The 6'3" black form of Hayes tipped down his stylish sunglasses and smiled widely. "It's part of your training Clark," he said, dribbling the basketball. "Why? You don't like being the only white person within two miles?"
Monty put his hand up to shade his face from the sun's rays. "It's not that. Well.....that too, but I mean, we could get killed today doing this."
Hayes had had the bright idea of entering himself and Monty Clark, his longtime student and friend, in the Hoop It Up basketball tournament. And, of course, they were to be in the "Inner City All-Star" division. "And why did you say I had semi-pro experience, Hayes? These guys hate semi-pros!" Monty whined.
"Stop whining," Hayes said simply, before charging the hoop and dunking the basketball forcefully. "As long as you feed me, we can't lose. I have been playing basketball since it was invented, Monty." This was very stupid, in Clark's opinion.
The snow had melted for the most part, but spots of slush still wavered in the nearly 50 degree weather. The players had worked together to clear the court of all of the junk, however, and they seemed ready to start. As far as Monty could tell, there were 32 two man teams, with Hayes and Monty being one of those. Great. 63 big angry black dudes and 1 white immortal waiting for a beat down, Monty thought.
"Did you bring your katana?" Hayes whispered to Clark.
Monty looked at him, stunned. "No, should I have?"
Hayes glanced at their first round opponents, Raul and Big Bad Joe Johnson. They were both over 6'8" and Big Bad Joe Johnson, who was always cross-eyed, had killed a man on the court last year. He got off on a technicality. "Yes," Hayes replied with a straight face.
Raul took the ball and palmed it with his left hand. "You women wanna play ball?" he roared.
"Yea," Monty said with a sneer, swiping the ball from his grip and passing it over to Hayes to start the game. Hayes spun and drove to the hole, but found Big Bad Joe waiting for him. Johnson reared and elbowed ol' Hayes in the nose, knocking him to the ground. Raul took the ball and leaped, slamming it down through the chain net.
Putting a hand down, Monty helped Hayes to his feet. "'We can't lose' you said. 'Feed me' you said."
"Shut up," came Hayes' reply. "Just shut up Clark," Hayes said, his mind already back on the game.
Monty soon noticed the Big Bad Joe Johnson could not run or dribble a basketball, while Raul was practically a pro. From the bloody gashes and scrapes all over his body, Monty had found what Big Bad Joe was good at. He should be immortal for crying out loud, Monty thought. He'd eat him for breakfast......and lunch.
The other 60 players had found the "white" guy playing to be very humorous and were gathered around the court whooping and cheering for everything Monty did wrong. They really got a kick out of Big Bad Joe too. Real nice crowd, I'll tell ya. The more blood, the louder the cheers.
But Hayes was ALMOST as good as he said he was at basketball, and soon he and Clark had closed to within a few points. Clark and Hayes were beaten, bloodied and drenched with sweat, but at least they were sticking it to Raul and Big Bad Johnson.
The games were played to 11, as nearly all street games are. And Raul and Big Bad were leading 10-9 with the ball. Monty approached Johnson and put a hand in his face when he faked a shot. This was not a smart idea. Big Bad Joe Johnson wasted little time in giving Monty Clark an uppercut to the jaw and knocking him to the ground, a bloody mess. Johnson then passed the ball to his more skilled partner, Raul. Hayes was all over him, trying not to look at the squirming Monty in the corner of his eye. Thinking quickly, Raul passed the rock behind his back to the cutting Johnson who seemed open for the layup.
But Hayes darted off his man and leapt high into the air, rejecting Johnson and slapping the ball over to the sidelines. The gallery of onlookers went "OHH!" as Hayes tripped Johnson from behind, sending the huge black nutball to the ground with a thud.
The ball rolled to a stop at the foot of a fence just outside the two point line and Clark rushed to his feet to pick it up. Monty was alone at the line. Just him and 22 feet separated Monty and Hayes from victory. Monty brought the ball up and placed his feet just outside the line, preparing and lining up the shot from the corner.....
Meanwhile, ol' Big Bad Joe Johnson had gotten to his feet. With no hesitation or fear, he pounced onto Hayes, growling like an animal. The two men soon were in a brawl right there on the court.
