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My Dilemma
Fiction by Roger Lacroix
Jake was in front of me. Armstrong
was behind me to my left. Billy
was behind me to my right. These
punks had been pestering me for three weeks.
It had finally come to a showdown.
What had I done to deserve this?
I have been training
in Tae Kwon Do for two years. I
felt good in my training. I
felt that I could take care of myself in most situations.
Jake, Armstrong and I were all high school seniors. Billy was
just a tag-a-long wimp. I don’t know what year he was in.
I had bought into
the whole Martial Arts philosophy.
I would never be in a real fight unless I was in danger and
felt that I could not escape. Even
though I trained hard and prepared for deadly combat, I never expected
to be in a real fight. Believe
me, it is at times like this that I wish I had trained harder.
It is at times like this that I wondered why I had attended a
“Family School.” I
should have attended one of the hard-core schools.
When you study
Martial Arts, the public breaks down into two categories: those people
who will never give you any trouble and those people who try to prove
something. They want to
beat you up or try to intimidate you.
Jake fell into the second category.
Armstrong was Jake’s shadow and Billy was just a wimp who
would follow anyone that accepted him.
Jake was a very
athletic guy who was three inches taller and weighed about 20 pounds
more than me. He was
known for his aggressiveness and had been in several fights.
Armstrong was almost exactly my size and weight.
He was not really known as a fighter but I do know that last
month, Armstrong had jumped into one of Jake’s fights when Jake was
losing. And most worrying
to me was that Armstrong said that he had enjoyed the fight.
Billy… no one worried about Billy.
Billy was just a wimp, my only concern with him would be that
he might trip me while I was fighting the other two.
Should I run?
Should I bug out? After
all, that is what we are taught!
Avoid trouble, run away if you can!
Strangely, I felt that option was no good this time.
The three punks were in a triangle around me.
If I ran and got tripped I would be dead meat.
My only chance was to stay on my feet.
If I ran this time, I felt my problems would be worse next
time.
I was reliving a
lesson that I had learned many times before.
You see, even before beginning Tae Kwon Do, I was a pacifist; I
would do almost anything to avoid a fight.
Most people respect this and think that I am cool.
However, there is a small class of people who see pacifists as
easy targets and somebody to prey upon.
Jake was one of these.
Why had Jake
targeted me at this particular time?
I think that it went back to a pickup basketball game last
month. We were playing a
“friendly” game at the playground.
I was covering Jake, and I was totally outclassed.
There weren’t any referees in the game so we were calling our
own fouls. Unfortunately
for Jake, he was having a bad game and couldn’t score even one
basket. Since Jake is the kind of guy who has to win, he started
cheating. Every time that
Jake missed his shot, he claimed that I had fouled him and he demanded
that I call a foul on myself. If
I called a foul on myself then his team would get the ball back.
I wouldn’t call a foul on myself because since he couldn’t
hit a basket, I was playing way off of him and there was no way that I
had fouled him. Jake knew
he couldn’t call the foul himself, because everyone on both teams
would laugh at him. So Jake did what he could to intimidate me.
He instantly got violently angry and acted as though there
would be a fight unless I called a foul on myself.
(Anyone who has played pickup basketball with a self-described
superstar who is having a bad day knows what I mean).
We almost fought right there.
Well, I can’t
change the past, so I had better think about the present.
We were in what I call the stare down phase.
The three were taunting me almost as if they thought that I
might start crying. The ground was loose gravel.
I had to be careful not to lose my balance. I would keep my kicks to a minimum. Tae Kwon Do is known for its high kicks to the head.
I resolved not to try to kick high.
Martial Artists are
not supposed to start fights.
However, they are allowed to make the first move if a fight is
unavoidable. Who should I
go for first? I didn’t
have time for a lot of analysis.
There were two main considerations.
I’d feel a lot better fighting only two people rather than
three. Billy was the guy that I knew I could put out of the fight
immediately. Secondly, my
most devastating and reliable technique was a Spinning Back Fist with
my right hand. Billy was
in perfect position. Even
at this moment, Billy was babbling meaningless taunts and was
completely unaware of the danger that he was in.
How could I nail
Billy? Billy was like a
mosquito. He was an
annoyance but little more. Billy
was hanging around with the wrong crowd.
He was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
However, Billy was a danger to me because of the group that he
was with. Billy would be
first! My next major
problem was how hard should I hit him?
At my school we practiced point sparring.
We intentionally hit our sparring partners with very little
force; just enough to demonstrate contact.
I have to remember that this isn’t point sparring.
I have to hit hard! My
instructor taught me that I should use only enough power to do the
job! But how much is
enough? How much is
enough when you are facing three attackers!
Are they going to beat me severely or kill me? I think I have to assume the worst.
What if I totally
clobber these guys? Am I
going to be in trouble? Doesn’t
every bully who loses a fight claim that it was he who was attacked or
that he was just kidding? Jake
had a very sinister look on his face.
OK..…FULL POWER!!
I couldn’t judge time. We
had been in a stand off for maybe a few minutes.
It felt like hours. I
could feel my strength draining out of me.
