The World in Pancho's Eye - J P S Brown

by J P S Brown

  "How can it be good for me to be so scared?" Mikey asked.

  "You have to be afraid or you can't be brave and bold. You cannot be brave unless you have first met and conquered your fear. A person who is not afraid before he puts himself in danger of being hurt is not brave. He is a stupid brute."

  After that, Mikey was not troubled by his fear. He did not mind it anymore because it was only a high limb from which to launch himself. He boxed so that he could have peace and quiet. Now that he did not worry about his fear, he not only had peace and quiet, but he also had the admiration of his schoolmates. Those who did not admire him at least left him alone.

  Gradually, the ethics and discipline of boxing became guidelines for Mikey's manners and conduct. He did not raise his hands to strike another boy outside the ring, not even in fun. He did not make excuses when another boxer made him look foolish or beat him in a contest. Conditioning was the foundation of a master. The better his condition, the quicker he would learn good form and technique.

  Every aspect of the sport could be summed up by the four Ps that Mikey compiled as guidelines for himself at Brother Adrian's suggestion. Poise, Patience, and Pace gave a boxer Power. A fighter could lose a bout if his opponent made him look bad and if he lost his poise. A fighter could win if he was hurt by keeping his poise as his pace slowed. A fighter could win if he patiently concentrated on form and technique from the beginning to the end of a bout and did not try to stop his opponent by knockout with every punch. A fighter must know his condition and pace himself accordingly. If he kept his pace, poise, and patience, his opponent would become convinced that he would be as strong at the end of the fight as he had been in the beginning.

  Paul Garcia advised him that good form and a good appearance would win fights when the give and take of blows failed. He should always remember that a boxer had to look good.

  Mikey boxed in a pair of light moccasins that he polished to a mirror shine and laced with clean, white strings. His purple bloomers were freshly laundered and ironed. His clean sweat socks were pulled up and his hair was combed, and when he climbed into the ring he respectfully turned to face everybody on every side who had come to watch, and that meant no smile.

  Paul also said that Mikey must remember to move gracefully and make a good picture for the judges. When Mikey asked him if good looks would help him win a fight, Paul laughed and said, "Sure it will, if you can fight."

  One evening just before first study hall, a strange boy named Freddie Cline told Mikey he wanted to fight him during the recreation period between supper and last study hall. The surprise challenge struck fear in Mikey. He only accepted it because every boy within earshot stopped to see if he would turn chicken.

  Freddie Cline was another Arizona boy from a cattle ranch. Mikey knew little about him. He was Mikey's age, in the fifth grade, slept in Mikey's dormitory, was a loner and a misfit, and did not care one bit about looking good. Mikey had never seen him with his hair combed or his face and hands washed clean. He had not spoken three words to Mikey since the beginning of the school year and now he wanted to see if he could whip him.

  The two boys squared off in the rec room after supper. Mikey did not have the reach on Freddie and he did not have room on the wooden floor to keep away from him. Freddie's style was to rush Mikey and windmill his fists. Instead of the ropes of a ring, the boundaries were lined with boys. When the fighters pressed the boundaries, the spectators pushed them back into the fray. Mikey was able to land punches at will as Freddie rushed him. Freddie came at him with his head up and made an easy target. His own weight gave force to Mikey's fists, but when Mikey was not able to move out of his way, he got his head tattooed with the red dye in Freddie's gloves.

  Mikey and Freddie Cline fought fifteen one-minute rounds with one minute of rest between rounds. They fought until the whistle blew for study hall. Mikey bloodied Freddie's nose in the first round and Freddie bloodied Mikey's in the fourteenth. Mikey did not feel victorious, but he knew that he had not lost. His friends lifted his hand as though they believed he had won. Freddie did not have any friends, so he did not get any votes except Mikey's. Mikey congratulated him on a good fight. Freddie gave him a cowboy's iceberg look, shook his hand, and went on about his business.

  A week later, Mikey and his classmate David Koury were passing a football on the playground when a fight broke out. They ran to the huddle of boys that surrounded the combatants and saw that Freddie Cline was in a fight with Joe Shirley. Shirley was quiet, serious and no bully, so Mikey wondered how enough bad communication could have passed between the two boys to spark a battle.

