"Alright Mac, I got what I need." Doc Louis set a box on the trunk of the car.
"What did you get?" Mac called out. They were out training in the field again.
"He ain't get nothing. Just some baby stuff." Granny Louis said with a dismissive wave.
"I didn't want Mama to throw rocks at you and break your face, so I went out and got some Play-Doh." He opened the container, pulling out a purple lump. "And just to be safe, I put a little extra water in it, so it should feel like nothing harder than a wet washcloth."
He turned around and threw the lump at Mac. Mac ducked his head under it just in time.
"Good. Always alert." Doc nodded. "Put that carrying pole on and let's get started."
"I still think you're going to soft on him." Granny Louis whispered to him.
"Momma, this is a process," Doc said, balling up lumps of Play-Doh.
"Do you really have time for a process? He's down to a couple of weeks."
"Don't worry, I got a strategy, just watch me."
He turned back to Mac. "You ready boy?"
"Ready!"
"Here we go!" Doc threw the first ball of Play-Doh. Mac sidestepped it, taking a step forward doing so.
"Keep coming!" Doc kept aiming for Mac's center mass. His student had to choose how to move his body, and fast. Mac kept feeling drops of water splashing against his head.
"Gotta be better when you're making quick decisions, Mac!" Doc shouted. "Stay on your toes! Anticipate how things are going to happen before they do!"
Mac slipped and planted his foot hard in the dirt. WHAP! A hunk of Doh caught him right a between the eyes. Mac stumbled and dropped his carrying pole, spilling water everywhere on the ground.
"You can't get caught slipping like that in the ring!" Doc called out. "One time is all it takes! Come on! Fill them buckets up so we can start over again!"
"Ugh." Mac wiped the Doh off his face. as he brought the pole back to the car and filled the buckets with water. "How long are we going to do this?"
"As long as it takes!" Doc proclaimed. "We still have to practice your punches so we have no time to lose. Remember, you're playing catch up, you have to put in some serious work if you want a shot at winning this fight!"
"Okay, okay. I got it. Let's try this again."
"Remember kid, read how the Doh is coming at you. Once you can read its movements, you can predict, and you can adjust. Your problem is that you're too predictable. You stepped right into a face full of Doh." Doc said. "I can see what you're doing a mile away. Boxing is just a chess match with your body. Out-think your opponent. Every move you make should be setting up your next move, and the next move, and the next move."
"I'll try. Let's do it."
Getting back to his starting position, Mac nodded for Doc to start throwing Play-Doh at him.
"I'm not gonna make this easy for you, so you better not make this easy for me!" Doc said as he threw his first clump of Doh. Mac moved forward and ducked his head. The Doh zipped over him. As several more hunks reached him, Mac stutter-stepped and moved to the side, turning his body to protect himself and the buckets.
As Mac got closer, Doc noticed Mac was increasingly going left and right instead of forward. Like a damn pendulum. "Keep coming kid!" He shouted. "Almost there!" Mac was 4/5ths of the way, but he had come to a standstill not able to get any closer with Doc throwing the Doh at him. "Push through! Find a way!"
Mac bounded back and forth on the edge of his comfort zone. He was barely dodging everything Doc was hurling at him from this distance, how the hell was he gonna get in closer? Not to mention the carrying pole on his back. He heard the buckets sloshing around his head. No doubt some of the water had fallen ou-
Mac's foot slipped again, and he had to plant his foot hard to catch him. Doc threw a fastball of Doh at his face.
WHAP!
Mac blocked it with his fist and stumbled forward, reaching Doc.
Doc paused for a second. He hadn't expected that, but if that's what it took, so be it. It was progress, at least. "Good." He nodded in approval. "Block if you need to. Don't always expect blocking to save you. Dodging should be your first choice, but blocking can serve you well."
"Get some water. Have a short break." He said as he took the carrying pole from Mac. "Remember, you don't win fights because you punch well. You win fights because you outthink your opponent. Always think ahead. The best fighters are cerebral. You've been training for months, kid. Time to put it all together. Feint with your feet, move your head around."
Mac nodded. "Thanks."
"Not bad, child." Granny Louis said.
As he sat on the ground and drank his water, Mac looked at the sky. I wonder how Mario's doing.
Pauline slowly drove down Miyamoto Avenue as dusk was settling upon the Brooklyn skyline. Mario was locking the door to the apartment. He was in a casual t-shirt and shorts. "Thought you were gonna close the place down." She called out of the window. "Why are you still working?"
"Had appointments to keep." As Mario turned around, Pauline noticed a swollen bump on Mario's face, right next to his nose.
"How'd you get that knot on your face?" She asked as he got into her car.
"Oh I was just fixing a toilet and it fell on me. I'm fine." Mario replied. "Normally I'd have Luigi to lend a hand with that, but he's gone, so it's been a little more work doing it all by myself."
"And the cut on your leg?"
Mario looked down. "Ah dammit." He muttered. "A frozen pipe broke off and gave me a little slash. I didn't think it got through my clothes but I guess it did. Whatever. I'll be fine."
He practically melted into the seat as he sat back, sighing. "You wanna get something to eat? I'm starving."
"Yeah, I'll get some Whoppers. Hold on. Just sit back. You look exhausted."
"I feel exhausted." He replied. "Tommorrow, I have to fix Mrs. Winterbottom's toilet again. That's gonna be a pain in the ass."
"You know, you don't have to do it," Pauline said.
"Do what?
"Fix her toilet. Do any more plumbing. You're going out of business, right? Just call up your customers, explain what's going on, and let that be the end of it. They didn't pay you in advance, right? You don't have to pay them back. I'm sure they can get some other plumbers around, like the Wari-oh." She paused. "Nooooow I get it."
