Day of the Dragon

by Matt Christopher

  He was just getting good at side kicking when Sifu Hale changed the exercise again. “This time, I’ll call out different combinations of punches and kicks. Start each combination from the horse-riding stance, and do the best you can. Ready?”

  “Yes, sifu!”

  “Right punch! Right kick!”

  Which is my right? Which is my right? Mark thought frantically. He flailed an arm and a leg on the same side of his body, hoping he’d picked the correct ones.

  Sifu Hale continued to call out different combinations. First, he paired punches and kicks. But soon he started calling for three moves in a row, then four. By the end, Mark and the others were doing five moves. Mark barely had time to think about what his body was doing before it was time to begin the next set.

  Finally, Sifu Hale clapped his hands. “You’ve all done a fine job today,” he said. He led them through some stretches again, then asked them to sit on the floor. “Each class ends with a short session of meditation. Close your eyes, cross your legs, take deep breaths, and relax.”

  Mark did as he was told.

  “Before our next class, practice what we learned today,” Sifu Hale said. “And think about something.” He paused before going on. “In class today, some of you thought it was funny when a fellow student made a mistake.”

  Mark’s heart started to pound. He’s talking about when I fell!

  “But let me ask you,” Sifu Hale said quietly. “How would you have felt if you were the one being laughed at?”

  The kwoon was silent except for the sounds of breathing.

  “Respect for your fellow students’ feelings is very important. Show them respect, and they’ll show you respect. Remember,” Sifu Hale added, “you may be the next one to make a mistake.”

  After class, Mark found it hard to look the other students in the eye. They probably hate me for getting them in trouble, he thought. But as he was about to leave, one of the students, a girl named Angie, tugged on his sleeve.

  “Mark,” she said. “I’m really sorry I laughed.” “That’s okay,” Mark replied. “I’m used to it. My friends laugh at my clumsiness all the time.”

  Angie frowned. “Doesn’t that bug you?” “Sometimes,” Mark answered truthfully.

  “Maybe you should tell them,” Angie said.

  Mark knew she was right. But he also knew he wouldn’t follow her advice. Standing up to his friends just wasn’t something he was very good at.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  When he got home that afternoon, his mother told him X had called. “He’d like you to call him back. It’s about Halloween,” she said.

  “Oh, shoot!” Mark said. He’d been so busy with kung fu, he’d forgotten all about the Halloween parade. He dialed X’s number.

  “Hey, bud,” X said. “Big meeting at my house tonight to talk about the costume. Jonas thinks he’s found the perfect thing. Be here at seven, okay?”

  Mark agreed and hung up. He was relieved that Jonas, not X, had come up with the costume idea.

  But at 7:05, his relief turned to dismay.

  The kids were all seated around the kitchen table, munching popcorn. With a grand gesture, Jonas laid a book down and flipped it open to a page he’d marked. “Here it is, this year’s winner!” he announced.

  X pulled the book toward him. From where he was sitting, Mark couldn’t see the picture.

  “C-o-o-o-l,” X said admiringly. “What is it?” “Says here it’s a dragon,” Bizz replied, reading over X’s shoulder. “Doesn’t look like any dragon I’ve ever seen.”

  X lifted the book up so the cover was off the table. Mark blinked when he saw the book’s title: The Beginner’s Guide to Kung Fu.

  “Hey, where’d you get that?” he asked Jonas. Jonas rolled his eyes. “My dad checked out every kung fu book the library had. Big mystery what his next game is about!”

  But Mark was only half paying attention. He suddenly realized what Bizz had said.

  “Let me see that picture,” he said, grabbing the book out of X’s hands.

  “Whoa, steady there, big fella!” X said, pulling the book back. “You’ll get your turn!”

  Mark had only gotten a glimpse of the picture, but that had been enough. As he feared, the costume Jonas wanted to make was of a Chinese Dragon.

  “It’s beautiful,” Savannah was saying. “I bet I could get some supplies from my mother’s shop.” Mrs. Smith owned and operated a successful chain of arts-and-crafts stores.

  “Excellent, excellent,” X said gleefully. “Says here that the frame of the costume is made out of bamboo. Hmm. Where are we gonna find bamboo around here?”

  “Maybe we could just use sticks instead,” Charlie suggested.

  “Too heavy.” X drummed his fingers on the table. “I’ve got it! Cardboard tubes from paper towels, rolls of wrapping paper, and toilet paper! They’d be light enough.”

  “We’re gonna have to use a lot of toilet paper to get enough tubes,” Bizz said. “But I’ll do the best I can!”

