Chapter
13:
We’ve Been Through Days of Thunder
I sighed again as
I watched Nick and Brian act like idiots.
They, for some reason, had decided that it would be a great idea to have
WWF Smackdown in our hotel room.
We had performed
twice earlier that day, once at a Children’s Hospital and once at a retirement
home. The experience was really
humbling. I noticed it really took a
toll on Alex who wasn’t able to take in as much air as he needed to make a good
sound. I saw Kevin nudge him a few times
and I knew he was telling Alex about breath-support techniques. Alex kind of just ducked his head down. I watched him struggle through the rest of
the performance.
To me, singing for
kids in a hospital is a really nice thing to do, but it really hurt my heart to
see all of them and everything their families were facing. But Alex and Brian were great with the kids,
and after we were done singing, both of them went over and started talking to
them and playing with them—they both knew what it was like to be on the other
side—scared and lonely, not sure what would happen. So they decided to make the kids’ days
brighter. Brian shot hoops with some
kids, and Alex found a puppet, and was making another kid laugh with it.
Kevin stood off to
one side, watching. His face was totally
expressionless. I figured that deep down
this experience wasn’t one that Kev thought he needed right now—especially
after spending all that time in the waiting room to hear about Alex. I tried to talk to him, but he wasn’t in the
mood.
Nicky was great
with the real young kids, talking to them about all the cool toys they had and
asking them if they liked the songs. But
afterward, I could see the stress from the visit come out as he wiped tears from
his eyes. He tried not to show it, but I
knew he hurt for them. Nick had younger sisters and a brother he was used to
taking care of, and I could only imagine what he was thinking after spending
time with these little ones.
Now, though, you
wouldn’t know a thing had happened. He
and Brian were all over each other being totally hyper. I almost began to regret sharing a room with
Nicky. There’s just something about a
14-year-old with excessive energy that makes me a little dizzy.
"Power
bomb!" Nick screamed, joyfully catapulting himself on Brian's already
sprawled body. "Hey, Bri. I thought you said you were The Rok or some
shit?" Nick teased.
"Nick!"
Kevin warned. "Watch it! I'm not listening to you cuss every waking
hour for five days!"
But Nick was unable
to respond. Brian (The Rok) now had him
pinned on one of the beds and was bouncing up and down on him with a huge smirk
on his face.
"I'm the
Rok! You're the weed!" Brian
declared.
"Need . .
.air . . ." Nick gasped. He reached
out, attempting to "tag" Alex, who stood off to the side, watching
the wrestling match. I grabbed his arm
and held him back.
"D, come
on!" Alex whined. "Nick needs
me to go in and take down The Rok! Hang
on, buddy, I'll save you!"
Overdramatically, Alex rushed to the aid of his squashed teammate in a
blaze of glory, shoving Brian completely off the bed.
Kevin took a step
toward his cousin. He was as ready to
end the match as I was. Kev was always
nervous when Brian got to roughhousing with Nick, and I knew for a fact that
Alex was supposed to be taking it easy.
"All right,
guys! Cool it!" I attempted to step in the midst of the
guys-big mistake. Alex saw me, and
immediately threw himself into me, knocking me to the ground. I tried to roll out of range of the power
bombs and half-nelsons but it took some strategic planning.
I had only been
free a few seconds when I saw Alex jump on Nick's back and cover his eyes. Nick brought one arm back trying to get out of
the hold, and I cringed as Nick's elbow met Alex's stomach.
"Shit,"
Alex whimpered. He was off Nick in a
second, holding his middle as a stream of cursing made its way out of his
mouth.
"Damn it,
Nick!" I yelled. "Why don't you watch what the hell you're
doing?" I quickly made my way to
Alex who was now doubled over in pain.
"Don't . .
.yell at him," Alex gasped.
"I'm all good . . .Just hurts."
"No shit it
hurts!" Kevin exploded. "We
told y'all to quit messin' around!
Brian, you got more sense than that!" Brian's face reddened at the insult. I could see by his face that he was hurt by
the comment, especially because he hadn't played a direct part in Alex's getting
hurt.
Nick came over to
where Alex sat. "Hey, Jay? I'm sorry, dude, I didn't know it was
you. You gonna be all right?"
"Sure kid . .
.No problem . . ." Alex's eyes were
bright and he still cradled his stomach.
All of us were
quiet now. Brian and I helped Alex over
to a bed so he could lie down. And I
went to find Mr. J. and Alex's pain meds.
It wasn't long
before Alex got bored resting and got to poking Nick who was next to him on the
bed.
"Nick? Come on, dude! This bites!
Don't you wanna take me on?"
I could tell that
Alex physically didn't feel much better, but he felt bad about me yelling at
Nick, and he got bored real easily anyway.
However, a lot of times, his common-sense level was a bit low.
"Jay," I
warned. "No."
"D! I ain't a kid! I can bug Nicky if I want. He don't care, right Nicky?" Alex
continued poking the blond.
"Uh, Alex,
maybe you better not," Nick hedged as I glared at him sternly.
