Blood Red Turns Dollar Green, no. 1

by Paul O'Brien

  “Yeah, he usually does. Babu doesn't like to prepare anything beforehand. He just wants to know the finish.”

  Proctor didn't like that style. He liked the match to be worked out in detail before he got in the ring. What were the big moves going to be? How long would the match go on for? Proctor wasn't so sure that Babu was going to stick to the script.

  “What can I do if this big fucking lug starts shooting on me for real in here?”

  Not much, Ricky thought.

  If Babu wanted to hurt you for real in there, there's not much anyone could do about it.

  “He won't do that, boss,” Franco said. “He knows the consequences of something stupid like that happening. I'd kill him and all his fucking family if he embarrassed you like that in here on the biggest night of your life.”

  Proctor's Boy’s loyalty was at its peak. It wasn't anything to do with Proctor really; it was that they knew the belt was coming to their territory. They were all about to make a lot of money.

  Proctor laid his head on the top rope and thought quietly. He wanted to be able to trust Ricky in a situation like this, but he didn't believe for a second that he could. Certainly not yet.

  “And what about Lenny Long? What's the plan for him, Ricky?” Proctor asked.

  If Ricky was still sending love letters to Danno, then this was a good way of Proctor knowing for sure.

  “What do you want to do?” Ricky asked.

  Proctor fell onto his ass and rolled under the bottom rope. “What would you do to someone who messed up your family that badly?”

  Ricky wanted to answer Proctor with a bat across the face.

  “Someone who hurt the one you love that badly that they're probably never going to be the same again?”

  Ricky didn't even have to think. “An eye for an eye.”

  “Exactly,” Proctor said with a little slap to Ricky's cheek. “You make sure he's here.”

  October 5th 1972. Florida.

  Lenny snuck in through the door and quickly walked up to the bar. He was wearing a hat and sunglasses and acting very twitchy.

  “Where were you, man?” Lenny asked Babu.

  Babu looked at Lenny and didn't bother answering him.

  “Did you hear me? I was supposed to bring you down here. I drove around the city trying to find you all day yesterday. If Danno finds out that I didn't get you down here, I'm dead meat.”

  Babu just kept drinking. Lenny pulled up a stool and took up residence beside him. He seemed way more jumpy to be out in the open than Babu did. “I ended up following you here from the arena.”

  Lenny waited for a response. Something. But there was nothing. Babu had a way of making him feel like the shit on his shoe.

  “Listen, I know that if you hit me, I would probably disintegrate, but I'm telling you now, as God is my witness, if you don't stop ignoring me, I'm going to punch you in the fucking face.”

  Babu turned and looked at Lenny with a bottle to his lips. “Go home,” he whispered before taking a swig.

  “And what do you think will happen to me if I do that?”

  Babu knew what would happen to him if he did stay. “I don't much give a fuck what happens to you, Lenny. You're the reason we're all in this situation. Whatever your outcome is, it’s all the same to me.”

  Lenny was immediately silenced with a wave of guilt. “I'm sorry about that.”

  “Yeah, well now all the grown-ups have to deal with it. So you go home to that wife of yours so she can whip you some more.”

  Lenny instinctively punched Babu in the shoulder. His action even surprised himself. “I'm sorry.”

  Babu never moved from his hunched over position at the bar. Lenny slid off the stool and noticed the small patronage of the bar looking in his direction. A small old man in the corner encouraged Lenny, through mime, to wallop Babu in the back of the head.

  “You'd be better off leaving,” Babu said. “They can get themselves another ref.”

  “What?” Lenny asked, not quite sure if he heard the giant correctly.

  Babu spun around on his stool. “You've got five seconds to get in your car and go back to New York, Lenny. One...”

  Lenny stood firm. “Did you say I'm going to be the ref?”

  “Two...”

  “Did you?”

  “Three...”

  “Stop counting. Is that what you...”

  “Four...” Babu took one last drink.

  Lenny turned to the onlooking locals, “Is that what he said?”

