Kickdrum Beating in My Chest Again (Alternate Version)

Chapter 53

Chapter 53

******Trigger Warning for Mentions of Drug Use, Graphic Violence, and Rape******

Dan is already out in the yard talking to some friends when Joe gets there. He sees Joe and excuses himself from his friends to go meet up with him.

"Hey Joe! Over here!" He yells and waves his hands in the air.

"Hey Dan! What's up?" Joe asks.

"Follow me for a minute." Dan says as he walks back over to his friends.

"Guys, this is my friend Joe. We work together." Dan tells everyone.

Dan's friends look Joe over from head to toe before they smile at him and accept him into their group.

"Hello Joe. I'm Phil. That is Mel, Randy, Bob, and Jason." Phil says as he points to each person when naming them.

"Hey. How do you all know Dan?" Joe asks.

"We are all on the same cell block, so we see and talk to each other a lot." Mel answers.

"Ah. Ok. That makes sense." Joe replies.

"Wait a minute. Aren't you that former Championship boxer and MMA fighter? You look so familiar." Bob asks.

Joe is a little taken aback. He's never actually run into anyone who knows about his life on the outside.

"Yeah. That's me. I don't talk about it too much because I like it when people underestimate me. Please don't tell anyone. I'd really like to keep that a secret." Joe responds.

"I remember hearing about you on the news and I followed your story because I really felt for you. You were dealt a terrible hand, man. I'm sorry and I won't tell anyone you don't want to know. I promise." Bob said.

"Why have I never heard about this?" Dan asks.

"Well, because you never asked. The short version of the story is that my daughter was kidnapped by a bad man who tried to extort money from me for her safe return. When I told him I didn't have the amount of money he wanted, he told me that my upcoming competitor had a necklace that was worth the amount of money he wanted. He told me I had to steal it from my competitor, Fabio Garabaldi, and that I had to win that match if I ever wanted to see my daughter again, so I did it. I stole his necklace and fought him hard in the ring. I kept trying to knock him out, but he kept getting back up no matter what I did. As the end was approaching, I knew I had to win to get my daughter back so, I gave him everything I had and knocked him down and he finally stayed down. I rushed out of there as fast as I could to make the rendezvous with the man who had my daughter to give him the necklace. I gave him the necklace and he gave me my daughter back. I found out later that Garabaldi had died in the ring after I knocked him out. They revived him for a short time, but it turned out he had so much brain damage that he could barely function and ended up dying from his injuries. I had no idea and I felt terrible about it. It explained why he kept getting back up though, because his brain was so scrambled that he couldn't think straight.

I took my daughter home, hired security for my family, and passed out on the couch watching the news. The next morning there was a huge public outcry about the fight. They said I intentionally killed him which wasn't true at all. It was totally an accident! The public sided with Garabaldi's family and were demanding that I be arrested and charged with murder. The cops showed up at my door three weeks later and arrested me. I told them everything that had happened, and they seemed to believe me, but Garibaldi's family was out for blood, and I ended up on trial for involuntary manslaughter. When they put me on the stand, I told them everything. Garibaldi's family wasn't the least bit moved by my story. In fact, their lawyer tried to discredit my story and made me out to be this unemotional monster. While it seemed like a simple case of justifiable theft and accidental death, that was not what happened. The jury found me guilty of involuntary manslaughter and I was sentenced to fifteen years in prison without the possibility of parole. Garibaldi's family had very deep pockets and were not above buying the judge and jury to make sure I went down for this. I had no proof, so my lawyer couldn't ask for a mistrial. Besides, if I had been granted a mistrial, their lawyer would've done the same thing again. They would try to discredit my story and make me out to be this unemotional monster again." Joe explains.