Chapter 5

“Alright, gentlemen, listen up,” Coach Crisfield said from the front of the wrestling room. “We’re going live for a few minutes. After that we’re going for a run. After we run, we’re done. Everybody split into your round-robin groups, right now. One-minute periods.”

It was the middle of the first week of practice. Zach knew that wrestling live would be the first real test of his stamina. The round-robin wrestling sessions were grueling. Each man in the group would take on the other three group members in a one-minute battle, in rapid succession. By the end of the session only those who were in top physical condition would be in any shape for running. The rest would stagger out of the room gasping for air, then loaf through the run and try to disappear into the locker room without being noticed.

Crisfield’s itinerary included another challenge for Zach. It had been just a few days since the fight with Easton. The two had avoided each other since then. Now, because they were in the same round-robin group, they would face each other on the mat for the first time.

“How are we starting, neutral position?” a voice asked.

“Yeah,” Crisfield said. “Start on your feet and wrestle until somebody gets a takedown. Then start on your feet again. Go until you hear a whistle.”

As luck would have it, Zach was first up. He wrestled to a draw with Jim Olney, a sophomore who was planning to compete for the starting spot at the 189-pound weight class. Olney nearly scored in the opening seconds with a double-leg takedown but Zach locked his hands through Olney’s crotch and held on until the other two wrestlers in the group called it a stalemate. After that the two sparred without leaving their feet until the period ended.

After a minute against freshman Eric Crofton, against whom Zach scored three takedowns, it was time for the showdown. When the whistle blew, Zach untangled himself from Crofton and returned to the circle on the mat in their corner of the room. Easton was already there in his stance, waiting for Zach.

The whistle blew before Zach was in position but Easton came at Zach anyway. Without any setup at all he lowered his level and shot for a double-leg takedown. He penetrated deeply enough that he easily took both of Zach’s legs. Instead of picking Zach up and dumping him to the side he went straight through, driving Zach backwards and onto the mat. Zach had no choice but to surrender the takedown and turn away before he ended up on his back. Easton had drawn first blood.

“Nice double,” Zach said as they prepared for a re-start. He guessed that there was still more than a half-minute left in the period. Plenty of time to even the score, he thought. As Easton settled into his stance Zach fought the impulse to shoot on him before he was ready. This wasn’t the time to break the rules. Instead, they both got set and waited for another member of the group to start them off by barking “wrestle!” which was how it was done in the Fire House.

This time Easton came even harder, but Zach was ready. When Easton shot for another leg takedown, the way Zach knew he would, he kicked his legs back out of Easton’s reach and landed chest first on Easton’s back in a well-executed sprawl defense. He pushed Easton’s head away with a cross-face and tried to spin behind but Easton blocked his path with an arm. Just a few seconds later both wrestlers heard their coach suspend competition from across the room by yelling “Stalemate! Re-start over there!” Zach took note of the fact that with all the wrestling that was going on in the room it was Easton against Bowie that he was watching. He felt that the coach had called the stalemate too quickly, almost as if he was trying to keep Easton out of danger.

There couldn’t have been more than fifteen seconds left, Zach was sure. It was a great relief that he had wrestled for nearly three minutes and wasn’t having any trouble breathing, a stark contrast from his experience in the previous season. After being taken down once he had managed to hold Easton off the second time. This time he was determined to score a takedown of his own. Before Easton had a chance to shoot Zach distracted him by faking a tie-up. After taking Easton’s arm he dropped and threw his own arm between Easton’s legs and pulled him down to the mat in a fireman’s carry, earning the takedown he’d wanted so badly. Since Easton was on his side in a vulnerable position, Zach couldn’t resist going in for the kill. He quickly inserted a half nelson and cranked Easton onto his back just as the whistle blew.

“What’s the matter with you!” Easton yelled as he scrambled to his feet. “Stop after a takedown! If you do that again I’ll take your head off!”

Coach Crisfield intervened before the confrontation went any further. “Next man up! Come on, let’s go!”

