Turn 141 of 226

Both of us are now 9'4" and 1120 pounds. I join the next tournament. with 8192 fighters and a prize of $1.6 million dollars. I win very easily. Diane and I celebrate like animals, with food, pissing and sex

The measuring is the thing the bodies do every morning. The tape reads 9'4". The scale reads 1,120. The numbers are the same on both bodies — the bodies that are the same body twice, the bodies that grow at the same rate, the bodies that are the wish's single project. The body writes the numbers in the legal pad. The legal pad is the thing that is filling. The pages are the things that hold the growth log and the training log and the tournament record. The record is the thing that is 53-0. The record is about to change. Not the zero. The fifty-three.

The tournament is the thing the body enters alone. The bracket is 8,192 fighters — the bracket that is smaller than the 40,768 brackets the body has been clearing. The bracket is smaller because the tier is higher. The 8,192 are the things that are left. The fighters who have cleared the 40,768 brackets. The fighters who have earned the right to be in the smaller pool. The prize is the thing that is $1.6 million. The prize is the thing that is double the previous prize. The body does not think about the prize. The body thinks about the fighting.

The fighting is the thing that is easy. The easy is the thing the body has not experienced. The body has won fifty-three fights and every fight was the thing that required work. The work is the thing the body is built for. The work is the thing the body expects. The first round is the thing that is not work. The opponent is 7'4" and 480 pounds — the opponent who is large, the opponent who is skilled, the opponent who is not the body. The body's jab is the thing that lands and the landing is the thing that the opponent does not see. The jab is the angle the warehouse produced — the angle that only works against Diane and the angle that works against everyone because everyone is not Diane. The cross follows. The opponent drops. The dropping is the thing that takes four seconds. Four seconds is the thing the body has never needed.

The rounds pass. The passing is the thing that is the procession — the body entering the ring and the body leaving the ring and the entering and leaving being the things that happen quickly. The opponents are the things that are not Diane. The not-Diane is the thing the body recognizes now. The not-Diane is the thing that is slower, the thing that is weaker, the thing that does not have the angle, the thing that does not have the ground game, the thing that does not have the eleven conditioning rounds. The body finishes every opponent in the first round. The first-round finishes are the things that are the statements. The bracket narrows. The narrowing is the thing that is the body walking through. The walking through is the thing that is the ease. The ease is the thing that is the difference between the body and everyone else. The difference is the thing that is Diane. Diane is the thing that made the body this. The body is the thing that made Diane this. The making is the thing that is mutual.

The final is the thing that is the thirteenth fight. The opponent is the thing the body recognizes — a fighter from the 40,768 circuit, a fighter the body has finished before. The fighter's face is the thing that shows the recognition. The recognition is the thing that is the fear. The body does not want the fear. The body wants the fight. The body gives the fighter the fight — three exchanges, the exchanges that are the things the body uses to test. The fighter's responses are the things the body reads. The reading is the thing that is instant. The body finishes the fighter with the combination — the jab-cross-body shot-uppercut-cross-knee-elbow sequence that is seven of the nine hits. The high kick is not needed. The fighter drops. The referee stops it. The $1.6 million is the thing that goes into the account. The body walks out of the warehouse. The walking is the thing that is the walk home.

The celebration is the thing the body brings back to the lot. Diane is on the concrete. The food is the thing the body ordered on the way — the delivery that is the forty pounds of brisket and rice and bread, the food that is the fuel for the celebration and the fuel for the growth. The bodies sit on the concrete and the sitting is the thing that is the eating. The eating is the animal's eating — the hands in the meat, the tearing, the chewing that does not stop between bites. The grease is the thing on the body's hands and the body's face and the concrete. The pissing is the thing that follows the eating — the streams that are the things the bodies release where the bodies sit. The ammonia is the thing that rises into the open air. The sex is the thing that follows the pissing — the grinding that is the bodies on the concrete, the hands and the mouths and the wetness. The orgasms are the things that come — the things that are the full-body convulsions, the 1,120 pounds in motion, the shaking that is the foundry wall vibrating. The bodies do not stop. The bodies do not want to stop. The bodies are the animals. The animals are the things that celebrate. The celebration is the thing that is the sky above and the concrete below and the bodies between. The between is the thing that is home.