Going Fast (44 page)

H
ALIFAX

To the left, displayed with equal prominence, was the prize-winning photo of Louie unconscious in the ring, mouth open, as lifeless as a harpooned tuna.

“Hey,” said Louie as soon as Johnny sat down. “Let's work the ball.”

Johnny struggled to his feet with a sigh. Turmoil was gone, but the essence was the same, here in this shabby sanctuary built on hope, pain, and the promise of salvation. Johnny had laughed when he heard about Ownie nailing MacKenzie, and somehow that punch, landed in front of an entire newsroom, recorded on a surveillance camera, added an outlandish footnote to Turmoil's tragic tale. It was better, everyone decided, to talk about
that
instead of Turmoil's passing, which had been as abrupt and dreamlike as his arrival in the city.

“Did he go straight down?” Johnny had asked Ownie.

“Like an anchor.” Ownie had shrugged.

Thump
.

Johnny checked the glove-shaped clock and noticed that Tootsy had added pictures on one wall, all black and white, some the colour of tea stains. He recognized a few from Ownie's basement: Tommy Coogan posing with a lion in South Africa, Thirsty at a restaurant table with Ownie, Butch with golf balls under his eyes.

Thump
.

Louie was wearing a T-shirt with Marciano's face silk-screened on his chest.

Thump
.

Ownie was working with little Ricky, who had grown five inches. Ricky's body had become confused by the growth spurt, which had left him with gangly limbs, an unfamiliar nose, and adolescent acne. His brother, a wannabe who claimed he'd been shot in one leg, resulting in a badass limp, had been arrested for stealing a car, but the kid was still straight.

Ownie spent ten minutes on balance, getting Ricky's feet properly positioned, the right distance apart. “It's the foundation for everything.” Now the trainer was showing him, step by step, how to throw a complete combo to the head. The left jab followed by a right cross and the left hook. One, two, three.

“You'll catch onto it,” Ownie assured him. “Just practise.” Ricky nodded.

Johnny heard stomping on the stairs. The door swung open.

“Is this the best you can do?” Butch barked accusingly.

“It's better than some of the dumps you trained in.” Ownie turned around.

Two steps behind his brother was Suey Simms, who, after catching up and settling into a chair, urged Butch, “Take your coat off, brother, and stay a while.” Butch removed a thick knit sweater and a salt-and-pepper cap. He eyed the gym suspiciously.

Louie dropped the ball and moved across the room.

“How would you like to go a round with a senior citizen?” Ownie asked Louie. “That man there is so old that you can hear him dying.”

Louie blinked and nodded no.

Slowly, Butch walked over to the heavy bag and instinctively took two shots.
Boom. Boom
. It was the first thing you did in a gym. Some trainers liked their fighters to work on heavier bags, he remembered, some preferred the lighter ones. Butch went into a crouch and threw a barrage of punches, combos to show that his timing was good.

“You can still shoeshine, Butch,” Suey decided. “You can shoeshine.”

Butch squared himself in front of the speed bag and tapped a little tune. Every tap was a note: a slow march from the poor streets, a jig into the Garden. If he wanted to, he could, after all of these years, hear Lou Stillman yelling insults across his gym, he could see the doorman collecting fifteen cents, and he could feel himself sitting on a bench, face coated with Vaseline, waiting his turn to climb into ring number two. In the air was cigarette smoke, a mist of sweat, and nerves. “Slip and slide baby, slip and slide.”

Ownie watched Butch and nodded.

When Butch was eight, Ownie took him into a dressing room where an old sock-peddler, a preacher when he wasn't in the ring, was sitting on a bench reading a Bible. Looking up, the preacher fixed his eyes on Butch and drawled, “My oh my, you're just a little schoolboy. Does your mama know you're here?”

Butch and another schoolboy were supposed to go four rounds before the fights started. The preacher said he'd go in Butch's corner for free. It was cold that night; they must have been out of coal, and a longshoreman was coated with foulsmelling
fertilizer that stung Ownie's eyes. There was moonshine, and horse pictures on the walls, and everyone was talking about a ruckus on the waterfront that morning. While hoisting up a steer in a sling, something had shifted and the animal had plunged over the side.

In those days, the kids didn't get paid; the crowd threw change in the ring. “Look busy,” the preacher urged Butch. “The better the show, the more they throw.”

The room was filled with hawking men on crates and wooden chairs. “Hey, mama's boy,” one taunted. “Where's your titty bottle?”

In the first round, Butch danced around, afraid he'd be hurt, and then the preacher told him: “Man, you're as fast as a wingbird. Ain't nobody goin' to hit you,” and the words sounded good.

Butch and the other schoolboy split four bucks, maybe five, after they counted the pennies and dimes, enough for some grub, enough to fill them up. When Butch came home that night, Ownie remembered, their mother never said a word.

“You know, Butch,” Suey said. “I still think Percy won most of them fights.”

Finished with the bag, Butch rolled across the hardwood floor, past the dusty crosses, past a photo of Turmoil triumphant in a Halifax ring. Butch's nose was flat, the area around his eyes looked like an old stuffed sock. It was all the same, Ownie decided, it was all the same.

“That kid there.” Butch pointed at Ricky, who stiffened, not knowing what to expect. “He looks like he's made of something. Like he could go somewhere.”

