The sun was shining brightly down onto the suburb of Las Vegas, with little to no humidity to add any undue discomfort than what many on the streets as natives to the City of Sin, or tourists were already complaining about.
Go figure! A heat wave in a desert! The mind just boggles, doesn't it?
Of course, not everyone was complaining about the perpetual heat of the lingering summer months. Actually, at the very residence you would expect to be featured by now, a certain young man and his teddy bear used the heat as all the excuse needed to be jumping into the house's large pool, splashing and playing and just generally having a good time! Which was what the summer was all about, amIright?
Of course, it's not like Despayre (yes, I was referring to Despayre - hel-LO!?) needed a reason to jump into his home's pool at any time of year. If he had his way, he'd be allowed to jump into the water during the fall and winter months, whether it was raining or storming out -- and has, only to be dragged out again by his father, Gabriel, and at times, their housekeeper Theresa. So you'll understand why the summer months are the absolute best for Despayre, because it meant free reign in his pool -- well, at least until he started to burn, as he was prone to do with the fair Canadian skin he inherited from his mom. When that happened and his pale skin turned a healthy shade of pink, it didn't take long for his dad or one of the others to quickly get him out of the water where he would remain - at least until the pink subsided. Or they turned their backs -- whichever came first.
But just ask Despayre and he was having a grand ol' time! When he was first 'discovered' by his father, it took a little time to get him to set foot inside of a swimming pool to experience what many people take for granted. But once in the water, he quickly took to it and Synn figured had the boy had his way, he'd spend more time in the water than out of it. Swimming and all the enjoyment that came along with it just seemed to come natural to his son.
Synn himself lounged back on one of the many deck chairs, clad only in a pair of tight, black swimming trunks so that he could work on tanning his tall, muscular form -- or at least use that as an excuse to keep a close eye on his boy. Not that Synn expected Despayre to have any troubles in the water, but better safe than sorry, you know? Of course, it also gave him ample excuse to simply sit there and enjoy watching his boy play. Knowing he had missed out on much during his earliest years, Synn wanted to make up for that time lost and continue to savor every waking moment that his son provided him. In fact, from behind his red tinted shades, Synn watched as Despayre dog paddled across the pool, pushing that familiar teddy bear on a floating chair. Angel, ever present wherever his son went, was 'lounging' back on the inflatable pool chair with just a pair of shades over his 'eyes'.
No swim trunks on the bear this time? Synn could only imagine what Despayre thought of his bestest friend 'skinny dipping' in broad daylight.
The patio door slid open and the aforementioned housekeeper, Theresa, stepped out onto the deck of the patio with a tray in her hands. The tray was covered in sandwiches and three tall glasses of raspberry tea. True, Despayre always preferred Cherry Coke with his meals but while he was busying himself with play in this heat, Theresa herself insisted he have something a little better for him so he didn't harm himself with dehydration.
"Joshua?" Synn called upon seeing Theresa. Despayre stopped pushing Angel and turned his head at the sound of his father's call. "Time for a break! Come get some lunch!"
"Oh boy!" Despayre yelped with glee as he pushed the floatie chair to the pool's edge and scrambled up onto the poolside, bringing Angel up along with him. The moment he left the water, what breeze there was on the horizon struck him and he felt the immediate chill that went along with it.
"Yikes!" He cried out and hurried over carefully to the table where Theresa sat up their lunch. Synn joined him and threw a towel to his son and it landed on his head. "Hey!" Despayre cried out with laughter to his tone, and that only grew as Theresa placed her hand on his covered head and gave it a playful rub down. "Ack!"
Despayre yanked the towel off of his head but kept it draped around his shoulders like a shawl, giving the housekeeper a laugh and a smile. She finished setting four places at the small table, yes four because you simply have to include Angel. (Teddy bears get a voracious appetite when they spend so much time swimming, you know! Despayre finished arranging his plush pal to maximum comfort when he hurried over and pulled out Theresa's chair and helped her have a seat. Such was the nature of her employment with the men of this house, she was fully expected to eat all her meals with them.
"Thank you, Joshua." She said gratefully and Despayre nodded with a smile while he hurried over to have a seat between his dad and Angel, allowing Theresa to pass out the sammiches (Despayre's favorite! Lettuce and peanut butter!) and the tea.
"Will you be getting into the pool with me an' Angel?" Despayre asked before taking a big bite of his sammich.
"Maybe later." Theresa said as she herself took a drink. "I have to finish getting your bags packed first."
