Taj's Early Years

by Lotta Bangs

  Chapter 25

  Expanding the Curriculum

  The students reached sixth dan black belt in all three karate styles halfway into the second session.

  “Okay, class, you’re all cleverer than I expected. As I’m only teaching the kata, you will all need to have further classes to learn to spar, to strengthen your muscles and bones, increase your pain tolerance and to use your own judgment occasionally. Any dojo can handle that.

  “Now I’m torn between teaching you the wealth of kata in Shitō-ryū, several of which were specifically designed for women's self-defense and Keysi do which used to be called the Keysi Fighting Method.

  “Keysi is not a karate style. It is based on dirty, no rules, street fighting and is the method used in the Mission Impossible and the Nolan Batman films. Of course in the movies, it is choreographed and all the moves are spread wide apart and stretched out to look more effective. However, once mastered, practitioners really can defend themselves against 5, 10, 20 or more attackers, even when surrounded, though it’s always preferable to have one’s back against a wall.

  “Like Gōjū-ryū it is very effective for in-close fighting. It makes a weapon of every part that the body can wield quickly in a small space: fists, head, knees, and most importantly, the elbows, though almost no kicks are used, so you retain a solid footing.

  “Unfortunately, I can’t teach you the speed you’ll also need to handle it expertly. That comes only after long practice. Though, considering how rapidly you all developed speed in savate, we might do as well.

  “Shitō-ryū would be of most benefit for those of you not interested in attending a dojo for years. You can still stay fit and limber by regularly practicing several kata in private or with your children.

  “So make a choice: more kata or street fighting? Show of hands for more kata, please.”

  Maggie announced that Shitō-ryū had won around three-fifths of the votes, so we started immediately. Again we finished early, so I had the students pair up and spar, mixing the moves as if really attacking and defending.

  It felt good to have given the class an unexpected bonus.

  * * *

  The fourth day was devoted to Brazilian Jui-Jitsu, Judo and Jujutsu. My teachers had all become expert at these recently, so divided and took over the class, which would need more space to handle the throws.

  Everyone was taught the new locks which Paul and I had invented. These mostly used nerve pinches which numbed the limb and made it inoperative. They could be made tighter to bring extreme pain to an attacker, yet caused no lasting harm.

  Some nerve pinches caused agonizing muscle cramps which effectively paralyzed the limb but had no side-effects. We also used minor but still painful finger, elbow and shoulder joint dislocations, instead of the major knee, neck, wrist and ankle ones which can often cause severe injuries, no matter how highly qualified the practitioner.

  Practicing several varieties of yoga most of my life had made me a yogini with extreme flexibility. I had learnt to dislocate each of my joints easily while disassociating myself from the pain, so dislocations were no longer uncomfortable for me. However, I had been extremely careful when teaching the technique to Paul and Armando so as not to hurt them unduly.

  It offended my sense of propriety that anyone should dislocate joints in competitions and in training. Muggers and other assailants deserved pain and damage, fellow martial artists did not.

  * * *

  My other teachers and most of the holidayers were teaching savate around the clock to more staggered groups of incoming new students. The night teachers had concentrated on the first two session savate classes, so all savate third sessions were held in combined classes of 5-8,000 when I could drop in on them.

  I handled the accumulated groups that had already done three savate sessions, limiting the class to 12,600. Paul and the four new women helped.

  Paul and I also checked on each of the many staggered savate classes during the day while my lady helpers continued teaching karate kata. That had become quick and easy now the students understood the breakthrough principle.

  Again the class completed the sixth dan kata in each karate style early. This lot chose the street fighting, so I taught that to my assistants and the class.

  As usual, Paul owned each kata as soon as he’d seen me make the moves, but Gemina was there on the second repeat and the other three ladies only needed three repeats, as did most of the class. I was quite eager to see how much faster the students would learn in the much bigger class I could accommodate in the French dojo.

