Slamdown Town

by Maxwell Nicoll

  Linton made his way into the ring. He held out his hand for Ollie’s mom to shake.

  She just stood there. That drew more cheers from the crowd, which she silenced with a warning finger. But Linton waved it off. He turned to speak to the audience.

  “Not only do I have the unexpected privilege of witnessing history as our ref becomes the first ever Slamdown Town referee to ever be our champion—seriously, Cash Cow, I mean Big Chew, where’d ya go?—but I got other news for you,” announced Linton.

  The arena seemed to collectively hold its breath.

  “Seems enough of you suckers—er, I mean patrons—showed up that my so-called ‘smart investors,’” he said as he made exaggerated air quotes, “wised up. A butt in every seat by the end of the match. That was the deal. We sold every ticket today. Trust me, I saw the numbers. Those big, beautiful numbers. It was certainly a photo finish, though,” he said, glancing in Ollie’s direction. “So . . .”

  Tamiko, wide-eyed, turned to Ollie. “Is he saying what I think he’s saying?”

  “In other words,” continued Linton, “prepare to spend a lot of money here next weekend, because Slamdown Town will officially remain open for business. Seriously though, bring your money. Like, all of it. Because I’m raising prices.”

  Tamiko screamed so loudly that Ollie’s ears rang. He didn’t mind. He screamed right along with her. He screamed until his throat was sore. And then screamed some more.

  Happy didn’t seem like a happy-enough word to describe what he felt.

  “We did it!” he screamed to Tamiko.

  “We totally did!” shrieked Tamiko.

  They both jumped around. He felt like he had the energy to run ten thousand miles.

  Several rows down, he noticed Hollis clutching the person next to him, some eighth-grade girl Ollie recognized from school.

  “We did it. We saved wrestling,” sobbed Hollis loudly into the girl’s shoulder. “And my mom won the belt! How cool is that?”

  “Yeah, that’s pretty cool,” he heard the girl say as she gingerly patted an overwhelmed Hollis on the back. “And I’m not just saying that. It actually is cool!”

  Hollis had successfully talked to a girl. His mom was champion. Slamdown Town had been saved. This was the best day of Ollie’s entire life.

  CHAPTER 41

  The following Saturday, Ollie got ready for wrestling just like he always did. He riffled through his closet for his coolest wrestling shirt. It wasn’t a hard decision. He put on his ratty old Professor Pain T-shirt, which he wore only for extra-special occasions for fear it would fall apart. It was, after all, the first wrestling shirt he’d ever gotten, and it still fit him. He guessed that was one of the benefits of not having hit his growth spurt yet.

  He then texted Tamiko to see if she was ready to take on Kragthar. They had just enough time before needing to leave for the match to face the menacing evil that had proved impossible to defeat.

  I was born ready. Be on in five.

  Then, as he waited for Tamiko to boot up Revenge of Kragthar, he rewatched Professor Pain’s final video in his Anyone Can Be a Wrestler series.

  “Listen, friends,” said Professor Pain’s voice through the laptop speakers. “I’ve told ya about how costumes, smack talk, and moves are the key to making you a great wrestler. But I haven’t told you the most important key of all to wrestling: you!”

  Ollie smiled.

  “Yes, you!” continued Professor Pain.

  “Me?” said Ollie, playing along.

  “The most important lesson is to be yourself. We can wish all we want, but until you believe you can be the best wrestler ever, well friends, you won’t be. Remember, these videos here, they can teach ya how to be a ’rassler. But only you can make it happen.”

  Professor Pain waved to the camera, ending in a freeze-frame advertisement for the production company’s various other Anyone Can Be a . . . series. Ollie wrapped up the Professor’s magic bubble gum and shoved it into his back pocket.

  His phone vibrated as he received Tamiko’s message saying she was ready.

  Ollie launched Revenge of Kragthar.

  “Today is the day,” declared Tamiko through the headset as her wizard and Ollie’s knight made their way into the vast, creepy dungeon. “Kragthar is going down.”

  Ollie winced and lowered his headphone volume. “He won’t know what hit him. But it’s going to be a lot of fireballs and power attacks.”

  Ollie wasn’t nervous, despite the fact that Tamiko was streaming and their game was being watched by hundreds of random internet strangers.

  In the past few weeks, Ollie had beaten the best wrestlers Slamdown Town had to offer. What chance did a pixelated level ninety-nine boss have compared to all of them? Besides, he had the best tool available to take Kragthar down. And it wasn’t the teleporting shoulder pads.

  It was Tamiko.

  “We can do this, Tamiko,” said Ollie as they ran past the three-headed silver snake and headed into the final area. “As long as we stick together, we got—”

  Just as Kragthar appeared on-screen, Hollis barged into the room.

  “Hollis?”

  “Oh, no, not again,” moaned Tamiko through the speakers.

  Hollis’s eyes shot from Ollie, who remained frozen with uncertainty, to the cracked screen where Ollie’s knight sat motionless. They had been so close . . .

