Chapter 24

I talked to Sally on Friday night and got a lot of insight about boxing and training from her. Then, Saturday morning, Franklin took me to Mink’s gym in North Charleston to watch Alex “Buddy” Miles train. Alex got the nickname from Jimi Hendrix’ drummer, Buddy Miles. Since Alex liked to beat on people like a drum, it fit.

We sat and watched him warm up for a while and then work with a sparring partner. I watched for the combinations Sally had been telling me about and I had been working on the heavy bag. They sparred in three-minute rounds, I guess to keep a sense of pacing. Franklin commented on how he used his feet to move in and out but was always ready to land a power punch. He looked good. His sparring partner looked pretty good too and they each got in some good shots. I was locked in and barely noticed Franklin talking with an older guy.

I could see just how much I didn’t know. I thought it came down to three things. First, when I worked on the bag, no one was trying to hit me. Buddy didn’t flinch when a punch came at him. He just slipped it and kept his eyes on his sparring partner. I didn’t think I could do that and knew it would have taken a lot of practice. Second was the distance and footwork. I could stand in one place with the heavy bag, you couldn’t do that with someone in front of you. I really enjoyed watching his footwork. It was like dancing and he always ended up with his feet in the right place when he threw a power punch. It was a thing of beauty. Third was the timing. With the bag, I just punched when I wanted to but you couldn’t do that when your opponent was moving all the time. To say I was fascinated would be an understatement. I knew that if Sally were there, she could have taught me all kinds of things. I could see why she was a fan, and I was just watching practice.

They worked together for six rounds, talked a little bit and Buddy thanked his sparring partner and left. I thought we were done and stood up to leave.

“Not so fast, Jack,” Franklin said putting a hand on my shoulder. The old guy came back and we stood to talk to him.

“Hello, Jack,” he said shaking my hand. “I’m Mink. Franklin says your heavy bag has had about enough punishment.” I didn’t know what to say so I just nodded. “Why don’t you put these on?” He handed me some boxing gloves. “Those are bit bigger and heavier than the bag gloves you’ve probably been wearing. Let’s get them good and tight,” he said as he started to lace them. “Normally, we’d tape your hands up first but we won’t do that today for pad work.”

“What have you gotten me into?” I said to Franklin and Mink laughed.

“Why he bet the champ he couldn’t last three rounds against you.” I had a cow.

“Wait, wait, wait. You’re nuts, you know that? I can’t box him. He’d kill me.”

“Relax, Jack. I’m pulling your chain. Timex will be back out of the locker room in a minute and do some pad work with you. If you’re going to box, you’ve got to have a nickname. Take Timex, for example. He takes a licking and keeps on ticking. You got one?”

I shook my head, but Franklin settled it. “Mink, meet Aquaman. Aquaman, Mink.”

He took my laced gloves, patted them a couple of times, and rubbed them against his shirt, then introduced me to Timex. Timex reminded me a little of Wash.

We found an open spot and Timex explained the drill. It took me a bit to adjust to his speech pattern. He had a target pad on each hand. He’d hold them and I’d hit them. He wouldn’t keep them in the same place so I’d have to adjust. We started with two punch combos and then went to three. Once I had the hang of that, he had me slip and duck as he swung the pads at me. He said he wasn’t trying to hit me but to help me build some reaction speed. The better I got, the faster he’d move.

It took way more concentration than simply working the heavy bag and Timex was a good motivator. He’d tell me when I hit it solidly and tell me I could do better when it was off. His swings with the pads started coming fast but I didn’t get hit ... for a while. He figured I’d gotten the hang of it.

“Open up yo stance. Listen, here. Narrow stance, betta moves. Widah stance, betta powah. Got it?”

“Maybe? If my feet are closer together, I can move quicker but I lose power? Is that it?”

“That’s it. You got it. You been workin the heavy bag,” he said as a statement rather than a question. “Powah don’t come from yo hands. It come from yo hips. Move yo hand when you move yo hip.” I tried that a couple of times, letting my hip sort of throw my hand at it. “You getting it. Like a plane off a boat. Launch it. You know. Let it fly.”

I tried that and he let me know I was getting it. I could hear the difference when my glove hit the pad. Timex nodded when I hit it solid and shook his head when I didn’t.

