The New Gladiators
Pelude

Copyright© 2019 by StacieLove

It’s a sport, Anthony. The kids both want to do it and I think they should be allowed to,” Mindy said quietly to her husband.

“I know what it is, Mindy. I also know what it used to be called and I can’t believe you even considered allowing it. These are our kids. Our KIDS, Mindy! I wouldn’t be able to look at Jesse the same any more, to say nothing of Eric.”

“That’s because you have a dirty mind, Tony. Pull it back out of the gutter for a second and think about how our kids could benefit from it. It’s not what you were thinking. Its mainstream now. Hell, I heard it was created by a fourteen year old girl for heaven’s sake. And the school endorses it!”

“It’s as dangerous as a gateway drug, Mindy. But it’s called a sport instead. Maybe some kid did create it but any activity that requires you to display yourself for a grade, is just asking for trouble down the road.”

“They wear a full body suit, Tony. Grown men show more skin on television when they have that body building championship you insist on watching each year. You can’t tell me the women that enter those sorts of competitions wouldn’t wear smaller bikinis if there was a way of getting away with it. Anyway, you’re focusing on just the form competition part of the sport - and not even that whole part. They DO have to be able to show grace and poise in the dance portion too.”

Tom grunted. If that ain’t just about showing off, I don’t know what is,” he proclaimed.

“It’s a form of dance, Tom,” Mindy insisted. You try doing it and you’d see real quick that it takes a lot more practice and training than simply bopping to music. Have you seen how long those contestants can high-step in formation around the track? With those shoes on? That particular competition can go on an hour before the first of them drops out. Then there’s the cart-pulling races, championship level paintball competitions, and the cross-country endurance races too. Fitness, coordination, poise, self discipline. This sport has it all, no matter how much you want to think of it as being perverted. And when they begin televising the national championships it’ll be you glued to the TV watching those little fourteen to eighteen year old girls compete.”

“They’re gonna televise the championships?” Tony asked in surprise. He hadn’t heard anything about that and he followed sports religiously.

“It was on the news today. I tell you Tony, it’s getting big now. All sorts of sponsors are stepping up with prizes and everything. But that’s level two and I totally agree that Jesse and Eric don’t need to get mixed up in that - not that there’s much to worry about there. Eric’s a slob and Jesse is boy crazy. The only thing to really consider is the cost. We both know they’ll only stick with it a month or so and for that length of time, I don’t know if you could justify the five hundred dollar signup fee. Each.”

“Fuck me sideways, Mindy!” Tony erupted. “Eric’s soccer last year only cost a hundred and a half!”

“Plus the uniform, the shoes and the fundraisers. We spent nearly a thousand on that four-week trip to nowhere.” Mindy deadpanned.

“It wasn’t Eric’s fault he sprained his thumb!” Tony argued before stopping himself and feeling a little silly. He’d previously argued that it WAS Eric’s fault for dropping out of the sport because of a sprained thumb. Especially a hands-off sport like soccer.

“Anyway, it’s not the money. We can afford it. It’s the other thing. That’s OUR thing.” Tony grumped.

“It just means you could coach better than anyone else. And we’d get half off the registration fee,” Mindy grinned, knowing exactly what their, ‘thing’ was. A ‘thing’ they had not engaged in in, in nearly a decade now. Offering her husband an opportunity to coach a team had been her ace up her sleeve. He’d been politely asked a few years earlier to resign his position as coach on the little league team for being too hard on the little kids. This sport called for hard coaches and Mindy had been approached by the school’s sports director personally.

“Yeah and then get asked to resign again. Not gonna happen. Those kids had real potential too,” he mused, thinking of the little leaguers. “I hear Sam Birkinshaw is going to the NFL this year, too.”

“Pete asked me to talk to you, hon. If he wants you, you know he needs your experience and leadership style.”

Peter Worthy was very close with both Tony and Mindy. More importantly, he knew more about their past than any other living person. Mindy had even ‘dated’ him a great many times over the years, at Tony’s request of course - as a trusted friend to look after his wife while he had to be out of town on business, like last month. Tony knew they’d shared a great deal together and had witnessed some of that ‘sharing’ himself when he’d strained his back a few years earlier.

“Pete okayed it? How come he didn’t call me himself, then?” Tony asked suspiciously.

“He said for you to check your damn voicemails every so often! He was starting to think you didn’t love him anymore. Just passing along his message hon,” Mindy replied, her grin getting wider.

Tony immediately fished his phone out of his pocket. Of course it was dead. He’d used it this morning as a wifi hotspot and had not charged it since. “Shit! I hope no one at the office was tryin’ to get ahold of me!”

After plugging his phone in and waiting impatiently for it to restart, Tony saw seven messages waiting for him, along with fifteen texts. Three messages and three texts were from Pete. The rest were junk - either already dealt with, or messages that Tony had no intention of replying to anyway.

“Okay, ya got me - this time.” Tony couldn’t hide his own smile any longer. Pete’s messages were always funny.

“Half off, ya say? And Pete says I can ... ummm ... indulge, his word, in a few things the other teams wouldn’t dare to try? But it’s still Jesse and Eric, Mindy. And a lot of commitment for me when we both know our kids aren’t gonna stick with it.”

“There is one other incentive, baby. If you’re going to coach again, why not put in a little practice with me? I know I’m old and dried out now that I’m forty, but we could still have a little fun, right? Just like the old days.”

“You’re as old and dried out as a surf tide, baby. I thought you’d lost interest.”

“Fuck no!” Mindy almost shouted. “Life and your work just took over, I guess. I never stopped thinking about it though.”

Tony suddenly felt his full forty three years of age with Mindy’s words. Yeah, work had taken over and he needed to put something back into his family life again. “Are we talking level one, two or three training, hon?” He asked, sure of the answer already.

“I kind of thought of a hybrid one-three deal. That way I can train with the kids and they wouldn’t know anything was different.”

Tony didn’t need to ask for clarification. His mind was already awash with the possibilities Mindy was offering. “Okay, I’ll call Pete and let him know I’m in. But there’s one condition. If the kids drop out, your training stops too. So it’ll be just as much up to you to keep them interested as it will be for me.”

Mindy’s grin evaporated. She hadn’t expected Tony to add that caveat. Now she would have to keep the kids involved instead of just letting them get bored with whatever their current phase demanded. Shit. Could she? She asked herself. Yes, she decided. By being better at their chosen sport than either of them. Not right from the start, she warned herself. She’d have to show marked improvement to get the kids’ competitive streak into overdrive even though the hybrid part of her training would generate a lot of correction after the kids finished their own training. She knew exactly how Tony was. He’d patiently wait and spread out the correction over a deliciously long time. She couldn’t wait to begin.

“While you call Pete, I’ll let the kids know what you decided, Daddy,” Mindy whispered, already feeling herself being transported back ten years.

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