My instructor says that I should stay “relaxed” while I
fight. How can I be
relaxed when three guys want to kill me?
It must be a skill that requires more training.
In any case, with
two people behind me that I could barely see, I felt that time was on
their side. I felt that I
had to make my move soon. I
issued my first warning “I feel like I am in danger!”
This warning was met with gales of fake laughter.
I had to make plans.
I would lead to
Billy with a Spinning Back Fist with my right hand.
I was taught never to use just one technique; always use
combinations. I would
follow up with a Reverse Punch and a Front Kick.
Then I would turn to Armstrong.
If he were rushing in, I would give him a Sidekick followed by
a Back Fist or a Horizontal Elbow.
If he held back, I would close the distance with a Stepping
Sidekick. If he backed
up, I would turn and run. This
was as far ahead as seemed reasonable to plan.
I would have to use my instincts and training from there.
I assumed a Parallel
Ready Stance and issued my final warning “I feel like I am in danger
and I can’t escape!” …….A sickening quiet fell upon our group.
Jake knew something dreadful might happen.
Billy was clueless. Electricity
was in the air. I felt
like my body was gathering up energy from the universe.
I turned my head
toward Billy. I raised my arms. I
stepped toward him. I began my hip rotation.
I was having a compressed time experience. Everything seemed to be in super slow motion.
I had planned to hit Billy so hard that even if he tried to
block my Back Fist, I would blow right through his block and still
take him out. But he was
just standing there! He
hadn’t even begun to react! I
was in danger of killing him. I
tried to pull back but it was too late.
There was a sickening thud from Billy’s head.
I felt unclean. My
Reverse Punch went out automatically but Billy’s head was gone.
Billy crashed to the ground about four feet away.
I wondered if I had broken Billy’s neck and fractured his
skull. Hell with him. That’s his problem. My
problem was Jake and Armstrong!
I turned toward
Armstrong. He hadn’t
begun to react either. Since
my back was to Jake, I did a stance change to make it easier to watch
him. I was back into
normal time. I moved
toward Armstrong hoping to catch him with a Stepping Sidekick.
Armstrong prepared himself and Jake took two steps toward me. I maintained my stance but moved my arms more toward Jake.
This left my head totally exposed to Armstrong.
Jake yelled, “knock his head off.”
Armstrong was the perfect follower and immediately came toward
me hoping to end the fight with one tremendous right hand punch to my
head. I intentionally
left my head uncovered to encourage him.
Armstrong closed
rapidly but I had a surprise. I
slid forward. I rotated
my hips into a Walking Stance while simultaneously blocking his punch
with a High Outer Forearm and delivering a Horizontal Elbow to his
head. Armstrong crumbled
like a rag doll. He would
not be a factor in the fight. I
had taken a big chance. I
might have messed up and lost the fight right then.
However, with Jake hovering about, it was worth the chance to
get Armstrong out of the fight.
Jake looked totally
confused as I moved toward him. In
ten seconds, two of his friends were out, possibly dead!
Jake hadn’t even considered this possibility.
I knew he wanted to run. If
Jake did run, he would never be able to show his face in school again.
“Honor” was very important to Jake.
I also considered running at this point. But I didn’t want to turn my back on Jake if he still had
fight left in him. My
right hand started to ache.
Jake got into a
crouch. This meant two
things: he couldn’t kick and he wanted to turn this fight into a
wrestling match. I
wasn’t really worried about Jake kicking me but I was scared to
death of wrestling with him. Jake was stronger than I was and he was also heavier than I
was. One of the things
that I do not like about Tae Kwon Do in a “Family School” is that
we never practice ground fighting.
“Pete”
Jake adopted a
menacing look and wanted to charge.
I wasn’t sure what to do.
If I got him just right with a kick the fight would be over. But if I missed, the fight would also be over with me the
loser. Jake crouched very
low. I rushed forward and
kicked the ground in front of him.
A little bit of sand flew into Jake’s eyes.
He could still see but was obviously uncomfortable.
I began to circle around Jake kicking at his knees. Jake knew that a good kick to his knee would end his sports
career forever. He became
purely defensive. Jake
desperately wanted the fight to be over.
“Pete!”
I decided that it
was time to go. I told
Jake that his friends needed medical care and that he had better
arrange for it. I bolted. Jake did not follow. The
fight was over.
“Pete!!….Line up!”
What had I done?
Had I killed two people? Were
the police going to come for me?
Had I made enemies for life?
I wanted to see my mother.
She would know what to do!
“PETE!!!…LINE UP!!”
I came to.
What? Huh? I was at my
Tae Kwon Do school. The
students had lined up to start class.
They had left an open spot for me in the front row.
I must have been in some kind of dream.
Boy, was I glad to leave that fighting behind!
I took my place. The
class began.
Bow to the flags!
Bow to the instructor!
Bow to the black belts!
I just wasn’t in the mood for training and asked my instructor to be
excused from class. I
went to the changing room and said a prayer of thanks.
Roger Lacroix, contact: Roger@stationhill.com
Copyright 2000 Roger Lacroix
Reviews and comments requested
Posted 12/05/2000
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