Title Fight

Polio, epilepsy, crossed eyes, cleft palettes, and mental retardation. You don't see as much evidence of such things any more, but they were part of the everyday reality we grew up with. Look at my old yearbooks. You will see some cockeyed things, misshapen heads, buck teeth. One of the fellows in the eighth grade gym class got his parents permission to join the army. He was huge, so he must have been sixteen. Everyone applauded him.

Gym class itself was a shock. Without preparation, we were told to shower with a hundred other boys under long rows of stainless steel shower heads. Most of us undressed timidly facing our locker, quickly wrapping a towel around our waists before we turned around. Once in the showers, though, we learned of the real discrepancies between us. Early on, one poor kid got an involuntary erection which became the campus topic for weeks, and of course everyone called him a queer. He was already small, but he didn't seem to grow at all the until we graduated. I think the stress of humiliation stunted his growth. One big red head with the largest penis we had ever seen would parade naked through the locker room every day. It was hard not to look.

The different classes all showered together, seventh, eighth, and ninth. One of the older kids, Benny, was the school's James Dean. He had a give a shit attitude about everything, but he was handsome and always smiling. And he was tough enough that nobody every gave him trouble. He was a grade or two older than I, and I always thought he was cool, but one day he certified it in gold. We were getting into our gym clothes when somebody gave out a loud hoot. We all turned. "What the fuck is that, Benny," someone managed. Benny was standing in a pair of very tight white cotton girls underwear. He let the shock of that settle for a good moment before he said, "These are Jane's." Jane was his current girlfriend, a true beauty. And after a little good natured chuckling, that was that. Nope. Nobody would ever be cooler than that.

One day, though, there was trouble, this time over a girl. Benny and one of the biggest boys in school, Sammy, were going to fight in the field behind the shopping center. This was in the middle of nowhere. There would be no one to stop it. It was like a heavyweight title fight and only those with courage bought the ticket. Everyone was nervous. Nobody could predict what would happen, but whatever it was, it would definitely be terrible.

The crowd had formed before the fighters got there, but there was none of the usual hilarity or showing off. If anyone spoke at all, it was in a low, hushed tone. Benny showed up first but we didn't have long to wait. When Sammy got there, his face was a already a twisted mask of ugly rage. He was a murderer, we were certain, if not yet, someday. While the two fighters were approximately the same height, they looked like different species. Benny was long and lean and fast. This would be like a baboon fighting an orangutan.

Without a word, they came together, and Sammy threw the first punch. It landed squarely on Benny's cheek, a horrible blow that would have knocked any of the rest of us out. Shit oh shit, I thought sadly, the brute is going to kill him. I was pulling for Benny, of course, the hipster poet and lover of women.

But Benny did not go down. Rather, he threw his own lightening punch followed by another and another. He was truly quick and that was the way the fight went, one brutal punch answered by three stylish blows. And it went on that way until they were both sweating and swollen. Then suddenly Sammy rushed in and got his arms around Benny, and they were on the ground. They rolled through a thicket of sand spurs, each of them covered from head to toe. But neither of them were able to get an advantage and within minutes there some silent negotiation took place. They relaxed their grips, let go of their lover's embrace, and without a word, they got to their feet. And that was it. It was over. As they each began dislocating the sand spurs from their skin and clothing, they locked eyes, and that was it. They walked away in different directions, each trailing by a knotted group of supporters.

A few weeks later, Sammy got into some sort of trouble and was called into the principal's office where he was to get paddled. Sammy was bigger than the principal, so for him, this was no more than a joke. But the principal, it was reported by a student worker, went at the task with great relish, swinging harder and harder with every stroke. And suddenly Sammy had had enough. All accounts of what happened next were the same. Sammy told the principal not to hit him another time, and when he did, Sammy turned around and went after him. When the other men working in the office got there, Sammy had the principal across the desk holding him by the throat. Sammy was already sixteen by then, and the next day he quit school.

Benny lasted a little longer.