  “Fi...”

  Lenny bolted for the door and ran into the small, sticky parking lot. The perfect black sky was dotted with stars and the crickets chirped in the background. It was kind of the perfect night.

  Fuck it. Why not?

  If Danno, Ricky, or Babu were going to start respecting him, he'd have to earn it. Why not earn it now when his standing in the company was further down than it had ever been?

  Lenny opened the door of the bar and didn't even bother to look in. He simply stood in the open doorway and said, “You want to come out here like a man, champ?”

  Lenny let go of the door and it slowly marshaled itself back to the closed position. He could hardly hold in his pee, he was that nervous as he walked to the center of the lot and waited.

  Nothing.

  What's going on in there?

  “Did you hear me in there? Or do I have to say it in African?”

  Lenny walked to the windows and started to slap them all as he went the length of the bar outside. “Hello?”

  The bar door swung open and Babu filled the doorframe. “I'm serious, Lenny. You better fuck off home.”

  Lenny nearly keeled over with panic. “Fuck you,” he said, his voice shaking with adrenaline.

  Babu walked toward him and every muscle in Lenny's skinny body screamed at him to run. “I'm sorry for what happened in the van, but I know I didn't fall asleep and I deserve to be treated with some respect from you.”

  “You don't know shit about how this whole thing works.”

  “Well teach me. Everyone is mad at me ‘cause I don't know anything, but no one is offering to teach me.”

  “You want to know what it’s like in this business?” Babu lifted Lenny off his feet with an open hand slap in the jaw. “You want to be part of this business? Do you?”

  Lenny struggled back up and stood on severely shaky legs. “Yes.”

  Babu slapped him with his other hand on the other side of his face. Lenny was driven the other way to the dirt. Babu turned on the patrons of the bar that were watching from the doorway. “Get back in.”

  The small crowd trampled on each other trying to re-enter the bar before the charging giant caught up to them.

  “You still want in?” Babu asked Lenny.

  Lenny stumbled to his feet, but fell headfirst into the wheel of an old broken-down truck in the car park. “Yes,” he said from the ground.

  Babu grabbed him by the collar and lifted him over his head. “You think they want you to ref ‘cause they like you, Lenny? Is that why they suddenly needed you down here?”

  “I don't care why,” Lenny struggled to say. “It's an opportunity.”

  Babu launched Lenny into the windshield of the old truck.

  “Hey,” shouted the small old man from the open window of the bar. “That's mine, asshole.”

  Lenny took a fifty from his pocket and stuck it under the broken windshield wiper. “I can take a bump.”

  Babu was starting to get legitimately angry with Lenny. Taking bumps is what you got trained for. Someone throws a 'punch' in a wrestling ring, and you’d better be able to sell the pain of it to the audience and finish it with a flat back bump onto the mat. It's the bread and butter of the wrestling business. Taking good bumps would make the crowd believe. Taking a shitty bump got you booed and ticket sales would go down.

  “You can take a bump?”

  Lenny rolled off the hood and fell to his knees. “Yeah. I practice all the time.”

&
nbsp; Babu wondered if someone had broken Lenny into the business already and not told him. “With who?”

  “On my own at home. When no one is looking, I just fall down.” Lenny fell straight back and spread his weight perfectly across his body.

  Lenny forced out a breathless, “see,” before curling up into a winded ball.

  Babu didn't know what to do. Why would he care if something happened to Lenny? He didn’t know him that well, and he had gotten everyone into this position in the first place.

  “Do what you like, Lenny.” Babu walked away and left Lenny winded and disoriented on the ground in the parking lot.

  Oct 5th 1972. Florida.

  Lenny held the phone to his ear and tried to adjust the air conditioning. His ribs were sore and his lower back was numb, but he felt kind of good for having taken the beating.

  He was a little apprehensive about calling home at nearly two in the morning, but he didn't have that much time left.

  “Hello?” Bree answered.

  “Hello, missus. It's me again. Now, I know it’s late, but...”

