Chapter 5

I woke up and did my usual morning routine, then grabbed some sweats and ran downstairs. By now mom had already cooked breakfast and the girls were all waiting. I smell a setup here.

“Oh David, when you go to buy your gymnastics clothes we want to go with you,” said Christina.

“Huh?”

“Aren’t you starting gymnastics today? You’re going to have to dress up in the same outfits as the rest of the class, aren’t you? They wear tights! McKenna wants to go and see if she’s interested,” she said.

Yeah, right. More like blackmail material.

Uhm, no.

“Well, I’ll tell you what. Since you both want to go we’ll pick up some for you as well and make sure we all get photos. That way I can show all the boys what a catch my sisters are.”

You’d have thought they saw a mouse on the floor the way they both squealed. McKenna looked at me with a heated look and said, “No way! We’re not trying on those tight outfits with you, that’s gross!”

Figured that would get me out of it...

Dad came down a few minutes later and said, “David, you about ready for class?”

“Yeah Dad. Oh, Sensei asked if you could come by sometime this week.”

“Ok, I’ll swing by this morning after I drop you off. Any clue what he wants?”

“No, he didn’t say but he looked rather serious.”

“Hmm. Ok, guess I’ll find out when I get there.”

We arrived at Twiggs Gymnasium shortly before ten a.m. and, since Sensei had already set things up, asked to see Steve. After a brief wait a man wearing a grey t-shirt and black gym pants came up and introduced himself, “Hi, I’m Steve. I understand you asked for me?”

I stepped up and introduced myself, “Hi Steve, I’m David. Sensei Nakamura sent me to learn gymnastics and said you would be my new coach?” I said while shaking his hand.

This guy had a very firm handshake! Standing six-two and around one-hundred-twenty pounds. with greying blonde hair, he had a build that belied his apparent age. He had to be almost forty.

“Ah, yes. Sensei did say he was sending over one of his students. Do you have anything for me?”

Not sure why it surprised me that he knew I had a letter for him, but it did. “Yes sir,” I said while holding out the letter.

He saw that I was carrying a gym bag and said,” Tell you what. Why don’t you go change and come back here? That will give me a chance to read this.” With that he pointed to the door that said boys and I took off.

It only took about five minutes to change since I already had my gym clothes on under my sweats, so I was back before he had finished. I waited silently and was a little worried since he kept looking up at me. He finally finished and went to talked to Dad for a few minutes. As Dad was leaving Steve walked back over to me and said,” Well it seems that we’re going to have a few interesting classes. Since you already know how to do basic rolls we’re going to start with some stretching and then I’ll see where you’re at as far as ability. Once I see what you can do I’ll be able to make out your training schedule.

With that he had me go through all the stretches I knew, then added a few to pinpoint areas that I hadn’t even known about. After stretching we worked on various jumps, kicks and lunges; then he had me do a few pull-ups and splits.

“Ok David, I think I have a good idea of where you’re at. We’re going to work on your balance first, then work on upper body strength. Since you’re not going for competition we’re going to push ability and forget about the showmanship. Here are some wrist wraps that I want you to wear. Keep them snug but don’t cut off the circulation.”

After handing me the wraps and showing me how to put them on we walked over to one of several balance beams. This one was only about a foot off the ground so there was no way I was going to get hurt. He had me get up and walk back and forth, placing one foot in front of the other. Thanks to my training I was able to do this with no trouble, so he then moved me to another beam that was about two feet high. Before climbing up he said, “Ok, this one’s a little higher, but no different otherwise. But, what I want you to do is a running jump, landing on the beam.”

Uh, ok. Now I was a little nervous. If I missed my landing I was pretty sure that jr. would have something to say about it, as well as the non-existent women that would be in my life. Seeing my hesitation Steve said, “You got this David. It’s only three feet high so worst that should happen is a sprained ankle. You’ve already got great balance and from what I read your hand eye coordination is superb. That should mean your foot eye coordination is good as well.”

