09.02.08
Orphan fighter, pt. 11
We dragged the kid kicking and screaming to the gym with us. I don’t know what kind of life he’d had, but you could tell it had messed him up in the head. I didn’t mind so much — it made him interesting. When we got to the gym, there were a bunch of lazy looking guys sitting around and a group of kids sitting on the floor in rows.
“Sorry it’s taken so long,” Dale said, addressing the entire group. “We had to make a detour.”
One of the men stood up and came over. He put a hand on the kid’s head.
“Why’d you bring Jesus?” I choked back a laugh. The kid’s name was Jesus? What a riot, man.
Dale shrugged. “Jack here wanted to put him in the ring.”
“I thought your man was an expert. There’s no way Jesus could last five minutes in the ring with someone like Gustavo.”
I felt like I was being insulted, so I cleared my throat to get their attention.
“Shut the hell up!”
Actually, it wasn’t me who said that. The kid had thrown the man’s hand off, and he looked like he was ready to fight. It was getting pretty tense in the room.
“Hey guys,” I said, “chill out, would ya? Let’s give Jesus a chance.”
“Fine.” It was the guy who had come over. “Gustavo, go to the ring and wait.”
Dale looked amused. I thought he’d still be annoyed, but it looked like he was coming around. Seeing that, I feeling a bit more confident in my pick.
“Let’s go, Jesus,” I said. “I want you to prove that you aren’t just a coward who sneaks up on people and hits them with rocks. You can fight fairly, can’t you?”
He narrowed his eyes. I wasn’t feeling the love, so I sighed and looked over at the ring where the Gustavo kid was now standing. Kid was huge.
“Damn,” I said, “that kid is huge!”
Jesus dropped his nasty expression and turned around to see for himself.
“He ain’t so tough.”
I laughed. “You think you can take him?”
“Yeah. Easy.”
I turned back to look at Jesus. He seemed to be excited by something. Maybe he just really loved to fight.
“Get in the ring then. Show me you’re not just talk.”
I was surprised at how much his attitude had changed. He actually seemed like a regular kid for a moment there. After we uncuffed him, he skipped over to the ring where Gustavo was waiting, and listened as one of the men told him where to stand and when to start. Truth be told, he was acting so normal that I was starting to get worried. I wasn’t feeling any fighting spirit from him at all. I was seriously wondering if I had just led the lamb to the slaughter.
“Let’s hope you were right,” Dale said. We were standing ringside, and he was standing beside me with his arms crossed. “This could get ugly quick if you were wrong.”
“Don’t worry,” I said, playing it cool.
As soon as the bell rang, I suddenly felt a chill in my spine. The Jesus kid was suddenly giving off a huge amount of killing intent. This was going to be quick alright.
Before I could even finish that thought, he was charging full speed at his foe. He launched himself straight at the bigger kid like a missile, and the next thing I knew the fight was over. Jesus had won.