Chapter 27: My First Aikido Lesson

Thursday, April 7, 2005

Before I headed through to breakfast, I had the idea of slipping Dad my 8-ball winnings for him to buy me some more rubbers, but I remembered that I hadn't used any of the rubbers that he'd given me for my first date. I collected them all to give to Julia at school. I might as well keep them all at her place as I wasn't going to need them anywhere else, especially after the scare Mom and Dad gave me last night about reporters and lawyers.

I was gathering my breakfast when Carol walked into the kitchen. I put my arm around her, and said, "I'm going to miss seeing your face on those mornings you're at Julia's."

She hugged me back and said, "I'll miss your face too."

The literal idea of anyone missing my face surprised me, "Haha. Thanks for the sentiment, but I know which one of us has got a face that is FAR better to look at than the other."

Carol looked puzzled for a moment, then, "You aren't fair to yourself. You're a good looking guy."

Chuckling, I said, "Thanks, sis. I appreciate your loyalty, but you'll never convince me that my face comes close to your beauty."

During breakfast Mom said to Donna and me, "Remember you two have martial arts tonight. I'll drop Mark off at his, then I'll stay with Donna. That'll mean I'll be a few minutes late picking you up again, Mark, because Donna's class runs fifteen minutes after yours."

"That's fine."

In the car on the way to school, Carol said, "You might miss my face in the mornings, but we'll see more of each other at Julia's. We'll be able to study together, so it'll be easier for me to get your help with my homework. My grades should improve, haha."

I met up with Julia at school and slipped her the rubbers when we weren't being observed. She said, "I'm looking forward to not having to use these soon."

She saw my horrified expression and quickly explained, "I've already gotten my pills. My period starts in a day or two and I begin taking them then. Soon we won't have to worry about condoms. It'll be great to be able to feel the real you."

Stopping to put rubbers on and disposing of them afterward was a nuisance, so I nodded happily.

Julia continued, "Breakfast was very happy this morning. My family is looking forward to being involved in your life. Dad's given The Boys their orders this morning. Robert asked me to remind you to call him about your study layout tonight. Have I mentioned lately how much I love my life! It's great and going to get even better. How fantastic is that!"

"I don't understand how fantastic it is. I don't really know what's happening at your house. You all think I'm a bigger deal than I am, and I don't understand why?"

Julia reassured me, "Don't worry, Mom and Dad will answer your questions and no one will push you to do anything you don't want to. It's a win-win for everyone, especially you and me. When you come over on the weekend we can all have a good talk about it."

I drew out a rough plan for how I'd like my study laid out. Nothing fancy, just to ensure that there was enough room for two sets of work to be done at the same time, and that each hand could reach for whatever its mind needed without needing the whole body to get up and move. That mostly just needed a deep enough desk area with some handy shelves. I gave the plan to Julia, asking her, "Please pass this on to Robert, as I have Aikido tonight. He can call me after 7 if he has any questions."

It was a nice day, so Julia and I were reclined on the grass in our usual outdoor lunchtime spot when we saw Carol looking for us about fifteen minutes into lunchtime. We called and waved her over to us.

As she was about to sit down next to Julia, Julia said, "Sister, sit on the other side of Mark please."

Carol moved to do so, while asking, "Why?"

Julia leaned toward Carol across my front, so Carol matched her.

Julia answered, "Several reasons. To protect him from other girls. You would not believe how many other girls find him irresistible! He's a hunk and one of the nicest guys ever, and there are dozens of girls whose panties get wet whenever they think about him."

Carol blushed at what was obviously a VERY bizarre exaggeration, but Julia carried on before I could disagree with her, "He's got the two of us, and doesn't need any more for now. And anyway, none of the others are good enough for him.

^-- "I want us to get in the habit of sitting and standing on either side of him. He's the most important and most wonderful of the three of us, so he should be the center of our attention. Do you agree with me so far, sister?"

"Yes."

"Good. And the third reason is so we can talk back and forth across him, and have a lot of fun teasing him. Haha."

