Locker Room ChroniclesI pick up a lonely basketball someone has forgotten in the weeds,take a few shots on the empty outdoor courts, and head back to the gym, cradling the orange globe like a stray kitten I have pledged to protect. Mechanically, I limn the sidelines of the tournament and take the back stairs down. I turn the ball in to the lost and found, half-expecting to see myself among the cufnks and crutches and work shirts spending the rest of their lives in a corner of the equipment room. Just then, Ryan lopes out of the locker room. He pretends not to see me as he turns his key in. I turn, step in front of him, and bump his chest with my shoulder as he tries to get past. changed my mind,�I tell him. f you still . . .�He rolls his eyes, cracks a grin, puts a ger to his lips. Meaning, Careful. From the locker room, a tall thin bearded man walks out and up to Ryan. y dad,�Ryan mouths, and sticks out his tongue. They walk down the hallway together. I watch them go, and Ryan waves discreetly back, once, light and unmistakable. In my old niche, I untie my shoes. Two men in street clothes have followed me, one after the other. They circle independently, like planets around a sun or cars in the Indy 500, rotating through the locker room. When they come back to my U I take off one more thing. Laps two and three: a sock here, a shoe there. I take care to fold my shirt and pants, dispersing them evenly along the bench. On the th lap, I pull down my underwear and wave it. Yellow is the caution g but my white briefs mean surrender. I swivel on the bench to face the lockers, so they can see my ass this time. On lap six, I turn around again to face their orbit and place the towel Indian-style over my genitals, so my followers can only see a fringe of pubic hair, my solar re. They stare. I look at the tiles. I harden underneath the terry cloth. On revolution seven, my penis is a towel rod, jutting into space. The atmosphere must be sizzling, because Planet 1 seems to have burned off. Planet 2, a beefy football type, whirls back and stops to look. His revolutions are happening faster and faster. Soon he will be ed, magnetized for good. I reposition myself so he can72