  Freddie and Shirley were thrashing on the ground with headlocks on one another when Brother Manuel, the prefect of the Big Boys, showed up with a set of sixteen-ounce gloves. Everybody was cheering for Joe Shirley, so Mikey stepped in to lace and tie Freddie's gloves. Freddie was not one who needed encouragement, so Mikey patted him on the back and shoved him into the fray. Now, that was a fight. Those two quiet boys landed clean punches on each other's heads and bodies for a solid fifteen minutes with no rest until the bell rang for class. The fight over, Brother Manuel made them shake hands. Freddie stood still as Mikey unlaced his gloves, but he did not speak to Mikey or even look at him. Joe Shirley had knocked a great big flake of a green booger out of his nose, and it hung on a shred of blood on his cheek, so Mikey grabbed him by the wrist and wiped it off with his sleeve.

  Freddie was still not at Saint Michael's with everybody else. He did not know that Mikey wished him well, did not know who unlaced his gloves, did not care. The boy had covered himself with glory that day, but he just melted into the calcimine of the old Saint Michael's walls and did not step out into the open again for the rest of the year. No one knew when he left school for summer vacation, and he never came back.

  The Optimist Club of Santa Fe held a boxing tournament for the northern region of New Mexico every year, and Paul Garcia entered a team of his school's finalists in that tournament. Mikey's first opponent was Johnny Martinez from Taos.

  Paul Garcia had taught Mikey his range. The boy knew the exact distance from which he could throw a punch and land it. He could stand outside the arm's reach of an opponent and hit him by sliding in with a long left step behind the straight pole of his arm. He jabbed Martinez the instant he came in range and then stepped back out of range. At the end of the second round, he began to reach Martinez with a straight right hand behind his jab, but Martinez stunned him with both hands on the top of his head in each of the three rounds. Mikey kept his eyes open and his legs moving each time until his eyes uncrossed and his head cleared. He won a split decision.

  Mikey's second opponent was Johnny Apodaca from Harvey Grammar-School. He was two years older than Mikey and much feared as a tough fighter from La Canada Street, which had earned him the nickname of Canada Mauler. Worse than that, he was another of Paul Garcia's protégés.

  While Mikey fought his fear, he thought about how he might defend himself. Everybody thought he would be slaughtered, so he did not have anything to lose. He talked it over with Paul and decided to gamble on a way to make Apodaca look bad to his hundreds of friends who would be there to watch him fight. Mikey had learned that sometimes even the craftiest and most talented boxer could be beaten if he could be made to look bad. Some fighters were unbeatable until they were made to back down, even a step or two. Sometimes, after Mikey punched his way under his opponents' veneer, they lost their poise and fell apart.

  Mikey and Apodaca walked to the ring and arrived on opposite sides at the same time. Apodaca seemed to know everybody in the audience. The bullies sat with their neighbors in the La Canada section and cheered for him. They had not made themselves so evident to Mikey in weeks. Mikey walked slowly, climbed into the ring slowly, turned, and looked into all the faces and sat right down. Apodaca glided through the ropes, danced in a pirouette, smiled and waved all around, and put on a show as if to say, "Here I am. Ain't you glad to see me? Came to see me win a
fight? Well, you done just right."

  Only Paul Garcia knew Mikey that night. Only Manuel Enriquez and his brothers had come to wish Mikey luck that day. Everybody else stayed away from Mikey The word around the school was that Apodaca had whipped so many kids like Mikey in his career that this bout was only another drill. Apodaca smiled happily through the referee's instructions.

  The ten-second whistle was blown to warn the handlers to clear the ring. Paul climbed out, but Mikey remained seated on his stool. Paul reached in and held one leg of the stool with one hand and placed the other hand on the small of Mikey's back. Apodaca stood in his corner with his back to Mikey facing his handlers and his public.

  When the bell rang, Paul pushed Mikey across the ring with one hand and pulled the stool out with the other. Mikey hit the center of the ring running. Apodaca smiled all around, turned, and Mikey was upon him. Mikey kicked his left foot high, launched his straight left jab at Apodaca's smile, and fell on him. Apodaca spun with the blow. Mikey jabbed him again and he turned his back as though he wished to flee. Mikey stepped around in front of him and bounced a hard right hand off his head. Apodaca ducked and swung two hooks that swished in Mikey's direction, but Mikey had already stepped out of range. Apodaca raised his head to locate him and Mikey fell on him with another jab and buried a right hand in his bread basket.