Carol laughed at that too, until Julia continued, "I think it's only fair. I let him do absolutely anything and everything he wants to my body, so it's only fair I get to tease him sometimes."

Mom wanted Julia's and my being lovers kept low key in front of my sisters, so this was certainly not the time or place for such a discussion.

I tried to, "Shush Julia."

Carol just tremulously asked, "Anything?"

"Shusshh!"

"Yes, and he does it exquisitely. He's a superb lover."

"Julia! Shush. You can't talk like this at school. Please stop."

Fortunately, Julia responded, "Yes Mark, I'll stop." Then Julia looked at Carol again, and said, "You see how much fun he is to tease? Haha."

Carol, seeing my discomfort, laughed back.

Then Julia added, "The best part is that every word I said is true. Anyway, my beautiful sister, did you come here to talk with us about something?"

Carol had come mainly to thank Julia for her friendship and kindness. The two girls - one of them in danger of being demoted to my second favorite after the embarrassment she'd caused me - gushed at each other while eating their lunches, leaning across me to talk with each other. It was quite distracting for me, and it takes a lot to distract me from lunch because I'm usually very hungry by then.

Carol said, "I'm SO looking forward to my sleepover with you!"

Julia had a higher priority, "I'm even more looking forward to the Saturday after that. That's when we'll go shopping for you. We're going to buy you so many beautiful clothes, new swimsuits, nightwear, clothes to wear to school, and heaps more. I need to start making a list because there's so much to get."

Poor Carol (literally "poor") still couldn't believe her good fortune, "Are you sure? It sounds VERY expensive."

"I am absolutely positive. I've already talked to Daddy about this and the money is all taken care of. We've got lots of lovely things to buy for you, but I'll tell you the single most important purchase we are definitely making. Do you remember the dress I wore on my first date with Mark?"

"Do I ever! It was gorgeous!"

"On the Saturday after next, you and I are going back to that boutique and we're getting one at least as good for you."

Carol had to catch her breath before she could respond. She gasped, "I've never, EVER had anything like that before."

"And that's not all."

Carol was almost too afraid to ask, "It's not?"

"No. We're going to save those dresses until Mark gets his cast taken off. Then we're dressing in them and are taking him out to celebrate. He'll have two arms then, and I want them around each of us all night. We can take turns feeding him. We are going to show him how much we love him."

"Oh my," said Carol weakly, as she leaned against me for support.

#3: <Julia can come across pretty strong, can't she?>

#4: <Can you imagine how good the two girls will look dressed like that?

#1: <I sure can. More importantly though, I think Julia's doing a great job of diverting Carol's attention off the guy that rejected her. I just hope it doesn't cramp our style too much though.>

#2: < "Cramp our style"?>

#1: <Her watching Julia and me on a romantic date.>

#2: <Oh, is that what Julia's doing?>

#1: <Yes. It took me a little while to work it out, but it was the obvious explanation once I thought of it. Nothing else makes any sense, and we know that Julia feels obligated to Carol for her help getting us together. She takes her obligations seriously, judging by the amount she's willing to spend so Carol won't feel like the odd one out. It's going to make it awkward to kiss Julia though. Remember we didn't feel comfortable kissing Julia on the lips in the hot tub last time, and ended up kissing both of them on the cheek. But I think Carol will be fine. She looks up to Julia enormously and follows her advice, so she's in good hands. Julia will fix whatever Carol's worried about.>

#3: <Yeah. Thank goodness we can trust Julia. We can't understand her, but trust is good.>

Julia continued, "I wish we could walk through school dressed like that, with Mark's arms around us both. That'd teach the hundreds of other girls who want him, that he's OURS."

#4: <"Hundreds of girls" - ha! Not that it matters because I pity the poor girl who tries to get to us through Julia. Julia will rip her to shreds.>

"There's still more, my beautiful sister."

"There is?"

