Dwyane Wade felt sand underneath his back and could hear the squawking sounds of gulls above him. Both of these things were strange for many reasons. One, he was supposed to be in Brooklyn, a place not known for its sandy beaches. Two, he could feel the individual grains on his back, even though he was supposed to be wearing a jersey. Three, he was lying down outside, even though he should have still been in the Barclays Center. Not knowing where he would find himself, he sat up and opened his eyes.
He was, indeed, on a beach. An ocean stretched out in front of him, its serene blue color flecked by bands of magenta/orange lent by the setting sun. Looking behind him, he saw the iconic style of buildings, fronted by swaying palms, which could only mean one thing: he was back in Miami. But how?
The other strange thing was that there was no human activity on the beach that he could see. Despite the perfect weather and the beautiful scenery, there were no beachgoers. There weren’t even cars on the streets. The beachfront hotels were lit up inside, and their neon signs were glowing as brightly as ever, but there was nobody inside the buildings either.
Dwyane yelped in surprise when there was an unexpected clearing of a throat from behind him. He turned around and saw an old man, robed in white and possessing a long beard which was white enough to blend seamlessly in with the outfit. The man was holding in his hand a golden pocketwatch, which dangled near Dwyane’s face.
“Your time has come, Dwyane,” said Father Time in a grandfatherly voice that was gentle and stern at the same time.
Dwyane looked at the old man for a second, then chuckled and shook his head. “No way. I might be retiring, but I’m not old. There’s still life in these legs.”
Father Time didn’t share in Dwyane’s chuckling. He continued to regard Dwyane with seriousness. “You have no choice in the matter, Dwyane. There is no negotiating with Father Time. His decisions are final.”
“I’m negotiating with you right now,” Dwyane pointed out. “And you’re definitely not taking me anywhere.”
It was clear that Father Time didn’t know how to respond to Dwyane’s obstinance. His next words attempted to maintain that staid calmness, but shaking anger broke through them. He brandished the timepiece in Dwyane’s face as if it proved something. “You don’t understand, foolish mortal. Time cannot be challenged, and neither can He who commands it!”
Dwyane noticed that something yellow was floating towards him from the ocean. There were three dark figures sitting on top of it, whatever it was. He immediately looked back at Father Time to avoid raising the suspicions of the man who was becoming angrier and angrier the longer Wade maintained his attitude of unconcerned composure. “You keep speaking like these things are absolute, but they aren’t.”
“IF THERE IS ANYTHING ABSOLUTE IN THIS WORLD, IT IS TIME!” Father Time roared.
The yellow floating object had reached the shore. It was the banana boat. The three men disembarking from it were silhouetted by the sunset and couldn’t be seen clearly, but Dwyane knew exactly who they were. He leaned around Father Time’s quaking form to wave at the new arrivals. “Hey Chris! Hey Melo! Hey LeBron!”
“Dwyane, is this guy bothering you?” LeBron James asked as he approached, flanked on both sides by Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony.
To his credit, Father Time didn’t seem intimidated at all by the sudden presence of three more men. “Bothering? Hah! If anyone should be bothered here, it is myself, for the Lord of Time has no patience for these childish philosophical games!”
Dwyane got to his feet and stood next to his three friends. “I’ll stop bothering you, then.” Without another word, the four men walked to the edge of the sand and climbed onto the banana boat.
Stunned, Father Time just stood there on the shore. Once he realized that Dwyane intended to escape on the banana boat, however, he came back to his senses. “No! Come back!” he yelled. But the banana boat was already propelling itself away from land, and Dwyane was no longer paying him any attention.
Dwyane only looked back when he felt a thump on the back of the craft. He idly looked behind him and saw Father Time desperately clinging to the end of the banana.
“Can you do something about that fool? He’s slowing us down,” Carmelo said from the third seat.
Dwyane nodded and carefully stood up from his seat in the back. When he looked into Father Time’s eyes, he was satisfied to see a new emotion in them: fear. “Sorry old man. I’ve got all the time in the world!” he yelled, kicking Father Time squarely in the jaw. The white-robed man let go of the boat and sank limply into the ocean; he was quickly left behind.
With that, the banana boat rode into the neon sunset until it was nothing more than a dot on the horizon. Then, the dot, too, disappeared.