RAGING BULL REIMAGINED

Jake LaMotta was a third-generation Italian immigrant named for his great uncle on his mother’s side, who was a famous boxer in the 1950s. He was born and raised in London, his family had an Italian restaurant in Soho and it was assumed that Jake would take over the running of it eventually. He had finished university a couple of years ago, and had not long returned from travelling. In fact, he had only been back two months and he was already eager to go somewhere else.

Jake was a self-confessed adrenaline junkie much to his nonna’s distress.

“Giacobbe! Why do you always want to kill yourself? You make me worried out of my skin!”

He loved his nonna she had always been a refuge for him when he would clash with his father, which had been often. Sal was a hard-working man and often accused Jake of being a dreamer. Perhaps he was, but this was no crime although you would think so to listen to Sal.

Jake knew that he only had another couple of years before he would be expected to settle down, get married and run the restaurant so his father could retire.

To all intents and purposes Jake appeared carefree and full of fun and he was; but there was one thing that weighed on his mind, It was a very great honour to be named for his uncle, but he felt he had nothing to contribute, nothing of note or worth to attach to the name and he felt he let the legacy of the name down. He wanted to do something to that would make his nonna and maybe even his father proud.

No one had been impressed with any of his feats up to this point. In fact, his father, who had been explaining to nonna about bungee jumping had said.

“He makes like a yoyo on an elastic string! Where’s the achievement in that?”

During his travels he had tried many different activities, snowboarding, sky diving, and he had even tried free-soloing but none of it seemed to amaze anyone except his 18 year old cousin Antonio.

He was chilling with Tony one evening going over his adventures.

“So where are you going next?”

“I’m not sure but I really want to something exciting and dangerous.”

“You could always go to Spain and run with the bulls, that’s dangerous, and they do it every year.”

Jake did some research and Tony was right, this was dangerous. The more he read the more he liked the idea, and he could not deny the sheer poetry of it. Jakes uncle, the famous boxer had a nickname ‘Raging Bull’, there was even a film about him starring Robert De Niro. So, for his namesake to do this challenge, well, it just seemed right. There were many different ‘bull runs’, but the most famous was the one in Pamplona during the Saint Fermin Festival in July. It was only February, plenty of time plan and prepare.

Jake found a chatroom online that was dedicated to participants of various bull runs, there were over fifty worldwide and Jake thought that this may just become his latest hobby. He had been chatting quite a lot to a girl with the username No-BS-3-6-9 which he thought was way cool. It seemed like she was into all sorts of dare devilment and a good banter between them was evolving the friendship. After talking to her for a couple of months they made plans to meet. Jake suggested by the Eros statue at Piccadilly Circus and Maisie (No-BS-3-6-9) called him a ‘cheese ball’ and agreed.

When they met up they talked as easily as they had online and after a few beers Jake started telling her about his uncle and why he wanted to do the bull run.

“Wow that’s amazing Jake! Dya know I think I saw that film when I was doing a project for uni.” (she had a degree in Media Studies)

“You know what we should do?”

“No, what?”

We should document it live on YouTube, it will go viral with your backstory about your uncle.”

“I’m not that good with the whole vloging thing.” Jake said nervously.

“Don’t worry I will take care of everything, I’ll borrow us a couple of GoPros and I’ll do all the talking, you just have to be there looking strong and fearless.”

Later that evening after Maisie had gone to see a man about a fish (whatever that meant!) Jake realised he was a bit smitten; he’d had a few girlfriends in the past but nothing serious. Maisie was so cool, the kind of woman who could accompany him in all his adventures, she was smart and funny and she knew all sorts of useful things about travelling and life it seemed.

They started meeting on a regular basis and even Sal thought Maisie was a ‘bright and intelligent young woman’, although Jake often felt awkward about his father’s comments, in this instance his heart swelled with pride.

Soon it was time to set off to Spain. Maisie decided to document the whole experience, from setting off at Stanstead Airport and all the places they stopped along the way.

Once they reached Pamplona, they spent a couple of days filming the whole encierro (the route of the run), both Jake and Maisie had brought white t-shirts and white jeans, a red scarf as a waistband and a red neckerchief, it was traditional garb for the run representing the beheading of Saint Fermin.

The morning of the run was a bright one, it was due to start at 8am; it was after 7 and the encierro was full of people milling around waiting to take up their places to watch the spectacle. Maisie was busy filming Jake doing goofy strong man poses and the atmosphere was electric.

Suddenly a steer entered the encierro with a wild look in its eye. There were shouts from the event staff, “Tener cuidado! Watch out!”

There was a small child crying, separated from its family and on the wrong side of the safety fence.

Jake went in to auto pilot and ran towards the steer, as he ran, he could see the animal was crazed with fear and heading for the crying child. He roared as he leapt and he grabbed the bull by the horns and held on tight, the beast was shocked but soon threw him off and he landed head first into the fence and was knocked out cold.

When he woke up he was in hospital and his head was throbbing, Maisie was at his side. “What time is it, is the kid OK?”

“Hey there Champ, its 6pm and yes he’s fine thanks to you, how are you feeling?”

“Like I’ve been hit by a train.”

He could hear a kerfuffle going on in the corridor, next thing, his father was there!

“Did you call him?”

“No.” Said Maisie.

Salvatore LaMotta burst into the room with tears in his eyes, he threw himself onto Jake,

“My Son! My Son! My Son!” he wailed hugging Jake tightly.

“Whoa Dad I’m fine.”

Sal wiped his eyes and addressed Maisie,

“Have you heard him? I’m fine…..nonsense this man is a hero!”

There were two things that made Jake do a double-take, one his dad had never called him a man before and two he was a hero? How did his dad know?

It transpired that Maisie had filmed the whole incident and broadcast it on YouTube live so the whole world knew.

Jake had sustained a nasty bump to the head and had to stay in hospital for another 24hrs. By the time he was discharged there was quite a lot of Press waiting outside the hospital, as well as the parents of the toddler who wanted to thank him, He felt a bit embarrassed by all the attention, he whispered to Maisie, “I’m sorry you missed the bull run”

“It’s OK we can do it next year.”

Jake was smiling, “There is going to be a next year?”

“You bet.” And she squeezed his arm.

Jake thought he couldn’t be any happier until he heard his dad talking to the Press.

“My Son is the bravest man I know; he is frightened of nothing! His mother and I are very proud of course.”

THE END