  “I can't talk now, Lenny.”

  “What? Why not?”

  “'Cause we're all about to get in the car.”

  Lenny was afraid to ask, “For what?”

  Bree paused, not all that sure that she was making the right decision. “We thought we'd take you up on your offer.”

  Lenny thought he was going to erupt into tears.

  “You there?” Bree asked.

  “Yeah,” Lenny said, trying not to bawl.

  “Where are we going to meet you? The kids are desperate to see you.”

  “I don't know this place well. How about you find the arena here, Jacksonville Coliseum, and I'll meet you by the entrance at ten tomorrow night?”

  Bree was still wary. “Do you promise you won't let these kids down again, Lenny? They miss you. I miss you.”

  “I promise you that I'll be there,” Lenny started to get emotional. “I'm sorry about everything, Bree. I really am. I'm a good guy, really.”

  “I know you are, Lenny. That's why I married you.”

  “Okay,” Lenny said, winding up the conversation. “I love you.”

  “Lenny?”

  “Yeah?”

  “If you're not there, I will have to go.”

  “I know. I'll be there.”

  “Okay. Love you.”

  “Me too. Drive carefully.”

  Lenny put the phone down and jumped all over his room in celebration. Then Babu knocked on his door. “Lenny?”

  Lenny stopped jumping around and looked through the peephole. “Yeah?”

  “You want to know how to work?”

  Lenny quickly opened the door. Babu entered.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  October 6th 1972. Atlanta.

  Barry Banner was angry. He was so angry he was sure that when he saw Ted Berry's smiling face in that fucking restaurant that he was going to smack him there and then.

  Another meeting. And Ted wouldn't shift to Florida or talk over the phone. Something big needed to be discussed and there was no way New York would do it any other way than in person.

  Three meetings in four days. All of them in Atlanta. All of them a huge trek. All of them bullshit. He wanted Proctor to call the shots and set up the meetings. Barry thought that Danno was still trying something on.

  If it was all up to Barry, he would have cut the head off the snake and dealt with Danno a long time ago.

  He pulled his car to the curb outside the restaurant and didn't even bother rolling his windows up. This was going to be short and sweet. He'd make sure of it. He wanted to be back in Jacksonville to see the boss finally take the belt later that night.

  Barry slammed his door shut and checked his watch. He was fourteen minutes late, but just let Ted try and say something to him about it.

  He pocketed his keys and stood out in the street where a battered, lime green 1960 Rambler hit him straight on.

  Barry smashed, face first, off the windshield and got caught under the front of the car where his pelvic bone and sternum were shattered. The Rambler continued at pace until it clipped another parked car and its back wheel lifted as it drove over Barry's already crushed torso.

  The Rambler continued on down the road at pace.

  October 6th 1972. Texas.

  Annie made her way down to the hotel bar, carrying the rucksack. This was what she wanted: a piece of business to handle, to help her husband get through this.

  The bar was quiet and mostly empty. She looked out for a man her husband had described as 'a really brown fucker with a white mustache and shaky hands.'

  Annie browsed the room and ordered a drink. She noticed a man looking out the window by the door who fit the description. At least the first two parts of it.

  “Curt?” she asked.

  “Yes?” Curt answered, a little confused. He seemed nervous and edgy.

  Annie offered a handshake and he obliged while standing up. “Hello. I'm Annie Garland. I think we met briefly in New York at a party.”

  “Oh, yes. Mrs. Garland. Your anniversary party. I'm sorry; I wasn't expecting to see you down here. I was in a world of my own.”

  Both Annie and Curt sat down. Curt seemed more confused as to why Annie would be joining him and Danno for a business meeting. “Has your husband been delayed?”

  “He's not coming.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “As you may know, my husband is otherwise engaged tonight. Although he is anxious to complete the deal before the main event begins later.”

  Curt stood up. “I'm sorry darling, but this is a slap in the face to me and a waste of my fucking time.”

