Mavericks-Wizards Trade: "Excursion into Philosophy"

From time to time, we tend to use Ed Hopper paintings as a magnifying glass for studying the ins and outs of the NBA.  The recent Dallas-Wizards trade that saw Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood, and DeShawn Stevenson sent to Dallas for Josh Howard and Drew Gooden calls for us to do this once again.

Gilberta lay on the bed motionless, passed out, not wearing any underwear.  Anyone walking into the room would have quickly seen everything she had to offer, decent legs and a butt that now sagged more than it once did.  Not impressive.  Not yet repulsive.  She was in limbo.

Antawn sat on the bed, knowing more about Gilberta than anyone who might soon enter the room.  He called the paramedics fifteen maybe twenty minutes prior as soon as she failed to wake up and he read the pages of her open journal:

Dear World,


I can't live without Javaris.  If I had a gun, I'd shoot myself.  I think it would leave less doubt about what I'm trying to do.  Killing one's self slowly leads so much up to chance, and I don't trust pharmaceutical companies to begin with.  Also, I don't trust my father, Mr. Jamison.  I know he'll try and save me before my veins are full of poison.  A bullet would leave less doubt.


Sincerely,
Gilberta


PS Don't try and save me, world.  


Antawn read the journal entry and sat it down on the bed next to him.  For a moment, what struck him most about the letter was that Gilberta still spelled his last name "Jamison."  Antawn had taken to signing his name "Jameson" in an effort to make light of his new found love and frequency of lovemaking to  bottles of Irish whiskey.  Antawn was always trying to find something worth smiling about, and he found misspelling his own name very funny, until now.  Seeing Gilberta spell his name correctly, the way it was supposed to be spelled, now sat as a cruel, permanent reminder that nothing in his life had gone according to plan.     


Just yesterday, his wife Caron left him for his best friend Brendan.  With them, they took his one and only son DeShawn, leaving him alone to deal with his always unpredictable daughter Gilberta.  Now, he sat on a rainy blue bed sheet staring at the window of light that lay on the carpet, cursing himself for all the times he cursed Gilberta's carelessness.  "Please, don't let her die.  Not here.  I don't want to be alone."

Little did he know, the ambulance, driven by Josh Howard and Drew Gooden, was currently stuck in traffic, or he might have spared himself the harsh realities of holding on too long and climbed out the actual window into the world beyond this broken house.