Should, not would or did, should. Well, he seemed to think I could do this so what the heck. I went to the line and before I could begin running he said, “Stop. I want you to stand up straight. Don’t prepare to run. Then when I say go, take a large step with your leading foot and take off. When you’re two steps away, bring both feet up under you, drop down and lunge as hard as you can up and slightly forward. This will propel you up and forward enough to land the beam. Once you land, quickly place one foot in front of the other and hold still.” With that he stepped back and waited.

I stood quietly, closing my eyes and centered myself. When he said go I suddenly burst into action, opening my eyes while I took a huge step and bolted down the path. Right on time I jumped, tucked and lunged. What felt like hours, but was actually only a few seconds later, I landed with my right foot and planted my left in front, doing my best to remain standing. I was able to hold it for almost a minute before the adrenaline finally caught up with me and then down I went.

“Well done! You held that longer than I expected. I know it didn’t feel like it but give yourself time. You’ll be able to stick that landing and hold it for an hour soon enough.”

For the next hour we worked on that one routine over and over again. By the end I was able to hold the landing for at least ten minutes and had progresses to a beam height of five feet. My legs were sore, but I felt really good about what I’d done.

As I came out of the changing room Dad showed up, so we got in the car, and headed home. Or so I thought. We headed west and ended up at Miami Armory, a local gun store. I didn’t even know my Dad owned a gun. Why would we be here.

We walked up to the door and Dad pressed a buzzer on the side.

“Can I help you?” came a deep voice

“Yes. Tell whiskers that John brown is here, plus one.”

Who the heck is whiskers and why is Dad saying his name is John brown?

Suddenly there’s a buzz and a click, then Dad opens the door and says, “come on son.”

We walk into a lobby with one steel door and standing there is a guy about fifty years old, and it’s clear why he’s called Whiskers.

“John, you damned ghost, how the hell are ya? I see Kat hasn’t killed you yet.,” he said while shaking Dads hand and giving him a bear hug.

“Doin’ good Whiskers. Katherine sends her love. I’d like you to meet my son David. David, this is an old friend of mine. He taught me everything I know about guns, and a few other things too,” Dad said with a sly grin.

“David, nice to meet you son. Your Dad and I go back a long way. The stories I could tell...” He stopped suddenly, and I looked back to see Dad shaking his head slightly.

“Well, anyways, what can I do ya for John?”

“David turns fourteen in January and I think it’s time he learned how to shoot. He needs to learn ‘everything’ Whiskers,’ Dad said with some emphasis on ‘everything.’

He turns and looks at me real hard and says, “Everything huh? You sure?”

“Yeah. Katherine and I both think it’s time. Things are shaping up to look like he may be a chip off the old block if you know what I mean,” he says while raising an eyebrow at me. “Things have been a little interesting already this year and you know how protective Katherine is. She’ll clip my fingers off one at a time if something happens to her son.”

Is he talking about the same mom I know? Granted, I knew better than to cross her, but Dad made her sound like she was a cold-blooded killer.

“Well, I know better than to get Kat mad at me, so we better do a good job. Let’s step in back and see what we got to work with,” and so we headed through the only door in the room.

It was like walking into a machine shop. Drill presses, and lathes, and lots of iron pipes and such lined the side walls with another door at the end of the room. Whiskers walks up to me and takes my hand, turning it over and looking at my palm while he flexes my wrist.

He puts a piece of metal in my hand and says, “Make a fist, and try to keep me from bending your wrist and elbow.” Then he suddenly jerks the top of the piece of metal forward, towards my shoulder. He didn’t bend my elbow but there was a little flex in my wrist. “Good, good. Now try and keep your arms up as I push down.” After two minutes he was only able to push my hands down about three inches. “Gonna need to work on that. I want you to practice holding your arms level and straight out holding a ten-pound weight. When you can do it for an hour without drooping you’ll be ready for some long guns.”

He looks at Dad and says, “9mm, 10mm or .45?”

HUH?

“Let’s try all three. I think the 10mm is better, but you know it depends on his grip.”