CHAPTER 18
“Steve, honey, someone’s at the door for you.”
Steve rolled over and looked at his watch. It was two o’ clock. He had been asleep for four hours.
“Coming Mom,” he said. Who was here to see him? His friends all worked during the day.
Steve stood up and looked in the mirror. His hair was comical. His mouth tasted awful. A headache was brewing behind his eyes.
Wearing the sweats, T-shirt, and socks that had been on since mid-day yesterday, Steve left his room and headed to the stairs. The world wasn’t quite right. He was in the half-reality that always followed his mid-afternoon naps. He had to pee.
It was probably Sam Dawson, wondering if Steve would mow his lawn and trim his hedges for third world sweatshop wages. What excuse could he tell Sam that wouldn’t filter back to Mom and bite him in the ass? Maybe he just needed to tell Sam that he no longer wished to do yardwork. He was really busy with his web site.
At the bottom of the stairs, Steve saw that it wasn’t Sam Dawson. It was someone he didn’t know. And before he was ready, this someone, a young guy in an expensive suit, a slicker as his Grandpa would say, was approaching him, practically charging at him. Steve glanced over at his mom for help. Her face had a look of motherly fear, of powerlessness. And then, before a word was spoken, the slicker was shoving a paper at Steve. It was folded in three, ready to be put in an envelope. Steve took the paper.
“Steve Garcia, you have been served with a cease and desist order from the 8th circuit court of the state of Illinois,” the slicker said. “Good day.” And the slicker turned and walked out the still open front door.
Steve’s mother closed the door behind the intruder and turned to Steve.
“What was that all about?” she said in a mix of pity and anger.
Steve unfolded the paper.
“I don’t know,” he said. He headed into the living room area and took a seat on the sofa. As soon as his butt hit the cushion he was attacked by his yellow labrador.
“Not now Lady,” Steve said, pushing the dog away and getting a handful of slobber in the process.
Lady made a circle around the coffee table before squatting down at Steve’s feet. After wiping his hand on the armrest, Steve began reading the paper.
Court Ordered Injunction
The 8th Circuit Court of the State of Illinois hereby orders Steve Garcia, being a legal resident of Rosemont, Illinois, to cease and desist all libelous activity regarding the actions of the Family Television Group, Incorporated in the state of Vermont, L.L.C. This order includes but is not limited to all written communications on the website, “https://www.wrestlinghotline.com” posted on or before the date of this injunction.
The document had three signatures on it and a notarization.
“Looks like someone’s upset about the content on my web site,” Steve said.
“What did you put on your web site?” his mother asked, or better, accused.
“Lots of stuff. This is about my investigation of the Family Television Group.”
“Your investigation? What are you now? A journalist? Steve, maybe this is a sign that now’s a good time to quit horsing around and get a real job.”
Flames arose from deep in Steve’s beer-bellied gut. This was a never-ending sore spot; of course she’d use this as an opportunity to bring up her disdain for Steve’s career choice. Steve’s mother didn’t have the courage to ask Steve to move out and fend for himself, but she carefully piled on the guilt in doses large enough to make herself a martyr but small enough that Steve never changed. If only he’d quit this silliness, get a real job, move out of his mother’s house, get married, and live the normal life of a young adult – it was a constant undercurrent in their relationship, and it never ceased to irritate Steve that he had no choice but to deal with the guilt, since, after all, he was a twenty-four-year-old, perfectly capable, college-educated white male who lived with his parents because he chose not to work in any traditional sense.
“Mom, it’s not a big deal. I’ll handle this. Don’t worry about it.”
“It’s not a big deal? You just got served notice from a court of law Steve! You could go to jail!”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m not going to jail. I just need to call a lawyer and I’ll get everything straightened out.”
“Call a lawyer? Why do you need to call a lawyer? You just need to do whatever it is they’re asking. You don’t need to call a lawyer.”