  "The right, again! Throw the right, to the head, Polito!" Paul shouted, so Mikey stepped in and hit Apodaca on the end of his nose with a right hand straight from the shoulder.

  Those first big punches won him the fight. Apodaca did not smile again until after the bell ended the third round. Every time he came in range, Mikey landed a left and a right. He even began to lead with his right, because when he landed it he was a stronger boy than even the great Canada Mauler.

  After the fight was over Apodaca's smile was genuine, friendly, and rueful.

  "You did it, Summers/' Apodaca said. "Did I even land one punch?"

  "You punch hard," Mikey said. Apodaca had landed a left and a right to his ribs midway through the first round with a lot of style that knocked all the air out of him. The first time that had happened was when Joe McGrath punched the air out of him in training. He had thought he ought to thrash on the floor until his breath came back, but Paul ordered him to keep his feet, keep his poise, and move away until he recovered. When Johnny Apodaca punched his air out, Mikey had been able to hide it from him, as he was sure Apodaca had hidden his pain when Mikey landed that good right hand in his breadbasket.

  Now he would have to fight Joe McGrath in the finals. On the afternoon before the fight the boarder boxers rested in their dormitories. Joe and Mikey slept in the same dormitory and were sparring partners, but they were not close friends yet. Joe chummed around with his older brother Herbert the way Manuel Enriquez hung around his own brothers. That afternoon, while they rested in the dormitory, Mikey found out that Joe's father, Shorty McGrath from Silver City, was a friend of Viv O'Brien, Roy Adams, and Herb Cunningham. Joe and Herbert lived on a cow ranch, so Mikey and Joe spent the afternoon talking about horses and cattle and became good friends.

  Mikey had already been hit hard right in the stomach and in the head by Joe and he respected him more than he had respected Martinez and Apodaca before he fought them. Joe had clear, agate gray eyes. He was never frivolous or giggly, so his eyes always seemed hard as ice, but that afternoon Mikey found out that he was warm-hearted and generous. That gave Mikey hope that he might have a chance to win the fight. He knew Joe would fight hard and could hit hard, but Mikey did not fear him after he found out that he was kind-hearted. Mikey respected him but only feared his big right hand. He thought that he could keep that hand from hitting him, so he was confident that he would make a good showing in the fight.

  Besides that, Joe confessed that he thought Mikey was the best boxer in the tournament. He believed no other Saint Michael's boxer could have beaten tough opponents like Martinez and Apodaca two nights in a row. Mikey knew Joe could be the best boxer in any tournament if he landed just one right hand on each of his opponents, but he did not say a word of reciprocal praise. If Joe wanted to believe Mikey was the best, Mikey wanted him to keep on believing it.

  Mikey knew he could not win if Joe hit him, so he jabbed and moved away from the awful right hand. Then, in the middle of the third round, he got careless and Joe caught him in the stomach with a hook and stopped him on his feet with a straight right hand between the eyes. For a moment Mikey was out. A whole moment went by that was nothing but a dream. He dreamed he was back on the gym floor sparring with Joe after school and Joe landed that left to the belly and right to the head and it was that time, not this time. Joe's warm heart saved Mikey because he stepped back and waited for Mikey to recover. Mikey moved and jabbed for the rest of the round and he did not venture inside the range of Joe's punches for the rest of the fight.

  Mikey won that fight by decision and his hand was raised as champion of his division. He was awarded a star-shaped medal on a red, white, and blue ribbon with the image of a bare-knuckle boxer in the center. Joe was awarded a small golden glove that he could hang on the chain around his neck with his scapular medal. Brother Manuel presided over the boxers' banquet the following evening. The Saint Michael's boxers had won the team trophy for the tournament, which was placed at the head of the table. Brother Manuel stood up to lead everybody in the prayer before supper, but before he made the sign of the cross, he said, "We are grateful to our fifteen boxers for the outstanding manner in which they represented Saint Michael's in the Optimist Boxing Tournament. Our team was the best of eleven other teams in northern New Mexico, our fifteen boxers the best of more than 12o other boxers who competed." He lifted the trophy and said, "This boxer on this trophy represents our outstanding boxer, Michael Paul Summers."

