The Journey

“Driving back to Birmingham is a mistake Paul” James says to me, “can’t we be normal and just fly there man?” he continues.

“James listen if we are going to do this we need to go old school, and i mean everything not just the mental side of things, we need to train like we used to” i sigh.

“And how are we going to do that, Dan’s gym has been closed for 3 years, and i heard he sold it to someone like a year later” he comments as parts of the Somerset countryside fly past the window.

As i take a long look at the cars in front travelling at 70mph northbound on the M5 motorway i start to smile.

“And what are you smiling about?” James asks.

“Well i happen to know the gent in question who brought the gym” i reply as James looks seriously bewildered.

“Ok you got me who brought the damn place?” He asks again a smile slowly creeping across his face.

“I did” I chuckle.

“I god damn knew it, when Dan said he was selling up i offered him cash for it but he said he had already accepted an offer from someone in the gyms past, i just knew it would be you” James starts laughing at me.

“And whats so funny about me buying the Gym we spent our childhood training in huh?” i ask

“It’s you again being unable to let things go, seriously answer me one question” he states

“ok shoot what?” i ask

“Is this the reason for this last hurrah, something you’re not quite ready to let go without finishing? “ He asks smirking slightly.

“You’ve been talking to Lisa again haven’t you?” I ask.

“so what if i have, dude I’m your cousin, she’s your wife and we are both a little concerned about this, don’t get me wrong i think it’s been to long since the world was lit alight by our presence in the ring, but I never thought you’d go back to flaming tables, not after that god damn horror show in Port Huron.” He states.

“Dude that’s ancient history, it was 4 years ago, and it wasn’t that bad, Lisa blows it all out of proportion every time it’s mentioned, compared to some of the things we did back in the day, that was a scrape nothing more.” I say

“Yeah if you call a scrape not being able to walk for six months and having some serious burns to your arms, legs and back, Christ i’m still shocked your eyebrows stayed unburned.” He laughs

“Listen that’s the past, this is now, and we still have 2 issues, first is this ring rust hence this lovely little trip back to the homeland, back to where it all began, and second we need a local warm up match somewhere, and i don’t give a crap who it is.” I say

“And what type of match do you want?” he asks almost laughing

“what type do you think?” i retort smiling

“Extreme Rules Tag Team?” he laughs

“Yeah that sounds just about right” i smile as i turn up the music in the car and speed upthe motorway to my home away from home the squared circle.