Chapter 2

I went over to Ray's house early the next morning hoping to see my father before Ray had a chance to spoil the surprise. Ray wouldn't do it on purpose, but if my father asked about the trip, he'd mention Georgie Turner and his father as one of the trip's highlights. I wanted to have a chance to prepare my father first. I knew that if I just came out and asked him if he wanted to do it, he'd get mad, whereas if it were his idea, a team of wild horses wouldn't be enough to keep him away. There was also my mother, and her feelings, to consider. My parent's lived in the caretaker's cottage at Ray's house. They lived there rent free, including all their utilities, my father supposedly kept an eye on the house and property, and would occasionally run errands for Ray and Sandy. With the money that they had gotten from my brother after the land deal sold, they'd never be hurting for money again.

I found my father down at the boathouse filling the gas tank on Ray's new SeaCruiser. It was a thirty foot boat that had twin Chevy 327, engines and could move at about 30 knots an hour when planing on the open waters. It was good for short fishing trips, and there was enough room inside the cabin for four or five people to sleep comfortably. My father ran the boat while Sandy and the kids usually slept below until they got to a good fishing spot. Ray and I would usually stay topside with my father and keep him company. Ellen didn't like fishing or boats, so she usually stayed with my mother. Sandy only went along to keep an eye on the children, never quite trusting any of us to really watch out for the children's safety onboard.

"Hey pop, how's it going?"

"Hi Yutch. You enjoy yourself up in New Haven?"

"Not too bad. The girls went to the auction, and Billy, Ray and I went boozing at a bar over by Granpa Murphy's, where his old apartment was. I met this old guy named Reggie Turner. Have you ever heard of an old bareknuckle brawler named Georgie Turner? It's his father that owns the bar."

"No, I don't remember hearing about anyone named Georgie Turner. He from New Haven?"

"Yeah. He's about sixty years old. Not that tall, a fat guy, walks with a little shuffle, like his knees are shot. Like some of those old pro football players they show on the television being introduced at halftime?"

"No, I don't think I know him. Who'd he fight? Anyone I ever heard of?"

"That's the thing pop, his father says that he thinks Georgie could whip Archie Moore in a bare knuckle alley fight. Said he'd put money on it too."

"Could be, I suppose. It's really two very different things, boxing and street fighting. Street fighter might win outside a ring without a ref, but the boxer would beat him in a ring, with the different rules and the gloves and all. Any streetfighter would have to be pretty good though to beat Archie Moore, even in an alley. He managed to out think a lot of pretty good boxers in his day. He almost always found a way to win too."

"Well I saw this guy Georgie, pop. He's fat, he doesn't move good, and he has soft hands. I'd bet on Archie if they ever fought. In fact, if you were ten years younger..."

"Not going to work Yutch, so you might as well give it up right now. Ellen called your mother right after you left this morning and told her all about it." I had been afraid of that too. Ellen had her own way of throwing a monkey wrench into some of my schemes that she didn't care for.

"The guy is giving two to one odds pop, and he's only five years younger than you. You got height and reach on him and with those soft mitts of his, he's never hit anything harder than a heavy bag. There isn't a single scar on his face that I could see either."

"Not a chance in the world, forget it."

"It's twenty thousand dollars pop."

"Doesn't matter, I can't do it. Too old, too soft."

"Is that your final decision?"

"Absolutely."

"All right then. You think Uncle Donald is too old too?"

"Probably, he's sixty seven right? Of course, you're welcome to ask him, but I bet you'd get the same answer from him."

I finally gave it up, and went over to the cottage to say hello to my mother and to try to get a cup of coffee. I found her in the kitchen and let her chew me out about Ellen's phone call while I drank it down.

"Yeah ma, you're right, I know that. It just pissed me off what the old guy said about Granpa Murphy, that's all."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, didn't Ellen tell you about that part? I wonder why not? The guy that owned the bar that we were in, I asked him if he had known Granpa, and he said Granpa was a mean little drunk, and a cheap prick who never bought a drink for anybody. That's why I got pissed. Seemed like he knew him pretty well too, I wondered why he'd say such a mean thing.

"I don't know why, but is that any reason for you to try to get your poor father into another fight Jackie? He's not a young man anymore you know?"

"Hell ma, I'm not a young man anymore. The thing is that the guy wants to bet twenty thousand on his son, against ten thousand that I'd be putting up on pop. I wouldn't make the bet if I didn't think pop could take him. I'll call him later then and tell him that pop can't make it."

"It's for the best Jackie. He's in no kind of shape to be getting into fights."