"After we come back from dinner, we're going to the hot tub. I'm going to put on some soft music, light candles around the tub, turn the lights off, then we are going to sit on either side of Mark, so he can put his arms around us, and we are going to take turns feeding him grapes. How does that sound?"

"Dreamy."

"Yes, exactly right. 'Dreamy' is the perfect word. But I do have one question I haven't decided yet. I haven't decided whether we should wear swimsuits or be naked."

"{Gasp}. Naked? With Mark?"

"Yes. I'm still thinking about that. I'll let you know what I decide."

"Oh," Carol blushed while thinking about it, then she added, "Umm. Do you mean Mark would be naked too?"

"Especially Mark. He looks very good naked because he's got a great body."

I opened my mouth, but before I could speak Julia squeezed my arm hard. Clearly a message for me not to say what she knew I was about to say. I closed my mouth. Julia must know what she was doing, but damned if I did. It must be something to do with the boy that'd turned Carol down, but I couldn't see how teasing Carol about being naked helped with that. I can't understand one girl, so I had no chance of deciphering what one girl was doing for another. I did what I do best, sat quietly and observed.

Carol tentatively suggested, "I don't think Mom would approve of us being naked like that."

Julia answered, "We do things differently in my house. If we have our meals at different times than your family, you wouldn't insist on our changing to your usual time whenever you're at our place. Mark and you will adjust to my family's behaviors, one of which is being treated as more adult than you're used to. Being comfortable with each other's bodies is part of being trustworthy and mature. Andrew came into my bedroom when Mark and I were making love a few days ago..."

#3: <Yeah, because Julia called him in. Whatever she's doing with Carol is weird.>

" ... and no one worried about it. Mom even told me later that she was proud we trusted each other that much. Don't worry about us being naked in the hot tub. There are bound to be many times we see each other's bodies. If Mark and I are having sex in my room and you want to talk with one of us, just come in and talk with us. That'd be..."

"Oh no, I couldn't! Not if you were... , you know."

"Mark and I have sex VERY often! He's very, very good at making a girl feel wonderful. I like talking to you too, so there'll be times we'll be doing both at the same time. It's perfectly fine for you to see us making love. Plus your clothes will be hanging up in my room so if Mark and I are in there together and you need to get changed, you'll have to come in. You can't wait for us to finish because Mark can go for HOURS! He's an INCREDIBLE lover! I've talked to Mom, Dad and my brothers about how Mark makes love, and they all say he's far better than anyone they've ever heard of. My brothers are green with envy over how good he is.

^-- "I just realized that as your older sister, one of my responsibilities will be helping you learn about sex. That'll work out perfectly because Mark and I will be able to show you how it should be done. That'll be far better than you learning from some boy fumbling with you in the back row of the movies, or something equally immature. So I don't think you'll have to worry about seeing us naked in the hot tub Carol, haha. Over the next week or two you should think about sex quite often. Make a mental list of anything you want to know about or see, and Mark and I will make sure you understand it.

^-- "Enough about that. Have you seen the new season's range at..." Julia went on to talk about clothes shopping and fashion.

I had what could be called a difficult decision: did I listen to the girls talking about clothes shopping, or did I think about sex and naked bodies. I chose the latter. (It COULD be called "a difficult decision". It wasn't of course, but it COULD be called that, if you didn't mind being totally wrong.)

#1: <What that HELL was that all about! We're going to have sex in front of Carol! How on Earth is our doing that supposed to take Carol's mind off some guy rejecting having sex with her?>

#4: <I still find it hard to imagine how any moron could reject someone as gorgeous as Carol, but that's the least of our problems. I thought Donna's flashing her ass at us was verging on the unacceptable, but according to Julia we're going to be showing Carol a heck of a lot more of our body than that.>

#2: <Yeah, ALL of it. That's going to be a REALLY freaky experience. I can't believe Julia actually wants us to do that. Regardless of her calling Andrew in that one time, she's never struck me as an exhibitionist type of girl. She certainly never wears revealing clothes to school.> I hadn't had anything to do with Julia until recently, and knew hardly anything about her, but I did know she never wore revealing clothes to school. Guys tend to notice things like that. I guess we must be observant, or something.

