Of Mice and Minestrone by Joe R. Lansdale

Author:Joe R. Lansdale [Lansdale, Joe R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B082BD1VTS
Publisher: Tachyon Publications
Published: 2020-05-14T04:00:00+00:00

It was really a light time in the ring, and Ty didn’t try to take any cheap shots against me. He looked pretty, was quick on his feet, had fast punches, but I knew something right off. He couldn’t crack an egg with either hand even if he was hungry.

Because of that, I flicked him with a jab a lot, but didn’t let it clobber him. I threw some light crosses and hooks and he dodged a few. He ought to have. I threw them slower than usual. Even a man blind in one eye with his back foot in a bucket of cement could have slipped or padded them off.

When we finished, I came down out of the ring, and Leonard handed me my towel. I wiped the sweat off me as best I could. It wasn’t like they had a shower at the barn. They barely had a working toilet.

Ty climbed through the ropes and came down out of the ring and smiled at me. “Thanks, man. You move quick.”

“Thanks, Ty,” I said, and Ty went away whistling toward the back to change.

Dixie climbed down out of the ring.

“Only thing you didn’t do in there was give the kid a kiss and a dozen roses.”

“You hired me to work him, not knock him down,” I said.

“Ty’s got some moves,” Leonard said, “but they’re mostly for the dance studio.”

“Bus don’t think so,” Dixie said.

“Bus don’t give a shit,” Leonard said. “He’d put an infant in the ring if they could fit the gloves.”

“He’s not so bad,” Dixie said.

“Yeah he is,” Leonard said. “Looking pretty, having the moves, doesn’t make you fighter.”

“Yeah, well,” Dixie said. “Gonna help Ty get those gloves off. Can you come back in a couple hours, give him another round? Leonard this time.”

We agreed we could.

Dixie nodded and started toward the back.

“Give them a minute before you go back and change,” Leonard said.

“All right. Hey, it’s odd, but Ty, he can’t hit any harder than a paralyzed grandma. You see that one he caught me with. He punches to you, not through you.”

“Thought that looked like the case. He’s got the shoulder launch, the hip switch, but you can see it’s a butterfly.”

“Float like a butterfly and sting like a moth,” I said.

When me and Leonard finally went to the back, Ty was still there. He was sitting alone in the dressing room on a wooden bench.

“You got some moves,” he said to me.

“Thanks.”

“I can’t do the kind of footwork you do. I mean, I got footwork, but it’s not helping that much.”

“That’s because you got footwork for footwork’s sake,” Leonard said. “You got to have a reason to shuffle, to step and lunge, to skip on back or to the side. You’re just moving around, Ty.”

“I know it.”

“How did you get into this?” Leonard said.

“One of them things, you know. How old are you guys?”

We told him.

“You look my age.”

“Which is?” Leonard said.

“Twenty-one.”

“Yeah, well, you just got a few years on us,” Leonard said.

“So, you’re sitting at home, and one day you jump up and decide to be a boxer,” I said.

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