Wrestling Against Myself (50 page)

“How do I keep others from condemning her?”

“Who kept them from stoning the adulterous woman?”

“Jesus did,” Antonio answered.

“You need to turn to the same person to keep your friend safe. I imagine you prayed for your friend and her safety?”

“Daily.”

“But have you prayed for God to change the heart of those who persecute her?”

Tony frowned. “Not as much as I should.”

“Remember it is He and the Holy Spirit who changes hearts, not us.”

“Sometimes I forget.”

“I know,” Bob said with a twinkle in his eye. “That's why I'm here to remind you.”

“I appreciate that. I know you like kicking my can at ping pong before people show up, but do you think I could use the prayer room.”

“I wouldn't be much of a pastor if I told you know. Go ahead, it's left open.”

“Thank you,” Antonio said and then stood up to leave.

For the second straight day school was relatively quiet, which caused Antonio some concern. He found it hard to believe that all Peter had in store for Courtney were juvenile attacks on her locker.  Part of him wanted to confront the junior, but he thought it might be better to let Peter believe his attempts at harassing the girl were unsuccessful.

It was the last period of the day. Tony was eager to get the day over with, because it he was finally going to get his weight certified and could get back to working out. He was surprised how much he missed lifting weights and running laps, last year he would have laughed at the notion of him being a workout warrior.

The final bell rang. As was his custom, Antonio sat in his seat and waited for the students to push and shove their way out of the classroom. He was in less of a rush than usual, knowing he would have to wait for the coach to tell him where the team was meeting up to get their body composition tested.

Once the coast was clear, Tony gathered his belongings and made his way to the locker room. He hoped the instructions wouldn't take long. Courtney was going to wait for him in the car and he was going to drop her off before heading wherever he needed to go. He was also going to take Carl and John with him, so the Firebird would be full. Luckily John and Courtney were short because there wasn't much room in the back seat, especially considering that at 6 feet tall he kept the driver's seat all the way back.

There were a few guys milling around the locker room when Tony made his way in. He saw Carl, but didn't see John Sharp.

“I hope he doesn't keep us waiting,” Tony said to Carl as they waited outside of the
coaches’ office.

“You know John,” Carl replied as he did some squats.

“Probably getting into trouble.”

Carl gave his friend a look. “Be nice. He tries.”

“He tries to fit in and make jokes; he does not try to stay out of trouble. You know he has this fascination with trying to get me to curse.”

“He does the same thing to me. But those are the games he plays, he doesn't mean any harm. It's not like he's stealing cars or kicking puppies.”

“We don't know that for sure,” Tony said with a grin.

The group of seven wrestlers got quiet once the coaches office opened.

“Sorry for keeping you guys locked out.” Coach Walker closed the door behind him. “The scale is off limits before weight certification. I trust everyone took care of what they needed to. So there are no surprises, if anyone is wearing garbage bags, sauna suits, or a wetsuit to drop a few pounds, I suggest you discard it without my knowing. Officially, the Florida High School Athletic Associate condemns such measures to achieve weight loss and any athlete who is caught implementing such tactics will be barred from competition for one calendar month. There is a strict one strike policy on this matter, as well as taking diuretics in order to cut weight. As you are all aware of, a few years ago we had a couple of unfortunate incidents in the wrestling world when we lost several athletes to weight cutting related fatalities and there is no reason to risk it by doing anything stupid. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes sir,” the group said in unison.

“Good. We are going to head to Dr. Rosenblum's office on Belcher and County Road One,” the coach continued as he looked over his clipboard. “Do my drivers know where that is?”

Tony and Russell, a hundred and seventy pounder, acknowledged that they did.

“Good. Is everyone here from last year?”

Before anyone could mention the missing wrestling, John Sharp burst into the locker room.

“Glad you can join us Mr. Sharp,” Coach Walker said sarcastically.

“Tiny,” John said in a rush. “You better get to your car, something's up and it doesn't look good.”

Antonio looked at John and then at the coach.

“Go!” Coach Walked said. “I'll meet you at the doctors; I figure you have your passengers picked out.”

“Yes sir!” Antonio sprinted out the open door.

Instead of going around or climbing over the metal partition that lined the pathway and separated it from the sharp decline that leads to the parking lot, Tony hurdled it. He landed going too fast, lost his balance and fell forward. Without losing any momentum, he tucked into a forward roll, went across his back and popped up to his feet once he got to the bottom of the hill. Without missing a beat he was in a full sprint to the parking lot, not realizing the other wrestlers were behind him.

As soon as Tony turned the corner he noticed a small crowd of eight to ten people surrounding his Firebird, evenly distributed on both sides. Whatever was going on, it wasn't friendly. Even though he couldn't tell from his vantage point, he knew that Courtney was trapped inside.

