Pound for Pound Read Online Free PDF

“One-two.”
    Tim Pat made the move quick as a whip.
Bang-bang,
gunshots. While boxing with the Mexican kids, Tim Pat had also learned the rudimentsof how to catch and counter. He loved to train, became a student of the game, watched Dan’s tapes of old fighters, sat with Dan and Earl and watched the new guys on TV.
    “What about a one-two off a head fake?”
    Tim did it. The fake was bait. Make the other guy think apple and give him an orange. Dan hugged his grandson.
    “When can I walk to school again, Grampa?”
    Dan dared to dream that this little kid might one day go where he had almost gone.
    “Soon,” Dan said, “soon.”
    The first day Tim Pat walked to school, he went the regular way, the Melrose way. He was already past the church and turning into school when Tiger made his move. Dan and Earl had taken Earl’s van by way of Rosewood. They sat thirty yards down the way and faced the action from Tiger’s side of the street.
    Tim Pat was shaking. He hoped Tiger didn’t notice. Other kids on the way to school made a loose circle around them and watched, waiting for the usual outcome. Some were bigger than Tiger, but none stepped in to help Tim Pat. In the past he had hoped for help, but now he was hardly even aware of the growing crowd.
    Tiger said, “Gimme that bag, sucka.”
    “Take it away from me, punk.”
    “Huh?” Tiger grunted, taking a step back.
    Something had changed, but Tiger wasn’t sure what. The other kids were as astonished as Tiger.
    Tim Pat started doing his footwork, circling his opponent, and said, “Go ‘head on, thief, try and steal it.”
    Tiger threw a wild right hand at Tim Pat’s face. Tim Pat was waiting for it, slipped under it. As Tiger turned to charge again, Tim Pat tossed his lunch bag at his feet. Tiger didn’t know what to believe. When he looked down at the split bag, Tim Pat nailed him with a right-hand shot to the gut,just like Earl had said. Tiger gasped, doubled over, rocked back. Tim Pat hit him with another right lead to the chest bone. Tiger came back throwing wild, windmill shots, but they were arm punches that quickly tired him. One of the punches caught Tim Pat on the cheek and split the skin. When Tiger saw Tim Pat wipe at the trickle of blood, he was sure Tim Pat would quit. The other kids thought the same as they milled around, yelped and laughed. Tiger was able to grab Tim Pat, and tried to kick his legs out from under him, but Tim Pat broke the hold and spun away.
    Tim Pat gave a head fake like the one he’d given Dan back at the gym. When Tiger went for it, Tim Pat hit him with a crisp one-two combination that bloodied the other kid’s nose and sat him on his ass. Tiger started to get up, but when he was halfway, Tim Pat cracked him in the face again, knocked him back to the sidewalk, where Tiger watched wide-eyed as his blood plopped onto his dirty sweatshirt. He made a rush to tackle Tim Pat from the ground, but Tim Pat was too quick for him. Tiger tried to stand again, but his knees wobbled, and Tim Pat fired two stiff left jabs to his forehead that put him back down. Tim Pat’s face was flushed, his freckles had disappeared into the red. It had all happened in less than a minute.
    Tim Pat said, “Get up and I’ll knock you down again.”
    Tiger stayed down. Other kids, all colors of kids, felt Tim Pat’s victory as their own, envied his scraped knuckles and swollen eye. Twenty-plus high-fives, even from girls. Tim Pat was on his toes. He was King of the Swings.
    Other kids had lost lunches to Tiger, and two of the bigger boys stepped in for their own revenge. They tried to kick him, but he managed to scuttle away. Dan and Earl saw it and raced over to shove the kickers away. Tiger slumped onto his side. Tears streaked his cheeks. Earl herded all the kids toward school.
    Earl said, “Go on, now, or I’ll tell Sister.”
    That was enough, and the crowd broke up. Tiger had never been so glad to see grown-ups.
    “Where’d you come from,