  “Well, are you just gonna sit there and let Kragthar beat you?” demanded Hollis. “Come on, I need to finish my blog post for the site. Chop-chop.”

  Ollie turned back to the task at hand. His fingers, slippery with sweat, banged on the keyboard. He licked his lips. Acid pits and icy blasts popped up everywhere. Kragthar spun around and absorbed blow after blow. With each hit, his health meter went down.

  Finally it hit a critical level and Kragthar stood there, stunned.

  There it was! The opening Ollie had been looking for.

  “When I use my epic strike, go in for the finisher!” yelled Ollie.

  “Set him up for me,” said Tamiko, her voice tense with anticipation.

  Ollie’s knight charged forward and slammed into Kragthar.

  “Now, Tamiko!”

  Tamiko gave a cry and used her highest-level spell, the Sunbeam Express. A wave of light washed over the entire screen. When it cleared, Kragthar was just a pile of ash.

  “We did it!” shrieked Ollie.

  “We are the best adventurers of all time!” shouted Tamiko. “Take that, Kragthar.”

  They received message after message of congratulations from T@M1k0’s followers.

  Ollie heard Tamiko’s dad in the background. “Tamiko, we just got a call from the neighbors again. Please keep it down.”

  “But we beat Kragthar, Dad.”

  “Kragthar? Nice,” said her dad. “Just celebrate a little quieter, okay?”

  Hollis moved himself between Ollie and the laptop. “All right, my turn. Gimme.”

  “See you soon, Tamiko!” shouted Ollie into the headset.

  Without wasting another moment, Hollis closed the game and scooped up the laptop. But considering his brother had waited until after Kragthar had been defeated, Ollie didn’t resist.

  “You aren’t even going to say congrats?” asked Ollie.

  Hollis rolled his eyes. “Please. Everyone knows Kragthar is way easier to beat in Revenge of Kragthar. Just wait until you play Kragthar: Eye for an Eye. You’re gonna get stomped.”

  They made their way outside and piled into the back seat of the car. Hollis began typing away on the laptop.

  “Gotta post my pre-match thoughts to all my adoring fans,” he said.

  His mom leapt into the front seat, started the car, and off they went.

  True to his word, Hollis had officially ended their temporary alliance.

  But life with his brother hadn’t been all that bad. While the occasional sweaty headlock still caught him by surprise, and Hollis had continued to ban Ollie from talking to him at school in fro
nt of other eighth graders, he and Hollis were bonding over wrestling more now than they had in years.

  “Who do you think is gonna take the matches?” asked Hollis as their mom drove them toward the arena.

  “Pretty sure The Bolt will beat The Snowman,” predicted Ollie.

  “Nice. I can see that,” agreed Hollis. “And pretty sure that Lil’ Old Granny dominates Barbell Bill. Few minutes and he’s done.”

  Ollie nodded. “Oh, he’ll lose. She’s stronger than she looks.”

  “How do you know that?” asked Hollis.

  “Just a guess.”

  “Plus, Big Chew is totally going to make his return today,” declared Hollis. He had a working theory that Linton Krackle had forced Big Chew into an early retirement in order to build up hype for his eventual return. “It’s just a big money-making thing. But I don’t care! Take my money, Linton!” Hollis held up his piggy bank and rattled it next to Ollie’s ear.

  Big Chew’s disappearance had caused quite a stir. At first, amid the awesome chaos of Werewrestler finally ceding the belt to the referee and Slamdown Town being saved, no one had even noticed he was gone. But at the end of the day, Big Chew never reappeared from the pile of barricades he’d been tossed into. And that’s when the conversations started.

  Some thought that Big Chew and the referee had been working together as a tag team in order to defeat Werewrestler. Others believed Big Chew felt betrayed that the referee had stolen his moment of glory and had walked away from wrestling for good. One conspiracy theorist even posted on the Officially Unofficial Slamdown Town Fan Club, which still maintained a decent amount of visitors, that Big Chew had fallen through a crack in the arena floor and was biding his time before emerging from a subterranean lair. What was clear to everyone was that Big Chew, for whatever reason, was nowhere to be found. And nothing outside of Hollis’s stubborn hopes seemed to indicate he’d be making a quick return.

  “That one I wouldn’t be so sure of,” said Ollie. “But what I am sure of is that Mom is still going to be the champion after today. Right, Mom?”

  Their mom laughed. “Trust me, I’ll be keeping the belt nice and safe.”

  She had handled her newfound fame exactly as Ollie expected her to: by the book. The arena had hired a new referee since the old referee was now the Slamdown Town champion wrestler known as “The Referee.”

  Ollie thought her new wrestling persona was true to the mom he knew and loved.

  “Most importantly, I’ll be keeping the rules nice and safe,” she clarified. “I may be the champion and a wrestler again, per the rules, but I’m a referee at heart. And the rule book clearly states that a referee’s number one duty is to uphold the rules. Hopefully this newbie is up to par and has memorized all three thousand seven hundred wrestling bylaws. If so, that means there will technically be two referees when I’m in the ring. Double rules!”

