Power of Two

(Quotations from the song "Power of Two", Written by Emily Saliers and performed by the Indigo Girls, will be sprinkled throughout the story. The song is copyrighted 1995 Godhap Music/Virgin Songs BMI. All rights reserved.)


"...Six of them, all lined up in a row." Proclaimed Andrew "Test" Martin to the entire WWF locker room.
"Six? Fuck, man, was that the best you could do?" Laughed Michael "P.S." Hayes, among the hordes listening to the kid talk.
"How many did you get in one night during your prime, old man?" Martin countered, drying his legs.
"15." The room came to a standstill, many of the locker room's patrons froze and turned to look at Hayes. "Back in the Freebirds, during the early '80's." He amended, tucking in his shirt.
"You Must've counted every rat you'd ever had, P.S." Chuckled Mick Foley as he laced his wrestling boots.
"Yeah, what'd you do, have a cattle call?" Asked Matt Hardy.

Hayes leaned forward, telling his tale in a semi-secretive voice that the entire locker room could still hear. Sean Waltman leaned in closer, always enjoying a good piece of gossip. But his real-life partner in crime, to his surprise, was not as eager in his need for dish.

Glancing over his shoulder, he noticed Paul Levesque leaning against the green and black-tiled walls, his wet hair splayed across them, stuck with steam His eyes stared evenly into space. Sean knew that, spiritually and mentally, his friend was far away. Sadness touched Sean's heart; nothing had been the same since Owen had died, and Paul had taken it roughly. Leaving the circle of gossip-mongers, her climbed over various discarded duffel bags and straddled a bench. Now at his friend's eye-level, he tapped Paul lightly on the shoulder.

Paul's shoulders jerked forward, his skin flinching beneath Sean's touch. His Cheshire eyes darted in recognition. "Geez, man," He growled.
"Geez yourself." Sean said, his voice in a merry tone Paul was used to, "Where's your head at?"
"It's right here." He said, picking at a scab on his knee.
Sean gave his friend a plain look, "Don't bullshit me, man."
Paul looked Sean straight in the eyes, "It's Joanie."
"Joanie?"
He met Sean's eyes again, "Her sister and her sister's husband rented a cabin in Vermont for the weekend, but at the last minute they pulled out. Joanie offered to take care of the place for them, so that they wouldn't be totally out of the money they paid for the place."
"She invited you to go with her?"
"Yeah."
"Without me?"
Paul laughed, "Of course!"
In a mocking voice, Sean echoed, "'Of Course.' I've been shepherding the two of you on dates for the past year now."
Paul winced, knowing the truth of that statement. He had developed feelings for her. Everyone knew it. Everyone also knew that he had been using Sean as a buffer between them. They would rent videos, or get a pizza, or go to a bar somewhere, and he would be the third wheel, the thing that prevented them from getting too intimate.
"So, Joanie wants to be ALONE with you?" Steve Austin intruded.
Paul turned his head, lazily glancing at Steve, "Yeah."
"Finally."
Paul shook his head, smirking, "It's not what you think, Austin."
"Hell yeah, it's what I think." Steve laughed, tugging up a kneepad. "You could've picked a better piece of ass, though. Jesus, did you see that chick panting after me last night in the bar? What the hell do you see in Joanie, anyway?"

Paul smiled wanly at Steve. Though his deepest urge was to simply punch him, he knew that Steve didn't see in Joanie what he saw. Steve's preference in women lay in the pillowy, squishy bosomy Barbie Doll -like variety. Paul's attractions were widely varied, scattered in various quirks and nooks in a woman's body and soul. Joanie had so much of what he seemed to need, though. Every time he saw her with a child, or tell a joke, he knew there was something different about her.

"Joanie is Joanie. That's all I can say about her."

A deliberately mysterious answer that fit her to a tee. Steve was already discussing his conquests with Sean. Vaguely, he turned an ear to them...something about sixteen girls in Malaysia...

But the primary difference between he and Steve and anyone else in the steamy, seedy locker room in which he sat was that his love life was a secret garden impenetrable by cheap talk.

If he ever conquered Joanie, he thought to himself, No other souls would ever know it.



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