Rocky's Choice

by Xander Hades

  “I’m not doing anything until Val is free!”

  “Ah, the young lady. I do wish you would have told me about her. She’s so…” Óscar looked for the right word, “… tiny. She’s also beautiful, you know, I do believe I said that about her before. I gave strict instructions that she was not to be molested in any way, but boys will be boys…” Óscar smiled and held up his hands when he saw Rocky’s fist clench. “Not that I condone such actions, but it was a case of overactive hormones… that one may never regain full use of his hand. I didn’t even know you could break your palm.” Óscar shook his head sadly.

  “She’s safe enough, but she’s too wild to be trotted out like a pony, you’ll have to settle for a phone call.” He pulled out a cell phone and pressed a button and handed it to Rocky.

  “Hello?”

  “Rocky?” Val’s voice was spitting fury on the other end. “Whatever this little shit-eater tells you, don’t you do it!”

  “Val, are you hurt?”

  “What? No, I’m not hurt! I’m pissed. Don’t be running after me, and for God’s sake, don’t fight for this loser!”

  “Look, I’m not doing anything till I find out if you’re ok.”

  Val exhaled. “Yeah, yeah, I’m ok. I just…”

  The phone went dead.

  “I think that’s enough for now,” Óscar said. He took the phone back and handed Rocky an envelope. “I can’t have you spending the night in your car,” he said. “You need to be rested for tomorrow.”

  He smiled and turned away, waving as he left.

  “What you gonna do man?” Diaz asked.

  “I’m not fighting,” Rocky said. That much he knew for sure.

  “What? What did we come down here for?”

  “To get Val.”

  “Aye, and in order to do that, you have to fight, no?”

  “No.”

  Diaz shrugged and snatched the room keys from the envelope. “Let’s get some rest,” he suggested. “So you’ll be ready to not fight tomorrow.”

  ***

  “I think we’re supposed to enter from the rear,” Diaz said the next day. The place was bursting at the seams. Óscar was right about one thing, the fight was a big attraction. There were hundreds of people cramming the arena and it was a small town, not large enough to support such a crowd. It was also not large enough to support any reasonable police force.

  “Don’t care,” Rocky said, pushing his way through. He pressed past well-wishers and cat-callers and headed to the front were the cage was set up. One of the workers recognized him and led him to the dressing room.

  Murray was there.

  “What… Murray, what the hell are you doing here?”

  “I heard about this,” his agent said with a sad shake to his head. “But I knew you wouldn’t be this stupid. I was wrong. You are about to destroy everything.”

  “Murray…”

  “ROCKY!” Murray shouted. “The MMA has their ruling! They ruled that you were not at fault and you’re reinstated. I can get you a…” He dismissed the venue with a contemptuous wave. “… a real fight.”

  “Murray, they have Val.”

  “Oh, shit,” Murray said and looked around, suddenly uneasy. “Rocky… Listen, I know you have to do what you have to do, but… if you take a single swing in that cage, you will never fight professionally in the States again.”

  “They have Val, Murray,” Rocky said. “Nothing is more important than that.”

  Murray nodded and looked at Diaz and back at his client. “I’ll be out there,” Murray said. “I’ll… I’ll do whatever I can for you.”

  “Thank you, Murray,” Rocky said, as Diaz helped him change and get his gloves laced.

  There were monitors everywhere, all of them trained on the cage. Rocky mounted the steps and went to his corner. He accepted the mouth guard and the crowd went wild as his opponent entered the cage. He was huge, six and half feet, all lean muscle. He also had a snarl for Rocky. Rocky looked at the man blandly.

  Introductions were made, flashes blinded them and each took off his robe. His opponent had an impressive chest, nice cut abs, thick arms. The crowd screamed and yelled for his show. Rocky took off his and the crowd fell silent and then exploded. Rocky’s muscle mass seemed to draw that same reaction every time. Usually he loved it, the energy of the crowd, the screams, and whistles just for him.