“I can’t just do what they’re asking mom. They have no right to ask this.”
Steve’s mom looked at him like he had grown a second head.
“Steve, I can’t believe what you’re saying. You can’t fight these people. People like this will chew you up and spit you out.”
“Mom, you don’t even know who these people are.”
“I know enough to know what’s smart. They just served you papers.”
“Mom, do you even know what ‘served you papers’ means? I’m going to call a lawyer, if for nothing else, just to see what my rights are.”
“And how are you going to pay for a lawyer?”
Ouch. There was the rub. Steve hadn’t thought about that. Here was his mom telling him that he absolutely was not to call a lawyer, and here he was, apparently assuming she’d sign the check. Steve was so used to her providing money whenever he needed it that he had forgotten he needed her on his side.
“I’ll find a way,” he said. Now the game began.
“But you won’t find a way, Steve. You’ll call the first name in the yellow pages, you won’t know what you’re doing, he’ll keep you on the phone for an hour, you’ll be no better off than you are now, but you’ll have a bill for a thousand dollars that you can’t pay and I will have to bail you out.”
“I’ve got some money.”
“Steve, we’re not talking about this. I forbid you to contact a lawyer. You will do exactly what those papers say and that’s final.”
She couldn’t do that. He was twenty-four years old for Christ’s sake. He opened his mouth to express this opinion, but then realized she could do that. His website was maintained from a room that belonged to his mother, with an Internet account his mother paid for, on a computer his mother bought. Not to mention the fact that his mother paid for Steve to eat and be clothed. She had never used this arrangement to put Steve in his place, but the opportunity had always been there. Now his mom was calling in her favors.
“Can we talk about this again later, after I’ve had some time to research this?”
“Yes, we can and we will talk about this again later.” Her tone was now one of total frustration. The message beneath her voice was, ‘Where did I go wrong?’
Clutching the court document, Steve went upstairs. As he left his mother in the living room, he knew he was acting like a little kid throwing a temper tantrum. He was left with no choice. His mother had told him what to do, he didn’t want to do it, but he had to.
He stopped in the bathroom to take an overdue piss. The mirror caught him on the way in. He was wearing sweats and a ratty T-shirt. His hair was an unkempt mess. He was out of shape and had pasty skin. It was after two on a weekday afternoon and he hadn’t showered and was contemplating going back to bed. He had no job, no money, no girlfriend, no prospects, and his only ambition was to watch and write about professional wrestling.
Maybe his mom was right. Maybe this court order was a sign, a clear reminder that he had chosen the life of a loser.
He peed for at least a minute, flushed the toilet, and left the bathroom without washing his hands. He opened the door to his room and was hit with the smell, the stench, of dirty clothes, dirty sheets, and an unshowered man. Ignoring it all, he sat down at his computer and fired up his email. Two hundred and sixteen messages. He sorted them by subject line and immediately noticed a pattern.
“Joey and Jade”
“RE: Joey Mayhem Spends Night With Jade
Sleek”
“FW: Joey in Underwear After Romp With Jade”
Hundreds of messages with similar subject lines.
Steven opened his web browser and went to www.wrestlingdailytribune.com. The splash picture on the front page showed Joey Mayhem, wearing only white briefs, standing in a hallway with a look on his face like he’d just been caught.
The Internet is abuzz this afternoon with a new twist to add to the story of last night’s taping of GWA Burn. It seems that despite his disastrous World Title Match with Goliath, Joey Mayhem got lucky last night with the first woman of wrestling, Jade Sleek. More...
Steve clicked on the link to read the rest of the story on his competitor’s web site. The story began with a re-cap of last night’s wrestling action, then went to Houston General, where Joey and Jade were spotted and photographed together, then went to the Green Dragon coffeehouse, where Joey and Jade were photographed again, then to the Marriott hotel, where Joey was spotted entering Jade’s room and not exiting until morning, at which point he was photographed in his underwear.
