The black man in the black Sudan followed Alexander all the way to his apartment building. Alexander didn't notice because he was too tired and too frustrated to notice. The man opened his window and tossed his cigarette on the sidewalk. The car was on, the air conditioner was nice and cool and he, himself was just sitting there. His fingers dived into his pockets and he rummaged for his mint gum. Once he found it, he unwrapped it from its wrapper. He chewed and observed Alexander as he walked up the flights of stairs and reached his apartment. Alexander lived on the 4th floor.
The black man saw Alexander water his plant and feed a pet that he had. He couldn't see what it was, maybe it was like a rabbit or hamster. Then he saw Alexander check out his refrigerator and close it again without anything at hand. The man inferred he wasn't hungry. Then the lights went off, but the T.V. light was clearly on.
The man reached for his cell phone and he made a call.
"Hello?" A woman's voice said.
"Hi. Did the wrestling match start?" The man asked.
"Yeah, why?" She asked back.
"I need you to put on all T.V. channels," the black man replied.
"All of them? That's going to be pretty tough," the woman replied.
"Well, that's what I pay you for. Do it and call me back when it's done," he said and he hung up. He didn't know if she was able to do it or not, but maybe she could. Sometimes people just needed a little motivation.
Alexander spent a few hours on the T.V. He was watching something when a wrestling match suddenly appeared on his T.V. It was strange because it seemed like if it had come out of nowhere. He thought that maybe it had to do with the T.V. station. He liked sports, but wrestling wasn't one of them and he didn't consider T.V. wrestling a real sport. He knew it was fake, however, sometimes it was kind of entertaining. He thought about changing the channel, but decided not to, when he saw a brawl between two guys. He thought it was kind of fun.
"You think you're going to get away with this, but let me tell you, I'm going to sweep the floor with your ass," a huge shirtless wrestler, wearing a red mask said to some guy with long hair in a black vest.
"Oh, yeah, well I'm going to rip your mask off your face and shove it up your ass," the other wrestler said. This made Alexander laugh and God knew he needed a laugh, so he decided to continue to watch the program. The two fighters suddenly started fake punching each other in a parking lot until some referee got in the way and separated them. Alexander knew a lot about fights and he recognized immediately when something was real or not. The fight was totally fake, but he decided it was a show and it didn't bother him.
"Guys, not in the parking lot, in the ring. Go to the ring and win the championship belt," the referee said, then some other guy came in to also interfere. He was apparently one of the "trainers".
"You can take his mask off and shove it up his ass in the ring. It will be a historical event for all time," the trainer told him. Alexander laughed. He couldn't imagine anything less historical than that, but it was entertaining as hell. He imagined the wrestler just taking the mask off and honestly putting it up the dude's ass. The wrestlers "calmed down" and agreed to have a match in the ring.
"Next Sunday, you and I, in a cage match, unless you're too much of a chicken," one of them said.
"You can count on it. I will mop the floor with you. You'll look like a deuce," the other one replied.
"Let's see about that," the wrestler with the long hair said. Then, they separated. There was a pause and then a match appeared.
"Next up, we have our world champion Punisher Gloves against Rocky Roads," the announcer said. Punisher Gloves wore a black spandex singlet and his face had black and white makeup. The makeup reminded Alexander of the Kiss band members. He had long, curly dark hair and was a large man with a lot of muscle. He wore black gloves and large black boots. Rocky Roads had a red and black spandex singlet, knee pads and red sneakers. He was shirtless, but was wearing a sleeveless vest. He had various tattoos on his chest including one with a skull. He was athletic and strong, but not as big as the other guy.
"That guy's gonna get…" Alexander stopped in mid-sentence as he watched the match unfold. He thought that Rocky Roads would get beaten to death, but he noticed that Rocky Roads seemed almost invincible. The first thing he did was to kick the other fighter right in the chest. The fighter bend over and Rocky Roads did an upper cut. The champion of the world fell on his back, his legs up and folded. He was bigger and stronger, but he seemed to have some problems already. Rocky Roads watched the crowd roar and cheer. He already had fans, maybe not because he was good, but because they hated Punisher Gloves and were tired of him.
Punisher Gloves heaved, then he got up and punched Rocky Roads in the head. Rocky Roads felt the blow and rubbed his head. Then he turned around to face his opponent. Punisher Gloves didn't give him any time though, he punched Rocky Roads both on the face and on the stomach, but his punches didn't seem to affect Rocky Roads as much as it was supposed to. The guy seemed stronger than how he looked. Punisher Gloves grabbed a chair and he hit him with it, but the chair broke in half and the pieces just fell and bounced on the ring.
"What the fuck?" Alexander said and his jaw dropped. Then he noticed something.
"Wait a minute, that guy, I've seen that guy before," he said to himself scrunching his eyebrows. He paid close attention to Rocky Roads as the fight carried on. Rocky Roads grabbed Punisher Gloves' neck and threw him right out of the ring. People had to run out of the way because Punisher Gloves fell right on top of a group of people in the front of the audience. A few people fell from their seats and had been smashed by the guy's fall. Chairs broke and fell back. It was so surprising to see such a small guy just toss a huge guy like that. It seemed almost incredible and too hard to believe. As Alexander watched Rocky Roads, he was trying very hard to remember where he had seen the guy.
Punisher Gloves almost resembled a doll. It looked unreal. Punisher Gloves didn't stand up again. Even the announcer of the wrestling match was surprised and couldn't believe it. He arched an eyebrow and waited for Punisher Gloves to get up because it just seemed so unreal, but he never did. The referee went and checked him out to see if he was okay. Punisher Gloves was alive, but unconscious. Paramedics reached the scene and took him out with a stretcher. Part of the audience who had been affected by the wrestler's fall had also ended up hurt. Some of them had to be taken out on a stretcher, while others limped out of the stadium.
"Well… in a surprising turn of events… the new World Champion of Wild Crave Smashing Wrestling is…" there was a drumroll.
"Rocky Roads," the announcer finally said. In a surprising turn of events? No shit, Alexander thought. Then, when his trainer came in and put a towel over his head, Alexander remembered who he was.
"That was the guy at the bar!" Said Alexander. He was that guy in the hoodie who had been talking to that strange guy in the trench coat about some voodoo doctor or something. He had talked about magical strength or whatever, but Alexander had concluded that it was possibly drugs. Was it drugs or was it… magical? Alexander watched the winner with a huge grin receive the new championship belt. He had a punch up and he smiled triumphantly. It was as if he was the king of the world.
"That shit can't be legal," Alexander said wondering if he should go interrogate the guy, but then he remembered he had a piece of paper with the guy who had given him the drug.
"That shit is too dangerous. Seems like a new drug or something. I need to check this out before somebody in real life gets hurt. I hope Mancinni's involved. Maybe I can get that son of bitch from this angle," Alexander said. He searched for the jeans he had worn yesterday and put his hand in his pocket to see if he still had the address of the so called "voodoo doctor". He felt a small piece of wrinkled paper. He took it out and unwrapped it. The scraping of the pencil with the address that he had made was as clear as day.
"I hope this Adio guy is linked to Mancinni. If he is, then I might have a new case and a new witness against him," Alexander said. Suddenly, he wasn't so tired. He got up and left the apartment. The man in the black Sudan saw him walk out and whistle at a cab. The man followed the cab.