  We had almost two full sessions to fill. Keysi was a style which had never been put in kata before, though it was always taught in a series of moves. But everyone was picking it up so rapidly, I was sure this teaching method would be successful. The corresponding bunkai oyo also were learnt before the second session was over, so I left my three ladies to supervise the class and asked everyone to practice sparring the kata and relevant attack forms alternately in pairs.

  * * *

  Again savate students in the three leading classes had made innovations that I fitted into more kata and attack combinations, which they learnt quickly. I sent an assistant to each of the other savate classes to pass on the new routines.

  Again I hired the eight innovative ladies as aides. This time, three of the men who had invented new moves as well, asked if they also could work with me for a while to gain more expertise, so I took them on too.

  After a delayed meal break we returned to my Keysi class. By this time all the students understood how to control and pull their moves to touch, not hurt. In the third session I wanted them to progress to free sparring, acting out being attacked in a street fight by two to four assailants. We got them started and again left them to the ladies.

  * * *

  My new recruits were fascinated by Keysi and had already picked up a few interesting moves they saw the students making, often achieving perfect form in these. That was interesting, but I had a schedule to keep so couldn’t spend time investigating the process.

  I took all my new helpers to the JJ classes. Exciting things had happened here. We had five BJJ masters who had stayed together. Seeing Julius invent new moves in savate had enthused them. My putting most of the BJJ and JJ moves into kata, inspired them to look at their well-known field from a different viewpoint.

  They had made new discoveries and were astounded by their previously untapped creative talents.

  Julius spoke to my new male workers, then came over.

  “Taj, you’ve inspired us old fellows and turned our musty routines upside down and inside out. Your youthful vigor is rubbing off on us. We feel rejuvenated by what you’ve taught us and want to learn more.

  “We wish to apprentice as your assistants as long as you stay in Buenos Aires. You don’t even have to pay us. We’ll happily work for free.”

  “Okay Julius, but like all my assistants, you’ll get free meals. You can all join in as long as you wear your master’s belts at every session. Being in authority over a bunch of masters should do wonders for my reputation, not to mention my self-esteem. I’m sure Paul will pull me back in line if I throw my weight about too heavily.”

  I grinned cheekily at Paul, who returned a stern frown.

  I checked out all their innovations and composed a kata and complement to fit them together. We taught these to both classes, then the new savate kata too.

  Back again in my Keysi class, I discovered my ladies, recently cowed and browbeaten, still so new to martial arts, had done far better than expected. They and the class had invented twenty-six brilliant innovations and already set them into two smooth kata and reciprocal combinations with a few known joining moves. We were very proud of them.

  * * *

  The new arrangement was leaked to the media—I hadn’t banned cell phones, but warned that I would not be responsible for any that were damaged during sparring.

  Again we were inundated with paparazzi and TV news crews.<
br />
  I’m usually polite to reporters, no matter how inane some of their questions, but one woman asked: “Isn’t it true that you’re not really a child at all, but a thirty-year-old midget?”

  I came back with a straight face, deepening my voice: “Sprung! I knew I couldn’t keep that secret forever. But you have the age incorrect. I’m only twenty-six. No young woman would admit to being thirty. And we prefer to be called ‘little people’, thank you.”

  The twit didn’t detect my sarcasm and actually ran that story. I was the butt of annoying non-PC midget jokes for months afterwards.

  * * *

  Most of the reporters were from sports media and knew about BJJ. There was a lot of speculation about whether the controlling family would relax their stringent age rules for me.

  I had greatly increased the number of effective moves in the field and discovered less vicious locks which could be used in all the other martial arts. I had not only defeated one of their masters, but proved all the vaunted BJJ locks ineffective against me.

  Also, despite BJJ’s slow careful promotion system resulting in their having excellent teachers, each of the current masters admitted that my fighting and teaching skills were superior to theirs.

  I lapped up all these articles and unfortunately started believing my publicity. Even thought my officially being sixty-one years short of the age requirement would be no real impediment to my being made a master of BJJ. I definitely set myself up for a fall there.

