‘Game Five’ by Pete Hsu

Game Five by Pete Hsu, 2022

The magic trick:

Heavy scenes featuring characters seemingly not speaking of the things that are causing them pain

We have a weekend double for you from Pete Hsu’s If I Were The Ocean, I’d Carry You Home collection.

Oddly enough, both are built around sports frames. Today’s is the 1991 NBA Finals between the Lakers and Bulls. The basketball is mainly background, though it ties directly into the story in surprising ways.

The action mainly centers on two brothers, old friends, church, and the AIDS crisis. Our narrator is the younger of the two brothers, so perhaps it’s just that he misses a lot of things due to it being over his elementary-aged head. Nevertheless, several of the scenes – told from his perspective – feature characters not putting into words the heavy feelings hanging in the air. It hurts just to read. There is so much happening under the surface of this story that never is spoken directly.

It lends the whole thing an air of tragic helplessness. There’s nothing to be said, let alone to be done to fix things.

And that’s quite a trick on Hsu’s part.

The selection:

It wasn’t that long ago that John and Cho were friends. Cho and Cho’s father had moved to Reseda, into the same apartment building as us. John was still in high school, and Cho wasn’t the pastor yet, just another kid. The two of them were always together, along with Cho’s girlfriend, Margaret. Back then the three of them were like the Valley’s biggest Lakers fans, especially Cho. His favorite guys were Magic Johnson and James Worthy. Cho liked to call John “Magic.” Himself, he called “Worthy.” He tried calling Margaret “Jeannie,” after Jeannie Buss, daughter of the Lakers’ owners, but that didn’t stick.

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