Clark exhaled deeply and left the ground, in slow motion he released the ball, sending it rotating towards the hoop. If the shot went in, they were heading to the second round, and it looked so good on its way there. The black grooves on the orange ball turned to a blur as the perfect spin went through it, propelling it to the rim. It was right in........right into Raul's hands, that is. The ball sailed right over the hoop, missing the rim entirely and into the waiting hands of the opponent. With no further problems, Raul casually leapt and layed the ball in, giving he and Big Bad Joe Johnson the victory. "AIRBALL! AIRBALL!" went the chant from the gallery of players. They were really enjoying this, the bastards, Monty thought.
Hayes was getting his ass kicked. It had been close for a second, but this guy was an ex-con and extremely strong. Soon he was sitting on top of Hayes, hitting him with rock hard fists. "Mon..ty!" Hayes called between blows.
Monty Clark sighed. "Hayes! C'mon! Don't make me do this!"
Hayes growled in response and pushed up, but Big Bad must have been 280 lbs, and he didn't budge. "Here goes nothing!" Monty said, roaring into Big Bad Johnson and tackling him. Hayes got up with furiosity and clotheslined Raul, before stomping on his face. The 60 onlookers did little but cheer and push the competitors back into the circle they had formed around the 4 men. With Raul out like a light, Hayes ran over and took Big Bad, who was on top of Monty making mince meat of his face, by the collar, lifting him. With grade school like precision, Monty and Hayes pulled the ol' "over and under, down and under" move with Clark kneeling behind Joe and Hayes pushing the locomotive of a man over Clark and to the ground.
Hayes leapt over Monty and belly-flopped onto the man, landing on him with a sickening crunch. When Monty came to his knees, he noticed Raul had groggily came to. With a banji yell, Raul leapt to his feet and was charging Hayes like a madman. Picking up the basketball that had rolled to him by chance, Monty chucked it in the direction of Raul. The high pitched banji yell fell to silence as the ball impacted his head and Raul dropped like a rock to the ground. Monty smiled and walked over to him. "Swish," Monty said with a wide smile.
Hayes had stood Big Bad Joe Johnson up and they were taking turns pounding each other's faces in at the moment. Monty picked up the basketball yet again, and chucked it at the back of Hayes' head. "Hayes, duck!" he let out. Hayes did so, not a second to soon and the basketball smashed into Johnson's mouth. Big Bad Joe Johnson wavered on his feet.
Hayes hit the man with one right hand, then a left, then another right. Johnson was dead on his feet waiting for the knockout blow.... But Hayes just touched him with his left pinky and Big Bad Joe Johnson collapsed like a corpse to the ground, a pool of blood with eyes.
Monty walked up from behind the panting Hayes, and put an arm around his mentor, before looking down at the bloodied Johnson. "Good luck in the next round, Big Bad," Monty joked.
But as Monty Clark and Hayes were waddling off of the court and towards the street, a few of the players blocked their path. Pulling knives, they began circling and laughing.
Just when Monty thought things couldn't get worse, the "buzz" ripped through his head. He looked at Hayes. "Another one of us are here," he said in a fear-laden tone.
"Let me through!!!" a familiar feminine voice thundered. "Monty?!" she called out.
"Changeling!!" Monty exclaimed. Clark's katana came flying over the crowd, arcing to Monty's hand. Monty spun it once and grinned widely. "Good to see you. Impeccable timing as always," he said as her gorgeous form came into view.
"To go with your impeccable smile, lover," she said grinning. The remaining men around backed off and returned to their court to go on with the tourney. "Are you ready to go home, my Monty?"
Monty nodded and smiled, putting his katana under his trench coat as he picked it up. The trio of immortals walked off, Changeling bracing the two guys to keep them falling over.
"An airball Monty? You cost us the game!" Hayes boomed.
"Are you telling me you still want to be playing?" Monty asked him.
"We'll enter again next year," Hayes said confidently. Monty didn't have the strength to disagree right now.
"Hayes, I'll be in touch," Monty said walking to the passenger door and tossing Changeling the keys.
"We're gonna work on that jump shot, Clark," Hayes said smiling. "Until then, enjoy yourself."
Monty waved, then got in and collapsed into his seat, exhausted. Changeling entered in a matter of seconds and glanced at Monty from one of her sparkling blue eyes. "I love you," she said. "I think you, um..we, need another shower!" she exclaimed.
And as the 86 Toyota sped off, Monty was feeling a lot better.......
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