Crystal Tree

Junior, Steve and I went to a show fight out at a south suburban golf course called Crystal Tree. What should have taken us an hour took nearly two as we ran into heavy rush hour traffic.

No sooner than we arrived on the grounds, Junior's gym bag came up missing. Steve had to negotiate with the fight makers to have our boy fight later to give him time to find his stuff. Finally, the bag was discovered next to some kids who were also there to fight. Maybe they picked it up by accident, maybe it was intended to be a theft. We don't know. After Junior was suited up, Steve took the precaution of locking all of our stuff in the trunk of his car. Not long after Junior's bag went misssing, another guy's stuff disappeared.

Junior gave too much respect to his opponent. There was a moment when he had the guy on the ropes with a clear opening to let off a battery of shots. Junior hesitated, as if giving the guy a chance to recover. The people in the crowd, particular a group that was directly behind Steve and I, were mostly on Junior's side. However, it was clear they didn't know much about boxing by their comments. One woman kept yelling, "Hit him between the eyes!" I noticed another table of women who were paying more attention to their conversation and their drinks than what was going on in the ring. After rocking his opponent a few times, Junior won the decision.

Later, we were standing near a table of deserts: cheesecake and cherry pie. Junior and I kept eyeing the groceries. Steve said, "Maybe we shouldn't take any of it." Not long after he said that, a crowd of hungry boxers swooped on the table. Junior had a big slice of cheesecake. I had two slices of cherry pie. Shouldn't have eaten that much, especially of pie, but I was hungry.