She had been sitting right behind him on the tier seat. Maybe, she’d never seen a fight before, so she got excited. She came forward, _with her knees hovering over Benny’s head.
Benny was sitting forward too. There was nothing in it, both sitting forward trying to squeeze some excitement out of a punk fight. It was different when Benny sat back suddenly. It gave her quite a shock when Benny’s head banged between her knees. The way that dame slid back on her seat was nobody’s business.
Her boy friend was quick too. One of those guys who missed nothing. He said, “Go on, give it away. Put it on a plate an’ hand it round. Don’t mind me.”
Benny heard him. He sounded tough, so Benny sat still, feeling a little sick. He kept his eyes on the two punks shuffling around on the resin. He stole a quick look at Sadie, sitting beside him, but she hadn’t noticed anything. She was half asleep.
Fights bored her, anyway, but she’d got into the habit of going places with Benny. She liked best when they went to movies, because he didn’t get excited, or look at other women, or curse.
It was a lucky break for Benny that one of the fighters suddenly thought it was time to go home. He began to hit more seriously and immediately got the other guy in trouble. All the crowd began to shout and get excited, so Benny felt a lot less scared.
All the same, he had lost interest in the fight. He wanted to have a look at this dame behind him. He knew that if he did he’d start something, so he just stared down at the brightly lit ring and made up pictures of what she might look like.
It wasn’t long before he’d got such a picture that he could hardly sit still. There were two more fights on the programme, but they weren’t going to keep Benny sitting in that hall. He wanted to get home with Sadie, just as fast as his car would take him.
He said, “Come on, honey, let’s get outta here.”
Sadie woke up and blinked around, stared at the two little men way down in the ring, and then looked blankly at Benny. “Where’s the fire?” she said.