The Heart of Tony Winters

by P. S. Power

  Looking things up, which didn’t take long, Tony dialed the number for his dad. It felt wrong to think of it that way, but he did it.

  The ringing went on for a bit, with a man he didn’t know picking it up.

  “Northeast Training Center, this is Charlie how may I help you today?”

  “Hi, Charlie. Tony Winters here. Calling for Adam Forsythe?” He didn’t know if that would be possible. Leaving a message would work as well, he thought.

  “Hey! I saw that Hodder fight. You were totally robbed on that one. I get it, but man, that was wicked. Let me patch this through? One second here…” There was clicking, then another voice came on.

  This one had an English accent.

  “Forsythe here. What can I do for you today?”

  “Hey. This is Tony. Winters?” There could be other kids named Tony after all. It made sense to be clear about things like that. “Just checking in. I hear that you and Sally are coming for Thanksgiving? Are you two dating?” It would be a good thing to know. Sally was kind of adventurous as far as that sort of thing went. Sleeping around and so on. Which was fine really. She was an adult. As long as it didn’t cause problems for him, it was fine.

  Adam laughed then. It sounded real.

  “Not that one. No, she heard that I was planning to visit and insisted she be allowed to come and harass her best friend. You, by the way, not Ashley Lancaster. I know that one confused me for a bit, since they stayed together for a few weeks. No, though, she means the fifteen-year-old boy. I’m sure that it’s totally wholesome and safe, but you’re nearly legal there, so getting all fatherly on you now wouldn’t play well.”

  It was a bit funny, since Sally was older than he was by a good bit. Still, it was possible she thought of him as a pal. They did get along after all. It could also be a joke that he just wasn’t getting.

  “Okay. Well, um… What kind of pie do you like?”

  For some reason that got another laugh.

  Chapter eleven

  The next day Tony ran with Mark and Riley, pushing them to go fast over six miles. They actually kept up, even if they both glared at him as they went in for their morning work. He did that too, focusing on basic exercises and kicks that day. Practicing until he actually had a set of those down well enough that he thought he could use it in a fight. In the afternoon he had classes with his tutor again, though only for three days that week.

  Janine just shrugged about that part.

  “It’s a holiday. So, for this week I was thinking that we’d cover the Salem witch trials. Not just what you’d get in school either, I brought some books for you to read. That, math and science for the week. We have to balance all that magic and religion out. Unless you need more time off?”

  The lady looked at him closely, inspecting him for some reason. The truth was that he was fine that way, having taken a whole week off already. That was probably more than enough for anyone.

  She just sat there while he read for hours, doing some reading of her own. The books were a bit dry, but fascinating, since they were made up of letters, church records and things like that from the town of Salem Massachusetts at the time. The entire story was very different than people just freaking out and pointing at others while screaming “witch”.

  It was incredibly corrupt and political, for one thing.

  There were two main things going on as far as Anthony could tell. A tax issue involving the building of a new church in town, that people from further away were being expected to pay for, but not use due to the distances involved. The other was a big fight going on up north of them, against some Native Americans whose Shaman had pretty much threatened to send spirits after them, using his magic. To the Puritans in the area, that pretty much meant the Devil was coming for them.

  A lot of the younger men were gone as well, so the girls and women didn’t really feel safe. That had to make it all worse.

  None of that had anything to do with Thanksgiving, but it was more interesting than Tony would have expected. After all, there really was a magic man trying to cause them problems, so they were primed to think everything, including dreams and fears, were something bad. Then people were hung, crushed and drowned. No one was actually burned. Probably because it took a lot of wood to do that, instead of a bit of reusable rope or a puddle. Lots of people could be hung from the same tree branch after all. That was nearly free.

  Janine just ran him past the math he needed to learn. Geometry now. It was interesting, since she pointed out that it had real world use.

  “If you ever build anything, you’ll want to know these things. It saves a lot of time and effort. It doesn’t cross over into medicine a lot, but you’ll need to know it to get to the math that does, so it’s helpful that way.”

  She was trying to sell the whole thing like he might not want to give it a real shot. That was silly. Math was kind of fun, when you didn’t have to wait a year to slowly learn something that should take five weeks. He had a book for that as well, with problems in it, along with planned lessons. It wasn’t huge, but it was complete enough that given nothing else he kind of figured that it would be possible to learn it all on his own, if he had to.

  “Thanks. I’ll try to get all of this together. A paper on the books? Or a paper for each? I could do a compare and contrast thing. I mean, the stories are a bit different from what I can tell so far. Figuring out what the differences are is kind of important, right?”

  His tutor, who was a bit older, thin and a little tense seeming most of the time, just smiled at him.

  “Do that. After the holiday. Now, what do you have planned for the week?”

  “Mainly learning to cook and helping to put a wedding together. I’m doing the turkey and a few dishes for the celebration. Also learning the rules to football. I’ve been reading up on that. I guess it’s a thing? I’ve seen it a few times, but not really, you know? I guess my grandfather likes it? I’ve never met the man. Samantha, my grandmother, she seemed all right.” Feisty came to mind. The real kind. Like she’d stab a person if she didn’t get her way for too long. That might have been situational for him when they’d met, so he didn’t mention it.