Zach and Easton wrestled against each other later for another minute, when it was Easton’s turn to take on the rest of the group in succession. That time neither wrestler was able to score. Zach kept his feelings to himself but as he pulled his running shoes on after the wrestling was done he felt satisfied, even pleased, with how he had done against his rival.

“I saw you take Easton to his back,” Bob Mendez said as bands of wrestlers trudged down the hall towards the gym. “Everybody’s watching you, you know.”

“Good,” Zach said. “They better get used to it. I’m planning on wrestling off for 171 against him.”

“That’s a mistake,” Mendez said. “The team doesn’t need you guys fighting each other every week for that spot. Can’t you make it to 160?”

“No way,” Zach said, shaking his head. “I’ll be lucky to get to 171. Why doesn’t he go to 160?”

Later, when Coach Crisfield dropped by Zach’s locker after practice, Zach decided that it hadn’t been coincidence that Mendez had tracked him down to talk about weight classes. Crisfield had probably sent him. “Zach, got a minute?” Crisfield asked.

“Sure,” Zach said. There were still a few other wrestlers lingering around but if the coach didn’t care what they heard, Zach saw no reason to care either.

“I hear you’re planning on wrestling Mark for 171. Is that true?” Crisfield asked.

“Yeah, coach,” Zach said. “I don’t want to be mixing it up with those guys up at 189. I’m not big enough.”

“Well,” Coach Crisfield said slowly. “I’m not so sure it’s best for the team if you do this. We were counting on having Mark at 171.”

“If I beat him, doesn’t that mean we’re even better with me there?” Zach asked.

“It’s just that I don’t want him butting heads with you every week,” Crisfield said. “Don’t you see? He doesn’t need that, it’ll distract him.”

“What about me?” Zach asked. “I don’t need to get mauled by 189-pounders every week.”

Crisfield sighed, and looked around. “I understand, Zach, I really do. I’m not trying to play favorites here.”

Could have fooled me, Zach thought, but he kept it to himself. “He could make 160, but I can’t. Maybe he should cut more weight,” Zach said.

“Okay, Zach,” Crisfield said. “I just wanted to get a feel for your plans.”

“Am I allowed to wrestle off for 171?” Zach asked.

“Of course,” Crisfield replied. “Everybody chooses their own weight class. I just hope you’ll be flexible depending on what happens. Okay?”

“Okay,” Zach said. “But I’d rather lose the wrestle off than wrestle another weight class.”

After showering Zach checked his weight and saw that he was down to 177 pounds. Reaching 171 would still be a challenge but he was well on his way. He clenched his fist and mouthed the word “Yes” as he walked away from the scale.

“Good news from Scalesville?” asked Tim Betterton.

“Yeah,” Zach said. “I’m only six pounds over.”

“Are you sure you’re doing the right thing, Zach?” Betterton asked. “A lot of us are worried about it.”

“What do you mean?” Zach asked, although he knew full well what Betterton meant.

“You look good this year,” Betterton said. “Why do you want to be a second-stringer under Easton? You could win a lot of matches for us if you were a starter.”

“I’m going to be a starter. At 171,” Zach said.

“You mean you’re going to beat Easton?” Betterton said.

“I will if I have to,” Zach said. “But once he knows I’m coming, he’ll go to another weight class.”

Betterton’s eyes went wide. “You’re crazy,” he said. “Mark Easton? That’s who we’re talking about, right?”

“You’ll see,” Zach said.

A few minutes later Betterton caught up to Zach as he was walking outside. “Hey Zach, do you want a ride home?”

“Thanks Tim, I’ll just walk,” Zach said. He didn’t need any of his teammates knowing that his house wasn’t much bigger than the sheds that stood in their backyards.

“Alright, then, see you tomorrow,” Betterton said before walking toward the parking lot. After he was gone Zach turned and walked back inside the school. He’d had an idea while hearing the team’s footsteps reverberating around while they ran. The gym was the perfect place to practice singing. It would be like his personal echo chamber.

