The show went on.
After three events, Chad was tied with Wade Brubaker and a talented local yokel, Buck Skinner. The stud-wrestling event had separated the wheat from the chaff, the beef from the gristle. Chad and the other two cowboys had brought their stockmen down in near-record times, pinning them c**k-to-c**k, and then pumping; much to the pleasure of competitors and crowd alike.
It came down to the man-roping competition, where both speed and talent were required, points awarded subjectively and tellingly.
Chad watched Buck waste too much time chasing down and swinging the velvet lasso around his stockman’s chest, then knotting the man up way too simply in his panic to make up for lost time. The small, wiry African-American was all-but eliminated.
But Chad, like the crowd, had to
