Blow by Blow by Keith Thomas Walker

Author:Keith Thomas Walker
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-58571-626-5
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2012-01-02T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

SEA LEGS

Reggie waited until they left the apartment’s parking lot before he turned the radio off and fixed a concerned look on his sister’s fiancé. Lonzo was an imposing figure. Reggie had no doubt Lonzo could whoop him if they ever got into a physical altercation, but some things are worth taking an ass-whooping for. Sticking up for your baby sister just happened to be one of those things.

“I ain’t trying to get in your business,” he said, “but Nee Nee was looking kinda upset, when we left the house. Y’all all right? I know shit probably going bad right now, after what happened with your fight….”

Lonzo looked his homeboy in the eyes and nodded. Generally any problems he had at home would stay at home, but Reggie wasn’t just anybody. He was Nisha’s brother, and he was also a good friend.

“You know how womens is,” Lonzo said. “They want everything to be plain and simple. They start tripping whenever it’s a little bump in the road.”

“Yeah.” Reggie nodded, even though he disagreed with Lonzo’s assessment. It was true that most women did want their lives to stay on the straight and narrow, but Nisha wasn’t simpleminded like that. She grew up in the hood and was used to things not going her way.

“You saw my fight?” Lonzo asked.

“I seen it,” Reggie said. “But you shouldn’t even worry about that shit. That nigga got lucky. You was better than him. He just caught you with a lucky punch….”

Lonzo sighed. “Ain’t no lucky punches in boxing, man. He hit me exactly where he was aiming to hit me. Ain’t nothing lucky about that.”

Reggie didn’t know how to respond.

“Shit like that makes you open up your eyes,” Lonzo went on. “I ain’t gon’ lie; I was a little arrogant about that fight. I knew he was gon’ try to tire me out. I figured if I could avoid that, you know, make sure I had enough juice left for the last couple of rounds, I’d be all right.

“But it’s not that easy when you get in the ring. I gotta deal with the crowd and my ego. They want me to put on a show, and I start getting mad because I can’t do it. I wanna knock him out so bad, but at the same time I know I gotta hold back because that’s what this chump wants me to do; swing for the fences so he can lay in on me when he see I’m tired.

“And then you got the street-nigga pressure. He’s talking to me while I’m in the ring. The people in the crowd don’t know about that stuff, how he’s talking noise when we’re in the clinch. He’s telling me I ain’t got nothing for him, and I can’t knock him out. And me being a street nigga, that shit feeds right into what I’m used to. I know what he’s doing, but it’s still hard not to let it get to me.”

“I feel ya,” Reggie said.

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