“Solid gold, brother.” Ownie made it sound as certain as anything in life.

Ricky lowered his head and smiled.

Here are the old names I picked out of the papers. My favourites are Ransom for a man and Fairy for a woman. Ivy Delight had a nice ring, along with Princetta. I didn't find any starting with X or Y, and just one K. I noted that many of the women's names ended with A.

Your father.

Ada, sister of Ida

Adelbert

Adret, mother of Vernetta, Raya, and Tahirah

Albina

Alfretta

Alma, sister of Burns

Alonza

Alonzo

Aloysius

Alpha

Alpheus

Althena

Alvil

Ambrose

Amedee

Amilene

Ancil

Annison, father of Enos

Annora

Arabella

Ardeth

Ardis

Arizonia

Artamus

Arvilla

Arzelie

Asa

Aseph

Audley

Auldon, brother of Mercie and Lovitt

Avelena

Aveling

Avonne

Avora, sister of Rhea, Lela, Phebe, and Willoughby

Azade

Beda

Bent, father of Eudora

Bernetta

Beryl

Beulah

Bowman

Brenna

Bryson

Budia

Burnett

Burnley

Byrnus

Cantley, brother of Arvilla and Fielding

Chestena

Cloe

Clotilda

Colena

Corrilda

Delle

Delma

Delmer

Delphina, sister of Elta and Melda

Demmick

Denson

Dimerize

Dimock

Dolena

Donelda, sister of Guilford

Doran, brother of Elva and Meda

Dorette

Dorina

Drucella

Easterby

Eben, brother of Spurgeon

Eckhardth

Eden

Effie

Egon

Elbridge

Elden

Eldena

Eldibert

Eldora

Electa

Eleda, sister of Nina and Roxella

Eli

Eliam

Elisha

Eliza

Ellard

Elliwishes

Elmor

Elva

Emelda

Emery

Emiline, mother of Electa

Enos, brother of Amos

Ensley

Erdine

Erema Flo Ella

Ervina

Esau

Estella, daughter of Elisha, sister of Elta

Ettrick

Euphemia

Evelina

Everine

Ezekiel, husband of Radie

Fairy

Fenwick

Fielding

Firmin

Flavian

Flossy, sister of Daisy and Fowness

Ford, husband of Minerva

Garnetta

Gezina

Gideon

Glenola

Gonzo

Grampian Bella

Hance

Handley, husband of Melitta, son of Amos and Linnie, brother of Mamie and Goldie

Harlen Elvert

Harmia

Havelock, husband of Orien, predeceased by first wife, Gezina

Hennessey

Hezekiah

Hibbutt

Holgar

Horatio

Hulda

Hulga

Idaline

Idella

Ilean

Imogene

Ina

Inez

Iola

Iona, sister of Vergie, wife of Orville

Ivor

Ivy Delight, sister of Ancie and Opal, wife of Cannice

Jacinth

Janetta

Jeromia

Johnena

Jovita

Kelton

Laliah, sister of Alvah

Lavin

Lavinia

Lawney

Leander

Leila

Lemuel

Leontine

Leoro

Leota

Leoutrah

Lermoa

Leta, sister of Laurena

Lexena

Lezin

Liah

Lillias

Locklin

Lomer

Lorena, daughter of Beulah

Lorinda

Lottie

Lovitt

Luelle

Lyda

Lylla, daughter of Lyman

Lyman

Mabelle

Mafalda

Maisie

Manetta

Manley

Marcella

Marcellin

Maritta

Marvel

Mayford

Mayola

Meda

Medley

Mehetabel

Melba

Melda

Melitha

Melzena

Mercie

Merdina

Meta

Minna

Moody

Moya

Moyle

Murdena

Murna

Muroye

Myrna

Nedra

Nema, sister of Nonie, Ardith, and Nan

Nettie

Neva

Nona

Nuala

Oda Belle

Olena

Ona

Oneita

Ora Generva, sister of Kelton

Oran

Orellia

Orien

Orinda

Orlea

Ormal

Orphima

Orris

Parmenas

Parmilla

Pemmiuphy

Perley

Phares

Pharonie

Philson

Princetta

Prior

Proctor

Queenie

Raeburn

Ransom, son of Odessa

Rathbone

Relief

Remegius

Retha

Roblin

Roboam

Rosamond

Rosella, sister of Angel

Roswell

Rowena

Rowlin

Rustin

Sedella

Seretha

Seth

Seward

Silvanus

Spurgeon

Stairs

Stricklen

Suther

Sylvan

Teemis

Thursa

Tressa

Treva

Truth

Tuddyd

Ula

Ulric

Uriah

Vally

Vanetta

Venette

Verner

Vernetta, sister of Hulga, Locklin, and Moyle

Verona, daughter of Addie

Vesta

Vida

Vina

Viola, sister of Elva

Volney

Wanetta

Wilda

Willard Bazel

Williamina

Woodbury

Wynn

Zachariah, father of Titus, Judson, and Hosea

Zena

Zillah

Zita

Not old, but worth chucking at you:

Pussy, Rango, Chicks, Huck, Skippy, Tootsie, Scruffy, Doll, Checker, Dooks, Ebb, Duff, Snorky, Dancie, Bun, Goose, and the brothers Spud, Babe, Sunny, Bub, and Lol.