THUG ( 5-B )

THUG   (CHAPTER -5-B )

 

The dressing room , down a dark corridor, next to showers and

workout space, smelled strongly of sweat and blood.

Tom sat disconsolately , bent nearly double with aches and pains,

nauseous from blows he had taken to the stomach.  In the distance

he could hear the rumbling , murmering crowd of people filing out

of the stadium , hear the running showers and flushing toilets and

the groans of other contestants in the neighboring rooms, as they

pulled their clothing on over sore and painful bruised bodies.

 

Chief among Tom`s concerns was the wisdom of his chosen profession.  Always a concern, in Tom`s case an immediate concern.

He would have to walk out of here in the next hour and meet with Billy

Cavan, his old friend and trainer and he would have to meet with Angela.    What was he to tell Meg ?  She had been his faithful friend and manager.

 

When Tom was leaving the ring,  Angela had informed him that he was

wanted back at the ranch.   If he did not return with them , Billy was going to leave and all their efforts to promote fighters would have failed.

 

With all of this whirling through his head, Tom was hard pressed for a

decision.   He and Meg had learned to depend on each other, if he left

her she would sink in to the morass that was the underbelly of Butte, Montana.   The smelly streets and smellier people dependants of an

economy vanishing with the dwindling  copper and gold from local mines.

What of Billy Cavan,  Tom`s trainer and friend from Angela`s ranch.

Billy had made it known that if Tom did not return to training and promotion at the ranch, he Billy,  was leaving to follow the fight game.

Tom had grown to respect Billy`s friendship and his wisdom.  Billy , a

lightweight fighter had been solely responsible for building up the

phenominal speed that Tom was widely known for.   Tom realized that

he had to continue this speed training or he would slow and Billy was

the logical source of that speed trainging .

 

Ah !  The big , big question, Angela ?  As he sat their hunched over ,

nauseous and in pain, Tom knew that Angela had an influence over his

life that he was never going to ignore.  [ I want her,]  i want her kept repeating in his mind, [I need her , Angela , my Angela, I dream of you

and I know we have some future together.  But, what Angela ?]

And with a great sigh he returned to the preperation room behind the

ring in the stadium of Butte, Montana,  nothing resolved...........

-----Eagle Cruagh

Reviews

[emmajoy]

I gather this is a small part of a whole book or plan for one, so think I need to do some catching up. Would you guide me where, please.

I find the breaks in the writing a little disjointed but feel there's terrific power in this, a real conflict of what to do for other people, which direction to take. So hope there's more.

[x]

A great write.
It's going well, as a continuation of an earlier write. This scene is well scripted and there's tons going on with the three story lines running over each other but woven together in a seamless fashion.
It's interesting to have the hardness of Tom's reality mixed in with the softness of his romance and leaves the reader with anticipation which is always a page turner.