  “Sit down, Mr. Magee, or the deal will be pulled immediately,” Annie said, while opening the rucksack. She noticed an envelope on top that said, Sorry, in someone's handwriting.

  “Excuse me?” Curt said.

  “I said there will be no second go around here today or any other, Mr. Magee. My husband's offer expires the second you leave this bar.”

  Curt struggled to contain his contempt for the power this woman seemed to have over him. “What's going on here? I thought we had a deal? I have a line of people who are looking for payments off me, Mrs. Garland. Going out of business is not a cheap pursuit.”

  “We want to do a deal.” Annie said.

  Curt slowly pulled his seat back out and lowered himself into it like a lobster being eased into a pot.

  “And he gave you full permission to make the decisions to get this deal done?” Curt asked.

  Annie was intrigued by the envelope and opened it under the table. Inside there were two ladies rings. One looked to be an engagement ring and the other a wedding ring.

  “I don't want to prolong this humiliation any further, Mrs. Garland. Your husband promised me a cash deal here today.” Curt's nerves were beginning to show on his face. It looked to Annie like both of his hands were shaking now.

  Annie quickly pocketed the rings and read the note that accompanied them:

  I'm sorry boss. I don't have all the money. I will pay you back. I promise. I'm sorry. Lenny.

  “Is there a problem?” Curt asked, starting to get nervous and a little paranoid as to what Annie was silently reading under the table.

  Annie knew now she didn't have the money to make the deal. At a bar in Texas, both Annie and Curt were starting to feel the pressure of this deal.

  Oct 6th 1972. Florida.

  Danno leaned over the hospital bed and kept a keen eye on the door. Gilbert was asleep in the bed. Danno knew that being there was a stupid move, to say the least, but he had to know.

  “Hey?” Danno whispered into Gilbert's half-ear. Gilbert's eyes opened and immediately revealed fear.

  “He didn't do what you said he did, did he?”

  Gilbert opened his dry lips to speak, but Danno hushed him up. “Just nod. Do you hear me?”

  Gilbert nodded.

  “Lenny Long didn't fall asl
eep, did he?”

  Gilbert nodded that he did. Danno leaned in closer. “I'm going to ask you once more, Gilbert, and then I'm going to take the results of your answer out on your old man. Do you understand?”

  Gilbert nodded again. The monitor beside his bed began to beep faster.

  “Was all this started by Lenny Long?”

  Gilbert slowly shook his head. Danno felt a weight rise from his chest.

  “Was the van crashing Lenny's fault?”

  Gilbert again shook his head. The beeping was twice as fast as it was before Gilbert woke up.

  “I feel better now, Gilbert. Do you?”

  A tear rolled down the side of Gilbert's face.

  “When I’ve done my business this evening, I'm going to ring my secretary and I'm going to tell her to put it in my diary that I'm to track you down in a couple of month’s time, Gilbert.”

  Danno stood strong and fixed his appearance before leaving the hospital room. Gilbert's eyes widened when he saw what was coming next.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  October 6th 1972. Florida.

  Babu and Lenny sat in a van outside the Coliseum. The parking lot was packed with cars, but there were no people around. Everyone who was coming was already in their seats watching the opening matches.

  Lenny was quiet and thinking about his way home. He knew it didn't have to be back in New York. He was absolutely happy to go wherever his family wanted to go. He just needed to exorcise the wrestling demon first.

  One time in front of the crowd, and make them believe. Lenny was a short time away from living his dream and he had never been as scared.

  “You know what happens to you if you go in there?” Babu asked.

  Lenny was resigned to the possibility that he wasn't going to walk out of there unaided.

  “Danno sent word that he doesn't want you involved no more.”

  “What about Proctor having him by the balls?”

  “That's gone. You don't have to do nothing you don't want to do.”

  Lenny looked at the giant defiantly. “I want to work him.”

  What could Babu do? If Lenny entered that ring, Proctor was going to hurt him for real. It wouldn't be the first time that the 'trapeze' situation was used to protect wrestling malice from the law.