5 - Game Three

PHILADELPHIA_115
DETROIT______104

Allen Iverson:
Minutes Played: 48 FGM-A: 15-263GM-A: 2-4 FTM-A 5-6 Rebounds: 3 Assists: 15 Personal Fouls: 2 Steals: 2 Turnovers: 3 Blocked Shots: 0 Points: 37

The next game is fought at home in Philadelphia. Allen Iverson has spent long nights at the Wachovia Center, standing at center court, training these particular nets, his voice echoing in the cavernous darkness. Early in the game Allen Iverson begins to speak to one of the nets. He calls to it under his breath, whispering in a pitch audible only to dogs and basketball nets. The net grows as large as the sea and the ball falls between its coasts like rain. No one else sees the net's expansion, because it is bashful and innocent and loves only Allen Iverson. Eager for his touch, the net calls back to Allen Iverson, mimicking his tone as best it can. The net says to him, "swish, swish, swisshh, swish, swissshhh." At the end of the first Quarter, Allen Iverson leads the Detroit Pistons 32 to 24.

In the subsequent quarters, Allen Iverson continues to converse with the net. He puts in a good word for his teammates and acheives fifteen assists. Chauncy Billups seems disoriented and takes only eight shots in the entire game. On his homecourt, with his well-trained nets, Allen Iverson defeats the Detroit Pistons, infuriating their headcoach Larry Brown. He said "We had some open looks, but when you're fighting for your life, your open looks gotta come from inside, not outside." Allen Iverson already knew that. That is why he left the press conference and returned to his home.

He kissed his mortal wife and his halfling son Deuce and his halfling daughter Tiaura and retired to his private room.

His daughter asked, "What's in Daddy's Secret Room?"
His wife said, "I don't know."
His son said, "Can I go in there?"
His wife said, "Maybe when you're older."

Allen Iverson took off all his clothes and slipped into a solid gold bath filled to the brim with milk and honey. It began to glow softly, rejuvenating him and removing the stress and strain of an unheard of 48 minutes of play. Allen Iverson stepped out of the bath and dried himself with a towel. Allen Iverson has 21 tattoos. One displays the names of his son and daughter. One says VA's Finest and refers to the Vague Areas from which he hails. One says Jewels and refers to his great love of emeralds, rubies and saphires. One is an image of a skull in an army helmet to remind him of the horrible atrocities he has both witnessed and committed in times of war. One says "strength" in Sanskrit, it is a souvenir from his first trip to earth a sanskrit-speaking king gave it to him after a great battle of which we have no recorded history. One says "Dynasty Radaz," the nickname that he and his two brothers invented for themselves after the toppled the empire of Glantar the Barbaric. There are many more tattoos. The most recent says "Hold my own" and Allen Iverson had it done when he left the Vague Areas and came to earth as a child in 1975. It is the only tattoo which he was not yet visible when he emerged from the womb of Ann Iverson. Allan Iverson puts on a pair of silk pajamas.

Allen Iverson picks up a ornate bronze telephone with a cord that ends abruptly in the middle of the room.

He simply says, "Father?"
"Ah, Number Three. I'm glad you called."
"How are you father?"
"Fire still courses through my veins of course."
"That's good to hear."
"I truly wish that you would come home."
"I'm happy with my life on earth father, you know that."
"Yes, I know, but I was looking at your sword hanging on the wall of the dining hall this afternoon and I became misty eyed. When my eyes condensed again, I said to your mother, Oh I do miss Number Three, he used to swing that blade with such grace."

Allen Iverson, known to those in the Vague Areas as Prince Lapino, remembers feeling the weight of The Answer in his hand, the cool silver hilt against his palms, the heft of the sword, the crisp ringing of the perfectly straight edge, the smell of demon's blood.

"I miss you too Dad, maybe you could come here, I could show you around."
"I don't think that's possible, things are heating up in the Vague Areas. War could come within this Century. The Fairie Brown is amassing a great army and threatening to invade us. Are you sure you can't come?"
"I don't have the time."
"You know full well I have considerable power over chronological matters. If you could just give me five sequential earth days I could arrange things so that you could wage war at my side for five hundred years."
"I know dad, but it's the play-offs. I really want to win the lustrous and radiant Larry O'Brien trophy this year. It would break my heart to disappoint the Philadelphia fans."
"Very well Number Three, you are 18 000 years old now, you can make your own decisions."
"I appreciate that dad. That means a lot to me."
"You know number three, The Fairie Brown's armies are well-trained and very determined. You know as well as I that as a strategist he is peerless."
"You can handle it Dad."
"Number Three, don't tell your mother or your brothers, but this time I am frightened." Allen Iverson drops the phone. Before it hits the ground it grows wings and flutters upwards until it is hovering beside his ear.
"Please come back to me son."
"I, I don't know Dad. I'll think about it."

Allen Iverson hangs up the phone. He leaves his secret room, kisses his son and daughter goodnight and crawls into bed beside his wife and high school sweetheart Tawanna.