Liz and Mia have not yet met them, having been out of town on a special family vacation. The class began with the normal warm-up period. The students practiced punches and kicks. They split into groups to work on katas. The class moved to a time of sparring practice, fighting practice. Liz and Mia have shown good aptitude in all the forms they have learned in the year they have attended the karate sessions.
Today, Liz paired up with one of the newer students, Tom, one of the twins. Tom is not a complete novice to sparring, having benefited from many years of wrestling and tussling with his brother Bill.
A shout. Time to line up for some focused practice. Because of his larger size and greater physical strength Tom was clearly surprised that he was not able to outright win the sparring contest with the girl. While true he was careful not to hurt her, he had definitely wanted to best the girl in the match. After class was over, Tom made a point to go over and talk with this interesting person.>
“Hi, I’m Tommy. I mean, I’m Tom,” said Tom. “You’re pretty strong-
Liz squinted a little at him. “If you finish that with ... strong for a girl ... I’m going to clobber you.”
Tom smiled a little at that but then he decided she might be serious. “No, that’s okay. I’ll stick with, you’re pretty, and you’re strong. I mean, you’re pretty strong. Just strong, not just for a girl strong. Well, you are a girl...” Tom decided the conversation wasn’t going very well. “I mean ... uh ... this is my brother Bill. We just moved to the area. From out of state.”
Mia had been monitoring the conversation and came to the conclusion she should help out a bit. Bill had wandered over and was standing there with his mouth open just a little, eyes wide, no doubt glad he hadn’t said anything. Mia stepped up and touched knuckles with Bill. “Hi. I’m Mia.” She touched knuckles with Tom and smiled. She nodded her head toward Liz. “This is my sister Liz. She can be a little cranky until she gets her after-practice snack.”
Liz glared daggers at Mia for a second. Then she smiled a bright smile. Tom looked like he thought the entire room had gotten brighter. He was about to say something but decided he should probably rub a smudge off of the floor with his foot instead.
Liz looked from Tom to Bill and then back again. Identical. They looked exactly the same. They must have a lot of fun with that. Think of the tricks they could play on people. “New around here, huh? Where do you guys live? Maybe we can all hang out sometime.”
Their grandad smiled as he put his WalkMate away and strolled up to the group. He had met Tom and Bill’s dad while the kids were practicing. Their dad seemed a decent sort. They had recently moved into the mobile home park down the block from the girls’ neighborhood. Tom and Bill’s dad had run out on a quick errand and would be back in a minute. Tee took the time to get acquainted with Tom and Bill. It was hard to not like these boys. He wondered where this might end.
END TIMELINE DROP. +
***
After what feels like a long day of surfing, I’ll wrap up with a brief update on other events. What’s this? A Timeline Drop? This doesn’t seem like a normal Drop at all. Communal, I see your name on the Drop. Communal! Do you know anything about this?
*COMMUNAL: Happy birthday Viz! We were rummaging around and found the recording. Tee loaded it to an old cloud storage site, from a vintage WalkMate. We wanted to surprise you. Surprise!
Tee? Oh, I get it. The Drop has a recording by Grandad, of when Para and I first met Rock and Roll. At the dojo. Oh Communal. You’re such a sentimental. I can’t wait to show everyone. Wait, the vid is attached too? That should be fun.
“Para, you’ve got to come and see this!”
Para and I watched the recording together. Eight years! Hard to believe. Thank you Communal, that was a lot of fun!
Para agreed. “Their expressions are precious. Oh, do you remember when you could make the twins totally shut up just by raising your eyebrow?”
Viz’ memory was kicking in too. “Or how you could stop them in their tracks by putting your hands on your hips and tapping your foot?”
Para nodded. “Yeah, too bad all of that stopped working. We could have kept them out of so much trouble.”
Ha! A good end to the day.
***
DARKEST BEFORE DAWN
*COMMUNAL: Later that evening, after threading-the-needle, Roll went off by himself. He usually felt wonderful after a day of surfing. Viz had scolded the twins about romping around the Solar System. What if the bugs saw them? It was more than that though. There was so much happening so quickly. Lack of sleep probably wasn’t helping. Really, little things seemed to bother him now more than they used to.
He had found a secluded spot near the beach in Donkey Stream Park. No one bothered him there. He pulled out a bottle of 90 proof whisky. Half left. He took a long pull. Or half gone. It’s all about how you look at things. He was sure it was the brand of whisky his mom used to drink. Roll wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. This was an anniversary of sorts. A sad anniversary. Thirteen years since his mom had left. They never heard from her again.
Worldwide invasion. Planning for an interstellar war. Here he was, excess baggage Roll, a Shockwave operative. And he didn’t know where his mom was; or if she was even still alive. He