  She had mentioned trying to have him killed at one point. Before he was born, but still…

  Brushing at her gray streaked hair absently, Janine stood up.

  “That’s more advanced than I would have thought. Do you like cooking? You never really mentioned that before.”

  He sort of did. Not at the level that he wanted to make it a hobby or anything, but he could nod about it and not be lying, he decided.

  “Sure. I eat, so it seems like a good skill to have. Other people do as well, so it works on more than one level. How about you?” They’d never really talked about her that much. They mainly stuck to the books and problems assigned.

  Rather than being upset at the intrusion, Janine smiled at him, getting her things together.

  “I’ve been known to take a turn in the kitchen. I have a great sweet potato recipe, if you want it?”

  That seemed like an idea to him, since he was planning on having the dish for the day, if he could pull it off. It would need to be part of the ingredient list that he ordered. That or they needed a trip to the store, which was probably the better plan, given the time frame they were working with.

  “That sounds good, actually. If it’s not a problem?”

  That got an absent nod, as she moved to the door, leaving him in the side room alone. It wasn’t a vast space, being used basically for his sessions as far as he knew. He thought that it was actually used for massages the rest of the time. They had them there, according to the board behind the main desk. Who did that kind of thing he didn’t know. No one that he’d seen. Not that he knew of. Which probably wasn’t true.

  Just because he didn’t know who was doing what didn’t mean that it wasn’t happening. He was around the place enough that he’d at least met everyone. It was just that he didn’t go in for that kind of thing all the time. Prob
ably because it was expensive. That kind of service always was, as far as he knew.

  Dinner that night was cold chicken and rice with a salad, out of Tupperware in the dining room, so that he could change and rush down to meet Lexi and the others for the training portion of things. It wouldn’t really start until six, so he had a bit of time, which meant he was able to help tidy up the cardio-boxing room a bit. Some of the people waved at him, since he’d been around for a while.

  Even the woman running it, Leslie, did that. She was attractive, if a bit older. Nearly forty, he thought, which wasn’t that bad. Then, Anthony knew that he was kind of open minded that way. The whole idea that he was a good boy that didn’t want sex was getting kind of hard to pull off, over time. Even Tony wanted female company. Worse, he kind of knew how to get it, so it took actual effort not to make mistakes like that.

  The run that night wasn’t too intense, since the others were mainly new to that sort of work. Oddly enough, Lexi was the one next to him the whole time, with Gary in the back, struggling to keep up as they all jogged three miles. Neema was clearly holding back, trying not to show off her own fitness level. That would have to stop, since they all needed to push into higher levels, not just stay the same.

  After that he had them lifting weights that day. It wasn’t going to be every day, but even a bit of added strength would potentially help them in their matches. Then they hit the mats. Working with other people, like in a regular class, but each taking a turn with him or Raul occasionally.

  The man added him to the list as well, but talked about cake as he tried to choke Tony out. It wasn’t sane, but it was good to hear, since his tutoring session had meant that he wasn’t actually involved in that part.

  “We took notes. It was all quite good. I…” He tried for a leg lock then, using his whole body to put stress on Tony’s left knee. It was complicated to get out of, but not impossible. “I have to say I did like the look of the white with coconut on the outside. Frilly seeming. Nick enjoyed that one.”

  He nodded as he slipped out, then managed to grab the black gi that the other man had on. Right by the lapel, which meant a double handed choke was the natural next thing to attempt. Except that Raul instantly put a hand on his, ready to seize control of his arm if he didn’t move it. He knelt on the other man’s stomach, distracting him for a second. Then there was a fake attempted at switching for an arm lock, with the double collar choke being brought into existence as Raul moved to counter a thing that wasn’t happening.

  “I have… Some locations for you and Nick to look at as well. Can you go… Do that soon? I can get appointments. They’re all close. Inside ten miles of here.” That had been done on purpose.

  There was hanging on then as Raul swept him, or nearly so. They just fought for position for a while, then Tony ended up on the bottom. He was the smaller person, which meant that he had to have a good bottom guard worked out, or he was just going to lose. Not that practice was a competition. Except that it was. No one wanted to tap out, which meant they all fought hard to make sure they weren’t doing that more than needed.

  If it came up, well, then you set your ego aside, admitting the other person was better than you were. That was just what you had to do for the world to work on the mat. Lying to yourself ended in pain, so the best people didn’t do that.

  There was a lesson in that, he was certain. Lying to yourself was tempting at times, but always ended up poorly. At least it had in his life.

  Smiling, which got him stared at, he tried for a head and arm triangle choke. It was too complicated to really stick on someone as good as Raul, but not trying it meant never learning how to make it happen. To his surprise he managed to get it tightened up, with the other man tapping out by slapping his side a few times. That the thing had worked was neat, but most likely due to Raul being distracted.

