A few too many whiskeys later.Leroy and Izumi are still sitting at the table in the bar. Matt Strikemore has gone to the bar to get another bottle.
Twisted - I don't care what you say, Izumi. I'm not gonna tell you.
Izumi - But I have watched the tapes, I saw your reaction. So tell me. How do you know Tommy Laughlin.
Twisted - Its not really my place.
Izumi - Tell me please. I would do anything to find out.
Twisted - Anything?
Izumi - Mr. Brown. I thought you where a married man!!!
A cloud floats across the face of Leroy Brown, but it is only a momentary meterological phenomenon, and it is soon replaced by a big dirty shit-eating grin.
Twisted - I couldn't possibly tell you, but lets just say, its a
family secret.
Izumi smiles. She is going to have to have words with Tommy Laughlin the next time she see him.
Izumi - Tell me, Mr. Brown, have things changed from the ECF days? Is it strange coming back to wrestling after so long?
Twisted - Honestly. I'm not even sure it is wrestling these days. It seems like the freaks have taken over the asylum. I didn't really pay attention to what happened when ECF morphed into TCW, but I keep hearing rumors about something. Some sort of "war." I don't like it. Its not the sport I dreamed of being in as a kid, that's for sure. Its not how it should be. I pretty sure that I could have the best match of my career at it would be overshadowed. In ECF the best person won. Now, I'm not even sure if you'd describe some of them as people.
Izumi - Them?
Twisted - Freya, Jason Dante, Darkness.......
Quick as a flash, without thinking, Izumi slaps Leroy in the face. Leroy twicthes. For a second it looks like he's going to react. But before he can make a difficult decision, that choice is taken out of his hands. Izumi's phone rings.
Izumi - I.....I should take this call. Please tell Matt to forgive my ignorance in not saying goodbye.
Izumi steps out through the door just as Matt returns.
Matt - What was that about. Where did Izumi go?
Twisted - Emmmm.......she had to leave. She did say sorry.
Matt shrugs his shoulders. He goes to say something, then decides not to.
Twisted - You look like you got something on your mind, Matt.
Matt - Well. To be honest, I thought you would be a bit agitated, due to me throwing you out of Road to Glory. The usual reaction in this place would for to break my face, not buy me a beer. After your talk to me about the ECF way, weren't you disappointed I eliminated you?
Twisted - Disappointed? No. I haven't been in a wrestling ring in three years and I had to go in at number one. I'm proud I lasted as long as I did. If I was gonna be put out, better by somebody on top of his game like you, than some.....freak. ECF was.....is as much about respect outside of the ring, as it is about getting the job done inside the ring. The only thing that really disappointed me........well.......was what you did after I eliminated you.
Matt - But I didn't do anything.
Twisted - Yeah. I know.
Matt and Leroy make eye contact.
Matt - That's cold man.
Twisted - I'm just speaking my mind, Matt. You just always seem to be one rung short from the top of the ladder. Maybe its just the whiskey talking, but I honestly think if you wanted it as much as your fans did, you could be the man. I still believe in Matt Strikemore.....
Matt - Leroy.....can I call you Leroy?
Twisted - All my friends do.
Matt - Leroy, I respect your opinion. But do you? Do you believe in Matt Strikemore? Really? Here is a bit of barroom psychology for you to chew on. I think that you've been away for so long, that your not sure your quite the wrestler you used to be. Hence the mask. Hence the ECF nostalgia. Its why you want me to do so well, and do well in an ECF shirt. If you can't make it on your own, you can maybe make it through me. As far as I'm concerned, your on of the people that built this place. I repsect the hell out of you. But I'll make it or I won't. I'll climb that top rung or I won't. But if that day doesn't come, then it doesn't come. I can live with that.
Twisted - Just make sure you can. My father was always there or thereabouts. But he was never world champ. I think that's part of the reason he became the man he was. He went to a bad place because of that hole in his life. I wouldn't want to see history repeating itself. That's all.
Matt - No offense, but you where never champ either, and you never "did an Acid". Well, apart from the whole Masked Man thing.
Twisted - What can I say, I thought it would be a little bit amusing to copy my father. And a little bit twisted of course. And as for winning things, I won the only thing that was worth anything to me.
Matt - And what was that?
Twisted - Simple. The heart of the only woman I've ever loved.
Matt - Holy shit, that was so sappy. I think I just threw up a little in my mouth.
Twisted gives him that stare again. There is something cold to his eyes. Theres a hardness behind them. Matt had noticed it before, last week, under the mask.........and now twice tonight.
Matt - Just pulling you leg. Chill, Leroy.
Twisted - All that I am saying is that she was everything I needed.
Matt - (Pause) Was?
Leroy looks at the bottle of whiskey in front of him. Contemplates the contours of the bottle.
Twisted - Katrina..........didn't want me to come back to the sport.
I thought she would understand.
I was wrong.
Leroy stares again at the container of liquor before him. He rubs his eye. He pretends he's got something in it. He's not going to break down. Not in front of this kid.
Twisted - We've decided to.....try......alternate living arrangements......for the time being.
Leroy makes a grab for the bottle. Starts pouring it down his gullet. Matt jumps out of his chair and grabs the bottle off him.
Matt - You crazy bastard. Your gonna kill yourself doing that.
Lreoy tries to get up, but the sudden influx of copious amounts of alcohol has had an immediate effect on his metabolism, already somewhat overloaded with copious amounts of booze. He struggles up to his feet.
Leroy - Give me the bottle back.
Matt - I think you've had enough.
Leroy - Now.
Matt stands there for a split second, then slowly lets the bottle drop to the floor, where it explodes in a crescendo of glass.
In less than the time it takes to blink, Leroy is upon him, has hooked him up and hits his patented Double Helix (Double Arm DDT) on Matt Strikemore. His face lands in the broken glass.
Matt growls low and deeply as the glass digs into his face. He fights back the temptation to scream out at the pain.
Leroy collapses back. He sits on the ground, his back against the wall. He rocks back and forth, his face buried in hands and keeps repeating the same words over and over again.
"I believe in Matt Strikemore."
"I believe in Matt Strikemore."
"I believe in Matt Strikemore."
"I believe in Matt Strikemore."
"I believe in Matt Strikemore."
----------------------------------------------------
Izumi stops. Then turns around and starts walking back towards the bar. Maybe she should apologise. She probably overreacted. She was sure Mr. Brown would forgive her. After all, he was such a nice man.