#1: <Somehow I get the feeling that Julia doesn't intend for us to be safely under the covers either. I've got this horrible image of us doing two or three thrusts, and then Julia pauses everything while she gives Carol a lecture about some point, then we resume for a few more seconds, then pause for another lecture. That'd be terrible.>

#4: <If you want a nice change from thinking about scary images, think about what it's going to be like in the hot tub with Carol naked.>

#1, #2, #3: <Wow.>

#3: <That's a VERY nice image. It'll be fantastic to see what she looks like naked. She's got a spectacular body.>

#2: <You can say that again! What a pity it's inappropriate for us to thank Julia for arranging for us to see it. I wonder what Julia's real reason for the nakedness is.>

#1: <That's got me totally confused too. We'll have to ask her later. Meanwhile I'm going to do my best to think only of Carol in the hot tub, and NOT our being used as a Sex-Education dummy.>

#4: <We're going to blush so much there'll be no blood left over for our cock. The trouble is I can't work out which would be more humiliating: being hard or being soft. They'd both be terrible.>

The rest of our lunchtime conversation was sane, although much of it was about the girls' planning a shopping frenzy, so "sane" isn't the most accurate description.

Carol left a few minutes early because of her longer walk back to middle school.

When Carol was out of earshot, I asked Julia, "I'm completely mystified about why you want us to make love in front of Carol. Mystified and anticipating being terribly embarrassed too. I presume you've got a good reason for it?"

"I think I have, although I'm not totally sure yet. I'll have a long talk with Carol on the night she sleeps over with me, and then I'll know better."

"You didn't actually say anything about your reason?"

"I know. I need to do some more checking first. I think I'm right, but it'd be better if I kept it to myself in case I'm wrong."

"Oh. Okay, I guess."

We started walking back toward our lockers, and I thought to add, "Maybe you intend the best, but I sincerely hope I don't get used as a naked Sex-Education dummy for Carol."

"It won't be like that. What I said was mostly a trick for me to learn more about Carol. I've haven't spent much time with her so I don't know her well enough yet."

"Oh."

#3: <Now I'm REALLY confused. How can Julia virtually promise a Sex-Education session, and then somehow back away from it? It wasn't as if Julia was subtle about what she was suggesting.>

#4: <No, she was far too explicit. But if the Sex-Ed session was a trick, then the naked hot tub session might be a goner too.>

#1: <Damn!>

#4: <My thought exactly. Let's hope it still does happen. We'll just have to wait and see.>

#2: <And hope we do actually "see".>

Julia said, "Would I be correct in guessing that Carol's moods have been up and down during the last week or so?"

"Yes, quite a lot. She told me that there's been a lot going on in her life recently. I don't know what though. Remember I told you that some guy must've rejected her, but I'm thinking I might've been wrong about that. She made one bitter-sounding comment to me about not being able to get any sex, but I might've been reading too much into a single comment because I can't imagine any guy refusing an invitation to have sex with Carol. Guys normally leap at the chance to have sex with anything, so an invitation from Carol would be a dream come true."

"It IS hard to believe. She's very beautiful?"

"I'll say! Beautiful, a great figure, and a very sweet personality. God knows why a boy would turn her down. I know there have been plenty of boys interested in her because she gets phone calls from them sometimes and she complains about being hassled at school. She's never shown much interest in any guy that I've seen, and what interest she has shown has never lasted long. Which makes me even more confused about what's going on with her. It must have been something in school because I haven't noticed her doing much of anything else for the last week or so. I'm pretty much in the dark, so I hope you can find out what the situation is and help her with it."

"I've got a theory which I'm fairly sure of, but I need to spend some more time with her to make certain. If I'm right, I think it'll be easy to solve."

I asked happily, "Really?"

Julia nodded, "Yeah. I'm almost certain about the solution already, but I need to confirm the problem is what I think it is first."