  Not by his clever wedding location hunting skills. No, there was a man in the doorway, with a tiny suitcase and a gray suit. His head was balding and he had gold rimmed glasses on that distorted his eyes enough to show that they were real lenses, not a hipster affectation. This wasn’t a young man, though he looked official for some reason. Like he was from the police, or the government.

  Raul took a breath.

  “I was warned that, perhaps, the immigration people would think my coming marriage was not real. In that case they will come to question my resolve. This might be that.” He stood up, proudly, fixed his messed up gi and tied it in place before moving over toward the man. They shook hands, which was a good sign, then Raul turned and waved to him.

  “Tony… This could be…”

  That got Anthony to jog over, the older fellow’s hand coming out instantly.

  “Tony Winters? Eric Logan, Nevada Gaming Commission. I was wondering if I could have a moment of your time? This is in regards to the Erlander Hodder fight?” He didn’t list the date of the fight off, but funnily enough, Tony recalled it.

  “Um, sure? We can go… Well, probably to the office. Should I… Have my uncle in on this? Or a lawyer? That’s the rule, right? When the suits come, lawyer up?” He smiled, trying not to seem like he wanted to run away. Not like he truly meant it either. Even though he did.

  Eric the suit laughed. It even seemed real. Friendly as well, which could be a trick to get him to relax and let his guard down.

  “We probably should get your uncle, yes. You’re a minor, so that makes sense. He’s your legal guardian?”

  Tony nodded, not knowing if any paperwork had been filed to that end. It was probably close enough for this man however. They walked to the third floor, taking the stairs. The other man wasn’t out of breath at the end or anything, so it wasn’t a hardship that way. Rick was actually in his office, working. Interestingly he stood when the man came in and introduced himself.

  “Oh? Well, have a seat. You say this is about the Hodder fight?”

  The man pulled a chair around resting his briefcase on the corner of the desk, opening it carefully.

  “There have been some questions, as to the final disposition of the match? As you probably would guess, this is a result of the… Fox Rends situation. I can’t go into all of that, but an indication of wrong doing at one point makes suggestions that it happened at other places seem more real…” He stopped, then locked eyes with Rick, then Tony. “What I mean in plain language is that we’re looking into people having been bribed to ignore drug testing results. We redid the workup on both Erlander Hodder and you. Both are clean, by the way. There were hints however that the judges were led to be biased toward Mr. Hodder, giving him the win.”

  Rick nodded, then glanced at Tony.

  “It… Well, that occurred to us. In fact, Don Teevan mentioned something like that at one point, on the phone. That he spoke to the judges along those lines. I didn’t love hearing it, but there was no mention of bribes. It probably wasn’t needed to be honest. This…” Looking at Tony, he winced a bit, then shrugged.

  Eric Logan nodded, getting things that were too deep for Anthony to work out it seemed.

  “Yes. It was a novelty match. Clearly. A trained fighter near the top of his division going up against the youngest professional we have working at this time. Hodder is so highly ranked that most would have assumed that he was winning, even if it was fairly close. That’s the problem, which I think you see, Mr. Winters? That fight wasn’t close. We had a panel of judges score it, which is how we test such discrepancies. We did it four times, with different people involved. Not one of them found that Mr. Hodder won. So, it’s moved to the next level.”

  Tony shook his head.

  “I don’t understand. I mean, I get that I lost officially. Also that you’re saying it was probably a bit off as far as the scoring went. If the judges at the time said that though, then that counts, right? They were there in person and saw what they did. Arguing that is…”

  He didn’t really know, but Mr. Logan leaned in a bit, as if Tony were being clever or particularly insightful.

&
nbsp; “In the main, that would simply be correct. If you’d called us in, these findings might be enough to show that something was wrong, but we wouldn’t change the score in most cases. The men on the ground are trusted. Unless bribes changed hands. We have some indications that might have happened. A person has come forward, who is willing to speak about these matters for immunity. As their own career is probably done, and criminal charges seem unlikely for them, this is being put forward only to help others. We’re taking it rather seriously.”

  Tony tilted his head, working through things. There were little matters, like the gray suited fellow not shifting at all when Don Teevan had been mentioned. Now at least there seemed to have been a slight nod when Rick had spoken of it.

  The only person he knew of for certain that was probably about to lose their fighting career was Fox

  Rends. You didn’t turn snitch if you didn’t know something, which meant that she had to have been part of the cover up. At least enough to know who was involved.

  So he nodded.

  “Teevan is the suspect? Rends is turning on him and… Ralph Simpson… Is he out of jail yet?” The man had attacked him several times, ending up being arrested for that. Fighting with the cops as well. That could leave a person locked up for a while. Still, that was about three months before.

  The suit gave Tony an appraising look, then shook his head.

  “I can’t comment on any of that, except to say that Mr. Simpson was released two weeks ago. I understand he might be a threat to you personally?”

  Anthony doubted that one, to be honest.

  “I think he was working with Don Teevan, the attacks being a misguided way of getting publicity for the fight with Hodder. Simpson used to be a fighter, so that was kind of a big deal?”