"Jacob fought with God after a bad hip, then became Israel."
"Is that whom you are fighting with? You're not just fighting with me?"
"How did you learn to wrestle like that, Fidel?"
"For survival."
"I took up wrestling at Columbia."
"I fought many Columbian guys."
"You are a funny guy, Fidel."
"You think so? I want to get to know you better."
"Want me to set up an appointment?"
"Don't tell George."
"Is this professional or social, Fidel? You can't have it both ways."
"You looking for business or a friend or more?"
"You first."
"We aren't going to get anywhere unless you want to."
"I'm game, Fidel, and I don't just play the 'I'm the married man now and you can't see me.'"
"I can see a lot, Doc."
"What's that?"
"You too are desperate to be in love, to have woman as well as God and man."
"Is that so, Fidel?"
"You want it all, to be messiah too. Just like my father. Doc, if we come to you, poor disturbed sinners, will you give us the kiss of peace?"
George comes back into the room angry.
"Piss over, guys. What are you doing on the floor? This isn't a dance floor."
"Wrestling."
"You look injured, Robert."
"Fidel put up a good fight until he gave in."
"I gave in. That's a laugh. You guys come over to me. You all want Fidel, admit it. Admit it."
Fidel takes out a pistol and shoots it wildly into the air.
"Are you afraid of the noise or the neighbors, guys? I'm a top gun like my father in the hills."
"Put the gun away, Fidel. Are you that angry?"
"Sure I am, guys. You think I've had it easy?"
"We're all alienated, estranged and betrayed."
"Robert, take your psychobabble elsewhere. I want to live now. Fidel has made me want to live as his father once did."
"But he's the opposite of his father."
"Opposites attract and react, George."
"I don't know whether I want to fight or to just love both of you."
"We can do it all without any inhibitions, Roberto."
"But I'm not after exhibition-recognition like you, Fidel."
"Yes, we all are."
"You should have seen Fidel on the dance floor. All the guys, gals and drag queens went crazy over him. That was heaven."
All three wrestle with each other. The gun goes off three times.
B. Z. Niditch is a poet, playwright and teacher. His work appears in Anthology of Magazine Verse & Yearbook of American Poetry, Columbia: A Magazine of Poetry and Art, The Literary Review, Denver Quarterly, International Poetry Review, Hawaii Review, Prism International, France's Le Guepard, and the Czech Republic's Jejune. He will soon be featured in The New Novel Review. A new collection of his poetry, Crucifixion Times, has been published by University Editions.