I was reading an article tonight and for some reason, wanted to write a story about it.  Read the article, it’s pretty interesting.  I’ve been trying to listen to my intiuition lately and it was like someone poking at the back of my head.  Hopefully I can do more of this story or something else tomorrow.

The crowd is like a living thing, moving, flowing around the two men as they square off against one another.  Legend, dreads now come out of the band holding them together smiles wickedly.  His partner for this match, a quick wiry man named Science, bides his time, waiting for an opening.

The ring is made up of people, the place is Union Square, the fighters are two of the members of the Union Square Spartans and two sides of the triangle.  Legend looks like he outweighs Spider by quite a bit, but the wiry mans moves are deceiving.

“He’s drawing him in” I say to no one in particular, smiling to myself as I watch Science try to maneuver the other man into position.  Their technique isn’t polished, it isn’t flashy.  It’s effective and neat and economical in it’s movement and energy expenditure.

A deep voice from behind me says, “You’re next then.”  I turn to see Science behind me, a smile on his face.  I nod to him and say nothing, my heart racing.  I’ve been coming to see the Spartans for the last few weeks when I can, watching them, seeing that for all of the bravado of some of their members, they are quite good.  A girl standing next to me says, “Who are you?”

I smile at her as Legend and Spider finish, simply moving apart panting, leaving it at a draw.  They smile at each other, knowing that even for having different body types and temperaments, they’re evenly matched.  I unbutton my shirt and pull it off, stretching my arms above my head.

“I’m Nobody” I say softly and drop my shirt on the ground.  Science is standing at the center of the crowd, talking to Legend.  “Sup Nobody” Legend says patting me on the back as he walks by.  “Luck man, Science’s on fire…”

Taking a deep breath, I prepare.  This is my first fight and except for headshots, anything goes.  I know I can probably pull some submissions on him if I had to, but I prefer to fight him evenly, karate vs tae kwon do.  As far as any of them can tell, I’m a 40 year old white guy with a gut and graying temples.  I’m not here to win, I’m here to learn, to understand, and just to get my rah rahs out as my sister calls them.  I probably outweigh Science by about 30 lbs, but they’re all up front and gonna slow me down.  Stretching my shoulders once more, I nod at Science and come to the center to touch knuckles.  “On Fire” means he’s high and probably not going to feel much.  I can smell the beer on his breath, and see how red his eyes are.  I’ve seen him like this, and he can take a lot when he’s like this.

“Tap out quick Nobody” he says with a yellow eyes, bloodshot grin, pulling his hand back and starting to circle me.    I fake with a back leg kick to gauge his speed, but he’s gone before I can even put my foot back down.  I pivot slightly to keep him in front of me, but he’s already coming in with a leg sweep.  Deceptively fast, he throws a double tap right hand into my chest, striking me quickly and hard in the chest before spinning to my blindside.  Rather than trying to follow him, I spin the other direction and meet him with a front kick to the chest.  Having seen what I was doing before he committed himself fully, he springs back, taking only a slight kick to his midsection.

“Chest or stomach Nobody?” he says taunting, knowing the kick didn’t land as high as I wanted.  Smiling back, I slip in for a quick jab at his chest, pulling back the feint and launching the real attack, a sweep at his left leg.  Again, anticipating, he hops over it, trying to close with me.  I take a hard bony shot to the shoulder, but bring my knee up.

“Daaaamn Nobody” Spider taunts from the sideline, making fun of the shot I land.  I took the shot in the shoulder hoping he’d commit to my knee to his stomach.  And I got him good.  The problem is I take too long congratulating myself.  I see the smile as he comes up and drops a round kick right on my ribs.

I hear and audible SNAP and double over at the waist, putting out my hand. Science reaches out to me, knowing the fights over.  “Damn Nobody, I heard that.” Spider says from behind me.  I try to stand up straight, but go to a knee instead.  I look at Science and say “My fault” through clenched teeth.  I can feel the endorphins running out and the pain starts to ache deep in my left side.  Manageable, but still painful nonetheless.

“A’ight, who’s next?” Legend booms in a loud voice.  Science and Spider move me to the side of one of the fountains, helping me to sit.  Spider looks at me with a look of an older brother putting up with a younger one who wants to play with the big boys.  He smirks and walks back to film the next match.

A short chinese girl comes up and hands me an icebag, smiling with a little pity, and a little humor.  Medic, as she’s known, is a damn good fighter too.  PreMed somewhere in the city, she usually takes care of the worse bumps and bruises.  “Tell me you didn’t see his smile when you kneed him.  You thought you were so badass taking the punch to the shoulder and drawing him into the knee.  He had you the whole fuckin time bruddah” she says in some patois that I will probably never understand.

I smile ruefully, shaking my head.  Science winds up to thump me on the back and changes it to a clap on the shoulder.  He pats his washboard stomach and says, “Whateva Nobody, it was a solid knee.  Anytime you want, you come on back down.”

I watch him melt back into the crowd and think about life.  What the fuck am I doing here?  I’m 40 years old for crying out loud.  I’m sparring with kids half my age who know what it’s like to have to fight, when the worst I’ve ever done is in my own imagination or half hearted attempts at sparring in my old dojang in Whitebread Central Jersey.  It all started when I turned 40.  The gut had been growing for quite a while and the energy level was declining as well.  My wife was at home, probably wondering where the hell I was, probably imagining that I was with a woman somewhere, wondering what the hell she was going to tell the kids.  I had been absent a lot lately, tho I tried to reassure her and the kids that I was fine and just going through a weird phase.

Being 40 really did something to me, really reminded me that I really am not 21 any longer and that I needed to work harder at keeping in shape and feeling good.  For every day I didn’t go to the gym, the rationalization grew more that I didn’t have to.  Until I read the article in the NY Magazine about the Triangle and The Union Square Spartans.  I had read the Gates of Hell about the battle of Thermopolae, and how the Spartans defeated a much superior force.  I was fascinated by the training methods and the attitude of the warriors.  Just as I was intrigued about Legend, Science, and Spider.  Just as I found myself leaving work a little early and searching for them.  And one afternoon, finding them and watching.

Were they the best?  No.  Were they polished or always effective?  No.  Did they go out to beat the shit out of each other?  No, and that’s what intrigued me.  Fight Club was a cool movie, but not something realistic.  Nor did I really need the rush of beating the shit out of someone on the weekends and showing up with missing teeth.  I was looking for a way to test myself, to better myself, in a way I wasn’t going to wind up missing teeth, but not as controlled or safe as the dojang.  I wanted to pit myself against someone who really knew how to fight for the right reason…because they had to.

I stood up and looked over at Legend.  “Be back?” he mouthed to me.  “Count on it” I said loudly over the crowd cheering on whoever was winning.  He smiled and turned back to the fight.  I winced and made my way back to my car and a nice little trip to the hospital while I was at it.

“What the hell am I going to tell Fae” I said ruefully as I tried to put the car in gear and take a deep breath at the same time.  I accomplished both, but not without any pain.  I drove down the block past the crowd with the window down, listening to them laughing and cheering and smiled all the way to the emergency room.

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