It was the first day of December. Snow hadn't come yet, but a thin layer of frost covered almost everything. The Beauforts were arriving at the arena for that evening's matches.
"You've got a special fight today, Joey," said Pierce. "We've got a singer coming in for a promotional stunt."
"Vraiment? Génial," said Joe. "qui?" (Really? Cool, who?)
As soon as he said it, he got his answer when a tall man with dreadlocks emerged from the locker room. He came over to shake Joe's hand. "I'm Bob Charlie, brother," he said. "I'm here to promote my new album."
"What does boxing have to do with your music?" Katrina asked.
"My new album's called Champions," said Bob, "and one of the songs references boxing. It's a golden opportunity, child."
Katrina cocked her head, but shrugged and went to take her seat in the audience. Joe shook his head and went to change into his boxing uniform.
"In this corner, we have the WVBA's trooper, our unrelenting jobber, Glass Joe! And in this corner, we have a special guest, popular reggae singer, Bob Charlie! Fight!"
The fight began. Bob mumbled the lyrics to one of his songs under his breath as he went through the motions. Despite never boxing before, he really seemed to know what he was doing, and Joe went down.
"One. …Two. …Three."
Joe pulled himself up and went in for a hook. Bob jumped out of the way and stumbled a bit, but regained his balance and hit back with a shuck 'n' jive.
Joe couldn't help but notice that the crowd was extra loud during this match. Of course; Bob Charlie was popular, so he must be a huge crowd-drawer. He was distracted long enough for Bob to knock him down again.
"One. …Two. …Three. …Four."
Joe got back up, a little winded. He could tell he was out of it as he threw some more punches, which felt weaker than normal. Bob wasn't fighting back. When Joe looked up to see what was wrong, Bob punched him hard in the guts.
Yeah, he was definitely gonna be feeling that in the morning. "Bon travail..." (Nice job...) He said in a pained voice as he fell down. TKO.
When Joe was coming out of the locker room, there was a small crowd surrounding Bob, getting autographs and snapping pictures. "Bob, is it true that you were the Jive King of Kingston?"
"Of course," said Bob. "I was quite the dancer, see?"
When he saw Joe, he put an arm around him. "You're a good friend, Joey. I hope I'll be seeing you more often."
Joe was a little flustered from all the commotion, so he gave a quiet merci before breaking free to find his family. Around the same time, Great Tiger was coming out of the locker room for his match against Bear Hugger. And when he saw Bob standing there, he fainted!
"Nun, Joseph, ich weiß nicht, wie viele von uns sagen können, dass sie von einer Berühmtheit verprügelt worden," said Von Kaiser when Joe found him and Katrina. (Well, Joseph, I don't know how many of us can say we've been beaten up by a celebrity.)
"Eh bien," said Joe, "je suppose que sa victoire va mieux vendre son album." (Well, I guess his victory will sell his album better.) He took his family to go get dinner started.
