The mood in the locker room was jubilant. Coming off a huge win over the Knicks, all the members of the Lakers squad were celebrating. Somebody had gotten some champagne from somewhere, and it was being sprayed everywhere as if they had just won a championship.
“And then when Xavier got his own missed free throw and dunked it! That was so sick!” Chris Kaman yelled exuberantly. Everybody laughed, whooped, and agreed that it had been an extremely sick play. Everybody, that is, but Xavier himself. As soon as the dunk was mentioned, his face turned pale, and he excused himself from the group.
Sitting by himself on the shower floor, Xavier tried to quell his nauseous stomach. He had successfully forgotten that murderous dunk he had committed all those months ago. At least, he thought he had, but Chris bringing up today’s dunk had brought all the memories flooding back.
“Yo, X, why aren’t you partying with the guys?” asked Jodie Meeks, who had popped his head around the shower wall. “Oh. Chris brought up your dunk.”
Xavier merely nodded, unsure if he would be able to prevent himself from throwing up if he opened his mouth.
Jodie sat down on the floor next to his teammate. “Listen, dude, the past is the past. There’s no way you could have known that you were going to kill Jeff Withey with that dunk.” A tear rolled down Xavier’s cheek, but he otherwise gave no indication that he was listening to Jodie’s words. “You can’t let an accidental murder haunt you for the rest of your career. You can’t act like this every time you throw down a huge dunk. No amount of atonement is going to bring Jeff back to life, and you know it. Now, I’m going to get back to the party, and you can join back in if you want. No pressure, man.” Jodie clapped Xavier on the back and left.
Sighing, Xavier got up as well. Jeff Withey’s cold, dead face still greeted him every time he closed his eyes. But Jodie was right. He couldn’t live like this. Jodie’s words had put him on the path to mental health.
“I’m sorry, Jeff,” Xavier said to the empty shower area, and at the edge of his hearing, he thought he could hear a response, faint yet clear:
“I forgive you.”