Then the retirement tribute began.
When Hayes walked onto the field, Caleb shouted so loudly that the man in front of us jumped.
And then Hayes’s mother appeared.
She carried the old lunchbox.
Then the retirement tribute began.
The announcer told the stadium it represented where Hayes’s career had begun: cheap lunches from his mother and years when nobody knew his name.
Caleb stared at it.
***
A few minutes after the ceremony ended, a stadium employee approached us.
“Excuse me. Are you Caleb?”
Caleb blinked.
A stadium employee approached us.
“Yeah.”
“Mr. Hayes would like to meet you.”
***
After the game, we were taken to a small area near the tunnel.
Hayes’s mother was waiting.
Then Hayes walked in.
“Mr. Hayes would like to meet you.”
Caleb, who had spent four quarters confidently explaining professional football to me, forgot how speech worked.
Hayes crouched slightly so he wasn’t towering over him.