  Tonight, it was all just so much noise.

  “Shake hands and fight!” the ref yelled and backed off. The fighter put his fists for the traditional tap. Rocky didn’t. He stood still and breathed deeply.

  “Come on!” The man yelled through his mouth guard. “Come on!”

  The crowd was confused and began venting their rage with jeers and profanity. Rocky didn’t move. His opponent hit Rocky’s chest lightly, the traditional tap complete, he swung and hit a hard shot against Rocky’s jaw. Rocky reeled backward, but made no move to defend himself. He took the blow and returned, flat footed to his mark and waited for the next blow to fall.

  The most I can ever give you is myself. I will learn to not fight for you, Val. You are my life.

  Another shot to the face. Rocky was dizzy, dazed.

  He returned to his mark and stood still.

  Chapter 22

  Val sat heavily on the little cot they’d provided for her. She was watching the little monitor they had given her for lack of anything better to do. She knew Rocky wouldn’t go through with it. He wasn’t a killer. What happened to her would happen anyway, and she would be a tough one to kill.

  She convinced herself that her Rocky wouldn’t show. When she saw him walking to the ring she fell, her knees buckling under her.

  Rocky. No. No. I’ve lost him. I’ve lost him…

  She didn’t want to hear the introductions, didn’t want to listen, but she couldn’t reach the monitor, they had it too far out of reach. She heard it all, but couldn’t watch it. The bell rang and the fight was on and Val wept for the love she’d had and lost.

  “What the hell is Rocky doing?” someone said from nearby. “What’s wrong with him?”

  She looked up and gasped. Rocky wasn’t defending himself. He was just standing there. He took a blow to the head, he didn’t dodge it, he didn’t block it, he took it, shook it off and walked back. Val’s breath stopped in her lungs, her throat closed up. He was hit again.

  ROCKY! NO! NO! NO!

  He’s not fighting, he’s not fighting! This match is to the death! A scream she didn’t know was building in her suddenly tore through her throat and burned her lungs. It was a siren’s cry, an anguished scream, watching the man she loved being killed in front of her and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

  The door to her cell clicked, they were unlocking it. She spun and crouched. The door opened a few inches, enough for the burly man on the other end get between it and the door fame.

  Val sprang, flipping in the air and slamming her legs into the door. It shattered under her impact and the man grunted before he fell unconscious to the floor. Val took his gun and sped out through the hallway. There was a lot of noise below her. She ran to the end of the corridor and crashed into the door, nearly losing her balance. She caught herself by grabbing another guard and using her momentum to fling him off of a second level balcony.

  The crowd screamed in fear.

  “VALKYRIE!”

  Val spun. She let a half-mad sob. “HOODOO!” There was no way to mistake the giant in the room. Mad-dog and Loki stood beside him as though it was their natural place to be. Someone grabbed her from behind and she twisted and dove off the balcony, bringing her attacker between her and the floor. He landed with a hollow OOOF and let her go, more intent on breathing than keeping his prisoner.

  She jumped to her feet and staggered against a wall. The landing had knocked the wind out of her, too. In a moment, Mad-dog and Loki were next to her.

  “Where’s Hoodoo?” she gasped. A man flew upward from the floor and across the mingled patrons now in a
hurry to vacate the arena. “Oh, wait, there he is.”

  Hoodoo was making a bee-line to the cage where Rocky was still getting a beating. Rather than one shot at a time, the fighter was now pummeling him at will, Rocky was covering his face as best he could and was on his knees, reeling with every blow. Hoodoo was tearing through the guards coming at him like a linebacker going through a kindergarten. The few gunshots that managed to sound were hasty and fired in panic, hitting, mercifully, a whole lot of nothing at all.

  Val found herself facing another guard. Loki and Mad-dog were already fighting. Val leaped in the air and kicked, caving in the man’s nose and then landed on her hands and feet, spinning around to land her heel in his crotch.

