In chapter 13 of Basketball Jones, Jade spills evidence in my lap that underscores her lack of psychic ability, and I also wonder why I am the only one who understands that this is all fake and she needs help, right away. Intrigued? It’s time for Kingett to read Basketball Jones.
There isn’t a lot to this chapter at all, mainly because this is a Jade centered chapter. Ever since we have met her, Jade has been trying to get a guy on one of these sports teams because she wishes to be rich like AJ and have a really nice life like AJ. Why she can’t just work and get a college degree in order to do more things is beyond me, because Jade really is the best people person I have ever seen, so she would be excellent at combining her expertise, whatever that is, with a work environment where there’s a lot of people.
Jade is outgoing, and definitely funny, evidenced by her witty remarks in dialogue and her energetic fervor, but she’s using all of that energy to try and catch a guy who may or may not even be interested in her and may just have her thrown in jail because of her stalker tendencies. She’s confident, however, that she will get this man.
“I’m close to meeting Reggie Bush, and then it’s gonna be on! I met one of his teammates at the casino where I work, and of course he asked me for a date. I asked him if he knew Reggie, and he told me he was one of his best friends. So the way I figure it, I’m bound to meet him.”
Since this chapter is just a giant conversation about how she will catch this guy, except for a small scene at the end where Dray calls AJ to tell him that the blackmailer left another note, this time with his father’s phone number on it, that’s the only thing that moves the plot forward in the narrative. Everything else is just entertaining filler that I’ve already expressed my opinions about, so I want to focus on what Jade claims she is, a psychic. I don’t think she is.
I’ve expressed my thoughts and views on this before, but it kind of creams my corn that she keeps telling AJ she is a psychic, when she is definitely not one.
The topic morphs to AJ and what kinds of guys AJ likes.
“I don’t have a type,” I lied.
She sat up and looked me square in the eye, as if she were about to get serious. “C’mon, do you like feminine guys or those homo thugs? What about the down low men?”
Then she guesses what kind of guy AJ likes, touting it as her psychic ability, and or gift.
“I don’t have a type,” I said again, and smiled.
“I don’t believe that,” Jade said with a wave of her hand. “I bet we like the same kind of bois.”
“And that would be?”
“Jocks. Right?”
“How you figured that?”
“I told you I’m psychic, silly.”
She knows that AJ has money because she has commented about it in previous chapters. She knows that interior designers make money, but not THAT much money, since she has been inside of his house, in chapter seven, and has seen where he lives and what kind of wine the man drinks. Obviously he had to be living with someone, and the way that he dodged the question earlier about the types could have told her that AJ is on the down low. Thus, his man is too. She possibly knows that most athletic men in Atlanta are on the down low, I’m certain. She could have then deduced that AJ was with a down low athlete, thereby knowing that his type is jocks. She is not a psychic, and I will say that until I am blue in the face. She uses observations in order to make deductions, possibly “psychic” deductions.
What’s really bothering me is why she keeps saying that she IS a psychic. Is she planning to get money out of AJ in the chapters to come, by going to unbelievable lengths to make her deductions seem like she’s reading thoughts? Why doesn’t AJ understand that these are just deductions? I am not even sure!
Jade really is a sweet girl, and who knows, I may be pleasantly surprised. Chapter 14 is next, and I am wondering what kind of new developments I will learn, if any. I’m excited! I just hope that Jade doesn’t have anything to do with all of the blackmailing because she is a fun character with a powerful personality that would be good for AJ, and AJ needs many friends right now because he needs someone to be there for him. I wish that I could be. Sadly, though, I can’t.
I wonder how Drey will handle this new threat, though. We will just have to wait and see.