The day before his fight with Lacey, Danny’s language teacher finally let him have a pocket tape recorder. But it was too late to try a breakout before the fight. Danny figured he would need at least a week to get the right words from Joe Tenny onto a tape. Then he’d have to juggle the words onto another tape until he had exactly the right order to give SPECS.
Danny wasn’t looking forward to fighting Lacey. It would have been fine with him if he could have escaped the Center before the fight. But he wasn’t going to back out of it.
Maybe Lacey’ll help get me out of here, Danny thought, with a grim smile. On a stretcher.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The gym had been changed into an arena. All the regular equipment had been put away, the ring dragged out to the center of the gym, and surrounded by folding chairs. All the chairs were filled with teachers and boys who cheered and hollered for their favorite boxers. And they booed the poor ones without mercy.
Danny could hear the noise of the crowd from inside the locker room. Ralph had helped him find a pair of trunks that fit him. They were bright red, with a black stripe. The color of blood, Danny thought. One of the gym teachers wrapped tape around Danny’s hands and helped him into the boxing gloves. Then they fit him with a head protector and mouthpiece.
There were no other boxers in the locker room. Danny’s fight was the last one of the evening. Lacey was getting ready in another locker room, on the other side of the building.
“Now remember,” Ralph whispered to Danny when the teacher left them alone, “get in close, grab, him, trip him up, push him off-baiance. Then hit him with everything you got! Elbows, head, everything. You got a good punch, so use it.”
Danny nodded.
The crowd roared and broke into applause. He could hear the bell at ringside ringing.
“Okay Romano,” the teacher called from the doorway. “It’s your turn.”
The head protector felt heavy, and clumsy. The mouthpiece tastes funny, like a new automobile tire might taste, Danny thought.
As he entered the gym a big cheer went up. Danny started to smile, but then saw that the cheering was for Lacey, who was coming toward the ring from the other side of the gym.
As he walked toward the ring, boys hollered at him:
“You’re goin’ to get mashed, Romano!”
“Sock it to him, Danny!”
“Hey, skinny, you won’t last one round!”
Dr. Tenny was standing at the ringside steps. His jacket was off. He was wearing a short-sleeved shirt with no tie.
“All set, Danny?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ve checked with the medics. They’re not too happy about you fighting.”
“I’ll be okay.”
“Did you take a pill?” Joe asked.
Nodding, Danny said, “Two of ’em. Before I left my room.”
“Good. If you need more, I’ve got some right here in my pocket.”
“Thanks. I’ll be okay.”
Joe stepped aside and Danny climbed up into the ring, with Raiph right behind him. The crowd was cheering and booing at the same time. Guess who the cheers are for!
The referee was one of the gym teachers. He called the boys to the center of the ring and gave them a little talk:
“No hitting low, no holding and hitting, no dirty stuff. If I tell you to break it up, you stop fighting and step back. Just do what I tell you, and don’t lose your tempers. Let’s have a good, clean fight.”
They went back to their corners. Danny stood there, alone now, and stared at Lacey. He seemed to be all muscle, all hard and strong.
The bell rang.
Danny couldn’t do anything right. He charged out to the middle of the ring and got his head snapped back by Lacey’s jab. He swung, missed. Lacey moved too fast! Danny tried to follow him, tried to get in close. But Lacey danced rings around him, flicking out jabs like a snake flicks out his tongue. Most of them hit. And hurt.
The crowd was yelling hard. The noise roared in Danny’s ears, like the time he was at the seashore and a wave knocked him down and held him under the water.