  * * *

  We soon settled into a routine, alternating Keysi and Shitō-ryū, then added Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do, Kung Fu, Israel’s Krav Maga and Aikido as further choices which kept my assistants interested. I continued accepting innovators as aides and they all developed into brilliant teachers.

  The ladies continued to pour in at an average fifteen hundred a day. We fitted them all in comfortably. Maggie was happy with the number that almost immediately moved to Galen, though most eased their way in slowly, usually propelled by the benefits visible in their children.

  The clients slowed somewhat to three thousand new starters daily.

  * * *

  Paul and I developed a little quiet time routine before bed. Since moving in with Fermina, I had taken care of my hands and cuticles every evening.

  Because of his delicate skin, Paul had a real problem with hangnails tearing deep into his flesh, so when he noticed how easily I razored mine off at the root, had asked for help with his. The deep tears required disinfecting and Magic-gluing to prevent their tearing further. After the initial work, I checked his hands at the close of each day, removing or gluing incipient cuticle tears before they became a problem.

  Both of us enjoyed the comforting, non-erotic touching this involved. I taught him also to use cuticle remover nightly, to rub in cuticle oil or petroleum jelly to feed the cuticles, to push them back and keep his cuticles flexible.

  I had always kept my nails quite short and unpainted. Paul said I had beautiful hands and complimented me on the shape of my long nail beds.

  “They would look lovely if you grew them a little longer and wore pink polish,” he suggested.

  So I did grow them for a few weeks and filed them into an oval shape. Paul bought me several bottles of enamel in soft colors, base and top coats and painted them for me. He did a good job and they did look pretty.

  Soon Lorna grew her nails too and allowed Paul to paint them, though she preferred stronger colors. Ron joined us to take better care of his hands and the other Evans girls and assistants followed.

  After all, our hands were constantly on display as we taught and adjusted people’s stances, so it looked more professional to keep them nicely groomed.

  Chapter 26

  Enlarging my Empire

  Galen’s boffins tested all the Evans sisters, determining that they produced a pheromone counteracting Paul’s, but only in his company. This proved simple to synthesize and was added to a spray deodorant for him. Problem solved.

  Maggie also located Don and presented him with the ‘cure’. She even managed to get a list of all his siblings, his children and their whereabouts.

  Surprisingly, only a third of his offspring were male. There were four other Evans sons around the critical age.

  Most of the holidayers, now fully qualified and expert teachers, had to return to work at their day jobs within the next fortnight. They took all the new kata back with them to teach at their home dojos.

  Armando also returned. The teachers who had been keeping things going in the three US dojos were rewarded with a working holiday in Buenos Aires as assistants to update their skills.

  Armando visited the older Evans boys and presented them with certificates for free tuition at any of my dojos. Two, Ian and Cory, decided to come to Buenos Aires, where they proved equal in ability to Ron. Younger Evans siblings, including the sheriff’s ten-year-old daughter Amylou, were also roped in for lessons the same way.

  * * *

  Emil stayed with us a fortnight, learning all he could and courting Lorna, then also had to return to France, by the informal Maggie method again.

  Maggie decided that she needed more gathering centers for abused women, so found me two likely sites in the US and one each in Peru, Brazil and Mexico to purchase. There she put up dojo towers and their adjacent buildings.

  Not surprisingly, the first new US dojo was sited in the town where Don Evans had made his new home. And the other was near Don’s family home where he had many siblings, nieces and nephews. So I now had bases in three US southern states.

  I sent Violet and an Evans daughter to run one, and two Evans girls to supervise the other for me with Ron liaising between us.

  I asked Julius if he wanted to run one of my dojos. He chose the one in Brazil, so that was the next to open. Lorna had already requested to work in the French dojo, so I sent her to both the US ones before they opened and then the Brazil dojo to learn how things were organized at the start-up. Maggie set up a bronze bust there with a giant photo of Julius laughing as I held him in the air.