"Bags? Why do we need our bags packed?" Despayre blinked and looked to his dad for confirmation. "We just got home yesterday."
"We've been home for over two weeks, Joshua." Synn corrected him, but was uncertain if Despayre was teasing or if his mind set convinced him they were home for less time than they truly were. "I want us on the road at the earliest come morning, before it gets any hotter."
"Why? Where are we going?" Despayre asked.
"Reno." Synn answered. "You and B have your first title defense this Sunday."
"Awww!" Despayre moaned dramatically and flopped his head into the palm of his hand in a classic pout. "Can't we just cut out the middle man and be declared the winners anyway so I can get home and swim more?"
Synn eyed his son and shook his head, "You've been hanging around Shane too much. Some of that ego of his is rubbing off on you."
"Do they make cream for that?" Despayre asked in wonder. "Sounds itchy!"
"You don't even know who it is that you and B are defending the championship against." Synn reasoned.
"Who is it?" Despayre asked as he picked up his glass of tea with both hands and drained it almost entirely in one attempt.
"Sean Jackson." Synn answered, an after a brief pause in thought. "And Wrath."
"Wrath?" Despayre frowned as Theresa poured more tea into his glass. "Rage is going to try and take my title away from me? How rude!"
"No, not Rage." Synn said. "Wrath."
Despayre picked up a fresh sammich and asked, "Isn't that the same thing?"
"For the most part." Synn agreed. "The man could have done well with a roster check to see if anyone else had a similar name, but that's neither here nor there. Those are who you'll be defending against. They're member's of Mark's stable."
Despayre cast a glance to Angel who was seated on a chair atop a small stack of books, and he asked of his small confidante, "Did you follow that?" After a brief pause, in which both Synn and Theresa would gladly admit to wishing to know what the teddy bear 'said' in reply, Despayre sighed and shook his head.
"I still think they should just declare us the winners." He stated. "It's not like we're going to lose, anyway."
"Oh I agree, Joshua." Synn said. "But that is the bane of being a champion. You have to defend the titles whenever they tell you too."
"Pth! Everybody has an angle." Synn shook his head and picked up a sammich and offered it to Angel.
Theresa said, "I'm sure you have nothing to fret about, chico. You'll still have your championship when you're old and gray."
Despayre nodded, then blinked and started to contemplate the future...</color>
Of course, what's a little interlude without that appropriate interlude music?
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Classy, huh? Well, you'd think it was if you had any sense of taste, you Neanderthals! But take note! The mood! The atmosphere! The music is old fashioned, so all the more appropriate for a promo featuring a bunch of old people!
Wait, what? Old people? What's going on here, exactly? Oh not much? Despayre just let his mind wander again. Here's hoping Angel has his butterfly net so he can catch it in a timely manner!
Anyway, welcome to Body Slammers! The home for the recently bewildered of sports entertainment! Or if you prefer not to be PC, the home for elderly professional wrestlers! The name of this 'community' is very fitting, as it not only pays a timeless tribute to the men and women of the golden age of wrestling, but it also aptly describes the move some of the nurses have to use to get those rambunctious bed wetting oldsters back into bed -- for more bed wetting.
Now you might just think that we're right back in the household of Synn and Despayre, but no! You couldn't be more wrong! Oh sure it's the same exterior and the same interior, but now it's no longer a personal residence! It's been transformed into a home for those in the world of wrestling that have gotten somewhat on in years.
What? You didn't know there was such a place?
Case in point? One of the doors in this elderly abode opened with a soft click and out stepped Old Man Gabriel. What? Didn't recognize him? Well sure, he's about forty years more seasoned than he was back in his prime in SCW, but come now! He hasn't changed all THAT much, has he? Sure, there's a few more gray hairs and wrinkles, but he's still got that leather and gold chain look down pat! With a hot water bottle on his scalp, and a thick sweater around his shoulders, he shambled out into the hallway as old people do, and slowly removes the thermometer from his lips and squints at it.
Old Man Gabriel groaned, "98.6! God I'm dying!"
"Don't even joke like that in this place!" Old Man Rage grumbled as he came from around the corner, his back stooped with old age and yes, back to being bald again -- only this time it wasn't by choice. Yes, nature played a cruel, cruel joke on the ancient Sin of Wrath.
"Who's joking, ya bloody arse?"
"Who's got a bloody arse?" Old Man Rage tried to stand upright, but his height and weight were bent with age and it proved to be far easier said than done. "Fuck's sake, it better not be me!" He stopped a passing nurse and asked, "It's not me, is it?"