I called up to New Haven later, at about four in the afternoon, and got Reggie on the telephone. I explained about my father not being able to make it up there that Sunday. We got to talking about things and when he offered to let me substitute for my father with the same terms, I took him up on it. I told him that there couldn't be any drinking on my part beforehand though. He just laughed and told me to make sure and bring my money when I came up there.

The following Sunday, Ray, Billy, my dad, Theresa, my mom and three of my father's friends, all drove up to New Haven in three separate cars. I was riding in Ray's Cadillac with him and Billy and Theresa. Ellen stayed over at Sandy's and had given me so much grief over what I was doing that she and I were technically not speaking to each other. Mom and dad drove by themselves, and the three drinking buddies of my dad's followed in their car. We got to the bar at about two thirty, after we'd all stopped off to get some pizza and a little beer at this place my father knew about. To be honest, I was already feeling a little bit bad about what I was about to do to this Georgie guy. I was in my early forties then, and I was in decent physical shape too. I smoked and drank some, but I had stayed fairly active and hadn't let myself go to seed. I was in a lot better shape than Georgie was. Ellen had seen Georgie too, and the reason she was so mad was that she thought I was taking gross unfair advantage of him. I didn't disagree, but why should I turn down a chance to make a quick twenty thousand?

"Well Jackie, I see you decided to show up at least. Most people ask around a little bit beforehand, and then they get cold feet and I never see them again." Reggie seemed happy to see me and sure didn't look worried that I had arrived.

"I did ask around Reggie, all week in fact, and nobody I talked to had ever heard of any Georgie Turner. That being the case, I didn't see why I shouldn't come on up to do this."

"Well that doesn't surprise me much Jackie, if you were asking about Georgie Turner, because my Georgie always fights under the monicker of "Sailor T". Maybe you heard of that name?"

"Can't say that I have Reggie. Do you still have that money we agreed on?"

"Oh yes, I have it right here." He pulled out the canvas sack from his front left pocket of his trousers. I had Ray come forward and let Reggie see our money too, while I had Billy let Reggie fan the money in his four packets in front of his face. Everything seemed in good order and we were both satisfied that we each had the right amount of money that we'd agreed to.

"Where's Georgie? Now that we're all here, maybe we should get this thing going before I lose my nerve." I thought I was being funny until I turned and saw the look on my father's face. "What's the matter pop? " He didn't say anything, but he didn't look happy about something.

"Let's all stroll out back and I'll have someone go wake up my boy. He likes to sleep in on days when he has a match. Says it helps to conserve his energy now that he's getting on a bit in years." As we started walking towards the back door, the place emptied out in front of us. There were probably thirty people in the bar or so. Not too many people, considering that our party of eight was included in that number. When we got outside, there were at least another two hundred people waiting. They were arranged in a large circle and Reggie, my father and I were let through with ease right into the center clearing. We were there no more than a minute or two when Georgie came out the same door we had come through. He looked the same as he had the last time I'd seen him, slow, fat and with bad knees or a bad hip. When he came into sight, there was a flurry of activity in the crowd, and their noise level rose up quite a bit too. I was relieved that it was the same guy that I had been expecting to fight. I had been a little bit afraid that they might try an old bait and switch tactic or something.

"Okay now, just so we all understand what was agreed to here, I'll go over it all again. Georgie and Jackie have agreed to fight each other out here in this alley. Rules are pretty simple, they go until one man doesn't get up anymore. No wrestling, or biting, but you can use your feet, legs, head, arms and hands. If a man goes down he can't be hit or kicked while down, and he has one minute to get up or he loses. No one can help or harm either fighter. If either man goes down or takes a knee more than twice in any three minute space of time, he forfeits. Now Jackie, do you agree to those terms?" I said I did. "Georgie, do you agree?" He said he did. "Jackie, I'm going to let this lady hold the prize money if thats all right with you?" He handed both the canvas bag and the envelope from Ray over to my mother. "Are you two boys ready? All right you can begin."

Reggie stepped away then, and I quickly moved out into the center of the circle, raising up both of my hands as I did so. Georgie had a small smile on his face, and he came slowly lumbering towards me. He had his right hand held down low, to his waist, and his left one was up and tucked underneath his chin. A very unorthodox style I thought at the time. I was circling around to my left like I was a right handed fighter, but I had both hands held up in a Floyd Patterson peek a boo style. I figured that the element of surprise over me being a southpaw would once again work to my advantage. I wanted to end this thing as quickly as possibe, pick up my winnings, and head back home. I admit I was a little excited too, because it had been a long time since I'd gotten into a real fight. If Georgie had looked at all intimidating to me, I wouldn't have agreed to fight him.