“Ahright, ahright, Aquaman. Want ta go a roun? It look diffent when dey’s leatha comin back at ya.”

“Go for it, Jack,” Franklin said.

I wasn’t so sure I wanted to go a round with Timex. He knew all the tricks.

Mink returned and had leather headgear in his hand. “If you want to give it a try, son, Timex will promise not to knock you down.”

“Out, Mink. I promise not ta knock em out. Might knock em down, doe.” He looked at me and saw that I was really uncertain about it. “Come on, Aquaman. We just do a little work. Give you a feel fo it. I might tap ya but I’m not goin hurt ya. An I’m not goin be movin neitha. Ya got dat boot on so ya can’t.”

I decided to go for it. “Alright. You promise not to knock me down. Do I have to promise not to knock you down?”

He laughed. “Nah. You don need ta promise. Come on, now.”

“You knock Timex down and you’ve got a free month of training,” Mink said and laughed. “Listen, Aquaman. You spend three minutes workin and you’ll learn more with that than all the lessons.”

I nodded and we climbed into the ring, Franklin hollered ‘ding’ and we started. I learned real fast to keep my guard up. He tapped me on the forehead three times before I figured out how to get my gloves up and block it. Timex coached me to throw more jabs and set up a right. I tried that and it worked better. He blocked everything I threw with his gloves. I heard Franklin holler at me, ‘high, low combos.’

I gave that a try, throwing three jabs, then a right cross and followed up with an uppercut and got him with that. He smiled and motioned for me to keep going. I did it again and he dropped his arm to block it. I did it again with the same result. The next time, I did exactly the same thing. He blocked it and I followed it up with a right cross and caught him pretty squarely.

“Alright, Aquaman. Dats a real good place ta stop,” he said and we walked to the ropes together. “Not bad fo a firs time in da ring. What’s rule numba one?”

“I don’t know.”

“Don get hit. What’s rule numba two?” I shook my head. “Hit. That’s it. You just folla dos two rules an you win any fight.”

I thanked him for the lesson and he told me I’d done better than I thought I had. Franklin talked with Mink again for a couple of minutes and we walked out to the car.

“You alright?”

“I’m wiped out. That takes a lot of concentration.”

“I imagine it would be hard to keep your concentration if you’re getting hit.”

“Have you boxed before?” I asked.

“Nope. Looks dangerous.”

“No kidding. I can’t imagine doing that with Buddy Miles trying to knock me out.”

“And that’s why I don’t box. Whew. You did good though. Ready for some lunch?”

“I don’t know. I should be but my stomach is a little off.”

“Probably nerves from having someone trying to hit your face.”

“Yeah. Let’s get a little closer to home before we stop.” I looked down and then held my hands out. “Look at them. They’re shaking. Now. That’s just crazy.” Franklin smiled. He was enjoying this.

We had burgers at a little hole in the wall place and they were really good. I know that wasn’t the first time I’d had grilled onions and mushrooms on my burger, but it was definitely the first time I’d had one topped with an egg. Obviously, my stomach had calmed down by the time we got there.

Back at the house, Mom and Karen were in the library talking. When she asked about our morning, Franklin explained it and bragged on me a little. Mom’s mouth hung open the whole time.

“What the hell were you thinking, Franklin? You put my baby in the ring with a professional boxer. I cannot even believe you did that.”

“Coach, Mom. He was a professional coach. Jack did fine. Better than fine.”

“I don’t care if he beat Muhammed Ali, you put my baby in the boxing ring with a professional. Skydiving next weekend?”

“Mom, it was fine. Really. If you’d been there, you’d know. It was fine. I had headgear on and he only tapped me to let me know he could have punched me. He didn’t.”

“He’s still got a boot on. This is a far cry from changing oil or buying clothes.”

“Mom, it was manly,” I said. “That’s what he’s trying to teach me. I’m fine. I liked it. I’d kind of like to do it again.”

“No. I don’t think so. You talked him out of football because it was dangerous, but then take him boxing. Franklin...”

“Mom, look. No bruises. No cuts. Nothing,” I said and she finally smiled. “In fact, if he hadn’t knocked me out that one time...”

“Stop. I don’t need it from you, too. Doggone it. Did you tell them he’s only fifteen?”

“Mink never asked. They had younger guys than that working out. It was all very controlled.”

