THE CHERRY RED CAMARO’S WIDE RUBBER TIRES squealed as it turned hard into the Greece Hut parking lot. It zipped into a space right next to the door, unmindful of the fact that it was designated for use by disabled patrons. The door swung open, and a long leg thrust itself out. A tall, pudgy black man with a neatly shaven head awkwardly pulled himself out of the low sports car. He was wearing a very nice suit, though the tie was undone and hung loosely around his neck. His face was crossed with a look of profound disgust as he bent low to retrieve an item from inside the Camaro.
He straightened up, his hand bearing a Big Zeus burger, the chain’s knockoff of the more popular fare offered by McDonald’s. The sandwich was held aloft in the air before him, as if it were a fetid diaper filled with the most fragrant of feces.
“Uh-oh,” Steve said, watching the approach as he struggled to tie a knot in a garbage bag with greasy hands. He raised his voice to carry through the nearly deserted restaurant. “Told you that you forgot the extra Zeus sauce on the burger, Tenisha.”
“Lordy, lordy! Just look at his face. He about to come up in here trippin’!”
Sure enough, the man exploded into a rush of complaints as soon as he entered the building. Since Steve was standing in the dining room, trying to take out the garbage, the man vented his fury on him. At length he stopped, crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Steve.
“Do you have any idea how long it takes to drive here from my office? Any idea?”
“About twenty minutes,” Steve said, easily recalling the fact as the man had loudly stated it several times during his tirade.
“Oh, so you can listen. Why didn’t you listen when I told you, extra Zeus sauce? Is your job that hard?”
“I’m sorry, sir. I don’t actually make the sandwiches, but I’ll get it taken care of right away.”
“Oh, no!” The man held the burger before him as if Steve should be far more shocked about its normal amount of zesty Zeus Sauce. “Hell no, we’re way past that! I wanna talk to the manager, the manager’s manager, the district manager, and CEO Max Buford himself!”
“I’ll go get my manger, sir.”
“Wait a minute, you’re not the manager? How old are you?”
“That’s really not any—”
“You trying to make me even madder? C’mon, it’s not that big a deal, you’re not a woman. How old are you?”
“Thirty-three. I’ll go get my ma—”
“Thirty-three?” The man was suddenly seized by a fit of laughter. “No fucking shit? Damn, man, I’m only twenty six and I got my own corner office!”
Steve bit his tongue as the man guffawed at his expense. His hands clenched into fists but he actually managed to smile.
“It’s the economy, you know?”
“Damn, now I feel sorry for you and shit. Tell you what man, you make me two Big Zeus burgers, with the extra sauce I ordered in the first place, and we’ll let it go at that, okay?”
“Sure,” Steve said. He went back and stood hovering near Tenisha when she made both sandwiches to ensure they were duly deluged with the amber sauce.
“Is he pissed?” Tenisha said.
“He was, until my patheticness amused him greatly.”
Steve glumly collected the sandwiches, wishing he could fling them in the man’s face. He stopped suddenly when a bright flash went off in his face.
“Smile! I just had to take a picture of the thirty-three-year-old virgin.”
“I’m hardly a virgin, sir. Here you are, made just the way you—”
“You got a woman?”
“Yes, I do, and she’s the most beautiful, wonderful woman on the planet.”
“Bullshit, what’s she doing with you, then?”
Steve watched him go, getting into his fancy sports car and speeding off. Numbly, he gathered the trash together and hefted it out to the wooden corral. A few spatters of rain hit the pavement as he walked. A few of the cool drops hit his face, mingling with tears that seemed to spring up from nowhere. He tossed the garbage bags into the Dumpster and shut the corral door behind him, allowing his misery to vent itself. The rain increased a bit in intensity, drenching his shirt to his body.
Steve swung the gates of the corral open. His strides were purposeful as he went across the parking lot, his eyes burning with fire. Stepping into the bathroom, he washed his hands before extracting his cell phone. His shirt dripped water onto the tile floor, where it ran into a divot surrounding a shiny metal grate.