'Hey, I got an
idea," Alex announced, already over his pouting. "McDonald's! That would make me feel A LOT better!"
"Yeah!"
Brian agreed. "Hey Kev, can we go to
McDonald's?"
"Y'all don't
seriously wanna go to a greasy fast-food joint, do ya?" Kevin asked in
dismay. But all three younger guys were
in agreement and I didn't really care.
To me, food is food.
So all five of us
walked across the street. Of course,
none of the doofos could keep their hands off each other-Alex included. I thought Kev would start knocking their
heads together.
The behavior
didn't get any better once we found a table and sat down. Brian and Nick were
flinging wet pieces of straw-wrapper across at us, and laughing like
hyenas. Nick was targeting Alex and
thought it was hysterical when he didn't retaliate. By now, I knew something wasn't right with
Alex and I was really pissed at Nick for the crap he kept pulling.
"Aw, come on
Alex! I thought you wanted to take me
on? Or was that The Rok?"
When it was
obvious that Alex wasn't up for spit-wads, Brian tried fries. He aimed them at Alex like little missiles
and made sound effects to go along.
"Don't mess
with The Rok," Brian teased, "There!
You don't like it now, do ya?"
Alex's face
drained of color. He nearly shoved me
out of the booth to get out and hurried to the back of the restaurant and into
the bathroom. I stared, stunned at
Brian. I could not believe what he had
said. Mike's voice replaced Brian's in
my head and in my mind, I saw Alex lying helpless in a classroom with blood
starting to pool underneath him while Mike demanded to know if Alex liked it
that all the kids were staring at him.
"Oh my
God," Brian choked. His face
flushed as realization hit him, too.
Nick and Kevin
were confused. Neither of them had been
present for the taunting and the threats that had been made against Alex. They didn't know how Brian's comment went so
deep.
Alex came out
shortly afterward looking pale and sort of greenish. The five of us walked back to the hotel, and
all of us were somber. As we walked,
Kevin quietly demanded to know what had gone on back there. I had to tell him the truth.
Once we were in
the room, though, I was sorry for mentioning anything. The minute we were out of the hall, Kevin lit
into his cousin. "What the hell
were you thinking, Brian, and you better have a damn good answer!" He didn't give any time for a response. "My God, you of all people should know
better than to say shit like that! Or
did ya forget how it felt when the family mentioned anything about the hospital
to ya? Answer me, damn it! Did.
You. Forget?"
Brian jumped to
his feet and I just about quit breathing when his fist connected with Kevin's
jaw. Even though it shocked Kevin he was
quick to react and soon the two were having it out right there. It wasn't more than a few seconds when I
realized that they weren't planning on stopping. It was getting loud, and I eyed Nick, before
making a grab for Brian. Nick did the
same with Kev and we eventually had them apart.
Both were more
than pissed that Nick and I had interrupted the fistfight. I actually had to hold onto Brian longer,
'cause I guess he was still planning on beating down Kevin.
"Howie, get
your hands off me!" Brian demanded, still struggling.
"Brian,
stop. This is enough," I was calm,
maybe too calm to get through Brian's thick head. "There's no way I'm lettin' go of you
until you get your head on straight! Now
knock it off!" I slowly released
him, and watched him carefully.
"Now. Take a walk and don't
come back until you get yourself together, understand?" Brian nodded shortly, his face was still a
mask of anger.
I wasn't too big
on getting on Kevin's bad side by ordering him around, but I nodded toward him,
and he left as well, a little bit after Brian did. It was only then that I noticed Alex.
He was crouched in
a corner, pressing his back into it as hard as he could. His arms were wrapped protectively around his
stomach. Alex was sobbing and white as a
sheet. I hadn't seen him that panicked
ever since the day everything came about.
Instead of going to him like I wanted to, I stood still. I just couldn't take it all over again. It was too much.
Nick must've known
this. I watched, speechless, as he
walked around the bed and knelt in front of Alex. "Hey." The calmness in Nick's voice was
amazing. Just the same, Alex cowered
from the sound, trying to make himself smaller.
"It's all right. Hey. It's done now-no one's gonna hurt you. Bri and Kev were just upset at each
other."
I sat numbly on
the edge of the bed and watched as Alex's body shook, and tears fell from his
eyes. Poor kid was having so much
trouble dealing with all this, and here I was sitting around on my ass waiting
for Nicky to pick up the slack. Even
though I knew better, I couldn't force myself to do it all again-no matter how
bad I wanted to be able to.
"You're all
right," Nick encouraged. "Me
and Howie are right here and you're fine.
I'm sorry they scared you. That
wasn't cool. You wanna take me on?"
he questioned. Nick's tone of voice was
soft, as if the thing in question was a hug and not a wrestling match. "You'll kick my ass, I promise."
"No. I was just playin'," Alex answered
softly. "Sorry I'm so messed up."
"It's no big
deal," Nick said, smiling a little.
"All of us get messed up sometimes . . .I don't care about that, I
just care about that you're all right in the end. And you're strong, so you will be."
I couldn't say the
same for myself.
***
