Dream Hook

“It was a nasty upper. Landed right on the chin. Spun Spark so fast even the audience wasn’t sure what hit him. Playing it back—I couldn’t make it to the match myself—you could almost miss it. Kruggler, man, he must have been saving that the whole time. He never hit like that before. It was insane.

“That was a good three-weeks-ago-or-so, right. And Spark, he had never lost a match before. Had a 5-0-0 streak going. And when you’re on the come-up, streaks are no joke. They're even less of a joke when you hit the big-time, but losing your first streak. Man. It’s like—I’ve heard it put this way. It’s like losing a friend, or a family member. It’s a part of you, you know? And the longer the streak goes, the worse it is to lose it. Then again, I’ve heard some guys say they were thankful to lose it. But not Spark, he’s not like that. He liked the pressure, kept the pistons pumping. 

“So Spark lost. And when you lost on a knockout, that's a 90 day suspension. Minimum. No exceptions. Not that Hank—that’s his coach—would let him in the ring any sooner. We’re talking ground up rehabilitation here. Not like he lost any major functions, but confidence… That takes time. 

“So imagine my shock when Spark walks through the door two weeks ago, six days out from his KO, and starts hitting the bag. I got Hank right away and Hank went and talked to ‘em. But Spark keeps hitting the bag, Hank goes back to his private lesson, and I keep at least one eye on Spark. I mean, I didn’t think much of anything was gonna happen, but any movement’s rattling that damaged brain. So I keep an eye out.

“Yesterday I’m minding the counter, one eye still on Spark in the ring. He’s not sparring or anything, but he’s past the point of warming up. He’s shadow boxing. Always had a love for it. So he’s doing his thing, focused as usual, except I start to notice he’s not fully extending. Which, okay, any other fighter, sure they're just shadow boxing. But with Spark, red flag. So I find an excuse to step away from the counter to get closer. Sometimes he’s fully extending, especially when he’s peppering jabs, but for the most part, his crosses stop just shy of full extension.

“Now look, I don’t box much myself. But it's my business, you know? So I know what it should look like. I go grab Hank. Hank watches him for a bit. Hank talks to him, susses out if he’s okay or not, then lets him back at it. Alright, all good. Right?

"Fast forward to later that afternoon. Hank’s gone, gym’s nearly empty. Spark’s shadow boxing in the ring. He wasn’t here all day—a lot of guys come in the morning, go live their lives, then come back to get another workout in.

“Now I know better than anyone—I mean, I see it every day—boxing is a release for a lot of these guys. And I’ve got some paper-pushing to do and I was gonna stick around anyway to get it done. So I told Spark—I told him I was gonna lock the front door, but he could keep at it. 

“From my office, if I sit a certain way, I can see pretty much the whole ring. I don’t want it to seem like I was babysitting the man. He didn’t need that. But there was something odd about his shadow boxing since he got back. There was something uncanny. And it was there in my office—two weeks of watching Spark half-extend some punches and spontaneously bail on some combos—it hit me. 

“I pulled up the Kruggler fight and I recognized Spark’s opening moves immediately. I scrubbed forward, looking up to Spark every couple of seconds to see where he was, and before the round was over I had the two Sparks perfectly synced up. So synced up it was scary. He must have re-watched the tape god-knows how many times. He was throwing and taking each punch like it was choreography. Muscle memory, I guess. I’ve never seen anything like it.

“Bell rings and both Sparks sit in the corner and wait out the minute rest. It's the final round now, and Spark looks as lively in the ring as he does in the video. But when that final uppercut breaks through Spark’s guard—when he flies back in the footage—he flies back in the ring. Lands with a thud. And I don’t even know how he manages it. I mean, he’s just shadow boxing, right? He must have thrown himself back on purpose. Wild move. And a dangerous one, too. Remember, three weeks ago the dude landed with a knockout. R-I-S-K-Y, man. Risky. 

“But he doesn’t stay down for more than a second. He’s up before my head sorts itself out. In the video, Kruggler’s got his hand raised in victory while Hank’s checking on the knocked out Spark. I closed out the video. A KO’s not an easy thing to watch, you know. If you understand what’s happening to the brain. 

“I didn’t have it in me to tell him time’s up when I was done working. And he’d locked up for me in the past, so I figured why not. Anyway, that’s how I left him. Fighting the air in front of him. Last words I said were ‘key’s at the front desk.’ Last words he said were ‘’Preciate it.’”

“And now he’s comatose, center of the ring, eyes rolled to the back of his skull?” The police officer hadn’t written any of Jim’s words down.

“That’s right. Here, I’ll show you the CCTV footage. Took the final fall ‘bout an hour and a half after I left. A nasty upper, right to the chin. The kind of hit every boxer dreams about.”