-Play” covers a game against the defending county champions, the Red Rockets. Josh’s team is down by one with less than a minute on the clock. Josh stands at the free-throw line but misses both shots. His teammate, Vondie, comes in for the rebound but a Rocket strips him of the ball. Josh slaps the ball against the glass when the Rocket goes in for an easy layup. With 10 seconds left, Josh passes the ball to JB who dribbles down the court and sets his brother up for the game-winning dunk. With how he and his brother play, Josh is certain they are going to college.

In “The new girl,” the girl who wears pink Reeboks approaches Josh to compliment him on his dunk. She asks him why he cut his locs, confessing they were “kind of cute” (69). Vondie laughs at Josh while the new girl goes to talk to JB and offers him some sweet tea. In “I Missed Three Free Throws Tonight,” Josh shoots free throws in his driveway until he makes 10 in a row, a rule enforced by his dad. Tonight is somewhat different: Josh has to make 15. “Basketball Rule #4” is simple: “If you miss / enough of life’s / free throws / you will pay / in the end” (71).

Josh explains in “Having a mother” that his mother is great when she rescues him from shooting free throws, but her emphasis on education often irritates him. When they come home from school, their mom makes Josh and JB read, and JB can read while listening to music. With his earbuds in, JB doesn’t hear their parents start arguing, but Josh does.

In “Mom shouts,” Josh and JB’s parents argue about Chuck getting a checkup because he fainted and has a history of heart disease. Their Mom tells their Dad that if he loves her, he’ll get a checkup, but their Dad jokes that the only thing he needs is her.

In “hy⋅per⋅ten⋅sion [HI-PER-TEN-SHUHN] noun,” Josh defines the disease as “high blood pressure” (76). It is the reason his mom doesn’t want his dad to eat salt, and it is also the reason Josh’s grandfather died, so the disease runs in the family.

Troubled, in “To fall asleep,” Josh counts his cut locs that he keeps in a box beneath his bed. “Why We Only Ate Salad for Thanksgiving” reveals that Josh’s grandmother fell off her front stoop and is unable to make her “big delicious dinner,” so Uncle Bob steps in. He is in no way a chef, so the family ends up eating salad for Thanksgiving dinner (78).

In “How Do You Spell Trouble?” JB asks Josh to pass Miss Sweet Tea a note during their vocabulary test. Josh gets caught by the teacher while passing the note and is sent to the assistant principal’s office, otherwise known as his mother’s office.

Josh’s mother makes him read about the Air Force and Marines in “Bad News,” telling him that although he won’t be suspended, he also won’t be accepted to Duke if he cheats, so perhaps he should consider a career in the military. He wants to confess that it was just a love note and he wasn’t cheating, but he protects JB and apologizes, promising his mother it will never happen again.

In “Gym class,” rather than playing a sport, the gym teacher instructs the students on how to resuscitate a human being. The teacher invites Josh to practice on the dummy as an example for the class. Josh accepts but is thinking more about the day that he might have a girlfriend and JB might have to deal with a sweaty, plastic dummy.