Disclaimers: Don’t own the WWFE characters but I own the Kat character and the intellectual idea behind this.
Distribution: Mirrors of Reality, Flights of Fancy and WWF_DivaSlash.
Notes: The idea’s been trotting around my brain for a while now and I had to put it down on paper.
I have it good. I seriously have it good. Have you seen my girlfriend? She’s fucking gorgeous! And she’s smart and she loves me. And… you see those two cuties in the ring? Christian and Jeff? On occasion, I get to fuck them too and damn! Not bad for a formerly French-speaking nerd from Montreal, you know?
Yeah, I figure I lucked out. Specially now since Sports Illustrated wants me to do a pictorial on what really goes on backstage at the WWFE. It’s fun. Everyone’s always making faces for the shots but that’s not really what I’m after. I’m going for the exhausted looks on Tuesday nights before everyone heads home until the Saturday house shows and for looks on everyone’s faces right before the shows, for the broken bodies that straighten up and look injury-free right before heading out to see the fans.
I’m excited about life and… can you keep a secret? I got her a ring. Shhhhhhhh!!! Matt helped me pick it out. It’s nothing much but I don’t know. We’ve been together for about eight months now, we live together and it just feels right… like her song… go figure. I don’t want a commitment ceremony or anything, I just… you know, want something for her and me, a bond of some kind. God, I’m a sap, aren’t I?
“There’s a new club in town,” Jeff says, coming to sit next to me, “and…”
“Not tonight,” I tell him with a secret smile.
“Oh, you want to skip the preliminaries and just get to the good stuff?”
“No, I want to spend an evening at home with my girlfriend. Alone.”
“So what are Jason and I going to do?”
“Don’t know, don’t care.”
“Now that’s cold.”
“I’m sorry baby but tonight’s special.”
“Special huh?” Jeff wriggles his eyebrows suggestively. “Can I get details?”
“No.”
“Please?”
“No.”
“Pretty please?” he pouts prettily as he puts his head down on my shoulder.
“Get away from me.”
“Jeff,” Matt says as he comes over, “you bugging the pretty lady?”
“No, just Kat.”
“Ignore him,” Matt says. “Tonight?” he asks me.
“Yeah.”
“You nervous?”
“No.”
“You lying?”
“Yes.”
“He knows what’s going on tonight?” Jeff asks.
“Yeah and you’re keeping your mouth shut about tonight.”
“But what is going on tonight?”
“Nothing as far as you know, all right?”
“But I don’t know anything!”
“And that’s the way I like it,” I tell Jeff while Matt drags him away.
RAW’s almost over. I’m done and I’m just waiting for Amy. She’s in the main event! I’m so proud of her. I’m putting her things away so that when she comes in, all she has to do is clean up and go. I love it when we have shows at home in Miami. I get to sleep at home with my baby in my arms and nothing gets better than…
RING! RING! RING!
My cell phone. Who would be calling me at…
“Hello?”
“Kat?”
“Yes. Who’s this?”
“Mr. Anders.”
My next-door neighbor. He’s a nice guy and his daughter waters my plants when I’m on the road in exchange for a few WWF tee-shirts. It’s a sweet deal.
“Mr. Anders, what can I do for you?”
“Kat, you need to come home as soon as possible.”
“Well, I’m just waiting for the show to end. I’m waiting for Amy.”
“You need to come home now.”
“Can’t this wait a few minutes?”
“No. something happened at the house.”
“What? Is Tracy…”
“She’s all right. But come home. Right now.”
“Fine.”
I don’t know what’s going on but it must be big. Really big.”
I’m on my way home. I asked Matt and Nora to drive Amy back to my place because I had to get there a.s.a.p. and I still don’t get… what the fuck? Why are the cops blocking off my street.
“Excuse me ma’am,” one of them asks me, “but traffic is restricted to residents.”
“I do live here. My name Kat James. I like at 178. What’s going?”
“I’m going to have to see some ID please ma’am.”
“Sure.” I hand him my driver’s license and finally he hands it back to me.
“Go on Ms. James, but drive slowly.”
