Chapter 28: Self-Defense

Dave suddenly found himself eager to make any light shopping trip for anybody in the Circle. Despite the usual possibility of rainy weather when the workday ended, he rode his Harley to work unless the forecast was certain and pessimistic. He had Millie text him a shopping list of things she’d need the next day to make small repairs. The only constraint was that the total purchases had to fit in the motorcycle’s saddlebags.

Also, each day, he had a different rider going into work and coming home, often via Ace Hardware. With each mile on the bike, Dave’s confidence in managing the bike increased. Thus, JR, Jenny, Nikky, Deb, Olive, Elin, Paris, and Lucy formed a rotation. The men politely deferred to the women, but Lars and Larry stated they were always available if there was a ‘no show’.

A racy contest developed among the women regarding how to dress sexy for their ride. JR opted out of the competition and just wore her CFM heels, skinny jeans and blouse, but the other women decided to play. Thus, revealing cutoffs that hugged their butts and crop tops became de rigor the first full week rides were given. The second week some of the crop tops gave way to bikini bras and brief halter tops, some so thin it took imagination to believe something was being worn. About half the women bought ankle boots with a modest heel that looked really sexy on their long, lithe legs.

Of course, there were also the hairstyles, mostly braids, and then the helmets that some shared with each other instead of getting their own private protection. Over the next week or so, some very racy painting and decals got applied to the sides of the helmets, mostly nude women in some really salacious and compromising act of lovemaking.

The following week some racy t-shirts then arrived by mail along with the slightly cooler weather; most with creative slogans and such.

Deb’s t-shirt said across the back, ‘Motorcycles give me orgasms. Do not disturb.’ Some of the others said, ‘Can you guess how I reward my biker man.’ The art with that shirt displayed a man and woman in the missionary position. Another shirt had a picture of a very worried mouse with the words, ‘Pussy? Where?’ in large letters. The t-shirts came out when the girls discovered that they could also get away with wearing a thong instead of a monokini for the rides, thus all one saw from the right angle was dental floss or a whale tail.

All the trips home with one of the women on the Harley generated weaving cars next to Dave and his passenger as the mostly male drivers gawked at all the skin and bare leg being shown.

For all the work and humor the girls put into being ‘hot’ passengers, Dave usually wore loafers, black jeans, and a black t-shirt from an Ashley Steerman concert.

After a month, he insisted that the girls put on more clothing. “I’m afraid somebody is going to swerve into us trying to see a tit or pussy. Go back to cutoffs and crop tops, but nothing racier or salacious. Don’t taunt the other drivers – too badly, anyway.

Alice laughed, “We weren’t teasing. We were advertising.” Everybody laughed, but the dress code did change and things got incrementally safer.

Sarasota usually hosted a motorcycle rally called Thunder by the Bay in late January or early February. About twenty thousand bikers rode into town from across the country on anything that qualified as a motorbike. Dev and Dave rode out to the fairgrounds where the core of the festivities was planned that year. They were looking exceptionally clean cut, well-healed, and approachable as they walked among the booths and various displays.

Alice and some the other Circle women joined them, but arrived by car. They followed the guys around. Scarlett Jo was one of the women, but had taken advantage of one of Alice’s wigs, some heavy makeup, and oversize sunglasses. Alice had dressed like Alice Angel, even wearing some of the prosthetic mouth inserts to change the shape of her cheeks, as well.

Dave prayed there’d be no trouble, but prayers are not always answered.

About three o’clock in the afternoon, the Circle group stood listening to a rock concert on a makeshift stage. Dave had his arms around Scarlett and Alice as they all swayed and moved to the music. The sound could probably be heard on the moon it was so amped up. There was a lot of drinking going on around the group, but everybody seemed well behaved. They were just talking (screaming) to each other about leaving and heading home.

The group turned and faced off with some scruffy and inebriated motorcycle thugs. The lead guy sized up Alice. “I know you. You fuck on film. You’re Allison Angler or sumthin’ like that. Right? Wanna fuck? I’m horny.”

Alice sized him up and down. “Gee. No thanks. Your bedside manner sucks and I can tell from here you have a small cock. Why don’t you fuck one of your buddies? They look eager, too.”

Dave rolled his eyes. “Bad choice of responses,” he muttered to her. “Cut that out.”

Dev hung back and bumped into one of the guys as he moved beside Dave to shield the women.

The group then changed course to move around the four guys that were not well behaved or well mannered.

Guy #1 – the loud and drunk one – said, “Well, we’ll just have to have our party right here.” He reached out and grabbed Alice’s arm.

Alice executed a simple escape from his grasp with an arm jerk and screamed at him, “Leave me the fuck alone, Asshole.”

Dave immediately shunted Scarlett and Alice behind him and eyed a couple of others signaling that things were not good near them.

