Chapter 4 - Never contend with a man who has nothing to lose

That night, I made up the beef, seasoned with Garlic powder, onion powder and a dash of paprika. I mixed in the corn, carrots and green beans after the beef, which I ground up, had browned enough and served it to everyone. They seemed, overall, pleased with the results. As we finished eating, Mother set down her fork.

“Well, I’ll admit, that hit the spot.” Mother said.

“Good.” I said, setting my fork on my plate.

“Yes. You can continue to cook, any time you pay for the ingredients yourself.” Mother said.

The others sat in stunned silence. I sighed. I knew something like this was coming. My mother, the ever vindictive, ever entitled bitch that she was, would never give me a victory. Not a complete one anyways.

The girls protested with things like “That’s not fair” and “He even spent his birthday money on this.”. Chloe and Mother were the only ones not to speak. I stood up and put up my hands and motioned for them to quiet down.

“Girls. It’s all right. She’s not breaking the deal, those stipulations were not laid out. She is sticking to the deal which says that I now have the ability to cook dinners. That’s all there is to it.” I said before picking up my plate and taking it to the sink.

I put the plate in the sink, gave it a quick rinse, and then headed to the door. I put on my shoes, and headed outside. It was at this point that I missed having my vape, but I wasn’t about to smoke again ... or rather resume it. I had thrown out the cigarettes I had when I cleaned my room. I needed to get past the nicotine fits I was having, and flow into normality. I stopped in the middle of the street about 3 houses down when I heard Chloe calling from behind me.

“You asshole! Get back in there and apologize! Your mother doesn’t deserve that kind of disrespect!” Chloe called after me.

I stopped dead in my tracks.

“Oh? Then what kind of disrespect would you suggest?” I asked.

“You shouldn’t disrespect her at all! Do you know what she’s sacrificed for you?” She asked as she got closer.

I turned towards her.

“Tell me.” I said.

She stopped stunned.

“What has she given up?” I asked.

“Well, her marriage! Dad abused her!” She said.

“Try again.” I said.

“What?” She said.

“It was the other way around. Father worked hard, and though he was cheating on Mother with two other women, he loved Mother. For what reason, I will never comprehend.” I said.

“What? Wait, he was cheating? Why? If he loved her?” Chloe asked getting closer.

“You wouldn’t fucking understand. You don’t understand it now. It’s so simple if you look at the big picture, but you have your head so far up your mother’s ass that you don’t see it.” I said.

“Tell me!“ She shouted.

“You need to figure it out for yourself! You need to see it yourself. Mother is not what you think! What you think is all a lie, and it will fuck up your life unless you and the others see it.” I said.

“Bullshit. You’re lying! You need to get in there and apologize.“ She yelled.

“No.” I said.

“Then I’ll make you!“ She shouted.

I started stretching. I focused on staying calm, living and fighting in the moment. I had to block out outside distractions. I had to block out analyzing her movements. I had to rely on instinct.

“What are you doing?” She asked.

“Stretching. If we’re gonna do this, I don’t wanna pull a muscle.” I said as I finished up my full rotation of stretching.

I took a battle stance. One familiar to me. One I had seen a million times as an adult. Goku’s battle stance. Bow stance, side facing, face towards her, fist on my hip, and my hand up.

“Let’s do this.” I said.

She rushed at me, throwing a punch with her right hand. I deflected it, stepped forwards and delivered an uppercut to her stomach. I didn’t put much of my strength behind it, but it was strong enough to make her stumble back. The movement had been easy enough. Like Guri had confirmed, my muscle memory came back with me. I had practiced fighting a lot back when I was an adult, going thru forms and movements because I had one too many run-ins with a crackhead or two, or a drunk guy. Chloe stumbled back from the hit.

“How? How are you this strong?” She asked.

“I’ve always been this strong, I just needed to see it for myself.” I said.

It was true. I didn’t know the true extent of what I could do until Job Corps. Sure I had retaught myself back when I lived with Kane, because of the drunks and crackheads, but at Job Corps I had to face off with kids who were entitled enough to think they could throw a punch or two.

“Tell ya what. Let’s make this interesting. If you win, I spill the beans about everything. I’ll be upfront.” I said. “But If I win, you do EVERYTHING I say. You follow my every order without question. Deal?”

“Fine! But I expect you to apologize as well!” She said.

“Deal.” I said.

She recomposed herself and ran at me and tried swinging downward with her fist at me. I caught it with both hands in a cross pattern, as she kicked upwards with her leg. I let go of her hand and grabbed her leg. She looked down when I did, and then we both looked up at each other. I knew what I