THE KID THE KID THE KID THE KID By HOWARD CORNELL We must have gone eight hundred miles that day, rambling along in my '38 Willys Overland. The Kid snored all the way across the Utah desert and on into Nevada, just like a baby. Now and then he'd open his eyes and rub the sweat into his face and the back of his neck and ask me where the hell we were and I'd tell him. Tooley, Ely, Eureka, Salt Wells. He'd grunt and squint into the bright aluminum sun, stretch, rub his dirty hands into a once white tee shirt, yawn and begin his high-pitched snoring again. We'd been in Denver and the Kid had cold-cocked Johnny Perez in a prelim the night before. We used the money to pay our bills, put a re-cap on the Willys, and get our clothes out of hock. Even when we won we didn't get much but when the Kid got decisioned in Omaha, I had to do dishes and sell the watch my mother gave me for two bucks just to get gas for the Willys. Things started to go bad in Fort Dodge when the Kid got kayoed in the first round by a nigger named Luke. We sold the spare tire and went to Omaha. I couldn't get the kid to do any training and when we left town after the fight he was feelin' pretty bad. Somehow when he trained regular and worked out, the losses didn't seem so bad but after Omaha he got restless and worried. Then we hit Denver and the Kid really hung one on Perez. That night, after paying our tab, we had a good steak and he drunk two beers and we both felt pretty good. Now we were rollin' through Haz-en on our way to Sparks. The air was hotter'an a fox in a forest fire and my left arm was getting to feel pretty burned. The Kid snoozed peaceful as you please, just like he was in some feather bed. I liked to see him sleep 'cause when he was rested, he could duke with the best of them. Well, we were to face Stoney Murphy in the main event in Sparks and if he was up to it we could come away clear with three hundred dollars. The Kid really had a punch and if I could have kept him trained good we'd have been on Easy Street. He got mentioned in Ring Magazine once said he was "promising." That was two years ago when he was really fightin'. Now it was two bit hotels and hamburgers. But when he flattened Perez in Denver, I figured he was getting his old form back. Well, we stoped in Hazen and the Kid wanted a beer and a hamburger so we left the Willys and looked around. The place had only one beanery and it had only one booth so we sat at the counter with a bunch of carnies who were 12 in town for the night. After the Kid had his first beer he wanted another and when I told him we only had a dollar-fifty, he got all upset and wouldn't speak to me for a while and struck up a conversation with one of them carnies. I can't blame him for suspicioning me though. I'd held out on him when we were in Sioux City one time and when he found out he really got sore. So did I. He hung one on my glass jaw and I didn't see daylight for an hour. The next thing I knew them carnies were gathered around him like flies on a honey pot and they were buying him beer and slapping him on the back and really blowing smoke his way. One of them, a guy named Maxwell who they called Max, got up and left with the Kid. I didn't see them for an hour but when the Kid came back he was all excited. He'd changed his shirt and his disposition and was grinnin' from one side of his homely face to the other. Not that he was ugly, but his face was kinda crooked with wide, deep-set blue eyes and a square jaw that seemed to straighten up only when he smiled. He didn't have no trouble attractin' women either; he was a big man, a heavyweight, and was good and strong, too. Well, I soon found out what he was grinnin' about. Seems as these carnies wanted to stage some sort of fight with the Kid as the main attraction. The Kid was pretty excited but he said this Max had guaranteed him a thousand dollars if he'd go three rounds with their representative, Sidney. Well, I knew a queer named Sidney and couldn't believe any real good fighter would have a name like that so I said it sounded like a good deal. A thousand! Boy, we hadn't ever seen that kind of money and I started to think of all the things we could buy with it, like new gloves, and a training bag and some new shoes. Well, we both thought of a lot of things and I should have thought of at least one more thing. I should have thought of the catch. Them carnies never have been my favorite people since Hazen. We got in a jam in Bozeman once with some rubes from the circus but never anything to beat this. Well, we went back to the Willys and started to get out our bags, when this Max comes up and asks confidential like have we got any money for the purse as our entrance fee. The Kid looked at me kind of stupid like and I looked back at him the same way. Well, I had thirty cents but was embarrassed to mention it to a man all dressed up like this Max. He had one of them grey fedoras on and a black evening coat and was carrying a walking stick with an imitation ivory handle. A real dapper dan in them pointy-toe shoes. I thought he just walked out of a store window. I got to feeling sick right away and the Kid looked like he did in Omaha. I had to tell him we had no money for the fee but right away he says that if we'd put up the Willys for security he'd go the fifty dollars for the fee. Well, the Kid blurted right out it would be okay and turned to me with that soulful look he always gets, and before my better judgment could get hold of me, I said okay. It wasnt' very long after I gave him the title to the Willys that I began to smell a rat, but we got out the old bag and went to the carnival grounds to spar around a mite and tone up the Kid's muscles. The Kid was pretty confident and got to hitting the bag pretty hard when Max came up again and told us that the fight would be at nine, just soon as the sun went down. I asked him who this Sidney was and he just shrugged, kinda nonchalant and said he was a new kid that hadn't been fighting too long, but hadn't ever lost a fight. The Kid said that was okay with him 'cause he never felt better and danced around a little to show off to this Max. Well, nine o'clock came and we got there early, being pretty anxious and all. The ring was set up under a big tent and already the smell of canvas, desert dust, and the crowd was heavy in the air. The Kid got up in the ring and sparred around some and I tell you he never looked better. He had on them silvery trunks we bought in Salt Lake City and looked every bit the Champion. There were some chairs set up by the ring and this Max was sittin' there with his arms around two swell lookin' broads. This Max had one of them green cigars stickin' out of his wide smile and looked like he didn't have a worry in the world. One of them broads came over to our corner and called the Kid down from the ring. She had on one of those dresses, low-cut in front, and real tight fitting. Well, before I could stop her, she threw her arms around the Kid and gave him a big kiss. Next thing I know the Kid grabs her up and starts kissing her back. Well, with her squealing and giggling and the Kid tryin' to get a better hold on her, I got all I can do to pry 'em apart and get him back in the ring. Well, "low-cut" sorta wiggled back to her seat and the Kid started some pretty fancy shadow boxin' and show-in' off. Well, the crowd just loved it. The Kid up there dazzlin' em with footwork and "low-cut" yelling at him to "knock him out, sweetie," or something like that. Then them carnies brought in their fighter, Sidney. You could have knocked me over with a feather duster. Both me and the Kid couldn't say nothing. All we could do was stand and gape at this Sidney. He wasn't a fighter at all. He was a kangaroo. I'd never seen a kangaroo up close but this one was a pretty big one not like one of them that rides in the front. The sight of them carnies bringing in the kangaroo made my stomach get a little tight and my mouth felt dry. I looked at the