Guy #1 said in a sloppy tone, “Oh, good. Lover boy to the rescue.” He hauled back to throw a punch at Dave, but several things happened only microseconds apart.

As Guy #1’s fist went into forward motion, Dev’s giant hand grasped the wrist, twisted, and jerked, until a primal scream rose from an injured man. Dave could hear a bone break. The scream was then lost in the noise from the amplifiers, but the bone break wasn’t. Other around them turned to watch and backed away from the fracas.

The sidekicks had started to move forward, but they moved right into the vapor from three aerosol cassettes of pepper spray the women held. Each spray caught the men with their eyes open. They fell to the ground rubbing their faces and screaming.

Dev spoke in a commanding voice. “Please let us leave. We don’t want any trouble. If you start any more, we’ll finish it.”

The crowd parted and the Circle group slowly walked back to where their cars and bikes had been parked. Others were leaving the scene as well, so they weren’t alone in the decision to forego further ear pain from the high noise level and the intoxication level of some attendees.

Alice opted to ride with Dev, and Scarlett got on Dave’s bike. The others went in a different direction to recover their car. As Scarlett got on, she said, “That was the most exciting thing that’s ever happened to me. Those men wanted to rape us right there – Alice especially.”

After a while she amended her remarks. “I take back what I said about that confrontation being the most exciting thing that ever happened to me. You giving me The Experience the first time was that. This was second.”

Dave said sharply, “She could have been a little more politic in her response to their confrontation. You don’t invite trouble with a group of bikers around. Many of these guys carry guns and knives.”

Dev downplayed the confrontation back at the Circle. He stated, “Four drunk men and one got a little handsy. We each discouraged them and their threats in the best way we had available. Let’s forget it.”

Dave said, “I can kind of forget it, but not how inadequate I felt. You knew just what to do and how to block that punch. I thought about this for the past hour. I would like you to train me and anybody else that’s interested in self-defense.”

Dev reached in his pocket and pulled out two handguns. He grinned, “Two of the schmucks were armed, too. I forgot to tell you I mitigated the threat by disarming them just as they were moving forward towards us. I had to duck the pepper spray; fortunately, I was upwind. If there were more weapons, I didn’t get a chance to check.”

“Fuck, you mean we could have been shot?”

“That first guy was so hot under the collar and drunk he would have shot you and thought about it later. I could see that. When he confronted Alice I just reached into his pockets and found the obvious. A lot of bikers like that carry – some legally, and some not.”

Dave said, “I’d like to fix that, too.”

Dev said, “It’s a long journey full of pain and striving. Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

Several of the others there agreed.

Dev said, “Let me talk to Dale. We have some local resources that are probably better at teaching you than we are. We’ll have a program within the week.”

Dave moaned yet accepted the hand-up off of the exercise mat in a new area of the core not too subtly named Martial Arts Room. The instructor for the initial sixteen Circle members was a man Dale imported from the Tampa area. He’d worked with many of the family and security forces that worked for Mark Worthington. His name was Wan Suh.

Wan Suh believed in tough love and discipline. He was non-judgmental except in those two areas. The rampant sex practiced by the Worthington Clan and the Circle were non-issues to him. The philosophy was not of interest. He wanted people to be able to defend themselves in ‘sticky’ situations.

Wan Suh stood about five feet tall, the same height as Cricket. He was slight and might have weighed a little over a hundred pounds. He was Japanese with jet black hair, but a pleasant and smiling demeanor. He always wore a white gi with a black sash that had multiple gold stripes at the ends. He wore small slippers on his feet.

What interested Wan Suh was each person being ready to respond to an adverse situation with the right response and the right amount of force. He talked about giving up the desire to ‘win’ a confrontation. “First, one should become hyper-aware of what is going on around you. You do not want to be surprised by a confrontation. If possible, do not put yourself in harms way. In these situations, you are the better person because you leave the threat unmet.

“Dev-san told me about your encounter at some rock and roll concert. Alice, you were foolish to incite the men with your comments. You were right to leave as soon as you could and hope for no reprisals.” Alice looked chagrined.

“Second, you in your wisdom must take steps to protect the innocent. Have them leave the scene and perhaps call for appropriate help. Third, avoid. Your goal of an inevitable physical interaction is to survive the threat.”

“Fourth, remember the word ‘Aggress’ – the base for the word aggression. If you must react, you put your all into the interaction, only holding back to be sure you have applied the optimum level of response. You will be able to be deadly with just your hands at some point in your training, but that may be an extreme response. When the time comes for action and exiting is impossible, change and become offensive. It also throws your opponent off. They were initially in control and expected you to be docile, compliant, and reactive to them. When you go on the attack it throws your opponent off kilter.”