Chapter 2

They had been in their new apartment for nearly a month and, as Sandy predicted, things had gotten better. Tyler had made a few friends at school, including a student whose own father had transferred with his job from Alabama.

Jesse and Tyler would often talk about being transplanted in Austin and how tough it was to start over. It also wasn't uncommon to see Jesse at Sandy and Tyler's at least a few days a week watching wrestling in Tyler's room.

Sandy had also befriended her next door neighbors; an older couple, the Sloanes, had lived on one side of them, and Winona, a buyer for one of the area's department stores and also a widow, lived on the other side with her own teenage daughter, Janice.

Janice too became a regular at Sandy's, hanging out with Tyler and Jesse after school or on wrestling nights. She too was a fan and would often talk in depth about certain matches or wrestlers. They thought Janice was cool for a girl and liked having her around.

One night, when Jesse had been home with the flu, Janice had come over to watch Raw with Tyler.

On that night, Janice had told Tyler about an interesting neighbor they had, though he wasn't around much.

Paul London had been in a match that night, and the two teenagers had gotten into a discussion about him before Janice had dropped a bombshell.

"Hey, Ty," she said, "he lives in our building, you know."

"Come on, Jan," Tyler laughed. "You're shitting me, right?"

"No, I'm serious," Janice replied. "I can not only show you where he lives, I also know where his mailbox is in the lobby. Want to see?"

"Gee, you really know all that?"

Janice nodded. "I've seen him a few times when he was around, getting his mail and stuff."

"Holy cow…." Tyler was both stunned and pleased about the thought of a famous neighbor.

"You know, my dad looked like him, only he was a little taller and maybe a bit older. Here, I'll show you his picture."

He pulled a metal box from the closet, finding a picture of Mike taken before he had become ill with Hodgkin's, and showed it to Janice.

"Wow, Ty, you aren't kidding! Aside from the height and age things, he and Paul could have been twins!"

"Yeah, scary huh? I guess that is one reason I kind of like him. I wish they'd show him on TV more."

"Me too!" Janice agreed. "But who knows, maybe you'll see him around here sometime."

"That would be cool, unless I really make a butt out of myself."

"I don't think you will. Besides, he's probably used to people being silly around him."

"So you really know which unit is his?" Tyler asked.

"Yeah. Come on; I'll show you. Your mom won't mind as long as you're with me. We'll just say we're going to the lobby."

"Okay."

After telling Sandy he was headed to the lobby with Janice "to look around some more," the two teenagers first went to the end of the hallway, where she pointed out Paul's apartment.

"He's on our floor?!" Tyler asked, wide eyed. "Jan, you didn't say anything about that!"

"I wanted to surprise you," she smiled. "Now we can go to the lobby."

"This is just totally too cool! Maybe us moving here wasn't so bad after all."

"Well, I certainly hope not," Janice laughed, heading for the row of mailboxes once they reached the lobby.

"Look," she said, finally pointing out one of the little boxes. "Here it is."

Tyler closely inspected the box, noting the first initial and last name, which matched the number on the apartment door that Janice had shown him earlier.

"Damn," was all he could say.

"Yeah," Janice laughed. "Now when you get married and have kids, you can tell them you lived on the same floor as Paul London."