I drive slowly around the bend and the sight before makes my blood run cold. Black paint is nothing compared to this. Some fucking yahoo decided to burn a cross on my condo’s tiny front lawn.
I'm in shock... I don't think... I can't think but my mind's going a mile a minute. Who? Well, I know who, or what, is responsible for this but still, this... You know you live in Canada, raised in a pretty suburb, the one Black family in a sea of White people and you feel some racism. They call you names and you run home to Mom and Dad and they build up your self-esteem and you truly believe that it's their loss, not yours. And when you get to high school and college, you finally meet smart people who see the real you, the one who's colorless and just has this great sense of humor, and maybe, just maybe, this might be the end to racism.
And then I keep on meeting all of these great people who see me for me, not for my color and my belief in humanity improves. But it's not always this nice. There are idiots out there too! I hear the 'damn nigga' people say every once in a while. But I let it go. Not everyone can be smart, you know?
But in my line of work, the people I met were mostly cool so I forgot about those that were not so cool. But this, getting a burning cross on my front
lawn? I have trouble dealing with that... a lot of trouble.
This shit doesn't happen to me. I'm Canadian. I'm untouchable. I come from a nation of tolerance. This isn't right, it's just... WRONG!
"Miss James?"
I blink through angry tears and look at the cop in front of me, "Yeah."
"I'm Captain Lewis. Are you all right?"
"I'll be fine. Did they break into the house?"
"No. But if you have keys, we'd like to make sure everything is secure."
"Thank you," I whisper as I hand him the keys. "Do you have any ideas of who could have done this?"
"A few, but nothing concrete at this time."
"I see."
"Is there somewhere you can stay tonight?"
“I will not let them chase me out of my house with their hatred,” I tell him firmly. “I do have a place to sleep tonight and it’s…”
“Kat! Baby!”
I turn around and barely manage to catch Amy in my arms as she flies at me. I feel her tears soak my tee-shirt and it comes to me. I haven’t cried. I must really be in shock.
“I’m okay,” I reassure her as I look at Nora and Matt over her shoulder.
Their fingers are linked together and I can tell how frightened they are as they stare at the cross the fire department is dousing with a fire retardant compound that’ll save any evidence about what was used to start the fire. This stuff happens in movies, not in your friends’ lives.
“Captain Lewis, this is my girlfriend, Amy Dumas and our friends, Matthew Hardy and Nora Greenwald.”
“Glad to meet you all. And I hope you’ll help me convince your friend here that she might not want to spend the night here tonight.”
“This is my home…”
“Our home,” Amy corrects me, “and baby, tonight, I’d rather get a room. We’ll come back in the morning and settle everything.”
“But if we leave, they win.”
“Baby, they win if we don’t come back. We are going to come back.”
By the time we get to the hotel, I’m angry. I mean, really, really angry. Like someone has to be seriously hurt kind of angry, you know? These rat bastards are so lucky I wasn’t home when they light their cross because let me tell you, I would have fucked them up. They burned a cross on my lawn! Thank God I can’t get my hands on a weapon because they’d be dead fuckers right now.
“Kat!”
I look up and see Vince and Linda standing in front of me. Where? God, this is me when I’m angry. I get so focused on revenge than I block out everything else. Looks like Amy got us signed in and into a room and I barely noticed any of it.
“Yes. I’m sorry. I was kind of lost there…”
“I can imagine. Are you all right dear?” Linda asks me.
“I’m fine. I think.”
“Good. But Katia, this raises the issue of your safety. We are quite worried about yours and Amy’s, of course.”
“I understand. And we’ll be careful.”
“Well, the two of you are important members of our roster and as of now, you won’t be traveling alone anymore. We’ll hire security to travel with you at all times.”
“And invade our privacy? The last thing I want is have to check with a big guy named Rod if I can go to the bathroom!”
“Honey…” Amy whispers as she sits down next to me.
“What?”
“It’s for our safety.”
I look at her and I finally nod. I have to keep her safe. The ring I was going to give her is still in my purse but I know that I can’t give it to her until I know she’s safe. But I don’t know how safe she’s going to be if she stays with me, if she’ll ever be safe with me.