“Fine. Don’t mind me. Fine!”

“Mom, you do know whose idea this was, right?” I asked. “Sally’s. Not today or anything. But she’s the one that mentioned the gym and all of that. In fact, if it’s okay with you, I’m going to call her and tell her all about it.”

“Men. Fine. Go call Sally and tell her how manly you are.”

“Thanks Mom. I bet she knows how to treat a concussion,” I said.

“Thanks, Aquaman. Really helping out, there, Buddy,” Franklin hollered after me.

I called Sally and gave her a complete rundown of the morning and she was super proud of me for doing it. I think I felt better after doing that than I did making varsity. Any doubt about how important Sally still was to me was gone.

I took the golf cart to Kim’s house and we spent the afternoon on their back patio. The clouds hung low and every now and then we saw lightning. Thunder would follow a few seconds later. Then it started to roll in and we knew rain was on the way. Kim drove the cart into the garage and I called Mom to let her know I was safe and was going to stay at the McTighe’s until the storm passed.

We get thunderstorms seven or eight months out of the year but sometimes spring thunderstorms are really powerful. When the sky is so dark it looks green, you know it’s going to be a good one. The wind started picking up and Kim went outside to bring in some potted plants. She took down the bird feeders and debated taking down the windchimes but decided to leave them up. We saw the first few drops hit and they were huge. Mr. McTighe had the weather channel on inside and he came out to the patio for a few moments to see if outside matched the radar. He said it did.

The wind was holding pretty steady and the windchimes were going nuts. When the rain started in earnest, it came in torrents. The rain came into the screened in patio at a steep angle, soaking everything on half of it. We had to move our chairs twice to keep from getting wet. We watched lightning and counted thunder five seconds later. One mile. The next was four seconds and the next was practically instantaneous. The electricity flickered once but stayed on. It was still afternoon but dark enough to be midnight. Mr. McTighe brought out a flashlight.

“No point in bringing out a candle. You couldn’t light it with this wind. Coming inside?” he asked but we wanted to stay outside and watch. He went back in.

“What’s on your mind, Baby?”

“Diva. She doesn’t like thunder. I should have gone out when I knew this was coming.”

“The stables looked really solid. She should be fine.”

“She will be safe but she’ll still be spooked. We used to have a dog that would run in circles when it got like this. Big circles until it stopped. I think most animals feel like that. They don’t know what to do.”

I pulled her closer to me and we just sat there and watched. Lightning was almost constant, lighting up the dark sky, showing the outrageous wind. A big umbrella from a neighbor’s patio flew over the fence, got hung up on a trellis for a minute or so and then continued on over the fence into another yard. We couldn’t help but laugh. The rain died down and the wind eased up and we thought the storm was about over. It wasn’t. It began to hail.

Mr. McTighe hollered out to us, “Tornado warning up by Wando. I think the worst of it is going to pass to the north.” Wando was on the other side of the peninsula and about twenty miles north of us.

“We’ll crowd into the inside guest bathroom if we get one near us,” Kim said. “Dad used to make me get in the tub with a bicycle helmet on, then he’d put a mattress on top of me. I thought it was fun until I realized what a tornado was. Then it scared the hell out of me.”

“Do you get scared anymore?”

“Not for me. Just Diva. She’s helpless. At a different stable, one of the horses got spooked and kicked a hole in the wall and ran away.”

“That’s crazy. How far did the horse get?”

“Away. Never saw the horse again. Gone.”

“Holy cow.”

“Yeah. I told you, they get spooked.”

“Would you go out there now, if you could?”

“Yeah, but it’s too late for that. The magic words tornado warning spooks Dad as much as it does Diva. We’re not going anywhere until this is over.”

“Man, that hail is loud.”

“Metal roof.”

“Do you always come out here for a storm like this?” She nodded. “Because of Diva?” She nodded again. Getting to know, Kim, I thought.

The lights flickered again and then went out. A couple of seconds later, they came back on and I could hear the sound of a generator running.

“Glad we’ve got the generator,” Mr. McTighe said. “Nothing worse than watching TV by candle light.”

“He thinks he’s funny,” Kim said “but the only person he’s fooling is himself. He hates storms like this. Worst part of living here. I think he lost some friends in a big storm when he was a kid. It’s a guess. I put together the pieces of a couple of things he told me.”

