Those Two Impostors
"Don't get blood on the car seat, okay? Stay on the towel."
"Thanks for the sympathy."
"Oh, poor Bobby. Is that what you want? Sympathy?"
"No."
"Don't feel bad, baby. Everybody loses sometime."
"I didn't lose."
"It's a sissy sport, anyway."
"Boxing is a sissy sport?"
"Two grown men fighting for a purse."
"There's a belt, too."
"Two grown men fighting for a belt."
"I was going to win. I was winning."
"I saw. You looked great. Right up until he--what do you call it? Clocked you?"
"I was winning."
"Oh--Don't say that."
"Well, I was---"
"I was winning. Such a sad thing to say. Especially for you. It's as bad as saying, 'I was losing.' If you're going to fight? Go fight. And then whatever happens, let it be. Let it go."
"Who are you, fucking Yoda? You work in an office, Janet. You're a secretary. What do you know about fighting?"
"Are you trying to hurt my feelings?"
"I'm just saying you've never fought. You've never lost."
"Maybe I don't know much about your kind of fighting, but I know a little about winning and losing. And I know all about you."
"Don't look at me like that. Listen. I didn't mean it."
"I know you didn't. Look at you. Ugh, you're such a mess! I'm not sure if we've got any peroxide left at home, either--"
"I don't get it."
"What? What don't you get?"
"How he got me."
"He was meaner. He caught you by surprise. You think you're mean, Bobby, but you're not. You're just not. It wasn't your day. It happens."
"Not to me it doesn't."
"I hate hearing you talk like this. I like it when you win. You know why? Because you don't talk afterwards. You're just right there, in the moment. You just are. You're beautiful when you win."
"Not so much now, huh?"
"You want the truth, Bobby?"
"No."
"What do you want, then? You want me to tell you you'll beat that guy next time?"
"How about I stop talking."
"It's a start. How about you stop bleeding, too."
"Give me a minute on that."
"We're almost home now, baby."
Fred Senese teaches chemistry at a small university in rural Appalachia. He is the author of three books and a science website that has been recognized by Scientific American, the San Francisco Chronicle, and others. His story "Atoms of Jesus" is a 2017 Pushcart Prize nominee and his writing has appeared in Spark, Triptych Tales, Firewords Quarterly, Zetetic, The Molotov Cocktail, and others. Find him at fredsenese.com and @fsenese on Twitter.
