IN AN ENVELOPE carefully printed EDNA MAE DUNPHY c/o MARY KAY MACK on Depot Street, Mad River Junction, she mailed five of these crisp new-smelling one-hundred-dollar bills to her mother whose work (as a nurse’s aide in a nursing home) paid her something like seven dollars an hour.
Dear Momma, this is for you. Sorry I am out of touch for a wile. Hope you & Anita & Noah are doing OK.
I am doing well. I am in Dayton now.
Look for me on TV in February 2009!
Love
Your Daughter Dawn
“D.D. Dunphy”—“Hammer of Jesus”
“JESUS IS LORD”
The first fight would pass in a blur.
Abruptly terminated at two minutes forty-two seconds of the first round.
There was but a small crowd scattered through the Cleveland Armory. Of five hundred seats in the shabby old arena less than one hundred were occupied. Lorina “The Cougar” Starr vs. D.D. Dunphy—“The Hammer of Jesus.”
The match between two (unranked) female welterweights scheduled for five rounds was number four on the undercard, and was scheduled to begin early—7:00 P.M. The main bout of the evening was a twelve-round match between heavyweight contenders (Deontay Wilder, Tony Thompson) ranked by the World Boxing Association at numbers four and six respectively, and would begin at approximately 9:00 P.M.
The undercard consisted of matches of ascending interest. Only the last two matches were to be televised on a cable channel.
“Lorina Starr”—(D.D. would never forget this name)—was the opponent they’d found for her, for the first fight. A woman of some age beyond thirty who lived and trained in Gary, Indiana. Lorina Starr had once been ranked at number seven (WBA women’s welterweight) but after several losses had dropped off the charts. She was said to be of Chickasaw Indian extraction.
(D.D. had learned: there were no Indian reservations in either Ohio or Illinois only just the scattered descendants of the original Indians who’d been removed to a desolate area of Oklahoma by the Indian Removal Act of the U.S. government in some long-ago time. Lorina Starr was one of these—the descendant of Chickasaws who’d managed to escape the mass evacuation to Oklahoma.)
In her publicity photos Lorina “The Cougar” Starr appeared to be a sexy-glamorous young woman despite a scarred face. It was a surprise to D.D. to see her in person (at the weigh-in) for she was considerably older than her photos. Her features were Caucasian except for very dark eyes and very black straight hair which had been cut short and streaked with platinum-blond highlights. Her skin was coarsely made up with a red-tinted beige powder. She wore sexy boxing attire—a sequin-spangled red sports bra, Spandex-tight blue trunks that fitted her shapely buttocks tightly. Above her left breast was a tattoo of a red boxing glove and on her right shoulder, a snarling cougar with a curving tail. It was boasted that the Cougar “never gave up a fight” and “never disappointed a crowd.”
At the weigh-in D.D.’s opponent was giddy and edgy with a grating laugh like a cough. She could not seem to bring herself to look at her much-younger opponent still less shake hands with her. “Hey shit, I’m not your friend, girl”—Lorina Starr recoiled from D.D.’s approach when the boxers were urged to shake hands.
D.D. had to restrain herself from saying Sorry! This was a word that came too readily to her.
It was revealed that D.D. Dunphy was heavier than Lorina Starr by six pounds and shorter by two inches. Her reach was fifty-nine inches, Lorina Starr’s reach was sixty-one inches.
(D.D. did not want to think that these two inches might be crucial. Ernie said with a shrug, You got to get inside.)
Lorina Starr’s ring record was three wins, seven losses, one draw.
D.D. Dunphy’s ring record was zero wins, zero losses.
There came scattered applause in the arena as the female boxers, the first bout of the evening, were introduced by the big-voiced male announcer. A few wan whistles stimulated by Lorina’s spangled red sports bra and Spandex trunks and a few spirited handclaps when D.D. Dunphy’s ring record was announced and it was revealed that this was Dunphy’s first fight.
In the front rows only a few spectators were sitting, all male. These were loud-voiced, very possibly drunk. Some were eating hot dogs and drinking from paper cups. (Beer? Officially, not allowed in the Armory.)
In a trance of exhilaration and dread D.D. had entered the Armory. Her ears were ringing. Her mouth was so dry she could not have swallowed except a plastic water bottle was lifted to her mouth by one of her handlers.
She’d been exercising vigorously, somewhat desperately, in the locker room. She was covered in sweat which was consoling to her as a fine-mesh blanket.
Here was a disappointment—just slightly. Her manager Cass Cassidy had not allowed her to wear black in imitation of Mike Tyson. He had not allowed her to wear a cap with the words JESUS IS LORD stitched on it.
Maybe later, he’d said ambiguously. When the Hammer of Jesus had some followers.