Z and I went a couple of rounds for the first time. Z did well. Even with the big, soft sixteen-ounce mittens, he rocked me a couple of times. When we were done he was breathing hard, but so was I. I was breathing normally a little before he was. But his recovery time was pretty good.
“You’re a quick study,” I said.
He grunted. It was hard to tell what the grunt meant, because the gloves had Velcro closures instead of laces, and Z was pulling on the closure strap with his teeth. I took it as “thanks.”
We took a shower.
“Probably can ease off on the intervals today,” I said as we were toweling off.
“No,” he said. “Starting to feel in shape.”
“Your wind is good,” I said.
“Not good enough,” he said.
I nodded.
“You know a guy named Elliot Silver?” I said.
Z shook his head.
“Nope.”
“How about Carson Ratoff?”
“Nope.”
“Anything unusual about the financing of Jumbo’s picture?”
“I don’t know,” Z said. “Nobody told me.”
“Window dressing,” I said.
“What?”
“Part of his costume,” I said. “I’m so important I have to have a bodyguard, and not just any bodyguard, I got one looks like Jim Thorpe, all-American.”
“I’m lucky he didn’t want me to wear a feather,” Z said. “They making a threat?”
“Sounds like one,” I said.
“It bother you?” Z said.
“I’ve been threatened before,” I said.
“But you won’t back off,” Z said.
“Can’t,” I said. “I start backing off, and I’ll be looking for another kind of work.”
“What would you do instead of this?”
“Can’t think of anything,” I said.
“So you just don’t allow it to bother you,” Z said.
“That’s about right,” I said.
He nodded slowly.
“Maybe I should sort of hang around with you,” he said.
“Backup?” I said.
“Sure,” Z said.
“Can you shoot?”
“Hunted since I could walk,” he said. “Five hundred yards, I can knock down a running antelope. It wasn’t a sport for us. We were after meat.”
“How about a handgun.”
“Got one, never really used it,” Z said. “I guess if you’re close enough.”
“You got a license in Massachusetts?”
“Yeah, production company got it for me, through the Film Bureau, I suppose. Somebody took me over for fingerprints and a picture.”
“There’s a range in Dorchester,” I said. “We can go over there and shoot a little, part of the training program.”
“So I’m in?” Z said. “Be like your bodyguard?”
“Give you an opportunity to emulate my sophistication,” I said.