  Victory. This was victory. Mikey had not known that an outstanding boxer would be elected. Joe McGrath lifted Mikey's hand and Mikey lifted Joe's. They remained bosom pals for as long as they were at Saint Michael's.

  The next day Mikey came down with the three-day measles. Brother Prosper kept him in bed in the infirmary until they cleared up. Every kid who was sick in Brother Prosper's infirmary was made to take a hot bath in an old-fashioned tub with brass feet before he was released. Brother Prosper brought Mikey clean clothes from his locker, filled the tub with water hot enough to scald the feathers off a rooster, then stood right there while the boy climbed in. The water was so hot that Mikey's flesh curled up just short of permanent scarring. Brother Prosper did not leave until he saw that Mikey was used to the water and would not jump out when he turned his back. Exactly twenty minutes later he was back with a bottle of alcohol and a towel. He supervised while Mikey dried himself, then made him rub alcohol all over himself, even between his toes.

  Mikey walked out of the infirmary on Monday morning, the first day of Easter vacation and ran into Forbes and a pretty woman. The woman was Mikey's friend Queta. Now he knew why Forbes had always looked so familiar. Queta, La Prieta, the dark beauty, was little Forbes's mother. Forbes resembled his Anglo father in complexion, the color of his hair, and his build, but he resembled his mother in the eyes, nose, and mouth.

  Mikey had never forgotten the night he ran away from the Cavern in Nogales, Sonora, ended up in the nightclub in the Zone of Tolerance, and saw a man beat up Queta. He remembered that the women who helped Queta thought Mikey was someone called "Forvehs." Forbes.

  Queta took Mikey's hand and looked seriously into his eyes. "So, my little cowboy hero has been here all this time."

  "Yes."

  She wore a new scar under her eyebrow and Mikey bet he knew how she got it.

  "Why was I not informed?"

  "I don't know."

  "I searched for you. I asked all the cowboys for news of you."

  "Anybody could have told you where I was."

  "Every time I was given razón de ti, word of you, you went away again."

  "I'm glad to see you, Queta. Forbes didn't tell
me you were his mother."

  "¡Válgame! Bless me! Yes, this little blond is my son. Can you believe it?"

  "Yes, I could see you in his face, but I didn't know it was you until now."

  "You think he looks like me?"

  "He's a blond Queta prieta."

  Queta laughed. "Did you imagine a dusky gypsy like me could have a son so blond?"

  "No." Mikey smiled.

  "Well, look at him."

  "I look at him every day He's my friend," Mikey said.

  "That's what he tells me. Now you can help your friend Forvehs show me around the school. Where are we going next, Little Man?"

  "The grotto," Forbes said.

  "I have an errand to run," Mikey said. "Can I see you later?"

  He did not want to spoil Forbes's time with his mom. If he went to the grotto, Forbes would only follow along and expect Mikey to take over the tour.

  Forbes led Queta away to see the school's replica of the grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes. Queta was a mom, a person most respected at Saint Michael's. This was a victory if there ever was one because Forbes and Queta were his loyal friends.

  Queta stayed for the entire week of Easter vacation. She and Forbes took Mikey out to eat twice during the week and again to dinner at the La Fonda after Easter Sunday Mass. Forbes bought his mom a corsage for Mass and he cried when Queta drove him and Mikey back to school and said good-bye at the front gate.

  Mikey put an arm around his shoulders and walked him to the recreation room when she was gone.

  THIRTEEN

  APACHELAND

  A vaquero who rides the string of rough broncs on a ranch uses a tapojo on his bridle. A tapojo is a wide leather band that lies across a bronc's forehead and is slipped down over his eyes as a blindfold so he will stand still while he is mounted or dismounted. Some broncs will hurt a rider any time he can have him close on the ground and a rider is most vulnerable when he mounts and dismounts. Men people see that a horse is bridled with tapojo, they know to stay out of range of his hooves and teeth.