The hail stopped, replaced by a steady rain. The front had passed but we’d be watching rain fall for a while. Mrs. McTighe came out with a tray of food.

“I didn’t want to start anything complicated. I hope you aren’t too picky, Jack. I made chili cheese dogs and a salad. Eat up, there’s plenty,” she said and went back inside to return a minute later with glasses and a pitcher of sweet tea.

We each had a couple of dogs when Kim said she’d challenge me to a farting contest. She said it with such a straight face I didn’t know if she was being serious or not. When she said her mom usually won, I knew she was messing with me. I hoped she was. I looked inside and saw her dad still watching the weather channel.

“This stuff really bothers your dad?” She nodded. “Let’s go inside and watch TV with him,” I said.

She grabbed our plates as she stood and said, “I think he’d like that.”

Mom picked me up once it died down to a drizzle at a few minutes before midnight. I shared some of the fun stuff we’d talked about. We were about home when I thought of something.

“Can we go out to the stables? Do you know where it is? Kim was worried about Diva.”

“I know where it is. Storm’s about over. I’m sure her horse is just fine.”

“Me too. But I bet if we checked, and I called her to say so, she’d like it.”

Forty minutes later, and well past midnight, I called and told her that we’d checked on Ghost and Diva and I’d talked to her and brushed her for a few minutes. She thanked me for that and I could hear relief in her voice.

“Buddy, you’re probably never going to get as many bonus points from Frontier Woman as you did right then.”

I cleverly answered, “Yeah,” and I went to bed and fell asleep in an instant.

Sunday morning, Mom made breakfast and I followed the smell into the kitchen. She told me to take the day off and rest. Thirty minutes later, she said that if I could box, I could do chores and gave me a priority list. That changed in a hurry. I figured out later that she meant give Kim a rest after I’d spent the day with the family.

After my chores, I went to the gym and worked on the heavy bag for a long time. I hadn’t worked up a sweat like that since I’d broken my foot and it felt good. I knew that I’d overdone it and my foot had swollen up some so I went inside and iced it. I could see Hector at work on a Sunday again, trying to catch up after all the rain. I felt like talking to him but my foot said to stay put. I listened to my foot.

Late that afternoon, I got the map out and figured a back way to the Wappoo Cut. I told Mom I wanted to go and she went with me. We could have taken the car but she hadn’t gone for a golf cart ride with me and decided it was as good of a time as any. After a week of rain, people were anxious to get out of the house and the boat launch was busy. Normally, I’d have ridden my bike and sat at the picnic tables but with the cart, I could drive close to the dock and park.

We sat there and watched boats pull up to the dock, drop off a person who would go get a truck. The truck would back the trailer to the water and whoever was still on the boat would drive it up onto the trailer. They’d pull out and into the parking lot to make room for someone else while they stowed all their gear.

“I’m going to help,” I said and her eyes said she didn’t understand. “Sometimes, I like to help people land their boats. Sometimes they want it and sometimes they don’t. Usually, they do and some people recognize me because I’ve done it before.”

“Don’t overdo it. Your foot,” she said, pointing at my boot. As though I could forget.

I helped ten or twelve people land their boats and they were all grateful for the help. There was a lull and I was about to walk back to the cart when single guy with a nice center console pulled up. I was just learning about boats but I knew the Contender was one of the best and at over thirty feet, it was big for one guy. It was obvious that he didn’t need help but I offered it anyway. He thanked me for it and I offered to drive his boat up onto the trailer.

“I wouldn’t mind the help but what’s to keep you from taking off in my boat?” he asked with a smile. He seemed really friendly and I doubt he was really worried about his boat.

“My mom’s right there in the golf cart and she’d have a shit if I did.”

“I bet she would,” he said looking at Mom. “You waiting for your dad?”

“No. No dad anymore. Just us. Just watching. And helping sometimes. I like it. We don’t have a boat and I just like to watch people come and go and she just came along this time.”

He’d been looking at Mom, then nodded at me and we traded places so he could get his truck. A couple of minutes later, I’d successfully steered the boat onto the trailer. He got out and latched the bow of the boat to the pulley. With the boot on, it was harder getting down off the boat than it had been getting up. He gave me a hand down and thanked me and I could see him looking at Mom again. He waved at me and pulled his boat into the lot to secure it and I walked back to the cart and sat down.