On the way back inside he looked around to see if there were any other stragglers. Except for a custodian pushing a broom up the hall there was nobody around. After a quick check of the locker room to make sure everybody had left, he walked into the gym. It was somewhat dark, but the emergency lights that burned in the corners would be enough. From a pocket in his gym bag he pulled a folded sheet of paper. He studied the lyrics on the page for a minute before placing his headphones over his ears, with the volume turned low. Eventually he would practice the songs unaccompanied, or while playing his bass, but for the first run-through he always sang to the recording.

When he was done he felt a lot better about it. It was hard to know how he’d really sounded but it seemed much more natural than he’d expected. For the first time he thought that this was something he could do.

Feeling more confident, he removed the headphones and prepared to sing again. Before he had a chance to start he heard a cough. Somebody else was in the gym with him. He squinted into the dimly lit bleachers, where the cough had seemed to come from. “Hello?” he called out. “Anybody there?”

Suddenly he heard footsteps. Zach looked where the sound was coming from and saw a shadowy figure step out of the bleachers and towards the door. More out of curiosity than anything else, Zach put everything down and made his way to the hallway through another door, the one that was closest to him. When he reached the hallway he nearly collided with a girl who was hurrying to the exit. She stopped when she saw Zach and looked at him. Her face reddened and she smiled awkwardly.

“Sorry,” she said. “I was embarrassed.”

“You’re embarrassed?” Zach asked. “Were you in there the whole time?” He’d seen her around for years, all the way back through middle school. He was pretty sure she was a junior, same as him. It was no surprise that she was a basketball player. He was over six feet tall and she wasn’t much shorter. Her brown hair was pulled back into a pony tail the way most of the girls wore it for practice. She was wearing baggy sweat pants and a Chapel Forge Varsity jacket, and held a pile of clothes under her arm.

“Yeah,” she admitted. “I was already in there when you came in. Somebody closed up the locker room and I needed to change, so I went in there.”

He thought of the mat burn under his right eye and hoped it wasn’t bleeding. “Boy, I feel like an idiot,” Zach said. “I’m in a band, and I’m supposed to learn these new songs, and I wanted to practice where nobody could hear me.”

“Oops,” she said.

“You’re on the basketball team, right?” Zach asked. “I see you around all the time.”

“Yeah,” she said. “I don’t remember seeing you seeing me,” she said. “Are you on a team?”

“I’m on the wrestling team,” Zach said. “I had really long hair until a couple weeks ago so you might not recognize me. My name’s Zach.”

“I’m Beth Ellicott. What kind of band? Are you the singer?” she asked.

“We play rock mostly,” Zach said. “I sing and play the bass.”

“That’s cool,” she said.

They stood in the lobby, neither knowing what to say next. Beth finally ended the awkward silence. “Well, I’ve got to get home. I hope I’ll see you around.”

“I’m leaving too,” Zach said. He followed her to the door and then outside. Snow had been predicted and by the looks of things outside the storm was just getting underway. Before long everything would be white, and the roads slick.

“Do you have a car here?” Beth asked.

“No,” Zach said. “I don’t live too far away. I usually walk.”

“Do you want a ride?” she asked.

“Well, yeah,” Zach said. “I guess I’d rather not walk in this stuff. Are you sure?”

“Of course,” she said.

“Oh yeah, I left my stuff inside,” Zach said. Before she could answer he bolted back inside and retrieved the gym bag and lyrics sheet. When he returned she was standing in the same spot, waiting for him. Once they were in the car he directed her to a corner that was about a block away from his house. It looked no nicer than his street but he just didn’t want to take her all the way there. “You can just let me out here,” he said, hoping she wouldn’t ask why.

“That was easy,” Beth said. “No wonder you walk to school.”

“How did you know I walk to school?” Zach asked.

“We drive past you every day,” Beth said.

“Oh. Well anyway, thanks,” Zach said, realizing that she knew more about him than she was letting on.

“See you around, Zach?” she asked.

“Yup,” Zach said. “Thanks again.” He slid out of the car, closed the door and watched her drive off. She fishtailed away from the curb but after that she seemed not to have any difficulty. After her Chevy Impala was out of sight he turned and walked towards the house. He was glad he had met Beth even though he wasn’t sure why.