Title: Heaven From Hell
Featuring: Tchu
Date: summer
Location: here and there

“So, so you think you can tell” �" Pink Floyd



~The Children~
Late June or Early July




“Why are you and Mommy fighting?” Georgie Ward sat in front of a lopsided fort in the middle of the sandbox, her little hands trying desperately to catch the granules as they rolled down the sloped sides of her mountain.

Bending over at the waist, Matt reached down into his yard and picked up a small red bucket, tossing it into the sandbox where it’d be better put to good use. “We’re not fighting, pumpkin.”

“Mommy says you are.”

“Well,” He sighed. Of course Mary had told her they were fighting. “It’s grown-up stuff.”

“When are you gonna stop?”

“Sometimes when grown-ups start fighting, they don’t stop, Georgie.”

“Don’t you get tired?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s silly.”

“Yeah.”

While Matt rubbed the back of his neck, Hunter Ward pushed at the top of his big sister’s fort, sending it crashing over the side. As her face turned the same shade as the bucket, and her bottom lip jutted out, Hunter just giggled.

“Stop it, Hunter!” Georgie smacked at his hands to reprimand his actions. “That isn’t very nice. I’m trying hard to build this, you shouldn’t knock it all down.”

“Sowwy, Geowge.”

Matt chuckled at his son’s trouble with ‘R’s. That’s all he ever called his big sister. That or ‘Sissy’. When he and Mary had decided, gender-be-damned, that their first child would be named George (after Mary’s grandfather) they knew if it was a girl, they would always call her ‘Georgie’. And, really, everyone did, but �" Hunter �" he’d have no part of it. It was ‘George’, or in his case ‘Geowge’.

“It’s ok, bud.” With a soft pat on the back, she smiled at her brother. “I’ll build it back up again.”

Strangely, as his two kids started shifting handfuls of earth around, Matt thought that, there in that six-by-six sandbox, things sure seemed to make a lot of sense.





~Negotiations~
After the Big Announcement





“Matt, thanks for making the trip.” Lisa Tyler leaned over her desk and shook the hand of her Universal Champion as she forced a smile.

“No problem, Lisa.” Matt took a seat across from, at least for the next couple months, his fellow member of PRIME. “Don’t have a whole lot else going on. Gonna have a whole lot less by the end of the fall.”

“We all are.”

“To be honest, it kinda comes as a relief for a busted up old man like myself. My knees can’t take this anymore, heart doesn’t hardly want it anymore. Still, the way it’s happening, at the hands of that colossal prick �" kinda makes me sick to my stomach.”

“You’ve been here since 2005.”

“On and off, anyways.”

“That’s a long time for something to be a part of someone’s life. It’s that way for all of us. So when someone takes that away in the blink of an eye �"“

“I know all about losin’ stuff what seems like overnight.”

“Well, what’s done is done. Now, all we can do is make the best of things moving forward. Do something special with the time we have left.”

Matt leaned back in the chair and took a deep breath, looking around Lisa’s office. A variety of pictures peppered the walls, shots of BLT with different superstars from PRIME. Killean Sirrajin, Ignatius Lisieux, Kaiser Vashaun. There were classic moments in PRIME’s history, captured and framed �" Dual Halo winners, Colossus Champions with their hands raised in triumph. Years worth of memories from an entity that was about to go extinct.

“To be honest, Lisa, I really think Culture Shock is it for me. I’m bound to lose. I’ve got no knees, a metric ton of stress loaded on my shoulders. I can’t beat Jack unless it’s in the Halo, and Hessian is as talented, massive, and driven a wrestler as this company has ever seen. You really think he’s gonna let me go two up on him? No, I’d say odds are high I’m not walking out of Australia as champ. And at that point, I think it’s time for me to ride off into the sunset for good.”

“First of all, you shouldn’t sell yourself short. You were doing the same thing before the steel cell match with Hessian, and here you sit, the only ever 3-time Universal Champion in PRIME’s history.

“Sometimes you know when it’s time to take the ol’ dog out back and shoot ‘em.”

Lisa sighed.

“Secondly, Matt, we’re really hoping to make PRIME’s last run something special. And when you think special, you think Hall of Famer. You think 3-time Uni Champ, Dual Halo winner, Jewel in the Crown. You’re arguably the most accomplished wrestler to ever step foot in this company. We’d hate to see PRIME say farewell without one of its oldest and greatest superstars.”

“Oldest?”

“You know what I mean.”

“I just don’t feel like there’s anything worth hanging around for. I’m sick of Shakur’s shit. Christ only knows how much money I’ve made this company, how many arenas I’ve sold out, how many PPV buys I’ve garnered, how many t-shirts I’ve sold, how many accolades I’ve won. Why stick around and break my back for a cocksucker like Shakur? Why make him another dime on our way out the door?”

“For the fans.”

“I’ve been pretty selfless in this industry. I think I’d be forgiven if this one time I put my own considerations first.”

