Through a haze of pain, Danny lunged at Lacey and wrapped his arms around the black waist. He leaned his face against Lacey’s chest and hung on, his legs feeling like rubber bands.
The crowd was making so much noise he couldn’t tell if Lacey was saying anything to him or not. He felt the referee pull them apart, saw his worried face staring at him.
Danny stepped past the referee and put up his gloved hands to fight. They each weighed a couple of tons. Lacey looked different now, not angry any longer. More like he was puzzled.
They came together again, and again Danny was buried under a rain of punches. Again he grabbed Lacey and held on.
“Go down, dummy!” Lacey yelled into his ear. “What’s holding you up?”
Danny let go with his right arm and tried a few feeble swings, but Lacey easily blocked them. He felt somebody pulling them apart, stepping between them, pushing him away from Lacey. Through blurred eyes, Danny saw the referee raising Lacey’s arm in the victory signal.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Somebody was helping him back to the stool in his corner. The crowd was still yelling. Danny sat down, his chest raw inside, his body filled with pain.
“The winner, in one minute and nine seconds of the third round… Lacey Arnold!”
Joe Tenny was bending through the ropes, his face close to Danny’s. “You okay?”
Danny didn’t answer.
Another man was beside Joe, frowning. Danny remembered that he was one of the doctors from the hospital.
“Get him back to the locker room,” the doctor said, angry. “I’ll have to give him a shot.”
“Can you stand up?” Ralph’s voice asked from somewhere to Danny’s right. He realized then that he couldn’t see out of his right eye. It was swollen shut.
“Yeah… I’m okay….” Danny grabbed the ropes and tried to stand. His legs were very shaky. He felt other people’s arms holding him, helping him to stand.
Lacey was in front of him. “Hey, Danny, you all right?”
“Sure,” Danny said, through swollen lips.
Back in the locker room they sat him on a bench. The doctor stuck a needle into Danny’s leg, and within a few seconds his chest started to feel better.
The doctor growled to Tenny, “You should never have let this boy exert himself like that….”
Joe nodded, his face serious. “Maybe you’re right.”
“I’m okay,” Danny insisted. His chest really felt pretty good now. But his face hurt like fire and he felt more tired than he ever had before in his life.
“This whole business of staging fights is wrong,” the doctor said.
Joe said, “If they don’t fight in the ring, they’ll do it behind our backs. I’d rather have it done under our control. It’s a good emotional outlet for everybody.”
Danny turned to Ralph, who was sitting glumly on the bench beside him. “Guess I didn’t do too good.”
Ralph shrugged and tried to cheer up. “Yeah, he smacked you around pretty good. But that one sock you caught him with was a beauty! Did ya see th’ look on his face when he hit the floor? I thought his eyes was going to pop out!”
Just then Lacey came by, a robe thrown over his shoulders and his gloves off.
“Good fight, Danny. Man, if the ref didn’t stop it when he did, my arms was going to fall off, I hit you with everything! How come you didn’t go down like you’re supposed to?” He was grinning broadly.
“Too dumb,” said Danny.
“Smart enough to deck me,” Lacey shot back. “Got me sore there for half a minute. Well, anyway… good fight.”
Lacey stuck out his right hand. The tape was still wrapped around it. Danny was surprised to see that his own gloves had been taken off by somebody. He looked at his hands for a moment, then grasped Lacey’s. It was the first time he had ever shaken hands with a black.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
To his surprise, Danny was something of a hero the next morning. He felt good enough to go to his reading class, even though his eye was still swollen, and really purple now. His arms and legs were stiff and sore. His ribs ached. But he went to class anyway.