The Tennis Partner

Abraham finds an apartment five minutes away from his current house and takes the boys to see it. It is a small, one-bedroom unit, but the boys are thrilled to have a second place to come to and examine every inch of it eagerly. Abraham packs up and moves the next day, taking barely anything from his and Rajani’s shared possessions. Manuel, the mover, guesses Abraham is separating, and reassures Abraham that one day he will move Abraham into a bigger place where he will be happy again.

Abraham goes to the house for the boys’ bedtime, as is the plan, and reassures them he will still see them every day. A few minutes after he returns to the apartment, David arrives, and the men spend the rest of the evening together. Abraham confesses how difficult the move feels, and David offers some consolation and advice that he learned at AA about taking things slowly and experiencing the pain. Abraham is grateful for David’s presence.

The boys come over on Friday evening with sleeping bags. The new place is thrilling to them, despite there being no television or even real furniture. Abraham and the boys tape up a carton to act as a temporary dining table and eat pizza on it before the boys fall asleep next to him in the living room. Once they are asleep, Abraham writes in his journal for a while, thinking about how his life has now come to resemble David’s.

Enrique, the young man with Kaposi sarcoma, returns to the hospital. A round of chemotherapy had worked briefly, but he is experiencing breathlessness again. Abraham decides to do a bronchoscopy, a procedure where an instrument is inserted into the windpipe to obtain a sample for a biopsy. Abraham invites David to join the students in watching the procedure. Abraham narrates what is happening to the students. Afterward, Abraham speaks to Enrique’s mother and sister, informing them of a new infection that has taken hold of Enrique’s lungs.

The next morning, as they are walking to Enrique’s room, Abraham comments on a nurse’s flirty interaction with David, which the latter smilingly brushes off. Enrique is getting worse, and his mother and sister tell Abraham they have decided upon a “do not resuscitate” order if his breathing gets worse. That same evening, Abraham tearfully watches Arthur Ashe give a press conference announcing that he is suffering from AIDS. He is woken up early in the morning with a phone call from the hospital informing him that Enrique has passed away.

Abraham describes the 1975 Wimbledon men’s finals between Arthur Ashe and Jimmy Connors. Connors has been dominant the entire year and is favored to win. Ashe, whose game is extremely similar to Connors, changes his natural style of playing to take an early advantage and win the first two sets. Connors fights back, taking it to the fifth and final set. In the changeover between games, Ashe reminds himself to resist the temptation to revert to his natural game and stick to his strategy. It is a mental game, and he must exert his will to win: “He rises from the chair. The crowd does not realize that the greatest battle is already over. It happened in Arthur’s head” (159).

David accompanies Abraham to the radiologist since he has some time before he is due to begin rounds. They look at a patient’s chest X-ray together, and Abraham invites David to come along for the CT scan as well. David has to leave when he is called in to do his mandatory urine test for drug screening.

That evening, Abraham finally gets a television and VCR. While he is watching TV with his sons, David calls. Abraham invites him over, but David declines. Later that night, Abraham watches old tennis tapes when the boys are asleep and contemplates how the call from David “felt like an irregular beat” (164).

On Saturday, Abraham calls David; his line is busy, but Abraham finally gets through, and David reveals he was talking to Gloria. He also confesses he contemplated using again last night, which is why he called Abraham. They chat for a bit before David gets off the line to go to an AA meeting. Abraham and David meet to play tennis the next day. David’s mood is initially low after yet another conversation with Gloria. Midway through, however, he shakes himself out of it, and the last 10 minutes of their session are “magical.” David and Abraham both leave for home in a better mood.

David and Abraham go on a bicycle ride through a trail David has frequented before. David leads Abraham to a hacienda-style house in a residential area. David is in awe of the house and hopes to buy one like it someday; Abraham reminds him that he will because he is going to be a doctor.

David reveals that Gloria is the one who showed him this route, and he reminisces about the start of their relationship. He was infatuated with her from the very first time he saw her and pursued her for months until she finally said yes. David reflects on how he always sabotages their relationship when things are going well. Nevertheless, he loves Gloria deeply because she stood by him unwaveringly through his relapse. Abraham privately notes that Gloria has a huge amount of power over David’s moods and self-esteem.

Gloria, who is a pharmaceutical student in New Jersey, comes to visit, and Abraham does not hear from David for two weeks, which irks him. David finally calls to make a Sunday tennis plan, and Abraham eagerly agrees. While their game is technically fine, a rhythm is missing, and Abraham secretly blames Gloria for this. Gloria is waiting for David after the game. She is polite when David introduces Abraham to her, but Abraham observes her demeanor hardening as she and David pull away in her car. Abraham believes she is unsure about her relationship with David.

After Gloria leaves, Abraham gives David a ride back home from the hospital one day. David chats cheerily about Gloria’s visit and their future plans, but Abraham senses it is a farce. David invites Abraham in, and Abraham meets Mickie, David’s landlady. Mickie takes in boarders who are in substance addiction recovery and is delighted to meet Abraham; she claims he is David’s only friend.

David steps away to return a phone call from Gloria, and Mickie chats with Abraham. She tells him Gloria and David are having trouble, suggesting it is because of David’s incessant infidelity. Abraham is shocked to hear this, having always imagined David as steadfastly loyal to Gloria, but then he remembers David’s various flirtations with the nurses at the hospital.

Abraham gives a colleague, Della Nabhan, a ride home one day to her house in a gated property with duplex condominiums. On his way out, Abraham notices a beautiful tennis court set into a rock amphitheater with a breathtaking view of the city underneath.

The following Sunday, Abraham takes David to the tennis court at Della’s place, invoking her name at the security gate. David, too, is awestruck by the court, and the two play silently for an hour, falling into a perfect rhythm. After the game, Abraham and David sit watching the city underneath. David remembers his days of using, and how he used to look up in envy at these houses in the hills. He confesses he cannot look himself in the mirror, as he cannot shake the image of his reflection that he once saw during a multiple-day binge: “frightening, evil-looking…stranger. […] He was a loathsome creature” (190).

Most of David’s classmates leave town to complete their senior electives and internships elsewhere. David does not bother with applications, sure that his history will hurt his acceptance; he decides to take his chances and wait out the scramble. Abraham creates a research project that he asks for David's help on to keep occupied. He selfishly does not want David to leave and go to New Jersey, where Gloria is. David happily accepts the research position and turns up looking animated and engaged on the first day.

A week after beginning the research position, David is offered a position as a transitional intern at Texas Tech by Dr. Lou Binder, the associate dean of students. He will spend three months each in surgery, pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology. David is ecstatic, as this means he will graduate medical school after all. The next day, David asks if he can use Abraham’s phone to call his parents, as the phone at Mickie’s is out of order. The two head to Abraham’s after work, where Abraham overhears David’s brief and stiffly formal conversation with his parents. He does not tell them about the internship; instead, he asks to borrow money to fix his car, then sits in shame after he hangs up. A forlorn David leaves shortly after.