“You do that often?” Mom asked.

“Every now and then someone comes in by themselves or with someone that can’t drive a boat and I offer.”

“That’s nice of you to do that. Plus, you get practice.”

We watched a boat launch and another pull up to the dock and the guy I’d helped came over.

“Hi. I’m Dane. I just wanted to thank you for helping me out and your sister for letting you,” he said.

I started to correct him but he knew it was my mom. I’d said so. Holy shit.

“Nice. You’ve got a boat and a sense of humor. I’m Jack’s Mom, Christie,” she said and stuck her hand out for him to shake it.

“If you own a boat, you’d better have a sense of humor. You want me to believe you’re Jack’s mom?”

“I think these guys need my help,” I said, pointing to a boat that had just pulled up. “I’ll be back in a couple of minutes, Sis,” I said and hobbled off. They didn’t need help but I wasn’t going to hang around while Dane tried to pick up my big sister. Holy crap! I walked out onto the dock where the crew of the boat coming in most definitely didn’t need my help. They recognized me and we traded greetings. They had caught a lot of fish and shared a couple of stories with me while one guy went for the truck. I asked where they went. Jetty. That was it. Out to the jetty. Twin jetties extended almost three miles out on either side of the harbor and they attract a lot of fish and a lot of fishermen.

They hooked up their boat and towed it up. No boats were coming in and I was kind of stranded on the dock with no place to go. No one needed my help, especially not Mom or Dane. I was still almost close enough to hear but didn’t really want to. Thankfully, Dane got in the cart with Mom and she drove it over to his boat. I watched him give her a tour as I walked to my usual spot at the picnic table. I watched a half dozen boats come and go before the cart pulled up next to me.

“Hi, Sis,” I said.

“Funny guy. What did you say to him?”

“Nothin. I just told him we came down to the Cut to watch boats come and go. Plus, my sister thought it was a good place to fish for men.”

“You better not have.”

“I didn’t say a thing. He just asked if we were waiting for my dad. What did you talk about?”

“His boat ... and where I want to go to dinner next Friday night.”

“Whooo hooo. Lookout. Mom’s...”

“Shush. He seemed really nice. Don’t spoil it.”

“You going out with him?”

“Why not? Everyone seems to want me to and he seems nice enough.”

“Well, I guess we got what we came for. Want to head back?”

“Stop,” she said and when I sat down, she started back up the road. “You really didn’t tell him any more than that?”

“Nope. Why?”

“Maybe I’m just out of practice but he sure seemed smooth. No, that’s not it.” She drove for a while and then said, “Confident. He seemed confident.”

“That’s good, right?”

“Oh, you have no idea.”

“Really? Where does confidence fit in on the desirable characteristics scale?”

“Didn’t you and Franklin talk about this?”

“Yeah, but I don’t remember him mentioning confidence. What else?”

“It’s not like I can speak for all women but confidence is pretty high on the list. Funny is good. I think most women like a man that can make them laugh. Decisiveness. Definitely, decisiveness, but that’s kind of like confidence. And then the usual things, you know, tall, dark and handsome.”

“Hmm. So, does that sound like Dane? What kind of a name is Dane, anyway?”

“I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”

“But you like him.”

“Relax, Buddy. I like him enough to go to dinner with him. Don’t get carried away.”

“I’m just trying to look out for my big sister.” She rolled her eyes but smiled. Mom had a date.

“Wait till Franklin hears.”

“Okay, Jackson, that’s enough. I’ll decide if and when to let him know.”

Jackson rather than Jack. She was serious. “Sorry, Mom. I’m just having fun. I hope you have a good time and all.”

“Thank you. That’s more like it.” I hugged her and she seemed good with that.

When we got home there was a message from Kim saying she had called and why wasn’t I sitting by the phone waiting for her. I called.

“Hey.”

“Hey, Jack. I think our moms talked. Did you get a ‘take the day off’ message?”

“Yeah. They talked.”

“Well, I won’t talk long. I just wanted to say thanks for checking on Diva last night. You didn’t have to but, well, thanks.”

“Sure. I knew you’d worry about her.”

“I went out to the stables today and they had a couple of trees come down and the ranch down the road from them had a filly get out but they got her back. Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow, just wanted to say thanks,” and she hung up. Alright. Take the day off but decide to thank me. That sounded like a reasonable thing.