  She looked again to her beloved Rocky just as Hoodoo jumped up on the platform. The fighter, suddenly aware of the sensation of a giant on the platform, looked up in time to see him tear the door off and throw it behind him into the crowd.

  Val was already running full out to the stage. The fighter took one look at Hoodoo and climbed the fence, trying to break out over the top.

  Hoodoo reached up and plucked him off like a ripe melon and dropped him to the platform. He slammed the man into the cage and turned to finish him.

  There were a dozen teenagers suddenly in there behind him. They wore identical bandanas and moved like they knew how to fight. “Hector?” Val cried, not sure if it was him, he’d left soon after she’d arrived. “Help me!”

  It must have been, he ran to her side and they tried to roll Rocky over. It was like moving a house. “Hoodoo?”

  Hoodoo looked at the fighter, half-dazed on the floor. “It’s ok, man, we got this,” one of the kids assured him. Hoodoo ran to Rocky and gently scooped him up in his arms. He carried him gently to the dressing room following a wild-eyed Diaz.

  “Shit,” Diaz said, half-leading and half-running from Hoodoo, “Bigfoot is real!”

  They lay Rocky on the table and Val wept, trying to soothe him, but wasn’t sure where she could touch him safely. They’d broken him, destroying the most beautiful thing she’d ever had in her life.

  “Val…” Hoodoo said slowly.

  “In here!” Murray called from the door. He led a medical team with a stretcher. He walked up to his client and placed a hand on his chest. “Rocky, for God’s sake, call the cops next time!” Murray looked at Val. “Well, tell him that when he wakes up.”

  “If he wakes up,” Hector said, his eyes wide. Frightened.

  “He will,” Val smiled at her bloodied man. He would be OK. Because he had to be OK. And when he woke up she was going to put herself somewhere where she’d be able to make sure of that.

  Like it or not, it looked like she’d be staying in L.A. permanently.

  “He will. And when he does, Hector, you’ll come back to the motel.”

  “I… but…” Hector looked at the adults there and sighed. “Yes, ma’am.”

  Rocky didn’t move.

  Though she could have sworn he was smiling.

  Epilogue

  “I now pronounce you man and wife.”

  The bright blue sky of Mazatlán was nearly indistinguishable from the ocean in the horizon. Waves lapped the golden sands and Tracy dug her toes into the softness of the beach. “How can you wear those things on sand?” she whispered to Hoodoo, pointing at his heavy boots.

  Hoodoo put a finger to his lips and watched misty eyed as Rocky and Val kissed.

  “I don’t think you were this happy at our wedding,” Tracy said with a little laugh.

  “That’s because I was scared out of my socks,” Hoodoo admitted, and shuddered a little.

  “You were afraid of marrying me?” Tracy teased him.

  “No,” Hoodoo said. “Momma Leonna was sitting in the front row.”

  “Oh, yeah, that scared me, too,” Tracy admitted. It was her turn to shudder.

  “Hell, she scared me, and I wasn’t even in the wedding.” Deanna laughed. “Poor Michael nearly wet himself and she likes him!”

  Music erupted in a sudden crescendo. Val and Rocky were returning down the aisle. They seemed to be taking a somewhat non-traditional approach to things. Val was suddenly there, with them. She leaped and wrapped her arms around Hoodoo’s neck, hanging from there for a long moment. Hoodoo embraced her and lowered her slowly to the ground. “Thank you for giving me away,” she said, beaming.

  “My pleasure.” Hoodoo smiled. “First time I was able to do that.”

  “Wait another 20 years.” Tracy said with a grin in an aside to Deanna.

  Hoodoo did a double-take, Tracy laughed. “No. Well, maybe. Not sure yet…” Hoodoo stared a long moment, misty eyed, then swept her up next, much to her delight.

  “I think someone wants you,” Tracy laughed. Hoodoo’s suit pants were tugged twice from somewhere very low to the ground.

  “Ooodooo!” A tiny voice insisted.

  “Francis!” Deanna called. “Don’t interrupt Uncle Hoodoo and Aunt Tracy! It was just getting good!”

