Keeping It in the Family (Linstead)

Chapter 136

Jay and Erin had gone without Clementine on their trip to the wrestling school. They wanted to see it for themselves and have a talk with the owner before agreeing to book any lessons, and they didn't need Clem there getting her hopes up if it wasn't going to work out.

Price was one of the main things that needed to be discussed. Erin's upcoming promotion would give them a little more financial wriggle room, but they had a lot of debt to pay off. They couldn't go spending a fortune that they didn't have on wrestling lessons, no matter how much Clem wanted to do it.

"Uh, I think this is the place," Jay said, pulling his car into a small parking lot. There were several cars there, leaving only a couple of spots open. He backed into one of them.

"Yes, this is it," Erin said doubtfully, looking through the windshield at the building. It had a black steel roller shutter door with a regular door beside it. Above the shutter door was a sign with 'JWS' in big letters, and underneath that 'Jordan's Wrestling School' in smaller letters.

"Doesn't look like much, does it?"

"No, but Michael spoke highly of it."

Michael Acevedo was that father of Clementine's friend Ruth. They were to drop his name to Jason Jordan, the owner of the wrestling school. Michael had said he would call ahead and call in a favour, for Erin and Jay to be looked after. Often in life, it wasn't what you knew but who you knew. Jay was more than willing to take advantage of that if the opportunity was there.

"Let's go in then, and see what there is to see," he said.

"Jesus Christ," Erin said as they got out of the car and the cold hit her. Chicago winters could be vicious. It was only just December, yet the temperatures were regularly well below freezing.

"Yep. Let's hope they have it warm in there."

They hurried over to the building's entrance door and Jay pushed the door open. They discovered that it opened right into a fairly small warehouse-style unit. There was were some gym mats on the floor at the end closest to the doors. At the back end there was a single wrestling ring. There were two doors back there marked 'Office' and 'Locker Room'. None of the kit looked new.

"At least it's warmer than outside," Jay muttered. His first impression wasn't great. He didn't particularly want Clem training in a dump. But Michael had spoken highly of the place. Jay reminded himself that the quality of the training was what mattered, not whether the equipment was brand new.

There were three well-built men standing around the ring, and another three in it. Two of them were wrestling, while a third shouted instructions. Jason Jordan, Jay realised. He was looking at a black man with a very impressive physique. He looked to be around forty.

"Looks like we might be interrupting," Erin said quietly as they walked over to the ring. "We may have to wait until the class is over."

Jordan noticed them coming over. "Jay and Erin?" he guessed, calling out to them.

"That's right," Jay replied.

"Give me ten minutes to finish this session, then I'll be with you."

"Take your time," Jay said.

"You can take a seat over there if you like." Jordan pointed to two wooden benches off to one side of the ring.

Jay led Erin over there, and they sat down to watch up close what Clementine wanted to get herself into. Neither of them had seen wrestling in person, as WWE had only been to Chicago once since Clem had been into it, and she had ended up going to see it with Michael and Ruth that night.

One of the competitors picked up his opponent and slammed him back first to the mat from nearly head height. The crash of the impact took them both by surprise. Jay had the idea in his mind that the landings in wrestling had to be pretty soft because they didn't really hurt each other, did they? Now it seemed that his preconception was wrong.