"GREAT! I feel much better with you helping, even though I'm totally mystified about whatever it is you're doing. All I could think of was to ask Carol who the guy was and then beat him up, which is pretty stupid. I'd feel better, but I can't see it helping Carol. I'm sure you can do MUCH better than that. If there's anything I can do to help - beating him up or otherwise - please let me know."

"Now that you mention it, there might be something you can do. If I ask you to do something for her in the next week or two, you'll do it won't you? Even if it seems a bit strange to you."

"EVERYTHING girls do seems strange to me! It'd be strange if what you asked for wasn't strange. Of course I'll do it."

"It truly might seem strange, but if I wink at you when asking you to do something, then I know what I'm doing and I want you do it without arguing. Okay?"

"Sure. I'm sure you understand whatever Carol's having trouble with better than I do, so I'm happy to help you help her. Carol means a great deal to me."

"I know, that's why it's so perfect."

I didn't understand that statement, but I'm getting quite used to that when talking to Julia. We were about to go into a classroom block, so we had no privacy for further conversation.

We had an early dinner, except for Donna who would have hers after we returned, mostly of Vanessa's roast chicken leftovers - yippee! Then Mom took Donna and me to our two martial arts classes.

We went to mine first because it started slightly earlier than Donna's. Mom and Donna came in to make sure I was settled in properly. I was just going to sit on the side and observe, so not much was required. We introduced ourselves to the sensei, who was almost the opposite of what I'd expected. Instead of some fit, energetic Japanese man, he was a 65-year old (I guessed), short, English gentleman called Sensei Nigel. He had a very noticeable, well-spoken English accent, and it was easy to see that the arriving students treated him with respect, liking and humor, so it looked like it might be an enjoyable training environment.

Mom and Sensei had a brief conversation about their places of origin in England, while Donna wished me good luck and hoped I would enjoy Aikido. She was sincere, as she was proud that she'd found it for me. Then they left.

There was one other beginner tonight, although she was participating rather than observing the way I was. I still had another sixteen days before the damned cast came off. All the students were lined up along one edge of the exercise mats, and they bowed to Sensei, who bowed back.

After warming up, the class started. To condense highly, there were three types of activities during the class:

1. For most of the class time, Sensei would demonstrate a technique using a student he'd pick. Everyone else watched, then all the students paired up to practice what he'd just shown. He'd walk among the pairs helping out. Because I was looking for it, I noticed he walked gracefully, even when threading his way between the constantly moving pairs of students. None of the students were similarly graceful, but they were beginners so that didn't signify anything.

2. Sensei would sometimes digress for a minute or two to discuss some philosophical aspect of the art.

3. Near the end of the class he got everyone to sit along the edge of the mat, kneeling on their heels in a position called "Seiza". He spent several minutes talking about an aspect of Aikido.

Tonight he started the final segment of the class with a demonstration of "ki", the mental energy of Aikido and its middle syllable. He got two of the biggest students to stand either side of him, grasp his arms and lift him in the air. A feat they performed easily. Then he said he'd use ki to prevent their lifting him. He stood still in exactly the same stance as when they'd lifted him, but this time they couldn't budge him, not even lifting him an inch. He just stood there, and they grunted and groaned to no effect. Even just one of the lifters should have been able to lift him, let alone two with good grips on his arms. I was impressed. It occurred to me that the whole demonstration could have been a fake, but I didn't get that feeling as Sensei - as I'd learned he was referred to as - seemed an open and honest guy.

When they gave up, panting, he told the class that he'd projected his ki down into the Earth, and that made him seem heavier. Not "heavier" that would register on a set of scales, but in the sense that when the lifters tried to raise him, their mental and physical powers were redirected downward by his ki flow, rendering their efforts much less effective.

He went on to describe how to find and develop our ki. The first step is to "center yourself": to "put your consciousness into your center." Sensei explained that our "centers" were our center of gravity, an inch or two below our navel and halfway between our front and back. "Imagine your mind is at your center," he instructed.

All the students seemed to be doing that, judging by their stillness and looks of concentration.