  Hoodoo picked the child up and set her on his shoulder.

  “WEEEE!” She squealed in delight. “Mommy, I’m taller than you are!”

  “Listen,” Hoodoo said to Val. “Rocky means the world to me, be good to him or I’ll kick your ass!”

  “You got it boss.” Val grinned and saluted. “And since you gave me away, I get the first dance with you!” She looked at Tracy. “If that’s ok?”

  Tracy laughed. “Of course! I can wait for the second dance.”

  “I’m second!” Francis squealed as Hoodoo tickled her.

  “Hoodoo, Michael.” Rocky grinned and shook both of their hands. “Thank you both for… everything.”

  “Listen, the Foundation has nothing to do with my family business. They do good work, I think you’ll like them,” Michael said, slapping the man’s shoulder. “They are keeping you on, right?”

  “Yeah. I need to get back to school, but when I’m done with that…” He smiled.

  “So my little girl gonna be a den mother,” Hoodoo grinned.

  “What the he…” Val looked at the little girl on his shoulder. “What the heck do you think I did with the Gilas?”

  “Yeah, you know she was the best den mother we ever had!” Loki said.

  “Better than you,” Mad-dog added.

  “An’ you two were the prettiest bridesmaids!” Hoodoo laughed.

  “At least we didn’t have to wear a dress,” Mad-dog muttered.

  “For you, Val, we would have.” Loki bowed over her hand.

  “No,” Mad-dog said. “Just. No.”

  Loki thought a moment. “Yeah, you’re right. Love you Val, but not that much.”

  The child on Hoodoo’s shoulder began to bounce up and down.

  “FRANCIS ROCK MARCOTTI!” Deanna shouted, giving a somewhat panicked look to her offspring using the tone all mothers adopt when seeing their kid about to fall from a rather high place. “Stop that this instant!”

  “But Momma, I can see my house from here!”

  “In Chicago?”

  “Wait, Francis Rock?” Val said, turning to look at Deanna with a frown.

  “Yeah. I wasn’t sure at first, but I’ve gotten fond of it.”

  Tracy looked at Hoodoo and tried not to smile. Val wasn’t going to let it go. “Ok, I get that the three of you were best friends… but why name her after one… well, yeah, you don’t want to name a precious little girl ‘Hoodoo’.”

  Hoodoo slowly let the child down, taking a deep breath. Tracy couldn’t hold it in anymore and began laughing. So did Deanna. The only ones not laughing were the Gilas and Rocky. “What?” Val demanded and gasped. “OH MY GOD!” She squealed through a hand over her mouth. “You did name her after both of them!”

  Mad-dog was a half a second behind Loki. “Your name is FRANCIS?” they asked in one voice. They didn’t have much of a head start, but managed to get halfway down the beach with Hoodoo hard on their heels.

  “Did they ever catch that Óscar guy?” Mic
hael asked as the three men wrestled in the sand.

  “No.” Rocky sighed. “That wasn’t his real name either. He had all his ID under the name “Mejor.”

  “I don’t get it,” Tracy admitted.

  “Óscar Mejor,” Val put it together for her. “You have to actually hear it out loud.”

  “Oh, good God!” Tracy exploded, but she was trying not to grin. “Look at all of you!”

  Hoodoo and the others were covered in sand. Still wearing tuxedos. Hoodoo’s had been a special order.

  “They’re your problem now,” Val said to Tracy.

  “Thanks.”

  “So, when is the title fight?” Michael asked Rocky.

  “Two months. Diaz got some hearing aids and now he wants to train all day every day.”

  The friends walked along the beach to the resort. It was one Michael owned, they had the entire top floor to themselves and just now there was great reception planned. The kids from the motel had already run to the hotel under the slower lumbering of the maid of honor, Maria, who followed patiently in their wake.

  “So,” Val said, “how did the three of you meet, anyway?”

  “NO!” Tracy and Deanna said at the same time.