Chapter 10

Knowing that Christa’s birthday was coming up in a little more than a week, I was scrambling to figure out what to get her. This is what caused me to realize how little I knew about my own girlfriend. Since we were going soon I decided to pay attention and see if I could figure out what to get her.

The next morning, I had asked Sensei about Christa coming to class a few times and he’d said he would think about it so after leaving the dojo I cleaned up a little around the house, then got ready for our date tonight. As much as I was looking forward to spending time with her I needed to bring my ‘A’ Game and learn as much as I could about Christa in the next few days. Not just so I could figure out what to buy her, but also because I truly cared for her. I had always felt that I didn’t spend enough time with her so it was my new goal to do just that and show her that I appreciated her.

I showed up about half an hour early, knowing that she would still be getting ready for our date. Her mom answered the door and asked,” David, don’t you know it’s wrong to show up early for a date? She won’t be ready for at least another hour.”

“Yes ma’am, I know that, but I need your help. While thinking about what to get Christa for her birthday I realized just how little I know about her. What she likes and doesn’t like; her favorite song or perfume. I don’t know any of that,” I said with no small amount of distress.

She looked at me with a sad smile and said,” Well young man, it sounds like you have your work cut out for you. I would suggest asking questions. Lots of open ended questions. As far as what to get her is concerned, flowers are always nice, maybe a picture of the two of you, or a little knickknack that reminds her of you.”

Hmm. That’s not a bad idea. There were several things I could get for her. Perhaps we’d spend some time this evening wandering around the mall, window shopping. “Thanks Mrs. Rodriguez. You’ve given me some great ideas.”

About that time Christa came in the kitchen and eyeing me said, “David, what are you doing here so early? Don’t you know that’s not nice?”

“Well Christa, I just couldn’t bear to be away from you any longer, but your mother was able to entertain me with stories of you when you were a baby,” I said thinking this would get me off the hook.

“Uh huh. And you really believe me to accept that? Mom knows better than to talk about that. If you’d have said my dad, then I would’ve believed it.”

“Well,” I said quickly,” I tried. I was really hoping to surprise you. I was really hoping for my Christa smile and hug.”

I guess she bought that, because that was just what I got. I looked at her mom standing behind her and got a thumbs up so I must have done a good job covering up my reason for being early.

“Mom’s going to drive us so just let me grab a light jacket and we can go,” she said walking into the living room with me and her mother following behind.

“Hey Christa, let’s go down to the mall and walk around some. Maybe we’ll see some new stuff at the little kiosks they have. Sound good,” I asked?

“Sure, why not. Plus, it will give us a chance to see some of the gang from school. You know they all hang out there now.”

With that we got in the car and were dropped off just a few minutes later.

We walked around a bit, waving to a few people here and there, then Christa suddenly squealed and ran towards the Disney store window case. She yelled back at me, “David! Come see the new snow globes they have! OH, I love them!”

Well, now I at least knew what to get her for her birthday as well as learned something new about her.

After we looked at the display for several minutes I suggested taking a trip through JC Penny. Yea, I know I was a glutton for punishment, but when I called McKenna while at Christa’s house she had said that was a great way to find out a lot about what she liked. Her favorite color, what kinds of clothes she liked, favorite perfume, jewelry, music, the works. We roamed all through the store, and I did learn quite a lot about Christa. I now knew what to buy her for her birthday as well as for Christmas, but more importantly we talked all evening and I got to learn a lot about Christa herself.

When she told me she didn’t like movies with violence in them she kind of looked down and lowered her voice a little, making me wonder if something was wrong so I asked her. “Hey Christa, is something wrong? You seemed to get all down when you said you didn’t like violence in movies.”

She was quiet for a while then in a soft voice said,” Well, I really don’t like violence. I always thought they showed too much violence in movies, but then I met you. I know we’ve been going out for a few months now, but sometimes I feel scared around you. You’ve done some violent things David. I know all you’ve ever done is protect people, but it still scares me.”

Wow. I honestly did not know what I could tell her. I knew that my idea of having her attend classes with me was now toast though. If she had problems with what I had done in the past there was no way she would feel comfortable in a class on violence. We walked past a few more stores while I was thinking about what she said then asked her,” Christa, you know I’ve never intentionally hurt someone who wasn’t trying to hurt me or someone I know, right? I’m like you in a way. I don’t like violence, but I feel that as someone who can protect others it’s my responsibility to help others when they need it. Sometimes that means I have to stop a fight, or, in Rhone’s case, stop him from fighting by making him stop. Are you afraid that I’ll hurt you?”

She looked up at me, her eyes brimming with tears and said,” No! I know you’d never hurt me. I just don’t like it when you fight. I wish you’d quit taking those awful classes and let someone else do the fighting. I know you can’t though. It’s been eating me up for a while now, but I really like you. I didn’t want to say something and ruin what we had. Plus, if you’d quit those classes we’d have more time to be with each other.”

I knew she added that last bit as a way to get me to quit, but I wasn’t wired like that. I was able to stand up for the little guy and protect them, just like I would for her. I needed to get that across without making her mad. I really liked Christa and it would suck to lose her over this, but I knew I couldn’t change my nature. Sensei and I had had many talks about this. We could no more change our nature than we could make a dog talk.

“Christa, I see how much it bothers you. I wish I could do something to take that fear away. My sensei and I have talked a lot about human nature in the past. Everything I’ve ever read or heard tells me that we cannot change our nature; our core beliefs. It would take something extremely tragic to force a change like that and after it happened we would lose a huge chunk of who we are, what makes us who we are. I know you want me to quit, but if I did I don’t think we would last very long. I know you see the violence in martial arts, but I see the beauty, the calming force it has. If you made me give that up for you I would end up hating you and I don’t ever want to hate you. Do you think there’s a way you can look past the violence and see the other parts,” I asked? If we couldn’t get past this I wasn’t sure how long we’d last.

She was quiet for a while as we walked around the mall. She never let go of my arm, and even held on tightly so I knew she still cared for me. After we made it past the food court she said,” I don’t know. I’m fine when I don’t think about it and I know in my heart you’d never hurt me. I guess I just want more time with you. It seems like all you do is learn how to fight. I don’t feel like I’m very important.”

“Well, I asked Sensei about getting you in some of my classes, so we could spend some more time together. We don’t just learn how to fight; we learn how to help heal all sorts of injuries. Did I ever tell you that I’ve taken first aid lessons since the beginning of the year? I can treat all sorts of injuries, like broken bones and cuts. I can even perform CPR and soon I’ll have learned enough to help someone who’s been shot, or even crushed their windpipe. We learn how to meditate and become one with our surroundings. The moves we learn help us become more physically fit as well as make us able to defend ourselves. We actually feel that if we have to use the physical aspects of what we learn that we’ve already lost the fight. I guess you’ve never seen me after a confrontation, so you wouldn’t have seen how depressed I am afterwards,” I said with not a little depression at the thoughts of what I’d had to do in the past. It was true, I didn’t like having to use what I’d learned, but I just couldn’t stand back and let others be hurt, or let others hurt me.

She thought about this and said,” I didn’t know all that. You’re always so quiet about your training that I had no clue that you had learned first aid and all that. Maybe I could go to a few classes with you and see what you do.”

Now that that crisis was solved I just had to see what I could do about getting her in a few classes. I might have been able to get her into the first-aid classes, but she would have to be in the regular classes for everything else since we didn’t allow anyone in the back that wasn’t already a black belt.