Jonathan Goldstein

She'd only become a foster child because no one in her extended family had stepped up to take her in.

She had no one else.

What did you know about Christina's childhood before she met you?

What was it like?

That's not an exaggeration?

Isabel eventually placed her father in a mental hospital.

Wow.

And you were how old?

Wow, that's a big burden.

All the while, as Isabel talks, Christina, seated in an armchair beside her, listens quietly, her hands gripping the armrests.

Without looking at Isabel, she makes her presence known.

These were stories that neither Christina nor Isabel had ever told each other.

Watching them connect like this, it feels like a good time to bring the subject back to basketball.

How much, over the past 30 years, Christina's fretted over Isabel's decision.

Knowing this now, I ask Isabel, would you have done things differently?

It's as though Isabel just doesn't understand what the word regret means.

So I offer a working definition.

If we were to set off in a time machine where we could return to that time and Christina were to say, you know... I know what you're saying, but frankly, I don't know what I'd do.

If you were in the mood that you're in right now... I really have no idea.

I think like a lot of people would just give Christina the BS.