I clicked the clicker on the end of the pen as I thought of what to write.
An evil grin spread across my lips as I began to write. I stuck the card in the envelope, licked it shut, and headed out, digging the key to Erin’s house out of my key ring, and quietly unlocked the front door. I wanted to try and surprise her, and hoped I wouldn’t scare the crap out of her in the process.
I closed the front door behind me, listening to try and figure out where Erin was, and what she was doing. I could hear the television in her bedroom, and could almost see her there, sitting up in bed, leaning against the headboard, reading glasses on, and a book in her hands. The TV would be unwatched, turned on merely for noise in the background.
I made my way up the stairs, gifts in hand. Stopping in the hallway, I peeked around the open bedroom door. Yup, she was so predictable. I could even see the book title from where I stood. I hadn’t realized she read Danielle Steele, but each to her own.
If I wanted to I could probably just walk right over to the bed. When Erin read, she was gone from this world. I decided instead to take the Rambo approach. I jumped in the doorway with a loud cry, and lunged at the bed. I grinned at Erin’s scream as I landed on top of her.
'Goddamn it, Andi! You sacred the living shit out of me!' She began to beat on my butt as I laughed.
'Well, good. I wouldn’t want you to have any dead shit in there.'
'Yeah, funny. Why’d you do that?' I pushed myself up onto my arms and looked into her face. I shrugged.
'I wanted to surprise you.'
'Well, you certainly did that.' She grinned, bringing her hands up, running her fingers through my hair.
'Here.' I showed her the flowers, and handed her the card. 'Surprise.'
'Oh, Andi.' Erin’s face fell, her large brown eyes turning into the epitome of the puppy dog look. That always made me melt. She quickly ripped into the card, chuckling at the picture on the front, and then opening it to read what I had written. She looked at me over the top of it, an eyebrow raised. 'You want to do that, huh?' She lowered the card, leaning forward so she was mere inches from me. 'Thank you, baby. And I agree.' She placed her hands on either side of my face, and leaned in. 'I say we try that. What about you?' My eyes wandered down Erin’s face, resting on her lips.
'I’m game.'
I slammed my Jeep’s door closed, tugging the strap of my bag higher onto my shoulder. I had just left the Clinic, and was now headed into the dojang that I had belonged to for nearly a decade. Sabum Nim Kyung had decided to retire, and so I had left. This dojang was much closer to my house, anyway. It would have been crazy to drive two towns over for practice every Saturday. And, it was only about fifteen minutes away from Mayo.
It was Wednesday night, and my Sabum Nim now had asked me to take over his class as he was at a championship. I taught the Saturday morning class, but figured tonight would be fun. I needed a break in my week. We had another serious case checked into the hospital yesterday afternoon. A young woman, reminding me a lot of Hannah Blackwell. Unfortunately, for some reason, we were finding that women who spent their younger years in a climate like ours, cold and harsh, were more susceptible to MS. It was a startling find, and certainly didn’t hold much hope for our people here.
Hannah Blackwell was twenty-seven, younger than me, and got worse day by day. She had been diagnosed at age twenty-two, and had done well for about three to four years, then it had hit like an explosion. She could no longer walk now, and most days some part of her body was paralyzed all together.
Since I had begun to visit her on a regular basis, I was becoming more aware of what an actual patient went through, and not just a textbook or test tube. It was making my work that much more important to me, seeing what effect it had on real people who suffered daily.
I unlocked the door to the building, flipping on lights as I went. I always tried to get to class anywhere from an hour to a half hour before the students arrived.
Dropping my bag on the desk in the office, I dug out my dobok and ti, headed to the bathroom to change, though at first I just wore the pants and a tank. I preferred to do my warm-ups as comfortable as possible. Back in the office, I closed my eyes, raising my arms up above my head, breathing in deep, feeling my body come to order, my focus shining in on itself as I closed the outside world out.
Slowly I made my way to my knees, raising my face to the ceiling, taking slow, healthy deep breaths, filling my lungs, then slowly emptying them. Over and over I did this, finally getting deeper into the meditation as I sat down fully. I could feel every muscle in my body ready itself, every sense becoming sharper and sharper until they could cut like a knife.
I had kept up with my yoga all these years, too. Sometimes that was the only thing that would relax me after an eighteen hour day in the lab, bent over a microscope or slides all day. In fact, I still had more work to do once I got home. I had a laptop that was connected to our computers at work, and helped me keep an eye on levels and results.
I blew out one last breath, my eyes slowly opening. It was always so strange after I finished; I was always so disoriented and almost confused. I looked around, seeing the office furniture, the ancient computer that Sabum Nim Sasung used to keep track of his students and payment, and of course, a giant poster of our fearless leader when we was younger, looking remarkably like Bruce Lee.
With one final breath, I stood, and headed out to the main part of the studio. Now for my warm-up. I headed to the far wall where a bar was mounted, and began to stretch. I smiled as I remembered one time I had come to class without stretching, just coming from an early morning meeting at work, and didn’t have time. I figured I’d be fine. What was one time?
I couldn’t walk for a week.
Did I ever learn a valuable lesson. Stretching my legs as far as they could go. Slowly going down into the splits, my hands resting neatly on my thighs, I bounced a couple times, then brought myself back up, startled by the feel of fingers on my shoulder.
My immediate response and instinct was to swing. I did, and to my surprise, my strike was stopped and countered. I turned, even more surprised to see Haley standing there, a smug look on her face. My eyes traveled down to see she wore a dobok, a black belt holding it together.
'Nice block.'
'Thanks. Nice try.' I smiled.
'When are you going to learn not to sneak up on a warrior?' She cocked her head to the side.
'Twelve years?'
'What are you doing here?' I continued to stretch, and Haley began to join me.
'I’m here for class. I come every Wednesday night. What are you doing here?'
'I’m playing teacher tonight.'
'Ah, so you’re who Sabum Nim got, huh?' I nodded. 'I thought you went to a dojang in Winston?'
'I did, for many years. Sabum Nim retired, and I was here in Rochester, so this seemed the practical thing to do. I notice you’ve been at this for some time.' I had seen the three gold bars on her ti. She nodded, smiling proudly.
'Yup. Someone got me hooked when I was still in high school.' I grinned.
'Imagine that.'
'When I found out there was a dojang not far from campus in L.A., I started up.' I stopped stretching, and turned to her, touched.
'That’s wonderful, Haley. I’m so glad you stuck with it. And just maybe someday you’ll be as good as I am.' She looked at me, incredulous. I grinned at her, evil and sly.
'You want a piece of me, Littman?'
'You’re on, Corregan.'
Let the sparring begin!
We moved out to the middle of the mats, both keeping a wary eye on the other, waiting for her to make the next move. I sensed the punch coming before I saw it, and turned, effectively blocking with my leg, then trying to knock her down. She saw it coming, and jumped back. We circled each other, neither daring to take their eyes off for even a second. Solid blow to my side, which I reimbursed with a flip. Haley didn’t stay on the mat for long. She jumped up and away.