The nurse shook her head in the negative and Old Man Rage nodded, brooded but nodded, and allowed the hospice worker to go about her business as he and Old Man Gabriel assisted one another past the reception desk and into the rec area where the old folks generally preferred to pass the time, looking out the Picture Window and eating pudding.
"Where's Despy?" Old Man Gabriel wondered aloud as he helped ease Old Man Rage into his favorite arm chair. "Wasn't Despy supposed to be around here somewhere?"
"I'm coming!"
The tell-tale voice called and the two buddies of years gone by turn their heads and watch as Old Man Despayre, his hair long past the shade of black and now streaked with white and gray, and wearing his old Mister Self Help glasses (needs a stronger prescription btw), shuffled into the rec room. He was pushing a wheel chair, and seated in it was Angel, with a shawl draped around his plush shoulders and a blanket draped over his lap.
Old Bear Angel? Hey why not?
Old Man Rage turned away in time for a coughing fit, the wet sound growing louder in the barely occupied rec room and Old Man Gabriel shook his head while Old Man Despayre cringed.
Old Man Despayre leaned in to examine Old Man Rage through those magnified bifocals and shook his head, "Goodness Rage! It sounds like you're making espresso, there!"
"Aw gimme a break!" Old Man Rage growled. "I'm a sick man!"
"Must be something going around." Old Man Gabriel mused as he slowly lowered himself into a chair, moaning and groaning as a sound much like a creaky old door in a haunted house might make. Old people joints, what're you gonna do? Gabriel pulled out a small hand mirror and tongue depressor for a deluded examination while Old Man Despayre wheeled Angel in front of the television and turned it on for his lifelong chum before joining the two men for a little old folk pow wow.
"Is Dad going to join us today?" Old Man Despayre said as he sat down and held up a horn to his ear so he could hear whatever answer was given to him.
"Not so long as that new nurse Jason is on shift." Rage coughed, wheezed and hacked.
"Is he still at it with that guy?" Old Man Gabriel asked. "Christ, I would have thought Synn'd be too old for that now."
"Meh." Old Man Rage shrugged. "So long as the beds move up and down and he doesn't have to do a thing, he's good to go."
"Ew." Old Man Gabriel shuddered, at the very thought of Synn still doing the nasty at his age.
"Well, so long as he's keeping busy." Old Man Despy picked up a pamphlet on the warning signs of aging and blinked at it through his magnified glasses, held it at arms length, then gave up with a sigh and dropped it. He aimed for the table but it flittered down to the floor. "I just hoped he'd be available to tell me what's going on with Bernie's and my next defense."
"Christ, you're still defending those damn tag titles?" Old Man Rage wheezed. "How long's it been now since you won the belts?"
"Oh I'd say a fair few years, give or take." Old Man Despayre contemplated.
"More like forty years." Gabriel countered, arching his back and easing a hot water bottle between the small of his back and the chair's cushion. "Longest reigning champions in wrestling history."
"And we'll keep on retaining, isn't that right Angel?" Old Man Despayre cast a brief glance back at his buddy, then waved his hand. "Bah. Try to lure him into conversation when Matlock reruns are on!"
"Who're you defending against, anyway?" Old Man Rage asked.
"That's what I wanted to ask dad." Old Man Despayre said. "But since he's busy with Nurse Jason, I asked your wife to find out for me."
"My wife?" Old Man Gabriel asked.
"Well I didn't mean 'his' wife." Old Man Despayre said, pointing at Old Man Rage with his cane. "Man can't keep hold of a wife with that temper of his! Married twelve times!"
"Can't let that keep a man down." Old Man Rage hacked into a tissue. "Aiming for number thirteen here soon enough!"
"Haven't you had enough yet?" Old Man Gabriel asked.
"Bitterness over divorce only eats away at your good looks." Old Man Rage said.
"Oh is THAT how it happened?" Old Man Despayre laughed and he and Gabriel shared a knuckle bump, then both winced and grabbed at their hands. Old Man Rage just snarled at the pair but that was interrupted by another old person coughing fit.
"I'm back!" The female voice called as the front door swung open and inch by inch, Old Lady Odette shuffled in with the aid of a walker. And when we say shuffled in, we mean ITERALLY inch by inch. What is it with old women and those orthopedic shoes that can't move barely a fraction?
Click. Shuffle. Click. Shuffle.
The three men watched the front entry of the rec room, and waited... and waited. Old Man Despayre turned to Old Man Gabriel and asked, "Do we have time to eat supper before she gets here with the news on Bernie and my opponents?"
