Chapter 46: Martial arts pays off

Derek stood on a mat in the center of the patio. He wore a traditional white gi, with white slippers. Around his waist he wore a black belt tied in a special knot. On the black belt were three embroidered braids, also black, indicating he had achieved the highest dan in at least one of the martial arts he’d been schooled in at the nearby dojo. From time to time, he would flow into a new position of the Tai Chi, the ancient Chinese martial arts discipline with highly prescribed moves. The clothing amplified his steps and the smooth fluid nature of his moves, particularly as he transitioned from one move to another.

Nearby on four other mats Kyle, Mike, Ellie, and Tina repeated his moves as close as they could. While they wore the gis, none of them wore a belt. Derek was more practiced and smooth, however, his acolytes were skilled and fluid enough in the moves to prove they were not novices.

The five had been meeting three mornings a week before breakfast for an hour for almost a year. When the weather was inclement they would take over the exercise room in the basement or the lounge. In good weather, such as that day, they used the patio near the pool.

Off to the side, Derek had some soothing Native American flute music playing from his iPhone through a small Bose speaker that had amazing sound quality. Although anachronistic – the Oriental martial arts moves and the music from a different country and different era – the two seemed to harmonize together for those participating in the morning drills.

Also off to one side, the reality TV cameras filmed the workout session. Darrell was on duty, and particularly liked this filming because of the light, and the selection of music. This would play well when edited into the one-hour TV show.

Dr. Slarinsky came out of the house with a cup of coffee wearing a robe that barely covered her obviously naked body. Despite having finished her interviews with everyone weeks earlier, she lived at the house most of the time and had become a permanent part of The Circle. She watched the last of the exercises, even familiar with the steps they went through. Despite carrying the liquid, she made some smooth moves of her own emulating the others.

Derek whispered a few words to the other four standing on their mats. In unison, they each bowed to their colleagues in the exercise, stooped, and rolled up their mats. Except for Derek the others went into the house to get ready for work or breakfast.

Jess came up to Derek, “I’ve watched you do this before. You are really good.”

Derek blushed slightly, “I wish you’d join us. I’ve been doing some form of martial arts since I was eight years old. This was my own brand of Tai Chi, but really I have been trying to maintain my aikido.”

“Aikido?”

Derek smiled, “It’s roots are Japanese, but probably go back to ancient China. Although it is martial training, it is philosophically about reconciliation and universal peace. Peace through strength; strength through practice; practice through harmony; harmony through alignment with the Universe. I have a black belt in the practice from a dojo in the City.” He gestured to his belt.

Jess looked surprised, “I had no idea you had these skills. You never mentioned this in your interview.”

“I don’t advertise it. I do have a small tattoo emphasizing the ki – the kanji symbol that represents the combined characteristics of the martial discipline and the philosophy of peace through strength.” Derek pulled up one leg of his gi, showing her his calf.

He continued as he led Jess into the kitchen, “In aikido you often use the motions of your opponents against them. For instance, if they rush at you, you help them go right on by, perhaps with a well-placed chop or kick. Much of my training was about leverage.”

Jess reached over and felt the muscles of the young man through his white suit. “Oh, wow! You have some hard muscles in there.”

“I place great emphasis on staying in shape. Some strength is required in all of the arts.”

“Are you teaching the others?”

“Not really. We use the mornings to stretch and meditate with Tai Chi as a base. This is my own variety since I have trouble remembering some of the sequences, so sometimes I’m making it up as I go along. They know, but don’t care about the precision often insisted on by some dojos. My dojo would have a fit if they saw what we were doing. The others have all had some training in their past. In this case, we are seeking harmony with the Universe before we start our day.”

Nathan rushed through the kitchen, but stopped when he saw Jess. He came over and kissed her. “Thank you for spending the night with me. You made me feel very loved.”

Jess held the handsome man, “Oh, the feeling is very mutual and I do love you. You are one of the best cuddlers I know, and that’s a high compliment in my book. We’ll do it again sometime soon.”

After another kiss, Nathan bolted out the door headed for his job. More than some of the others, Nathan had suffered a setback at work when the nature of his living arrangement had first been revealed in the press years earlier. Since then, particularly with the TV show, he’d become a celebrity and his company had reversed its position, and now seemed to appreciate his worth. He’d even had a promotion to the nearby field office, and now didn’t have to prowl the various auto body shops as he had in the past.

As Derek went off to change and then go to work, Jess headed into the lounge area where she’d taken over one of the tables to work on her article about polyamorous life in The Circle. The detailed outline of the article was done, and she was now filling in the details.

