When he opened his eyes the first thing he could make out was the peeling paint from the ceiling of the casino ballroom, and the flood lights were blinding him, partly because he couldn\u2019t open the eye that was gashed and teared up with blood, and partly because the top of his head was pushing down on to his brain, and he felt stupid to be so happy but proud that he had fought without fear. His jaw was locked and he was grinding the back of his teeth, and he choked on cigarette smoke and clotted blood he breathed in through his nose, and it took him a while to speak because he was focused on not dying in the moment from the suffocation. This was the nearest casino to the southern border and the Mexicans had taken back the area, like tall grass on an abandoned road, and they usually were a nasty crowd when he fought, but in the moment they all were looking away, waiting for him to get off of his back. Ray noticed how the ceiling paint was peeled from the humidity and how the canvas was shifting and spinning against his back, and at that moment he knew he\u2019d lost again.<\/p>\n
\u201cSit down Ray. Sit Down.\u201d His coach sat the stool down.<\/p>\n
His ribs hurt when he lifted up and he felt like vomiting from the pain. The coach took the mouthpiece out with two fingers and Ray spit on the coach’s apron.\u00a0 He was drooling blood out onto his chest while he looked past the coach with wide eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cRay, look at me. Look at me Ray. This was your last one. No more.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s that coach?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was it, Ray. No more.\u201d<\/p>\n
“What you mean no more?”<\/p>\n
“No more Ray. You\u2019re worn down.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an even fight in the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always even in the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ray remembered now the young Mexican had fought hard. He had come across the border from Juarez the night before and he came in overweight.\u00a0 Ray\u2019s coach never wanted to take fights with Mexicans on short notice\u2013not since Tijuana, where the vaquero with the worn-down gloves broke Ray\u2019s jaw and eye socket and no one got paid for the fight because it ended too quickly.\u00a0 Ray\u2019s coach told him to not take this fight and Ray took it anyway and the Mexican had broken Ray\u2019s collarbone in the third round. Afterwards he couldn\u2019t protect his face, and his left eye started to bleed badly from the beating and he didn\u2019t see the knockout punch.\u00a0 It was easy getting knocked out. He was glad it happened the way it did because he didn\u2019t want Grace seeing him getting beat for too long again.\u00a0 She never liked to watch it when it went for too long.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere\u2019s Grace, coach?\u00a0 She didn’t stay too long did she?\u201d Ray asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrace left early, Ray. She left. No woman is gonna keep hanging around for fights like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNext time he\u2019ll go down. \u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAin\u2019t gone be no next time. You\u2019re outta time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow you gonna tell your fighter he\u2019s out of time?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSomebody gotta tell you you\u2019re outta time, else you just gonna keep on fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the spring before his first professional fight, Ray trained and ran the hills in the forest upstate. He was alone in the hills but didn\u2019t notice the loneliness because of the training. He trained hard that spring and in the summer he made the paper for hurting the Italian boy badly. The Italian\u2019s coach was lost in the fight so he kept it going and the Italian kept on fighting even after the fight was over, and he died a few days later in a hospital bed in White Plains. After his fighter died he had no more fighters to coach, and they said he shot himself sitting in a car on the top of a hill.<\/p>\n
Back in the dressing room, an Indian wearing cowboy boots delivered a check to his coach and told them they had to be out in two minutes. There was another fighter coming in. The coach folded the check and put it in his pocket. The Indian left and they were the only two left in the dressing room. A broken light buzzed and flickered in the hall.<\/p>\n
Ray pushed himself up and the coach helped him change his underwear that were wet from when his head hit the ground. Ray couldn\u2019t feel his legs, but he knew they were there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know a guy that\u2019s got some work, Ray. Good work.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow am I supposed to train if I’m working?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou ain\u2019t gonna be training \u2018cause you ain\u2019t gone be fighting Ray.\u201d<\/p>\n
The coach looked away as he spoke.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re worn down Ray. I\u2019m the only person who\u2019s man enough to tell you. Grace would tell you, but she loves you too much. No woman can tell a man that when she loves him Ray, so I\u2019ll tell you\u2013it\u2019s over.\u201d<\/p>\n
The coach wiped the blood from Ray\u2019s mouth like a child, and he was embarrassed\u2013embarrassed to be there and embarrassed that Ray was not embarrassed. The coach knew Grace would leave Ray, not because of the beatings, but because she was still young and had enough money to get through the hard times immediately after leaving a man.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m gonna get you to town, Ray. There\u2019s a hospital in town.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGrace will take me. The nurses like Grace. Where is she?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI told you Ray\u2013she\u2019s gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
A warm breeze came down through the valley as they walked out into the night air. The moon was coming up from behind the mesa and coyotes howled behind the horizon. Ray was cold in the night, but felt better as he closed his eyes and let his breathing slow. As he drifted off, Ray dreamed of becoming champion of the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The coach wiped the blood from Ray\u2019s mouth like a child, and he was embarrassed\u2013embarrassed to be there and embarrassed that Ray was not embarrassed. The coach knew Grace would leave Ray, not because of the beatings, but because she was still young and had enough money to get through the hard times immediately after leaving a man.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":20878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3530],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-flash-fiction","writer-thomas-hayden"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20372"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20879,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20372\/revisions\/20879"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}