Old Man Gabriel turned to look outside the door, then sighed and admitted, "We'll probably have time for breakfast before she makes it in here."
"Oh good. Give us time to get the cornflakes soaked for Rage's supper." Old Man Despayre said and the three elderly fellas struggled to help one another to their feet. Old Man Rage's eyes never leaving his friends.
"I heard that." he growled and Old Man Despayre looked absolutely amazed.
"Hey! That new hearing aid of his really works!" Old Man Despayre gushed and then leaned in, almost wobbling off balance, and whispered to Old Man Gabriel, "You know, when I turn my hearing aid up to ten, I can hear a canary break wind from down the road."
"You don't say!" Old Man Gabriel mused as the three men started to exit the rec room, Old Man Despayre shuffling over to the wheelchair to escort Old Bear Angel to the dining room.
The sun set, night came, and the sun rose, and just as predicted, Old Lady Odette was just turning the corner into the rec room as the three old men (and the old bear) settled back into their chairs. White hair tied up in a bun, lavender floral print dress and knee high support hose was the fashion of the day for this lady!
"I must say," Old Lady Odette said, "I have had the most frightful experience."
"Told you about looking in that mirror." Old Man Rage growled as he hunched a blanket around his shoulders.
Old Lady Odette scowled at the insulting monster of an old man and hissed, "At least my reflection appears in it!"
"And a mesmerizing reflection it is, my dear!" Old Man Gabriel leered at his wife, whipping her shawl off and she gasped and tried to 'cover up.'
"Did you find out anything about Bernie and my opponents?" Old Man Despayre asked as he set a cushion behind Old Bear Angel and settled back on his own seat.
"Opponents?" Old Lady Odette squinted her eyes through her glasses, smacking her dry lips. "Opponents..."
Old Man Gabriel said, "Yeah, you know... Despy here sent you to find out who his opponents were for his tag team defense with B?"
"Ohhhh I knew I forgot something!" Old Lady Odette half wavered from where she stood.
"Forgot!?" Old Man Rage barked, then coughed and hacked. "What were you doing all this damn time if you forget what you were supposed to be doing!?"
Old Lady Odette answered, "Well I had just got to the end of the walk when I forgot what it was I was supposed to be finding out, so I headed back here to find out!" She leaned aside from her husband on her walker and eyed Old Man Despayre. "Do you want me to try again?"
"Noooo!" Old Man Despayre shook his head. "We'll miss the match by the time you find out!"
Old Lady Odette nodded and started to sit beside her hubby, but then paused and smiled at Old Man Despayre and she playfully pinched his cheek with weathered hands.
She cooed, "Ohhh our Despy! When did you grow that little moustache?"
"Oh about ten years ago." Old Man Despayre answered. "When did you grow yours?"
Old Lady Odette's eyes opened wide and she grabbed her husband's cane and wielded it like a sword, but the effort wavered and she dropped it with a clatter to the floor.
"Oh why bother?" She muttered.</color>
"Why bother what?" Synn asked as he found his son staring off into space. he frowned and waved his hand in front of Despayre's eyes, prompting him to blink and focus his attention on his father.
"Hm? What?"
"You said 'why bother'." Synn said again. "Why bother what?"
"Oh..." Despayre paused, then shrugged his shoulders. "I guess why bother worrying about Bernie's and my challengers? It's not as if they're going to actually win or anything."
"Sean Jackson isn't going to be easy, Joshua." Synn reasoned, but knew in his heart that trying to force focus upon his son was next to impossible. The simplest strategy for Despayre was not solely to prepare him, but to unleash him instead. "He is a former champion. And Wrath..."
"Is a Rage wannabe." Despayre said, then looked at Angel and nodded. "Yeah!"
"What did your little friend say?" Theresa idly wondered with a light smile. "Did he impart any words of wisdom?"
"He said if Wrath was so great, he wouldn't be too ashamed to hide behind a mask." Despayre reached for another sammich. "But Angel did tell me to listen to dad, because we want to keep our titles and I want Bernie's first championship to be a LONG one!"
"And it will be, Joshua." Synn said.
"Promise?"
Have I ever lied to you?"
"Nope! Bernie and I are gonna win!" Despayre cheered. He then paused and leaned over and whispered to his dad, "Will you do me a favor though?"
"What's that?"
"If you meet a nurse named Jason when you're older, will you plase invest in one of those hospital beds?"
Synn could only frown in bewilderment.</color>
