The Summer Pact

by Emily Giffin

Tyson had no patience for liars or cheaters. In his own life, he played by all the rules, once remarking that as a Black man, he had “zero room for error” and needed to be “beyond reproach.” In all situations. It didn’t come across as a complaint—more of an observation or fact, something he said his parents had ingrained in him from a very young age. Beyond the universal rules that everyone had to follow, there was a matrix of additional guidelines for him. In stores, for example, he was taught to make direct eye contact with the clerks; to never put his hands in his pockets; and to always get a receipt, no matter how small the purchase.

The exact thing Kyle says about life and what he tries to impart on Camden and the players of his that this applies to…

“You’re right, Grady,” I said. “She can’t act that way. She’s held to a different standard and has to be completely beyond reproach. She’s gotta be twice as good and half as reactive knowing that she’s going to get double the scrutiny. And on that day, she wasn’t. When that ump accused her of cheating, she reacted like a normal, frustrated human being who’d just been accused of doing something she hadn’t done. She lost her cool. So yeah. You’re right. She can’t act that way.”