“Pop,” Steve said, blinking in surprise when his father answered the phone. “I wasn’t expecting you to answer, are you busy?”
“Not at the moment.” The sound of many voices could be heard in the background. “I was just about to grab a bite, but looks like everyone else in Reno had the same idea. This place is packed!”
“I won’t keep you long. Look, uh, does the General still run that training center in the Bronx?”
“Yes.” Steve could hear the old man straining to keep the excitement out of his voice. “What’s up? One of your buddies decide he wants to wrestle?”
“No, I was thinking I might need his help…you know, a refresher?”
“I’m sure that he’d take you, Steve!” Deathslayer was unable to restrain his happiness any longer. “But I have to ask, is this just about money? Because that’s not the reason to get into the business. You know that.”
“I know, Pop, and it’s not just the money. When I was teaching, I had a, I don’t know, I guess I had a purpose. I had a reason for getting up in the morning besides paying my bills, you know? I want that feeling back, and you know I’ve always loved getting in the ring.”
“Yeah, I know. It was the backstabbing, soap opera drama of the backstage shenanigans that you could never stand. It hasn’t gotten any better, son. In fact, it’s just gotten worse.”
“I know, Susie was saying that the other day.”
“Where’d you run into her?”
“I didn’t. Facebooking.”
“Right, got it.” Deathslayer’s tone clearly indicated that he was barely cognizant of what Facebook even was. “Well, you have Autumn to keep you centered. What does she think of it?”
“She loves the idea, of course. Hell, she wants to come along, be my manager.”
“That’s a great idea. Like Randy and Liz.”
“Didn’t they break up?”
“Right, bad example. Me and your Ma are still together, though.”
“Ma didn’t go on the road with you, much…Ma was a ring rat, wasn’t she?”
“Hey, don’t talk about your Ma like that!”
They chuckled, but Steve broke it off first. He had a favor to ask.
“Uh, Pop, I hate to ask, but I’m short of cash, and I know those training academies can be expensive…”
“Don’t worry about it. General owes me. You see, once upon a time we made this pact that we would each train one student for the other for free.”
“Really?”
Deathslayer broke into laughter.
“Nah, but it makes for a good story, right? General owes me, I fronted him cash to start that place. Besides, he loves you like blood. Says you’re too decent for the business.”
Steve’s mind raced back to a time when he was more concerned with Godzilla and sling shots than his famous father’s cronies. General had been different, putting up with his adolescent prattling, teaching him that ball bearings were great ammunition and covering for him when he killed a pigeon in the front yard while testing that assertion.
The General was married, but didn’t have children of his own. While Deathslayer was a people person who everyone was naturally drawn to, General was more unassuming. Even in the ring he had struggled to rise to the mid card, despite his crisp delivery of all the required slams and holds. Fortunately, his association with Steve’s more famous father had kept him employed during much of the boom periods of the eighties and nineties.
“Thanks, Pop. I won’t let you down.”
“You better not. General won’t go easy on you, because he can’t. Haven’t been sitting on the couch eating pizza for the last month, have you?”
“Hell no! I’m actually in the best shape of my life, at least physically. If I could get eight hours of sleep in a row, I might even feel good.”
“Tell Autumn you need a night off.”
“Pop!” A pounding on the door alerted him to Glenn’s presence outside.
“Dammit, Steve, get the fuck out of there now and throw some meat on the grill! You’ve had twenty goddamn minutes to take out the trash and use the facilities!”
“Coming!” shouted Steve. More softly in his phone, he said, “Got to go, Pop. Love you.”
“Love you too, boy.”
Steve went out of the stall and washed his hands, grinning as Glenn’s frustrated voice continued to emanate from the other side of the door.
When he stepped out of the bathroom, Glenn’s face was the first thing he saw. The little man’s nostrils flared like a bull facing down a matador. His face was certainly crimson enough to pass for one of their snapping cloaks.
“My office,” he said through tightly clenched teeth. “NOW!”
