“Hey, Al-Farouq! I could use some help from a big guy like you to move some boxes around in my office.”
By now, Al-Farouq recognized GM Neil Olshey’s voice. He also knew that hearing Neil’s voice was usually a bad omen. But he couldn’t just turn down the invitation to help; such a request could be, behind the scenes, linked to his minutes on the court. “Yeah, no prob,” he responded, following Neil to his office.
“I just need to get some of these boxes of old stuff moved outside the door,” Neil said, pointing at a pile of cardboard boxes stacked in the corner. “I accumulated a lot of stuff that I didn’t need and I’m getting it shipped to my house to go through it more carefully.”
“Sure thing,” Al-Farouq said, glad that this was a normal task that he could undertake without awkwardness. He easily picked up the box on the top of the stack and placed it in the hallway. Meanwhile, Neil also took a box in his arms, although it must have been too heavy for him, because it slipped out and spilled its contents all across the floor.
“Oh my goodness!” Neil exclaimed. “Darn it!”
Al-Farouq could feel the heat in his cheeks as he stared at the pile of multi-colored sex toys and bondage gear. Intermingled with those things were computer printouts of what appeared to be pictures from LaMarcus’ Facebook page.
“What a terrible accident! I never meant for you to see all of this private stuff!” Neil said. Al-Farouq thought that Neil wasn’t a very good actor. “It has been kind of lonely around here without LaMarcus to keep me company…would you mind helping me get these back in the box?”
After thinking for a second about where the sex toys had likely been, Al-Farouq had to decline. “Sorry Neil, but I just remembered that coach is holding a special practice for the small forwards and I’m already super late. I’ll catch you later.” He practically ran from the office, reminding himself to ignore Neil from now on.