  Having the belt back where it belonged, draped over his mom’s massive shoulder, brought a smile to Ollie’s face. He wanted to be just like her when he grew up.

  As they pulled into the parking lot, the familiar sight of Slamdown Town greeted Ollie. He knew Tamiko would be waiting for him inside, sitting at their usual seats, but he had one task to take care of before joining her.

  Ollie strolled through the arena until he found himself in the trophy room. The shelves were lined with golden cups and silver medals, sparkling belts and colorful plaques. Various trinkets and props collected from Slamdown Town wrestlers over the years lay strewn all over the room. He knew each piece by heart, having spent many an hour poring over every nook and cranny.

  Captain General’s medal of ringside heroics for carrying his entire tag team to safety.

  Lil’ Old Granny’s first walker, complete with tennis balls on the ends.

  Tommy TV Remote’s original factory-issue battery pack.

  The piece he was looking for sat on a dusty wooden case under a flickering light in the back of the room: Professor Pain’s original Slamdown Town championship belt.

  The belt had been replaced after the Professor’s retirement with an even flashier belt. An almost-forgotten corner of the trophy room was its final resting place.

  Ollie had thought long and hard about what his next move would be. Contrary to Hollis’s conspiracy theory, Linton had been calling Tamiko’s phone nonstop to schedule Big Chew’s next fight. But Ollie, like Professor Pain before him, had decided his time had come.

  No, Ollie wasn’t going to retire to spend more time sleeping on tropical beaches and being paid to make terrible local-business commercials. And he wasn’t leaving because he didn’t like wrestling anymore or something like that. In fact, being a wrestler was easily the coolest thing that had ever happened to him—and probably would ever happen to him.

  But there was one part about wrestling that he loved more than being an actual wrestler, and that was watching matches with his best friend. Tamiko made wrestling a thousand times more epic and fun and cool. Being Big Chew had nearly taken all that away.

  Besides, there would be plenty of time for Ollie to grow up and be an awesome wrestler himself. He knew he could do it all on his own, no magic gum required.

  Ollie checked to make sure the coast was clear. Seeing that he was alone, he reached into his back pocket and removed the wrapped gum. He plucked it off the piece of the neon-blue flyer, the very same flyer from more than a month earlier. That he tucked back into his pocket. He’d planned on hanging it up in the first place, with all his other mementos. Crumpled and smudged and dirt-streaked as it was, the flyer had certainly earned its place on the wall.

  Ollie took the gum in his hand and stuck it firmly behind Professor Pain’s belt.

  Maybe it would still be there for him if he needed it on a rainy day in the future. Maybe the gum would find its way into someone else’s hands and, if they wished on it like he did, allow them to experience the thrill of transforming into a super-buff, powerful wrestler.

  Either way, Ollie relinquished his claim on the gum. It had taught him a lot about wrestling, about family, and about friendship. He felt it would somehow be greedy of him to not share that with someone else.

  The gum controlled its own destiny now.

  He left the trophy room without looking back. He walked back into the arena, ran up the flight of uneven stairs, took a hard left at the first broken window, leapt over the old pothole that was created when Lil’ Old Granny pile-drove Barbell Bill in an out-of-the-ring brawl, and—finally—arrived at the set of rickety seats that he and Tamiko claimed as their own.

  “There you are!” said Tamiko, leaning back in her seat and glancing up from her phone. She had moved on from Jewel Heist after claiming all top-ten leaderboard spots and was now playing Dance Party, a music-rhythm game that forced her to use two fingers. Her new account, Salsa Boogiedown, was already climbing the ranks. She was wearing a lone lime-green sock today, paired with her favorite Silvertongue shirt. She already had her arms full of red licorice, extra-butter popcorn, and what looked like five gallons of soda.

  “Did you do it?” she asked.

  “Yup.” Ollie had filled Tamiko in last night as to his intentions. As Big Chew’s manager, she was devastated to lose her best and only client.

  As Ollie’s friend, she was happy to have him back.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls,” crooned Screech over the speakers. “It’s time to get to your seats, because the matches are about to begin.”

  “You ready for this?” asked Tamiko.

  “You bet I am,” answered Ollie.

  Ollie and Tamiko smiled and readied themselves for another heart-pounding, blood-pumping afternoon of Slamdown Town wrestling.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Maureen Smith, Gary Nicoll, Patty Nicoll, Lauren Palette, Olivia Smith, Lindsey Tews, Ryan Nicoll, Anne Heltzel, Jessica Gotz, Marie Oishi, Hana Anouk Nakamura, Michael Clark, Lena Buzzetta, Joseph Buzzetta, Jillian Vanek, Jess Landau, Steven Landau, Morgan Rubin, Michael Krouse, Joshua
McHugh, Maya Carter-Ali, Amir Ali, Marielle Carter, Andrew Moriarty, Dwight Hahn, Maria Losada, Rachel Jackson, Rob Domingo, Patricia Melendez, Melinda Carr, Steve Palette-Nicoll, and Kitty Meow.

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