Moonshine for the Fighting Rooster

Excerpt from Chapter Three
Fighting Little David

“Moonshine is what makes a man do his very best fighting,” Skeeter told me as we ate our packed lunches alone. Before I got a chance to respond, Skeeter, getting more and more excited, said that using a little drop or two of moonshine would more than likely make a rooster win at fighting. He said, “It would make him kick like a mule and fly like an eagle.” He wanted to get another rooster, doctor it up with moonshine, and see if it could perform well in the cockfighting competition. I doubted the reasoning, but I agreed. Skeeter had prodded our motivation and ambition. He said he knew Badman had been cheating all along; he had over-heard some of the men talking.
Skeeter badly wanted a rooster that could beat Ugly Clyde at any cost. He was more bent on revenge than I was. He dealt with the loneliness by wagering a mental war against Badman and Ugly Clyde. The passion for success also controlled my mind. Our unchecked pride and hurt was beginning to show more and more. I hoped that the white lightning would give our fighter the courage and skill needed to win. This idea seemed like a go-for-broke scheme that might light our fire or at least give us a smidgen of success. We had a desperate need to save face and to get rid of the ever-present gnawing feeling that cut deep when people pointed in our direction and used the C word to describe us.