“We’ve got something we think we can line up that’s worth sticking around for, Matt. Something that could be that perfect way to go out.”

“It’d take a whole helluva lot to get me to stick around after Culture Shock. ‘Specially if I lose my title.”

Lisa leaned forward across her desk and folded her hands.

“The Board is well aware of that. As is Shakur. As am I.”

“So?”

“What if PRIME went out with its king,” Tyler extended a finger and pointed across her desk at the Universal Champion, just in case he was confused as to who that was, “face-to-face with the Queen?”





~The (Ex) Wife~
Late June or Early July





“I just don’t understand.”

“I wish I could explain it to you.” Matthew pointed to the computer screen of his laptop, then looked towards Mary. He could see in her eyes that she was fighting back tears. “You’ll have to fill out these two forms for the Dissolution of Marriage. And then there’s one or two others we just have to sign and date.”

“Ok.” Mary tried to steady her breathing. “Then what?”

“Once everything is filled out, they have to be notarized and all that good stuff. Then I’ll turn them in for filing, that takes a month or two from what I’ve read. We’ll have to appear in front of a judge together, basically swear that no one held a gun to our heads and made us do this, or forged our signatures, and then it all gets finalized and made official.”

“You make it sound so simple.”

“The process basically is. Lot simpler than a good ol’ fashioned mud-slinging divorce. Keeps the lawyers out of it.”

“And the decision that led to the process?”

“Not nearly so simple.” Matthew looked down at the ground, too ashamed to look at his wife. He didn’t even bother to lift his head as he spoke again. “I can’t thank you enough for going along with this.”

“Why fight it?”

“Cuz that’s what you want to do. That’s your right.”

“I don’t want to hurt you anymore. I just wish I understood how we got here. It all seems so sudden.”

“In a lot of ways, it is. But in some ways �" it isn’t.”

“I really believe we can work this out, Matthew. I still love you, and you say you still love me �"“

“I do. God, I do. It’s just not that simple. I’m hurtin’ right now. And I’m not in the best of places mentally or emotionally. My boss is a dickhead, my career is about to be over, I’m trying my damnedest to stay sober. Counting in months now, not days. And then there’s Dad’s health�"“

“All the more reason to be together. Let me help you with all that. Let me be someone to vent to, a shoulder to cry on, a �"“

“Not now. I know why you did the things you did Mary, and I know you never meant to hurt me or break me, but you packed up your bags, took the kids and left. Did I do a lot to deserve that? Yeah. But you left me, kinda when I needed you most. You weren’t supportive of my career, and �"“

“I wasn’t supportive of what you’re career was doing to you. I wasn’t supportive of the drinking and pills. I wasn’t supportive of you giving me your word and then going behind my back and breaking my trust! There’s a difference, Matthew!”

“I know.” Now he looked up, turned his glance to the laptop and closed it, gently pushing the screen down. “I just don’t want what you want right now. I just don’t have those same feelings. I’m a mess, and I know you think you can fix that, cuz you’ve always been able to fix everything in the past, but this one is on me. If it gets fixed, fantastic, who knows what opportunities that will open up for us, but I’m gonna have to be the one to fix it.”

“If you fix it.”

“I wish I could tell you it all straighten out in a month or in six months or in twelve, I just dunno. I only know that this is what’s best right now. This has to happen to make things better.”

“Can I ask you a question?” She wiped a tear from the corner of her eye, sucked the snot back into her runny nose.

“Yeah.”

“Are you happy?”

“No. Can’t say that I am.”

“Are you happier now than you were with me?”

“Happier than I was with you a couple years ago? Not even close. That was the happiest I’ve ever been in my life. I could never be happier than that.” Matthew couldn’t keep himself from cracking a smile.

“And this past year?”

“I’ve made a decision, Mary. A decision that sucks. It sucks for you, and frankly, it sucks in a lot of ways for me too. Just cuz I asked for the Dissolution doesn’t mean that this isn’t hitting me like a ton of bricks. I’m not sure this has made anything better. But its kept things from getting worse.”

“I just wonder if you know what you’re doing. Know where all this will lead.”

“No, I don’t know where it all will lead. Don’t know where many things will lead. Sometimes, you just have to make a decision and see where it takes you. But you just don’t get it. We stumbled and we fell.”

“And I want to pick us up and dust us off.”

“I know. It’s what makes you you. And believe it or not, there’s a big part of me that would be severely disappointed if you didn’t feel that way. But you can’t pick us up while we’re still falling.” Matthew reached down and pulled a flash-drive from the laptop. “Documents are on there. Take your time with ‘em.”

“Ok.”

She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his waist, squeezing him tight. He responded with the softest kiss he could muster, touching his lips to the top of her head. As she squeezed tighter, he thought about how much pain he was causing her, and he wondered if a pat on the back and a bucket of sand would make everything better.
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