Chapter 3

Chapter 3


Two decades had passed, Adam and Eve’s infant son Gene was now the oldest of four children. The two younger sons, Peter and Douglas were at home as they had to fend for themselves while their Dad and Gene were on the road and their Mom and older sister Leslie worked long hours Monday through Friday.

Pete made that night’s dinner for him and Doug as always, he wondered how much longer they had to put up with this bullshit. He stirred the pot as he added all sorts of different spices to the mix, Doug did his part as he set the table. Pete poured out a couple plates of food for both of them, and they sat down to eat.

‘’When the hell are they comin’ home?’‘ asked Doug as he took a bite of his dinner.

‘’Mom and Leslie’ll be home late as usual, we both know Dad and Gene are almost never home’‘, Pete responded, unable to eat.

Pete just stared as his plate as he wondered why they had to have such crooked and crazy parents, he and Doug spent nights as they watched a bunch of awful unrealistic shows on a new form of home entertainment called television that depicted families as clean cut, happy, and ideal. What a crock of shit! Their father was such an asshole, and their mother belonged in a mental institution.

‘’I can’t eat this’‘, he said as he left the table.

‘’What about dinner for Mom and Leslie when they get home?’‘ asked Doug.

‘’Let ‘em eat it cold out of the god damn pot!’‘ Pete exclaimed.

He was too upset to even eat dinner, he and his younger brother had to put up with another night without their parents. He retreated to his room, and read a book. He wished that he was one of the characters in the book so that he could escape into a fantasy world instead of in a position where he had to be responsible for a clan that wasn’t even home.



***


That same night, Adam and Gene were at a hotel with their top wrestler as they waited for the world heavyweight champion and the promoter from St. Louis to arrive so they could discuss the details of the title match that was soon to take place. In the years since he took over as the promoter of his father’s operation, Adam had sold all the carnival related assets to other promoters, but kept the athletic show.

He took the athletic show, put it in these big arenas, and made lots of money that he had just dreamed of in the carnival circuit. When he began to promote the athletic show in arenas and on television under the name WRESTLING, his exposure to the masses increased. The one drawback was that he had to break bread with the state athletic commissions to make it all nice and legal.

His top star was the most flamboyant and charismatic performer ever to enter the business. He was a big draw at the arenas, and brought in good numbers for the television broadcasts. The promoter in St. Louis who controlled the world heavyweight title thought it was time for Adam’s top star to have a crack at the champ.

Adam’s son Gene had come into his own as a booker for his father’s wrestling promotion, he developed a way to screw the champ out of the world heavyweight title. Due to their top star’s popularity in the arenas and on television, they were a successful promotion, and needed to stay that way. The reason the promoter from St. Louis put the belt on the current champ was because he was a very skilled legit athlete, but true athleticism didn’t sell tickets or generate numbers for TV.

The promoter from St. Louis had arrived with the champ, and it was now time to get down to business. All five men sat down to eat dinner, Adam, Gene, and the top star still planned to screw the promoter from St. Louis and the champ, but they needed to put on an act as they were gonna go along with what the St. Louis promoter wanted, an ordinary title defense. Even though that wouldn’t be the case.


‘’Alright boys, let’s discuss the title match for this Thursday night, the best 2 out 3 falls. My guy makes yours look good, and keeps the title at the end. But we gotta tell a story on the mat, how are we gonna do that?’‘asked the St. Louis promoter.

‘’How about we have your guy control the first fall, and have his run as champion in jeopardy as our guy takes the second fall. Then the champ makes a comeback in the third fall to keep the title.’‘ answered Gene.

‘’Hey, I like that! Montague, you gotta smart boy here!’‘ said the St. Louis promoter.

They all shook hands as the promoter and the champ got up to leave. Adam, Gene, and their top star almost burst into laughter at the idea of what they had planned for the guys from St. Louis. Adam had an evil smile on his face, as the promoter and the champ from St. Louis walked out the door.

***

The Monday before that title match, Eve was in the hospital due to the fact that she had been a hypochondriac for the last several years. She often checked into hospitals when she wasn’t busy on a soap opera or at home late with the kids. After she took over Capulet Consumer Goods from her mother, she put greater emphasis on soaps once they made the jump from radio to television, she formed a new division of the company called Capulet Television which produced soap operas in Los Angeles and New York.

