All that he knew was that last week, he did something that wasn’t him. While the fans at home had yet to see it, the fans in the arena were able to hear it. An aggression came from Matthew that not many people realized he had. He wasn’t little Matthew Elias anymore.
Last week, he came to the aid of Dave Gibson. He came, and he kept even worse harm from coming to the FUSE announcer. But Matthew wasn’t dwelling on what he wasn’t able to prevent. He looked towards the future. He looked ahead to what he needed to do.
“Matthew, you have a visitor.”
The serenity of the moment was ruined by his mother. Walking up the stairs and into the apartment that was crafted out of an old storage space above the family garage walked a rather petite, almost frail looking girl. She still had to be a teenager. Matthew hadn’t seen her yet, as he sat with his back to her.
“It’s been a long time, Matt.”
He hadn’t been called Matt in a long time. It didn’t phase him though, as he continued to just think about the horrible scene that he witnessed last week, and looked towards what he wanted to do this week.
“You aren’t even going to say hi?”
“Hello.”
Last time he saw his visitor, she was a rail thin 13 year old with braces and braids. Today, she is taller, lost the braces, but still puts her hair in the braids. Amy Walker lived six doors down from the Elias family. To Matthew, she was still the silly little girl that tattled on him and her brother for reading a Playboy instead of studying.
“I didn’t see you at the funeral.”
A year ago, her brother Lance, one of Matthew’s best friends from high school, was killed in Iraq. She still wore his dog tags. Lance’s entering the Marines caused a rift between the two of them. The last words he ever said to Lance was calling him a mistake and a failure.
“I had an important test that I couldn’t get out of.”
Matthew was lying. He was at the funeral. He made sure that no one would recognize him. He had grown his hair out and wore a beard.
“My mom would have loved to see you there. Lance always said that he knew you didn’t mean what you said to him. He forgave you years ago.”
Matthew never forgave himself. Even the tattoo on his forearm, the same tattoo that he and Lance got the day they graduated. He had Lance’s initials added underneath it. Maybe it would allow him to cope with what he had said.
“Well, my mom was wondering if you wanted to come over tonight for dinner. She misses you too.”
“I don’t…..”
“Mathew Randall Elias, you better go over to her mother’s. You don’t need to be brooding up there all night.”
Matthew rolls his eyes back. Why his mother couldn’t leave well enough alone was beyond him.
“I guess I’ll come over.”
A few hours later, Matthew found himself sitting in a chair across from Amy and her mother. They were eating spaghetti.
“So, Matt, I saw you in the paper this morning.” Mrs. Walker said before taking a drink from the glass that she has in front of her.
“Mom, you didn’t tell me he was in the paper.”
Right about now, Matthew Randall is trying to figure out a way to leave without making too much of a scene.
“Matt, why were you in the paper?”
“Well, they were talking to me about being a local kid that broke into a national wrestling organization, touring the United States, things of that nature.”
“Wow. We are sitting with a celebrity.”
“Not quite. I just go out and do my job. I’m not really that big of a name. Not even in my company. I’m just a little fish in a big pond right now.”
“Now, don’t those reporters know that you are Kentwood, Michigan’s own Matthew Randall. I think that’s what the paper called you. Amy, can you get me the scrap book from upstairs?”
“Yes, mom.”
Amy got up and headed towards the stairs.
“You look much better without the long hair and beard.”
“Huh?”
“Matt, I’ve known you most of your life. I knew you’d be at Lance’s funeral, no matter what kind of falling out the two of you had. Amy doesn’t know that you were there, but I saw you.”
“Yeah, well, I need to take off. Tell Amy I said by. I have to take care of a few things.”