… It’s been a while since we’ve been here, here being back on the bus, the school bus to be specific. It seems to be chic around here to catch buses, but the original bus rider is the pariah of professional sports, the paragon of prince-liness, your savior and mine, Prince Pride.
Pride smiles.
We’re on the bus on our way to North Carolina, and Pride as always just stares out the window as his new driver, Leon, a balding, older and black African-american gentlemen, very short and portly, with a george Jefferson hair style in the bus driver seat. When Leon speaks, people listen, maybe because he sounds like James Earl Jones, kind of scary when he’s mad, which he rarely is, unless his check is late, Leon is all about dem Benjamin’s, but we digress.
Pride sits face pressed against the glass making spit bubbles, as Leon starts to doze off, and trying to avoid that, makes small talk.
Leon: Have you ever had the crabs, boy?
Pride just makes a bigger bubble, Leon unphased, continues the conversation, as old people do.
Leon: Yeah, I caught it once from this little hot number in Tuscaloosa, we used to travel these roads up and down, me and my pappy, he was a portable bathroom salesman, dem, port-o-potties as you kids say.
Leon chuckles, when he laughs it sounds like a wheezing smoker, and so it goes
Leon: Yeah boy, my pappy and I used to sing songs of regalia and joy. You been down these roads before boy?
Pride slowly lifts his head off of the glass and continues to stare outward, with an awkward glazed over look
Pride: More than I’d like to remember Leon.
Leon: Yo’ pappy, he was a wrestler too, right boy?
The words make it into Pride’s head, but his mind is someplace else…
“Dad, can I meet him, can I meet him?”
“Why do you want to meet him so bad Prince?”
“Dad, can I meet him?”
“Ugh, come on Prince, but remember what I said, no begging”
“Yes dad!”
Pride: Who, Tony?
Leon: That’s your pappy right?
Pride: I don’t have a dad Leon, Tony Pride was a wrestler, but he was no father, he couldn’t even get me a simple autograph.
“Hey, great match tonight man, you really had those fans on the edge of their seat.”
“Thanks Pride, you’re really getting over in this territory, you keep it up you may be a big star.”
“Dad, dad…”
“HOLD ON PRINCE!”
“But Dad…”
“I said HOLD ON!”
“Cute kid, what’s his name?”
“His name is Prince…Yeah, Mom named him that.”
“Does that make you the king?!”
The two men share a chuckle
“I’m thinking about leaving the territory, you know Steve?”
“Sire, yeah that hack, couldn’t wrestle his way out of a wet paper bag, but boy can he work the stick.”
“Yeah man, he’s headed on to some hot new national territory, the NWC, starting out in Atlanta.”
“Really? Who else is there?”
“I heard talk of Robinson heading out that way?”
“Old Eugene?”
“Yeah, Eugene!”
“That kid is a high spot away from a wheel chair!”
“Hey, I’m a family man now, have to make the money count”
“Dad, can he puh-lease?!”
“Shut up Prince!”
“Hey Tony, you don’t have to yell at the kid like…”
“This is my son! He’ll do what I say!”
Awkward silence
“Prince, go play somewhere, run around the halls while we talk business…I said go boy!”
Leon: But he is your daddy though, be he right or wrong, boy.
Pride just gazes out the window, a slow tear rolling down his face, but anger and resentment filling it, as he speaks in a slow and deliberate tone
Pride: There are many stories about Tony Pride, Leon. Some say he was a decent man. Some say there was no good in him at all. He was a lot of things Leon…
A young Prince Pride stands out in the hallway of some random Armory, a slow tear rolling down his cheek, anger and resement filling his face. He holds a small magazine and pen in his hand, as he stares at the door just slammed in his face by his father. He speaks in a slow and deliberate tone…
“…But, he’s my favorite wrestler…”
Prince throws the magazine and pen against the door, as he storms down the hall, as any dejected child would. The front page of the magazine lay open on it’s face as it’s a split cover that simply reads.
“PRETTY” TONY PRIDE BOOMER SOONERING IN OKLOHAMA!
DAVE GIBSON, AN OLD SCHOOL BREATHE OF FRESH AIR IN THE PAN-HANDLE!
WILL THE TWO EVER MEET?!
Pride:...That man was a lot of things Leon, but...
Pride just stares at Leon, hatred filling his face
Pride:…But Tony Pride, was never my father!
…And with that, Leon leaves the conversation alone, as Pride just stares out of the window, and as they enter North Carolina, we fade to black