Steve followed, his lips mouthing obscenities at the manager’s back. Tenisha stifled a laugh at Glenn’s almost comical expression of rage, but Steve found little to be amused about. They stepped into the small office, and no sooner had the steel door slammed shut than Glenn tore into him.
“Do you think I look like a bitch, Steve?” Glenn said, displaying faux calm with his tone while his hands shook.
“I’m sorry?”
“Do. You. Think. I. Look. Like. A. Bitch?”
Well, you’ve got boobs like one Steve thought.
“No.”
“Then why do you think you can fuck me like I’m a bitch?”
Steve burst out laughing. Glenn put his hands on his hips.
“What is so goddamn funny, Mister ‘I’m About To Get Fired’?”
“I’m sorry, man, but I can’t help it, the whole Pulp Fiction thing…”
“What are you talking about?”
“Samuel L. Jackson, 1994, Quentin Tarantino…”
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“But that was the speech from when—”
“Steve, the only way this business will thrive is if every one of the dogs is pulling their weight. I’m the lead dog. When you guys don’t pull your weight, I have to work that much harder.”
“Look, Glenn—”
“No, you look! I’m done. This is it. You can consider yourself on probation. If I catch you doing any goddamn thing that is not one hundred percent in tune with the standard operational procedures of Greece Hut International I will kick your ass out of here. No job, no reference, no nothing.”
Steve stood there taking the abuse, trying to focus on something other than the enraged little man. Taking the high road was what his parents had taught him, but sometimes he longed to be more like Autumn. She wouldn’t stand there and take it.
“You’re lucky a degenerate pervert like you can even find work,” said Glenn, making Steve’s eyes narrow. Glenn nodded, a smile breaking out on his face. “Yeah, I said it. I saw the papers…a transvestite, you sick fuck? You better toe the line, or that hot little girlfriend is going to have to shake her ass in the strip club to pay your—”
Steve took a step toward the much smaller man. Glenn’s voice caught in his throat, as he was unable to retreat more than a scant inch or two in the small confines of the office. Steve’s blue eyes burned with anger long-buried, released in a burst of righteous indignation.
“Look, Glenn, sir,” Steve said, a bit of spittle flying from his mouth to spatter on Glenn’s nose, “you can run me down all you want. I can take it. You can call me a homo or a loser or the child of a fake wrestler, and that’s cool. Sticks and stones, right? Just like I used to tell my kids when I was teaching. Sticks and stones…”
Steve leaned forward further, until his nose was a hair’s breadth away from Glenn’s own. His eyes locked onto the little man’s piggish eyes in a gaze all the more fierce for Steve’s calm tone.
“But if you ever, ever, ever speak about Autumn again, you’re going to wish I was using sticks and stones to beat you with just to get it over with more quickly. And if you want to call the police and tell them I threatened you, go ahead. I’ll just tell them about the way you run out to your car every hour on the hour and stick your nose in a line or two of blow.”
“How dare you even insinuate—”
“Shut up. I’m not finished. Half of the staff has footage of you shot on their cell phones, Mr. Manager sir. They’re just waiting for you to piss them off.”
“Impossible! Who took it, Steve? Who? Answer me, damn you!”
“That’s something to think about, isn’t it? I’d keep my words soft and sweet, in case you have to eat them later. That’s something else I told the kids when I was ‘babysitting.’”
Steve glanced up at the clock on the wall, a smile spreading over his face.
“It’s four o’clock, my shift’s over. I quit. Have a great day and go fuck yourself.”
Steve whistled as he exited the office, leaving a flustered Glenn in his wake. Remembering that his uniform shirt was his own property but his hat was not, he tossed it on the counter in front of Tenisha.
“Do me a favor, ma’am, and give that to Glenn.”
“Your ass just quit, didn’t you?” She cackled as he took a bow.
“I’ve never felt better…or cleaner in my life,” Steve said as he hit the exit. The crisp autumn air that filled his lungs seemed sweeter than any he’d breathed in months.