I would have another two weeks without PE and I was piling up academic credits. At the rate I was going, I could have probably skipped the last three weeks of school and still got straight A’s, maybe even in Latin. I felt like my weightlifting had really been hurt by the layoff, but I had done what I could. I’d increased my personal pull-up record to twenty-five and discovered I could get a belt to hang extra weight on it. I could use the same belt for dips. I’d increased strength in some areas but felt that my broken foot had still slowed me down.

I’d watched a half dozen Braves games and was becoming a lot more familiar with the game, especially pitching strategy and I thought that could help me hit better. I felt bad for Porter’s baseball team. They had a terrible season and the unpredictable weather hadn’t helped things. I thought I could have helped. I simply didn’t have the chance.

I’d continued to work the heavy bag, trying to consistently work combinations and develop power. Timex had told me not to hit the bag but to hit through the bag and that’s what I tried to do. I was feeling pretty good about it and wanted to go back to Mink’s gym as soon as the doc cleared it.

It was the first of March and Spring break was coming up. So was Kim’s birthday and I hadn’t planned anything for it. In fact, I didn’t even know what the date was, just that it was in March. I made that a priority.

Sally had been dating Rory for a couple of weeks and we settled in to a routine of updating each other. Since she’s been in the Lowcountry for the start of the school year and I’d never been to Nashville, she did a lot more talking. I didn’t mind. She seemed to be settling in. We both missed each other. There was no doubt about that but we’d also moved on. I hated that but was very definitely thankful for it and Kim seemed to have accepted our continued relationship. I told Sally that if I thought it bothered Kim, I’d stop calling her and she understood. That never happened.

Monday, I showed up for lunch without a cast or boot in a little over a month. I wore new running shoes that were a little wider and that felt pretty good too. I usually wore boat shoes but these wider shoes were great. I checked in at the office, stopped by to say hello to the Coaches. I thought they liked me pretty well, but Mom said it was my work ethic they really appreciated. I was happy with that, either way. I went to the cafeteria and talked Mrs. Wetzel into serving me some Sloppy Joe and salad before they officially opened. She asked how I was doing and I showed her my bootless foot.

I finished lunch before anyone showed up. The squad straggled in which was unusual. They usually came in together. With a couple of freshmen and a couple of sophomores, I knew several would move to varsity next year and wondered how that would change the dynamic. Kim came in with Fling and they were in the middle of what looked like a heated discussion. As soon as they sat down, they both shut up.

“Hey, ladies. What’s up?” Nothing. “If it’s private I can move. It’s easier now. No boot.” Nothing.

Kim shook her head at me and I motioned as if to leave. She got up and we walked together away from the crowd. She looked around to ensure we had privacy. She looked back at Fling, who reluctantly nodded.

“Fling went out with Dillon Saturday night,” Kim said.

“Okay. They’ve been going out.”

“They’ve been going out but Fling hasn’t been putting out.”

“That’s certainly up to her.”

“That’s not how Dillon saw it. He tried to force her.”

“Not cool. Did she tell him ‘No’?”

“It went way past that. She had to physically fight him off and she got out of the car and walked home.”

“Holy crap. Definitely not cool. What kind of trouble is he in for that?” I asked. I was pretty steamed that anyone would actually do that.

“That’s the deal. He’s not. She walked home without a blouse, I guess he tore it off, and nothing happens to him.”

“That’s not right.” I looked at Fling and she looked terrible. “Isn’t there someone who can do something about it?”

“Maybe when her dad gets back in town.”

“Did she tell McClusky?”

“No. What would he do? It didn’t happen at school and Dillon’s folks have a lot of money and they’re big supporters. McClusky’s not going to do anything.”

“Someone needs to. Before he does it to someone else.” I looked around the room to find Dillon. He was sitting with a bunch of varsity football players, laughing and having a great time. “I’ll be right back,” I said and started toward their table.

“Jack, don’t,” Kim said, putting her hand on my arm but I was focused.

I had tunnel vision as I walked across the cafeteria. I liked Fling and she was so small. She was the same size as Sally. Dillon had no right. No right. He had no right and I had no plan. I gathered steam but slowed down as I got to their table and their conversation stopped. I was angry and I don’t play poker. It showed.