Peter and his group were around the car, and they had recruited others to join their crusade. The group of teens was violently rocking the car back and forth, trying to roll it over, and shouting.

At first Tony couldn't make out what everyone was yelling as he sprinted towards his car, but as he neared he could hear the two word chant “Prove it! Prove it! Prove it!” the crowd worked itself into a frenzy as it rocked the car even more.

“What are you doing?” Tony grabbed the first person he came upon and pulled them from his car.

He didn't know the person, but they ignored him, pulled away, and went back to join the fray.

“Back off!” Tony drove his shoulder into the person who was at the rear quarter panel and pushed them into the others.

“This has nothing to do with you Tiny,” Peter said as he straightened up on the other side of the car.

“Nothing to do with me?” Tony pulled off his Letterman's jacket. “Last time I checked this is my car.”

“If you want to keep your car safe, you give us the freak.”

“I will do no such thing.” Tony made his way around the car and squared up to the junior.

The wrestlers that were following Tony got to the ruckus and made sure other people stayed at bay as their team captain confronted the leader of the mob.

“So you admit it's a freak.”

Tony could feel his blood boil. “No, I didn't. Back away from my car.”

“Or what,” Peter said, showing uncharacteristic moxie in front of the crowd.

“Kick his ass, Tiny,” John Sharp yelled out while standing between the crowd and the car, making sure that if a fight broke out, no one would jump in.

Tony shot John a look. “Stay out of it.”

“Come on Tiny,” Peter said. “Kick my ass.”

“You don't want to fight me, Peter,” Tony said with even words. “Trust me on that.”

“You're right. We just want this freak to know he isn't welcome here,” Peter said and then turned to the car and pounded on the driver's side window. “You hear that freak, you're not wanted here.”

“Get away from my car.” Tony took another step, coming face to face with the teen.

“You don't want this,” Peter said. “Come on, Tiny, do the right thing. This freak isn't worth it, isn't worth your, what do you call it, your Christian testimony. People are starting to talk, starting to wonder if you're really the moral leader of this school like you use to be. They're saying you're a homo-lover. You don't want people thinking you love homos, do you? Do the right thing and turn a blind eye.”

“You're delusional,” Tony said. “Who do you think you are to judge anyone?”

Tony got distracted by a loud police siren to his left. He was never more happy to see the Sheriff's school resource officer before.

“Break it up,” Officer Pelzer shouted as he got out of his car.

Tony and Peter took a step back from each other.

“What's going on here,” the officer demanded.

“Nothing, sir,” Peter said. “Just a heated conversation.”

“I suggest you disperse before I give you a small cell to cool down in.”

Peter gave Antonio a dirty look.

“Sorry if I didn't make myself clear,” the officer got between the two teenagers and turned to Peter, “but I meant now.”

“This isn't over, Tiny,” Peter seethed.

“Excuse me?” Officer reached towards his handcuffs. “Was that a threat I just heard?”

“No sir.” Peter took a hard swallow. “Come on; let's leave Tiny to his freak.”

Tony and the Sheriff's deputy watched Peter and three of his friends load into his pickup. The other participants in the mob made themselves scarce.

“You okay, Tiny,” Officer Pelzer asked as he took Tony off to the side.

“I'm fine. I'm glad they didn't roll my car.”

“Do you want to press charges? I doubt anything will come of it, but it might deter them in the future.”

“Not really, they didn't do any damage, just scared my friend.”

Officer Pelzer looked through the window and saw Courtney cowering in the car. “Oh, her.”

Tony didn't like the way the officer sounded, but wasn't going to get into an argument with law enforcement. “I think they wanted to frighten her.”
 

“Tiny,” officer Pelzer said in a whisper.
“I’m aware of you and your stand on things, but don't you think you should be a little more particular with who you associate with.”

“She wasn't doing anything wrong,” Tony kept his composure. “She was just waiting for me in my car.”

“But this reaction shouldn't take you by surprise. Come on, Tiny, you should be expecting stuff like this, and it's going to get worse.”

“How do you mean?”

“When people do extreme things, they should expect extreme responses.”

“Extreme, as in being a girl?”

“I know you know the situation, and I know you want everyone to get along in Godly love, but we live in the real world. If you want my advice, I would bail before I got in the cross-hairs of something I couldn't handle.”

“Thank you, officer,” Antonio said curtly.

“Just friendly advice.” Officer Pelzer knew he offended the teen. “Something for you to consider.”

“Have a good day,” Tony said and went back to his car.

Tony sat down behind the wheel, Carl and John Sharp had already settled down in the back seat.