She was in the hospital ward with her daughter Leslie who had just been named head writer for the top rated soap which was produced by Capulet Television. Leslie handed her the scripts for this week’s episodes, her mother picked up one of the scripts, and she read it, she walked around the ward as if she was some actress who auditioned for a part on the show.

‘’How could you leave me for another woman?’‘ she read from the script, she acted as if she had cried.

Many patients started to look at her as if she was nuts, and Leslie was too embarrassed to even look at her. This was a practice she had for many years, she would do this as a way to audition new writers, and in her when she started out as a writer, she just acted out scene while her secretary typed out the scenes on paper.

‘’What did I ever do to deserve this?’‘ she continued.

A nurse saw her, and paged the front desk. Some doctors rushed in to see what was the problem, Eve was shocked to discover her process had attracted so much attention. Leslie was very scared that they were gonna cart her off, and lock her up. She didn’t want people to know that her mother, the great soap opera visionary Eve Capulet-Montague was a nutcase!

‘’Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!’‘ she bowed to the doctors, nurses, and patients as if she just completed a performance in a play.

‘’Excuse me Mam, I think we may need to commit you to a psychiatric ward.’‘ said one of the doctors.

She put her hands on her hips, and then slapped the doctor. Everyone in the ward was shocked. Several doctors tried to restrain her as she tried to fight back, but Leslie broke it up. The two women left the ward as they all continued to stare.


***


It was the night of the championship match between the world heavyweight champion, and Adam’s top wrestler. Adam and Gene stood there in the packed arena at a distance from the wild fans and marks who believed the shows that were always presented before their very eyes. The TV cameras started to roll, and the announcers welcomed the television viewers as the St. Louis promoter watched it all from a far.

Adam’s top star was introduced, and he had an assistant take off his pink robe while other assistant sprayed the mat with a fragrance. All the women cheered after he removed his robe, they swooned over his blond hair and muscular build, almost as if he was an athletic Elvis Presley. Males hated his guts however because he pranced around like a homosexual.

The champ however, stayed in his corner and remained focused on the match as he did stretches to warm up. The bell rang, and the referee took the championship belt before he placed it on the announcers table. Adam watched as the two wrestlers locked up, then his top star managed to get the champ in a headlock. The top star then took him down, and covered him for a pin. The referee then administered a very fast three count, and the timekeeper rang the bell as the referee raised the hand of Adam’s top star as the winner of the first fall.

‘’What the hell are you tryin’ to pull? This isn’t what was booked!’‘ the champ shouted as he slapped the top star upside the head before the referee sent them to neutral corners.

The St. Louis promoter got so pissed at what just happened, that Montague and his son tried to have their top star double cross his champ. He was a short heavyset man who wore glasses, and his face became so red that he looked like Satan with a high fever. He stormed over to where Adam and Gene stood, the most furious he had ever been with any promoter.

‘’Why are you two con artists tryin’ to double cross us? We’re tryin’ to help you guys do good business, and you now wanna go into business for yourselves? What’s the deal here?’‘ the St. Louis promoter asked as if he was almost ready to cuss them out.

Adam signaled two security guards who came over, grabbed the St. Louis promoter, and threw him out of the arena on his ass. Adam was so glad they got him out of the way, but he knew the champ was about ready to beat the shit out of his top star for the double cross. He now feared for his life, since his top star was more of a performer than an athlete. The rest period for the wrestlers was now over, and the bell rang which signaled the start of the second fall.

The fans went wild as the two men beat the crap out of each other as if they were in a no holds barred street fight. After the double cross in the first fall, the champ felt the rules of athletic competition were out the window, and Adam’s top star needed to be taught a lesson. Most fans didn’t know it, but the champ had an old knee injury that still gave him trouble from time to time.


Adam noticed that his top star was very focused on that knee, and needed to capitalize on that injury so that they could have what they wanted, and get the hell out of there. His top star delivered a hard dropkick to the champ’s knee. The champ then fell to the mat, in so much pain, and afraid that his knee may have been re-injured.

Adam’s top star then applied a submission hold on that injured knee, and as a result the champ screamed at the top of his lungs in agony. The referee signaled the timekeeper who then rang the bell. Adam’s top star had double crossed the champ to win the best two out of three falls, was now the heavyweight champion of the world as Adam and Gene had wanted! Many fans started to riot as the referee awarded the world heavyweight title to the new champ.