Jess had identified several personality traits that she thought contributed to the high willingness to participate in The Circle – and the Circle’s success. Her interview with Stacy had ‘popped’ her thinking about this approach to the paper that was now tentatively entitled ‘General traits for people in polyamorous group situations.’ She was sure she could also write several more scholarly papers based on all the data she’d collected.

Jess had spent a week writing and rewriting the section on ‘sexuality.’ She had sounded too enthusiastic about the trait in her draft, especially the high frequency of sexual interactions and the variety of situations, obviously reflecting her own attitude and experiences within The Circle on the subject. Not objective enough, she later thought; rewrite required.

She planned to write the section on ‘loneliness avoidance’ that day, and maybe get a start on another section she called ‘New Family Values.’ One other thing that several of The Circle members had called to her attention was that almost no one of them felt they needed to be married for completeness or as recognition of adulthood. Other authors had called this low marriage centrality; she’d work that observation into her work too, plus it would give her an opportunity to quote yet another learned journal.

Earlier she’d written a couple of thousand words about how The Circle treated jealousy, and introduced the concept of compersion to the readers of the erudite paper in a whole section by that title. She’d have to edit that piece when she moved it into the main body of the report.

Each of The Circle members also flouted societal expectations about couplehood. In all her interviews, not one person had expressed a desire for a relationship with only one other person of the opposite sex. To the contrary, monogamy and exclusivity were almost not welcome here, and with the advent of the reality TV show, the group was open about their feelings. Alice and Matt just had returned from the Boston area where they were coaching some of the TV-show fans about starting their own group; they planned to do this in other geographies too.

The Circle too had displayed a nearly wanton disregard for the paternity of the children. The concept of ‘universal paternity’ was adopted by all the men, and there were even ‘universal grandmothers.’ One woman, Tracy, unable to birth her own children after a tragic plane crash injured her. She called herself a ‘universal mother,’ and indeed when she was at the house, she cared for the children just as though they were her own.

Jess pondered her list and added a few more: communications, true equality between Circle members, and open-mindedness. She had a lot to say about each of those, and it would give her the opportunity to emphasize the tolerance when Marlene and Tina, ex-porn queens, had joined the group. Heck, it was more than tolerance, it was enthusiasm; ergo refer back to the section on rampant sexuality.

She had another on the list, but wasn’t sure how to portray it. Everyone in The Circle freely gave of themselves and their wealth. For instance, when Matt and Nathan had won a multi-million dollar lawsuit with The Courier over the drone incident, the first thing they did with the money was to buy the house and give it to the partnership that ran the Circle; later they paid for the addition that more than doubled the size of the dwelling. Others that benefitted in some way also gave freely of their wealth and worth. Zoey and Mike had done a commercial around the house and left a good chunk of the money in the house fund; that said, Mike did get a new truck out of the effort, and she got her car fixed.

Last, so far, was the love and respect that each person in the group felt for each of the others. The feeling usually transcended what she’d seen between husbands and wives in her counseling work. While those feelings were often there in the New Relationship Energy phase of a relationship, they often faded and even became jaded over time. This didn’t seem to be happening with The Circle. The level of interest and enthusiasm about each relationship linkage hadn’t diminished at all.

Jess leaned over and wrote the word ‘BOOK’ in large letters on her pad of paper. She just realized she had enough material to write an even longer ‘article’ – so long that she may as well start to think of it as a book. The article would be the synopsis of the tome.

Jess looked up and there was Darrell with his camera focused on the pretty woman. “Hi Dar, are you setting out to embarrass me?” She laughed to tease him and leaned back in her seat.

“Not at all. You looked so sweet and studious sitting there.” He put his camera down and went over by Jessica. He bent down and kissed her.

“Mmmmm,” Jess purred. “What time do you get off work?” The tone of her voice left little doubt about the motive of her question.

“Around two o’clock.”

“Come find me. I’ll be right around here waiting.”

The two couples were bumping hips in fun and laughing as they came out of the movie theater and headed for the municipal parking garage in the entertainment district of the city. Derek, Kyle, Ellie, and Tracy had gone on a double date to see the latest James Bond thriller. As with the other films in the Bond franchise, the stunts and chase scenes were over the top, and exceptionally exciting. Somehow each film just kept getting better than the last.

Kyle said, “Are we going straight home, or does anyone want to stop somewhere and get a beer or something?”

Tracy clapped, “Oh, I like that idea. Let’s stop.”

Derek and Ellie agreed.

The quartet trooped into the garage, using the stairs to get up to the third level where they’d parked. They kept rehashing some of their favorite scenes from the movie, and talked about the sexy costar of Daniel Craig. The garage was nearly full of cars despite the late hour in the Friday evening. Several fluorescent bulbs in the dimly lit garage flickered irregularly giving the place an eerie feeling. The four Circle members were anything but quiet, actually reflecting the last few minutes of the movie.