  I and most of my assistants spent ten days in Brazil getting everything running smoothly and finding and training new local innovators to assist Julius.

  * * *

  I even managed to spend three days with Fermina, who appeared a little off-color. Her fridge and pantry were almost empty, so Paul and I went grocery shopping and together cooked up a storm, showing off our culinary talents. I enjoy cooking as long as I don’t have to do it three times a day, every day. Paul had some interesting specialties and didn’t leave the kitchen in a mess.

  I’ve always disliked reheating frozen meals, so the newest Galen preserving system suited me fine. I had bought four of their hampers which we packed with weeks’ worth of hot meals and fresh salads for her. These hampers kept food in perfect ready-to-eat condition. There was a nearby Galen shop where Duarte could have the hampers restocked. I’d never known him to cook so they would be a boon for him. The Galen food containers didn’t pollute either—they simply returned to Galen as soon as emptied.

  Paul drove us to the gym for a swim each day. Fermina tired easily and couldn’t swim as many laps as before, though she was doing it more slowly. I scolded her for getting unfit. She promised to look after herself better.

  Duarte didn’t think there was any problem. “Fermina’s fine, Alessandra. She has seen a doctor and he told her it was just the Change which happens to all women. He thought, never having borne a child has made it harder for her as she’s mourning the last possibility of ever conceiving one.

  “Besides, you’re just comparing her to the super fit people you associate with.”

  That made me laugh. “Duarte, at the moment my dojos are full of harassed, worn out women trying to build new lives after escaping an abusive relationship. They’re far from super fit.”

  “Fermina does look peaked to me too,” said Paul. “Take her to another doctor for a full physical and if he finds nothing, try a naturopath who could chec
k her for a nutritional deficiency. She may have been careless about her diet without Taj here to cook for.”

  Paul and I had prepared the fancy multicourse dinner we were sharing and Fermina was eating all I served her. I had learnt all my cooking expertise from Fermina, who had always been meticulous about meals being correctly balanced, especially including all the necessary proteins. It didn’t seem likely that she would suddenly drop the habits of a lifetime and stop eating properly.

  I was also very surprised that Duarte would mention such a private feminine event as menopause. I doubted Fermina would have discussed the subject with him and she hadn’t defended herself in any way during our conversation, keeping her eyes down on her plate.

  That doctor must have been old school—blaming a woman’s unwellness on ‘feminine problems’ was an easy out for a patronizing medico too lazy to investigate properly.

  Paul and Fermina did the dishes afterwards so I saw Duarte out. I needed to have a few private words with him.

  “Duarte, I don’t understand why Fermina can pilot her boat a great distance, but won’t drive a car. Every time I try to discuss it, she changes the subject. Do you know?”

  “Yes, Alessandra. It’s no secret. Fermina was at the wheel when her husband had the stroke. She drove him to a hospital in such a panic that she crashed into an ambulance there. Fortunately it was empty so nobody else was hurt, but Bernaldo had a second stroke from the shock and died minutes later despite attempts to resuscitate him. Fermina hasn’t driven since.”

  “That’s sad. Thanks for explaining. Tell me, was the doctor who saw Fermina familiar with her history?”

  “Oh yes, he was the family doctor. Bernaldo always went to him.”

  “Well, I believe in getting a second opinion. I’ll make a list of well recommended doctors and naturopaths in the area and hope you’ll ensure she sees a few until we get a full physical check and a better diagnosis. Okay?”

  “Certainly. I’m glad you care enough to make sure of her health.”

  “Of course I care. She’s my mother.”

  * * *

  I had carved a bust of Emil, trying to make him look fierce, but he was a naturally soft-hearted guy and currently too gooey with love for that to work. I made another of him pretending to look aggrieved as he complained to Julius about my ridiculing him, but again that had too much humor in it. My third effort depicted him at the moment he realized during our bout that I was toying with him. That worked best.