‘’To a nicer guy, it couldn’t happen!’‘ the new champ claimed, sweaty and exhausted from his tainted victory.

Several fans were so upset that they pulled out razor sharp knives, and stormed through the ropes in an attempt to stab the new champ. A whole batch of security guards then barged in, and fought off god knows how many fans, and managed to get the new champ out of the arena just seconds before another fan with a switchblade tried to stab him.

***

The day after the match, Eve and Leslie were on the set of Eve’s top rated soap opera that Leslie now wrote for. Leslie was mesmerized by the magic that happened around while it was just another day at the office for Eve who was very frustrated with one of the actresses on the show. They both watched as the actress performed the very scene Eve acted out of Leslie’s script in the medical ward.

‘’How could you leave me for another woman?’‘ asked the actress who crawled on her hands and knees toward the actor who played her husband.

Eve had hated the actress with a passion for many years, and always thought of her as a no talent bitch. However, the cast and crew on the show as well as the television network, and others at Capulet Television thought she gave some of the best performances. Leslie on the other hand, always admired her when she acted on soaps in the radio era, and she was overcome with emotion that she now wrote her material.

‘’What did I ever do to deserve this?’‘ the actress asked as the camera got a close up of her face.

The show then went to a commercial break, and Eve stormed on the set as her blood boiled. She wanted to smash all the cameras in sight, and felt like she wanted to grab all the network executive by the balls since they allowed that scene to air. She then walked over to the actress, and it was very clear that she was furious!

‘’You are the worst actress I have ever seen in my entire life!’‘ she screamed at the top of her lungs as the actress broke down into tears.

Everyone on the set was shocked at what Eve had just done, there was no cause for it, and most of all, she didn’t have to lash out at her like that. For a moment, everyone waited to see what Eve would do next, and they felt bad for the actress, she didn’t deserve this bullshit. She had put up with Eve’s attitude for many years, they all wondered how much longer she would take it.

‘’Your contract is terminated, as soon we wrap up your storyline, your out of here!’‘ Eve gritted through her teeth before she left the studio in anger.

Leslie was disgusted by what had happened, she got just as angry as she thought about it. She looked at the exit her mother just stormed out of, and her faced turned red. Before the show came back from commercial break, all the cast and crew gathered to comfort the very popular actress Eve had just fired. They then cleared the set as the players for the next scene went on.


***

That night was of the rare nights where all of the Montague clan was home, yet no one spoke to each other. Adam and Gene counted the money from the ticket sales for the televised wrestling event that featured the infamous world heavyweight title match. Eve and Leslie sat in chairs a small distance from each other, neither were able to speak because of what happened on the set earlier that day.

Pete and Doug could care less if any of them were there or not, the others always came and went, and they didn’t spend much time with them. The door bell rang, Eve answered the door to discover her brother Tony Capulet, whom she hadn’t seen in several years. Adam however, wasn’t too happy that he arrived.

‘’Oh Tony, I can’t believe it!’‘ Eve squealed in a high pitched voice as everyone in the house rushed to greet him except for Adam and Gene.

Adam had never gotten along with his brother in law, Tony Capulet, who was more of a con artist than he was. He knew that Tony wasn’t here just to visit relatives, he had some kinda scheme up his sleeve. Adam needed to find out what it was before he caused any trouble. Tony walked over to him, and offered Adam a handshake.

‘’Hey, haven’t seen you in awhile, how ya’ been?’‘ asked Tony, who put on this polite act with an evil grin on his face.

‘’I’ve been better,’‘ Adam said in a very annoyed voice.


‘’I came here because I’ve developed an idea for a spinoff of my little sister’s top rated soap.’‘ Tony mentioned as he handed a sheet of paper which was a written pitch for the spinoff.

‘’Alright, we’ll show it to the network, and see what they think,’‘ she responded as she looked over the pitch.

Adam and Tony just stared at each other, neither said a word. They both pondered what the other was up to, they also wanted to tear each other to shreds. However, they wanted to put on a good face for Eve and the kids. Adam didn’t wanna put Eve through any trouble, so he wasn’t gonna argue with Tony in front of her, but he knew that Tony had a hidden agenda, like he always did.