31 December 1999
Epilogue
The minute Nat stepped out of the elevator and into the hotel lobby, he spotted Danny in the crowd. It wasn’t difficult. First of all, he was a good head taller than anybody around him. Secondly, he had sighted Nat and was hopping up and down like a little kid, waving his arms wildly.
“I want to go with you, Nathan,” Danny said the minute Nat caught up to him. He stood in a pack of trainers and managers and promoters, all of whom turned their eyes on Nat when Danny spoke.
“What? We’re not all going in one limo?”
Vick, one of Danny’s two managers, said, “They sent two limos. There’re nine of us, so they sent two. I thought we could’ve squeezed in …”
“Or we could have gotten reservations at the Mandalay,” Nat said, “and not bothered with limos at all.”
“Yeah, yeah, sure,” Vick said. “And if things were different they wouldn’t be the same.”
He herded them through the front doors of the hotel, held open for them by uniformed doormen. Out on to the pavement, where two black stretches waited at the valet curb, their doors also held open by uniformed employees.
Mike, one of the trainers, said, “So we’ll split into four and five. And Nathan can go in Danny’s limo.”
“No,” Danny said. All eyes turned to him. “I want to go in a limo with Nathan. Just Nathan.”
Vick rolled his eyes.
Nat said, “You should go with your trainers, Danny.”
Danny put a hand on Nat’s chest and pushed him back a few steps, away from the ears of the crowd.
“Thing is,” he said quietly, his face close to Nat’s, “I still sort of think of you as my trainer.”
“Oh, come on. Don’t make me laugh. You’re in such a different league now. We’re not even orbiting the same planets.”
“I don’t mean it like that. Just that we go way back.”
Nat sighed. Walked around Danny and up to where Vick was waiting, tapping his foot on the curb.
“He’s just nervous,” Nat said.
“Fine. Whatever. Who cares? Both cars go to the same place.” Then, more loudly, to Danny, “We’ll see you there, kid.”
“I’m not a kid!” Danny shouted back. “I’m twenty-four years old.”
“Twenty-four years old is a kid,” Vick said, and ducked inside the first limo.
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“I want to sit on this backwards side,” Danny said, settling on the seat facing the rear of the limo, his back to the driver. “I like to watch the world go by backwards.”
“Now why is that?”
“I dunno. Just do. How often do you get to see the world go by backwards?”
Nat shifted from his forward-facing seat and sat beside Danny, watching the Las Vegas strip flash by in reverse. “Yeah. I guess I see what you mean,” he said.
“This sure is one lit-up town.”
“Never been to Vegas before?”
“Now how would I’ve ever been to Vegas?”
“I don’t know. Maybe your grandmother was a gambler.”
“My grandma wasn’t no gambler.”
“No offense intended.”
“No offense taken. But she wasn’t.” He leaned his head back and watched the lights stream by. Looking nearly hypnotized. Then he said, “Wish she was still here to see this.”
“Yeah. I know what you mean. I wish Nathan were still here.”
“And Little Manny.”
“Yeah. And Little Manny.”
“Is Carol gonna watch from home?”
“Are you kidding? She wouldn’t miss it. She’s watching and taping.”
“If my grandma and your Nathan and Little Manny had lived to see this, even if they was too old and sick to come, they coulda watched it on the TV.”
“If they had cable, yeah.”
“If my grandma was alive, she’d get cable. She’d buy her some HBO to see this.”
“Maybe she’ll still see,” Nat said. “Even so.”
“Think so?”
“I don’t know. Truthfully, I got no idea. But why not think the best in a situation? Since we don’t know.”
“Yeah. Maybe. I hope so. Speaking of which. Speaking of what we don’t know. What you think gonna happen come midnight tonight? Think planes’ll fall out of the sky, and shit? And there won’t be no lights, and no water, and all the nuclear plants’ll melt down or something? Think the whole world’ll fall apart over that computer Y2K shit?”
Nat smiled inwardly to himself. He knew this was a month’s worth of words for Danny. And he also knew it meant Danny was nervous.
“No,” he said. “I don’t.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know. I just don’t. I just don’t think it’ll be that big a deal.”
“You don’t think people’ll go to their ATM money machines and find ’em all screwed up and shut down? You be willing to bet that won’t happen?”
“I’m not a betting man, Danny.”
“What? You don’t have some dollars on me to win tonight?”
“Well. Yeah. Sure I do. Of course I do. But that’s not the same. That’s not really gambling. That’s a sure thing.”
Danny grinned widely.
Then something caught his eye out the window, and he pitched forward, his fingers marking the glass with his nervous perspiration.
“Look at that, Nathan! Look!”
Nat leaned over and tried to see around him. Just before the driver turned into the circular hotel driveway, Nat caught a glimpse of what Danny had seen.
Danny had his name up in neon on the hotel sign. It said:
MANDALAY BAY RESORT AND CASINO PRESENTS
LIVE TONIGHT
DIEGO GARCIA vs DANIEL LATHROP
There was another line underneath, but the limo was circling the fountain now, and the sign spun out of Nat’s view.
“Holy shit,” Danny said. Sounding truly scared. “That makes my legs feel all gooey inside. You believe what we just saw?”
“What? You didn’t think they’d put it on the sign?”
“No. I knew they would. But do you believe it?”
“Yup. This is the big time, Danny. You’re going to the show.”
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“You got any last words for me, Nathan?”
“You’re not dying, Danny. But, yeah. I do.”
He took Danny by the elbow and pulled him off into the corner of the huge dressing room. Away from the entourage crowd.
“First of all, I’m so freaking jealous of you I could die right here on the spot. And also I’m so happy for you I could die all over again. That’s twice in one night. But not necessarily in that order. But the main thing I want to tell you is that I’m proud of you tonight.”
Danny furrowed his brow, frowning. “What if I don’t win?”
“It’s not contingent on your winning.”
“I don’t know what that word means.”
“Contingent? It just means it doesn’t depend on it. That’s why I’m telling you now. Because I’m proud of you now. I’m proud of you for getting this far. And for who you are. And how you did this.”
A rapping on the door.
A voice on the other side called, “Two minutes.”
They both stared at the door for another moment. As if expecting it to do something.
Then Danny said, “Thanks, Nathan. Wish you could be in that corner with me.”
“But you know I can’t. But I’ll be right behind you. The whole time. But I don’t want you to think about that. Just know I’m back there, but give all your attention to Mike. In-between rounds, when you’re in your corner, there’s nobody else in the world except Mike. When the bell rings again, there’s nobody else in the world except Garcia. I’m right behind you. But don’t split your focus.”
“OK, Nathan. I won’t. Nathan? Is it OK if I’m really scared?”
“If you weren’t, I’d figure you didn’t know the half of what was going on here. But you’ll be good. I’m going out there now. And I’m going to watch you walk out. You walk into that place like you own it. You hear me?”
Nat reached out his fists and Danny bumped them lightly with his own, like fighters in the middle of the ring.
“Thanks, Nathan. I still don’t got no idea why you did everything you did for me. But thanks.”
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