Even though I was only observing, I thought I might as well give it a try. I tried to imagine my minds were located in my center. The instant I did that, #2: <Hey, I feel something!>

#1: <Yeah, me too. I feel sort of light-headed throughout our entire body. That sounds that same as saying light-bodied, but what I said seems to fit better. This is weird, I've never felt this before.>

#4: <I agree with your description. It's like gravity has been reduced slightly, but somehow we can mostly feel it mentally rather than physically. It feels good though.>

#3: <Agreed.>

Sensei Nigel was saying, "The ancient Greeks thought consciousness floated six inches above their heads. At other times people have thought it was rooted in their hearts. In the modern western world we imagine that consciousness is located in our brains. However, consciousness should be located at our centers. There your consciousness can connect to the Universe's energy flows to supply you with ki to project in the techniques. While centered, our consciousness aligns our body's own energy flows to those of the Universe, so we breathe, move and exist in better harmony with the Universe..."

I would've thought Sensei was talking spiritualistic mumbo-jumbo, otherwise known as "crap", except I could feel something. I couldn't tell whether his comments were right, but what I was feeling had some resemblance to what he was describing.

I'd been sitting motionless, listening to him and concentrating on imagining my consciousness at my center. Without thinking I shifted in my chair as one ass cheek was getting sore after the nearly hour-long lesson. As soon as I leaned my body sideways something VERY unusual happened: The simplest explanation would be to say that I saw two flashes of light from places in my body. Except I didn't "see" them and they weren't "flashes of light", which pretty much destroys my entire description but it somehow still seems a good one. However I sensed them, it wasn't with my eyes because I wasn't looking in the right direction and one of the flashes was actually inside my body! That implied they were something other than light, but don't ask me what!

It wasn't like sight because with normal sight you can see different 'stuff' in all of your field of view. Whatever it was that I'd sensed, I'd only sensed the flashes and nothing else. It was like seeing an almost empty radar image because everything else was blank except where the flashes were.

I'd received an accurate 3D image of where the flashes had started from and gone to. They'd been like a couple of skyrockets because they'd blasted trails of what had seemed like light which had clearly been going in particular directions, and had then gone 'dark'. One flash had started at my right buttock and had risen vertically through my body for a couple of inches. The other flash had emerged from my left shoulder and had flown about six inches to the left, angled down a little. Both flashes had been three or four inches in diameter.

They'd lasted about a quarter of a second; much longer than a true flash of light would've lasted, but still a very short time. One weird aspect was that their length had been reached almost instantly, and then the entire 'flash' had persisted where it was for the quarter second, as if it'd been a frozen there. But somehow I could still sense that whatever the flashes were, they were still flowing in the directions I'd sensed. I guess like fountain of water can flow upward but also appear to be suspended.

It's taken several paragraphs to describe my initial impression from that fraction of a second. My very first reaction to the shock of the flashes was to jerk my head to my left to look at the flash shooting out of that shoulder. The instant I started turned my head another flash flew out of the left side of my face, which caused me to jerk my head back in shock. Instantly the flash going out the left of my face ceased and a new flash shot out of the back of my head. That's another proof that my new sense wasn't sight, as I obviously couldn't see the flash going straight backward from the back of my head.

Then all the remaining flashes disappeared.

I was still jerking my head back, and I automatically resumed its left turn to look behind me to see if I could see the last flash. Stupid in hindsight, but I'd had no time to think about any of this. I saw nothing, with either my eyes or any other sense.

I quickly looked all around me, and saw nothing. I looked at my nearest neighbor, sitting maybe six feet away. She was looking at me with some curiosity, but not a great deal. Probably because of my sudden head jerks, I thought. She wasn't reacting the way she should have if she'd seen weird flashes. No one was. I was sitting behind the Aikido students but those at the end of the row would have seen the flashes out of the corner of their eyes, there were a few other spectators sitting along the same wall that I was, and Sensei was roughly facing me, but none of them reacted as if they'd seen something strange.