The Summer of Ruffled Feathers (continued)
   By ALEJANDRO GUERRERO

The trouble started when one of the four teams on the second day didn’t show.

Since someone had to step in for these fights, we decided to buy a team of four and get in on the action. They were kind of mangy and didn’t cost us so much.

But the show had to go on… and anyway, we weren’t going to gamble on our cocks. Ten seconds later, our first cock bit the dust, head cleanly sliced off.

  Little did we know that it is tradition for the owners to bet $500 (USD) on every fight their cocks are in, meaning we had just lost $500… and we had three more fights to go.

   If you’re wondering what happens when you loose money at a cockfight and don’t have the funds to pay up, you are thinking exactly what I was thinking. The team owners were the meanest hombres in the joint and I wasn’t eager to find out the answer to that question.

The second fight was lost again in seconds… $1000 down, but this time there was turmoil in the crowd. Some people were upset that they had lost money on this fight and claimed that the blades on our rooster were not properly attached.

   A fight broke out, a few holsters were shown, but our ten strong police force showed their faces, busted some heads and threw out some scoundrels so the show continued.

Suffice it to say, it was a good thing we had the police on the payroll. In the absence of instant replay of the fight,  and with the evidence of foul play  creating a bloody mess in the middle of the ring, we had no choice but to continue. Luckily, the third fight was better matched, and we won.

  The fourth was a sad defeat in a mere three seconds, but through a back room deal we placed some disguised bets against our own mangy little rooster, meaning we broke even.

When it was all said and done, I had 500 pesos in my pocket (50 bucks). Hardly a profitable venture, but I will never forget the summer of shady characters and ruffled feathers.