Right after our session today, I stood by the mat watching the kids in motion, waiting for the coach to come; I sat in one of the chairs around the mat, when I got a glimpse of a movement out of the corner of my eye, the movement of a hand. I looked at the movement and saw Coach Rodrigo calling me. Odd. It's been a while since I started here and whenever I talked to the coaches it had to be on my own initiative. Think we should work as a team, but I'll work with whatever I have at hand. It's interesting that he calls me anyway. We went to Mr. Costa's room and he shut the door. I stood gazing at the door, trying to figure out what he wanted from me.
"Have you talked to Figueira lately, Miss Grisam?"
"Yes, every day. When you don't find me here, it's because I have already gone away. These days I intend to watch the practices more closely."
He smiled.
"It was exactly what I wanted to ask you. I wanted to ask you to observe Figueira wrestling very closely."
"What's the matter with Figueira? What has he done this time?"
"Yesterday Mr. Costa caught him talking to Galhardo and scolded him. I myself got my share and so did Galhardo."
"Why couldn't Figueira and Galhardo talk? They had to pay attention to wrestling, didn't they?"
Rodrigo smiled once again.
"Yes, they had to pay a lot of attention, Miss Grisam. Especially because it was them wrestling."
I started to laugh. Coach Rodrigo thought I laughed at my own mistake, but I laughed at the fact that two wrestlers would talk while fighting.
"Didn't you know there are wrestlers who talk to the opponent while fighting with him? Figueira is one of them."
"Well, you live and learn", I said still laughing, "what do they usually talk about? Weather, football?"
His smiling expression then turned into a scowl facing me.
"They don't talk the way you imagine, Miss Grisam", he said dryly, "it's more like one cursing and threatening the other, trying to psych him out. Not always does it happen this way, but it happens many times. The other problem is, I've seen Galhardo talk to Morales too. And I think Galhardo is catching Figueira's disease too. If Figueira gets caught talking in a tournament he can even be disqualified. If he makes the others start talking, it can be worse."
"Oh, I see. It breaks the rules."
"That's it. Figueira has already been disqualified for talking to an opponent when he was over him. Figueira would have won if he hadn't talked to his opponent."
After the warm-up, Coach Rodrigo had them run around the block. Four turns and I waited for the kids to pass and Figueira always played a joke on me as he passed by. Coach Rodrigo brought them back in and sent them to shower. Put a silver object in Figueira's hand and the kid ran down the corridor. I asked Rodrigo what it was. Rodrigo told me it was a nail clipper and an emery board.
He told me to sit on the mat, leaning against the wall and watch Figueira carefully. When the practice started and Galhardo and Figueira started wrestling on the mat, Zangrandi sat at my side, only watching. All of a sudden he elbowed me, pointing at Figueira and Galhardo, trying to show me what I could already see.
"Listen."
Figueira really talked. He was talking to Galhardo, that looked at me embarrassed, believing I thought he did it too. It was so funny I just had to laugh. Zangrandi giggled too, looking at Galhardo, that assumed an expression of lack of concentration. Rodrigo warned him he should fight; in that moment, Figueira was already over him. Galhardo kept looking at us, almost cutting Figueira dead. Coach Rodrigo interrupted the fight and told Figueira to shut up. Galhardo and Figueira stood up and resumed the match standing. The latter ended up throwing the former to the mat. He was over Galhardo again, locking his right arm with his own, resting his hand on Galhardo's head. Galhardo shook his body as he could, trying to escape him and Figueira once again started talking to him. Rodrigo looked at me as if he was saying, "see what I mean?", Galhardo looked at me under Figueira's pressure and tapped him on the left leg. Figueira let him go and he let himself fall on the mat. He was staring at me, got his back off the mat and said, "how come we're gonna take the guy to a tournament again talking like this?"
Figueira seemed sort of ashamed when Galhardo turned to him, "come on friggin' woofer, get a life!", Galhardo said, upset, lying back again.
I definitely need to talk to this young man.
This front line | Real hangmen
Radio Universal: The Making Of A Thousand Gods.
Saturday, July 24, 2004
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