"Get what?" Mario sat up, looking at her.
"You don't want the Wario brothers to get any of those customers, do you? Is that what this is all about?"
"No." Was the curt reply. "Though it's a bonus."
"Then tell me, what's the reason?" She said as she turned onto the boulevard.
"I just need something to do with Luigi in the hospital. I don't like to think it about it. So I like to occupy my time doing something else."
Pauline looked at him for a quick second and nodded. "I know how much everything that's happened keeps you up at night. I know when you're telling the truth." She scanned for a Burger King sign.
"I also know when you're telling a half-truth."
As they stopped at a traffic light, Pauline turned to Mario. "Come on, tell me what else is really bothering you."
"I already told you the truth."
"Like I said, a half-truth," Pauline said. "I know you don't like to talk about your own emotions much, but you can tell me anything, Mario. It's me here."
"Burger King is just up ahead. On the right." He replied.
"I thought we were better than this Mario," Pauline said. "We're supposed to be able to talk to each other about any-"
"I just need a win, alright?" Mario snapped. "Everything used to be fine. We had a plan. Make a business, and expand it. Everything that happened, we either worked with it or worked around it. We got a kid. We got some pets. We improvised. We survived. It would always be alright. I would always take care of things. It was my responsibility to make sure that every little thing was gonna be alright. I'm the big brother. I'm the leader. I'm the guy with his name on the front of the business. I'm supposed to have control over everything and look what happened. I don't even have control over my freedom now. I lost my brother. I lost my business. My parents are losing sleep. And soon enough, I'm gonna lose you too. I keep losing, and I just want to win something, alright? I just need a win. I don't know what I'm doing anymore. I don't even know if what I doing right now is gonna matter in a few weeks. But I just don't care anymore. When I go to sleep tonight, I just want to know that I did something right today. And this plumbing shit, it's all I got left, alright? It's all I know. Now I made a promise that I would help those people's plumbing, and I'm gonna keep my word. I just wanna keep my word. I just wanna do something right. Is that too much to ask?"
"Mario, you're not used to doing that stuff by yourself. You're 5'5 for God's sakes."
"I can do this," Mario said. "I just gotta get better at doing it by myself."
"So now you're risking your body just to make yourself feel better? You have limits, Mario. Everyone has them. They're nothing to be ashamed of. You've been Supermanning your way through everything up till now and now...look. I know things are bad right now, but if you get yourself seriously hurt on that job, your just going to make things worse. It's okay to feel lost. It's okay to lose. "
"It's not okay to not do anything something after you lose," Mario replied.
"Ugh. Why do you have to be so stubborn?" Pauline said as she pulled into the drive-thru.
"The only difference between persistence and stubbornness is success," Mario muttered.
"Hello, welcome to Burger King, how may we serve you?"
"I'll just take 2 Whoppers, that'll be all."
"Pull into the next window please."
After getting their food, Pauline parked in one of Burger King's parking spaces.
"Let's just, cut on the radio." Pauline looked for a random channel.
"Whatever." Mario was about to take his first bite when the radio started playing it next song. A few seconds of silence...then, the sound of a saxophone came out of the radio.
Mario froze in his tracks, sitting his Whopper down. He looked over at Pauline, who had done the same. "Is that, what I think it is?" He asked.
They waited as the saxophone kept going for a few more seconds.
Pauline's head slowly nodded."I-I-I think it is."
"Ah, give it a few more seconds." Mario sat up, eagerly pointing at the radio with one hand and holding his burger in the other. "Here comes that beat."
The saxophone faded out, and an intense beat replaced it instead.
"Oh here comes the best part. When the saxophone comes back in and it blends all together." Pauline said.
On cue, the saxophone came back in with a few other sounds and perfectly blended with the beat.
"You Belong To The City," Mario said. "By Glenn Frey. The first song we ever danced to."
They both fell silent, letting the song fully play out in quiet. As it slowly faded out, Pauline cut off the radio. That was the only thing she needed to hear tonight.
"The first Christmas dance we went to together," Pauline said, tearing up a bit. "I was a little nervous, because I had never danced with a boy on a date before, and my parents were pissed I was dating a middle-class guy. And you got me on the dance floor, and the song kicked in, and everything felt...right. Like things were gonna be okay."
"I remember the look in your eye," Mario said, smiling to himself. "How happy you were."
"That was the night I got serious about our relationship, you know?" She wiped a tear from her eye. "And even now, I don't regret it. You're a good guy, Mario. You always give it your best. You set out to do the right thing, no matter how hard it is. All I ask is that you take care of yourself. I know your hurting, and I know we don't have a lot of time left together, but still." She leaned in and gave him a kiss. "I love you."
"I love you too." He returned the kiss. "Thanks for always understanding me and having my back."
"Promise me that when you go out to work tomorrow, you're gonna stay safe. You look a lot less cute when you're not busted up." Pauline said. "And remind me to get you a tetanus shot."
"I'll do my best to come back in one piece," Mario replied. "I'll watch myself. I promise."
"So, what do you want do when we get back to my apartment?" Pauline asked, returning to eating her Whopper.
"I think I just wanna sit back and watch Miami Vice. What about you?" Mario said.
"I think a marathon is coming on in an hour." She replied with a smile, starting up the car. "But before we go back to my place," She pulled back into the drive-through. "Let's get a few more burgers for the night."
"I want fries this time," Mario said, giving her a cheesy grin.
Hurrah! I awake from yesterday
Alive but the war is here to stay
