Wearing Purple

Chapter 15

‘Cherish every moment, son,’ my dad told me when we phoned Anstruther to break the news. ‘The expectation of your first child is one of life’s great times. It’s exciting and frightening all at the same time.

‘It’s a great test of patience too. Come next September you’ll think she’s been pregnant for ever, and to be able to feel the baby moving about, yet not know what it looks like. . my son, I can’t find the words. You’ll just have to experience it yourself.’

‘Chances are we will know what he or she looks like. Jan will be scanned, I suppose.’

At the other end of the line, Mac the Dentist grunted. ‘Hmph! There are some areas in which medical science has gone too far,’ he growled. ‘I remember when our Ellie was born. Not that I was there, mind you. Our consultant didn’t approve of fathers being involved at any stage of the process, bar one.

‘But the moment when I was allowed in to see your mother and she said to me “Mac, we have a daughter.” Och. .’ He paused, and in that moment my eyes went misty. ‘It was one of the greatest moments of my life, and the revelation was part of it. I don’t think my medical colleagues should deny that to people.

‘If the Lord had meant you to know whether it was going to be a boy or a girl He’d have put a window in there somewhere. Just don’t let the buggers tell you. Mind that now!’

I didn’t realise it, but I was still smiling as I walked into the main arena at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, just before one on Friday afternoon, the designated gathering hour for the first run-through of the weekend’s BattleGround.

‘Hey guy,’ The Behemoth called across, as I turned into the doorway, ‘was it that good?’

I strolled across to join him. He was wearing jogging bottoms, and a grey zipper top which made him look even more like a small mountain.

‘As a matter of fact it was, Jerry. Jan’s having a baby.’

The rugged face cracked into a smile, and a laugh came rumbling up like a volcano. ‘That’s great, Oz. Ain’t it amazing what you can do, even with limited equipment.’

My ‘Cheeky bastard’ response jumped out before I had time to think just who I was calling a cheeky bastard. Happily, Jerry was my firm friend; and in any event he was the sort of honey monster who was as gentle in private as he could be ferocious in public.

‘Hey Everett,’ he called across. I turned and saw Daze behind me, vast in his training gear. ‘Our ring announcer’s gonna be a dad.’

The giant smiled, stretching out his hand as he walked across, but I could detect a look in his eyes that could have been a mixture of pain and jealousy. He kept it out of his voice though. ‘Congratulations, my man. I don’t need to ask whether you’re pleased. Did you plan to have a baby this soon after you got married?’

‘Planning isn’t something Jan and I have ever been too strong on,’ I replied.

Suddenly I felt self-conscious. I hadn’t really wanted to share the news with anyone that soon. It had escaped in an unguarded moment. ‘How’s Liam doing?’ I asked, to change the subject.

‘He’s healing up fine,’ Everett replied. ‘Diane just called me from her car. She expects to deliver him back home within an hour.’

‘She comin’ here for the run-through?’ asked Jerry.

‘Eventually.’ I wondered why the big man was so casual, given the fact of his wife delivering the man he suspected of being her lover back to his pad in Kelvin Court — stitches or not — but he answered me straight away. ‘Liam’s mother is waiting there for them. Diane was given nursing notes by the hospital and she has to go over them with her. She’ll be back here for our rehearsal though.’

‘Are you guys wrestling this week?’ I asked.

‘I am,’ said Daze. ‘Jerry’s still nursing that muscle strain; but we’re going to have a confrontation.’

‘What d’you mean?’

‘I’m fighting Rockette tomorrow.The Princess will distract me again. .’. He grinned suddenly and disarmingly. ‘I’m dumb, see. .

‘While I’m looking at Diane, Tommy will break one of his trick guitars across my back. I’ll lose my cool at last, pick him up by the throat and throw him over the top rope, straight at her.’

Christ, Everett, I thought. I know you suspect her of being Mata Hari, but chucking a seventeen stone wrestler at her might be a bit extreme.

‘However,’ he went on, looking at me as if he was reading my mind, ‘Jerry will be doing colour commentary at ringside. He’ll jump up and catch Rockette in mid-air, then he’ll climb into the ring with Diane behind him. The show will fade just as he and I are starting to get it on.

‘How does that sound, Announcer?’

‘It sounds fine, but what’s it about?’ I knew enough about the GWA by this time to understand that all their ‘confrontations’ fitted within a wider story-line involving the characters.

‘The purpose is to promote bookings for the Edinburgh pay-per-view event, where Jerry and I are in the headline cage match.’

I frowned. ‘What’s a cage match?’

‘Hell on earth,’ Jerry growled. ‘We build a fifteen foot high steel cage all around the ring, so that no one else can get in and so’s the wrestlers can’t get out. The winner is the guy who manages to climb over the top of the cage and land on his feet on the other side. Havin’ the cage there lets you do all sorts of manoeuvres that just ain’t possible in the ring. Only the very top guys can do cage matches. I hate ’em.’

‘Why?’ I asked him. ‘You’re one of the very top guys.’

‘Don’t like heights,’ he mumbled, sheepishly.

‘Oz,’ interrupted Everett, smiling at his friend’s confession, ‘I’ve told Jerry about the barriers. And about you. I know we agreed that it would be our secret, but I couldn’t have stood The Behemoth here finding out and thinking I didn’t trust him.’

Of course, by that time I was convinced of his innocence too. ‘Fair enough,’ I said. ‘What do you think of the situation, Jerry?’

‘I agree with Ev. It has to be that SoB Reilly. He’s gotta have someone on the inside.’ He looked at me, and I saw for the first time the sharp intelligence in his eyes. ‘You see, Oz, the only people who care about our business enough to try to do us harm, or do us good, are other people in our industry.

‘We’re unique. There’s no other branch of sports or entertainment like us.We’ve grown up over the years because we’ve traded on a basic human instinct, lust for violence. A hundred and fifty years ago, folks used to watch executions. Today they come and watch us pretend to kill each other.’ He jerked a thumb towards Daze.

‘We’re like elephants, him and me, and I don’t mean in size. We don’t prey on anyone and we don’t have no one prey on us. The GWA is a new young bull elephant among the herd, and CWI is the old bull. Reilly’s out to do us in before we get too strong for him.’

I tried to push it away, but I couldn’t. A vision of Jerry Gradi servicing a cow elephant came into my mind. I smiled, but managed to stop short of laughing. ‘I see,’ I managed to say, then felt that a slight change of tack was called for.

‘What are you going to do about Liam’s championship belt?’ I asked.

‘Good question,’ said Everett. ‘We’re having an eliminator tomorrow. Salvatore Scarletto, Johnny King, that is, fights Chris Manson; winner gets a match with Darius for the belt at the pay-per-view.’

‘Has Johnny got enough flair for that?’

Everett nodded approval. ‘Another good question. Yeah, he has. The babes like him well enough, and he has good skills. He’s a coming boy. Not yet, though. He’ll give the Angel a battle, then he’ll go down. Darius is ready to move up; Jerry and I need someone else on the top shelf.’

He turned to his colleague. ‘So let’s get to it. And Oz, while you’re not announcing you be looking out for trouble. I’m cutting down on the high impact stuff this week and on the props, but I want you to try to spot anything else, anything at all, that might go wrong.’

‘What about Rockette’s guitar?’ I asked him, at once. ‘That’s a prop.’

‘You’re right, it is: so this is how we handle it. Tommy brings it to the ring as usual, he hands it to you, and when he’s ready, you hand it back to him. That should be okay. .’ He shot me a grim smile. ‘Unless someone puts a bomb in it, that is.’