I finished my associate’s, and was on my way to school to become a Chiropractor, but I had to take a few more credits. Penn State had a satellite campus near home, so I decided to stay at home for a few months and get them out of the way. Home wasn’t home anymore - it was Dad and Terry. Mom moved out a few months earlier and was getting by on the other side of town.
Most of the kids from high school were still around, and I spent most of my night with them. Time was moving pretty slow, though. Everything was the same, but I knew as long as I got through my credits I’d be back at Pitt soon.
After about a month, I volunteered at the Y to fill up my nights. Their wrestling program was really struggling, and they really needed my help. I hadn’t been practicing, and I was pretty out of shape, but I remembered everything from the old days and that was much more than most of those guys knew.
My buddies would come by once in a while when they didn’t have anything else to do, and after practice we would mess around on the mats until the janitor shut the lights off. We’d drink a couple beers, and have tournaments to see who’d be buying the rest of the night. It was perfect.
I finished classes in mid-March, and took my exams on the 20th. Done with requirements and ready for some more school, I was excited to get away from Burrell, my parents, and all the same things.
Exams went pretty well - one of them was for Chemistry, which I always hated but studied up on because I needed an A to pass, and the other was an intro Psychology class, which I was sure I’d ace without too much prep.
I wanted to go out to celebrate with Jeff afterwards, but I had work at six - so I told him to come by around nine and we’d head out.
The day went fine - the kids listened, and I was in a great mood. Time flew by, and by eight, Chuck and Eli came by for the round robin. They were already pretty loose, and they stumbled over to the bleachers while I led the kids out.
Dave and Alec came by with Jeff around nine, and we had six guys ready to go. Jeff and Eli were up first. Jeff wasn’t much of an athlete, but he’d always been a scrapper, so he could fake his way through a fight and get by a skinny guy like Eli. He pinned him after about a minute, as we cheered on, clinking our beers together, waiting for our turn.
Alec and Chuck went up next. They were both on the team with me in high school, and Alec still wrestled for the team at his community college, and stayed in pretty good shape over the years. Chuck, on the other hand, had been smoking a pack a day since we graduated. He didn’t stand a chance. Their fight was even shorter than Jeff and Eli’s - with Alec pinning Chuck after the first grapple. Chuck started arguing that he cheated, but he was supposed to lose all along and he knew it.
We took a little break before me and Dave’s fight, and finished out a twelve pack. I was feeling good and confident, even though Dave was probably the best of all of us. He wrestled on the team with me at Pitt and went undefeated both seasons. And he’d been training hard in the off-season.
I did a few stretches, just to mess with him, while he downed a couple more beers and got riled up. As soon as we got on the mat, I realized he was way too drunk. He was wobbling already. This was going to be easy. Jeff yelled “start” from the bleachers, and we went at it.
I went at his legs, and got him to the ground in a second. I tried to pin him, but he was so drunk, that I guess he thought it was an actual brawl. He threw me off and flew at my gut, trying to spear me. I shoved him off, and for a second I had my back turned to him. He saw that, and grabbed me by my shoulders, and shoved me down to the ground. He didn’t even come after me though.
So, I got up - I was pretty mad at this point - and knocked the wind out of him with a punch. He didn’t see it coming, and just stood there keeled over for a couple seconds. I didn’t know why I did it, so I apologized, but he wasn’t having it. He came at me again, and we both went down. He almost had me pinned, with my neck on the ground, but I was resisting.
We stayed in that position for a couple seconds, then the guys behind us started to get restless, yelling at Dave to put me away. It was the exact stimulus I needed to fight back. I kept trying to shove him off, but he wouldn’t budge.
A few seconds later, I heard a beer fall by the bleachers, and footsteps running towards us. It was Chuck. He was tired of watching the struggle, so he hopped on Dave’s back to speed up the result. As soon as he did, Dave tumbled off me, and as I tried to roll off, Chuck landed right on my head, shoving my neck deep into the mat.
And then - nothing.
The jarring excitement continued on, as the guys yelled and cheered. I heard Dave protesting from the ground beside me, as Chuck stood, proud of himself for the victory, as I laid there, powerless.