Still not a mention of Goliath’s mysterious transfer to Houston Medical Center even though Steve had reported it nearly five hours ago. Either Steve had gotten some bad information or nobody cared about Goliath’s hospital transfer. He suspected the latter based on the number of Joey/Jade emails in his box.
Oh well, all the better. Per his publicly stated policy, Steve paid little attention to gossipy stories like this one. Chandler Dresby and his minions at Wrestlingdailytribune.com could have Joey and Jade’s romance all to themselves. Steve’s little visit from the Illinois Circuit Court this morning was proof that he was onto something much bigger.
Finishing up the story on Joey and Jade, Steve went back to his own web site. He did a search for stories currently posted that referenced the Family Television Group. References to the FTG in his last three columns, a feature story on the history of the FTG, a long-winded opinion column about the hypocrisy of the FTG’s morals, and of course, the Andrew Smith pages.
Steve realized he couldn’t just take all of this down without raising a maelstrom in the Internet Wrestling Community. And he didn’t want to post anything describing the court order he just received, lest he unknowingly say something in violation of his order.
What he needed was for someone else to spread the word for him.
He opened a new email message.
To:
[email protected] From:
[email protected] Chandler,
Hey. What’s up?
Thought you might be interested to hear. The FTG just put a gag order on me. I’m not allowed to mention them on my web site at all. Seeing as how I have no money to get a lawyer, I have no choice but to do what they say. So, I guess it’s up to you guys to keep the fight alive. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help. I’d love to expose these goons for the hypocrites that they are.
Later.
Steve
He clicked Send. Chandler would read that message and weep. Wrestlingdailytribune loved that Steve had decided to take on the FTG in an all-out Internet crusade. The topic was boring for a lot of wrestling fans, and Steve’s traffic had decreased as a result. Chandler Dresby had authored an editorial, claiming, among other things, that Steve had an overinflated sense of importance for thinking he stood a chance of making a difference in the GWA’s fight with the FTG. He’d gone on to say that Steve should leave well enough alone, that maybe the FTG had a point. After all, didn’t most Internet wrestling fans hate the way women were treated on Burn anyway? Wouldn’t most Internet wrestling fans like to see the GWA go back to a pure wrestling show, without all the crap that the FTG railed on in the first place?
Steve had declined to dignify that editorial with a response, but no doubt there would be another. Chandler had probably just finished reading the email, and was already drafting an “I-told-you-so” editorial about Wrestlinghotline’s failed attempt to take on the FTG.
And that would be just fine.
Steve began the arduous and slightly heartbreaking process of taking down all the references to the FTG from his web site. An hour later, Wrestlinghotline.com was FTG free.
Not that this was over. He opened another email message and addressed it to “Anti-FTG” an address list of his six most loyal supporters in the campaign.
To: Anti-FTG
From:
[email protected] Hey guys.
As you are sure to hear soon on Wrestlingdailytribune, this morning I was served with a court order to cease and desist all my ranting on the Family Television Group from my web site. As such, you’ll notice that all the FTG stuff is now gone.
Before you guys get all belligerent on me for caving so easy, just hear me out. This is not bad news. The campaign’s started, and it doesn’t have to stop. There are enough of us to keep this thing going without me ranting all over the web. The fact that the FTG has taken such a keen interest in what we’re doing is the most exciting thing that’s ever happened to Wrestlinghotline. It’s proof that they have something to hide.
So, I need you all to help. Someone else needs to spearhead the information campaign, as I am now legally restricted. Set up anonymous web sites, post on bulletin boards, do whatever you can do.
We can do this. We have to do this. What happened to me today is proof that we have the power to do this!
Call me for more info. I’m totally stoked about what we’re onto here.
Peace,
Steve
He clicked send and stood up. It was time for a shower. Maybe after his shower he’d go downstairs and make peace with his mom. She’d be happy to hear that he was doing just what the court order requested.