The bout between Lefty Louie and Brainbasher Gordo was a week off. Brainbasher was a vicious fighter, with a brutal right cross, a devastating left hook, a chin of granite, and a 15-0 record, all by KOs within the first two rounds. Louie’s record was less distinguished. He did win his last fight, although his opponent collapsed in the fourth round, the victim of a sudden, violent stomach virus.
In the practice gym, his manager, Mel, called Louie over from working out on the heavy bag. As far as Mel could tell, the heavy bag was ahead on points.
“How do you feel, Louie?”
“I’m a little tired, Mel… But I think I can make it another round with that damn bag.”
“Good, Louie… But I wondered how you felt about Brainbasher?”
“Who?”
Mel sat next to Stan, the corner man. Stan removed a cigar butt from his mouth, shaking the ash onto the cement floor.
“Gordo, Louie?… Mel and I want to know how you feel about Gordo?”
“I’ve been practicing positive thinking, Stan, just like you explained. I’m going to bust Gordo’s chin in.”
“That’s what I call positive, Louie. I’m glad to hear it.”
“Why’d you ask, Stan?”
The corner man shoved the cigar back into its place, the way a sheriff in the Old West might reholster a smoking gun, except the gun would smell a lot better. He could talk, smoke, and spit tobacco juice pretty much simultaneously.
“Well… Mel didn’t think you’d make it past the first round, Louie. But I bet him you wouldn’t be knocked out until the middle of the second.”
David Sydney is a physician who writes fiction in and out of the EHR (Electronic Health Record).