  As his friends continued to joke and laugh about toilet paper, Mark stayed silent. His brain was a jumble of mixed-up feelings. One part of him wanted to tell his friends that dressing up as a Chinese Dragon for Halloween wasn’t right. The Dragon is an important symbol of the Chinese culture and to students of kung fu. Using that symbol to win a prize in a holiday parade seemed, well, disrespectful.

  But at the same time, Mark didn’t want to be the one to squash his friends’ excitement. Plus, if he told them what he knew about the Dragon, they’d ask him how he knew about it. He’d have to tell them about his kung fu lessons — and he also wasn’t sure he was ready to do that. Not yet.

  So instead of saying anything, Mark sat back in his chair and kept his mouth shut.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  The next week was miserable for Mark. All his friends wanted to talk about was the costume. They used Savannah’s basement as their base, and every day someone brought new supplies. Savannah’s mother contributed rolls of brightly colored crepe paper. Bizz found a couple of old sheets to use for the body. Charlie brought tape and magic markers. And on one day, Jonas and X arrived with a box full of cardboard tubes.

  “Let’s just say my dad wasn’t psyched to see a garbage bag full of unrolled toilet paper in the bathroom,” Jonas answered when asked where they’d gotten such a huge stash.

  Throughout the preparations, Mark’s brain was in the midst of a war. One side wanted to tell his friends not to make the Dragon. But the other told him to keep his mouth shut. So far, he listened to the second side. Yet as the day of the parade loomed closer, the knot in his stomach drew tighter.

  By Friday afternoon, they had all the supplies they needed. “Be here first thing tomorrow morning,” Savannah said. “If we get the costume finished this weekend, we can practice using it all next week.”

  “Where are we going to practice?” Charlie wanted to know.

  Mark’s heart pounded. Maybe if they couldn’t find a place to practice, they’d dump the idea altogether and his problem would be solved! But his hopes were dashed when X said, “I’ll talk to Alison. I bet she could come up with a good idea.”

  The only bright spots in Mark’s whole week were his kung fu lessons. The Wednesday night class started with a recap of what they had learned the first session. He’d practiced the moves at home as Sifu Hale had asked, so his kicks and punches were faster and smoother than before. When Sifu Hale taught them a new punch, kick, and stance, Mark picked them up with no trouble at all.

  The next class, Sifu Hale taught them two new moves. The first was an arm block. When done right, the block keeps an opponent’s punch from reaching its target. The second was a leg sweep. “The sweep knocks your enemy off his feet,” Sifu Hale told them. “It’s much harder to win a fight when you’re lying on the ground!”

  The students practiced the moves alone for a while. Then Sifu Hale had them try the moves out on each other. “One person punches, the other blocks the punch and then sweeps.
Since there are five of you, I’ll partner up with someone.” He chose Mark, and the other four students paired off.

  Mark felt nervous facing his teacher. Sifu Hale seemed to pick up on it. “Close your eyes for second, Mark, and take a deep breath,” he said quietly. “Trust yourself. You can do this.”

  And when Mark opened his eyes, he did feel better. He blocked Sifu Hale’s punch with a swift up-swing of his arm, then swept his leg down low and knocked his teacher off his feet. As Sifu Hale fell to the ground, Mark suddenly and without thinking delivered a punch to the teacher’s side.

  “Ohmygosh!” he said, horrified at having struck his teacher. “I’m sorry!”

  But Sifu Hale was nodding his head. “Don’t be,” he said, getting to his feet. “You followed your instincts. Those instincts said ‘make sure he stays down.’ They were right. If it had been a real fight and you hadn’t hit me, I might have gotten up and beaten you.” He laid a hand on Mark’s shoulder. “As I said before, trust yourself. Trust your instincts. They’ll usually help you to make the right decision.”

  During meditation time at the end of class, Mark thought about what Sifu Hale had said. He realized it was high time he trusted himself outside the classroom, too. And he knew what he had to do.

  CHAPTER NINE

  “Whaddya mean, we can’t be a Chinese Dragon for the parade?” Jonas stared at Mark, incredulous. Bizz, Savannah, and Charlie looked equally surprised. The one person who didn’t react badly was X — and that was only because he hadn’t arrived at Savannah’s house yet.

  Mark hated making his friends angry. But he didn’t back down. “I mean just that,” he said. “We can’t be a Chinese Dragon for the parade.”

  Jonas crossed his arms over his chest. “And why not?” he demanded.

  Mark tried to explain. “The Chinese Dragon is special to the Chinese culture. To us, it’s just a crazy-looking costume. But to the Chinese, it’s part of a tradition that goes back for thousands of years! It feels wrong to wear it in a Halloween parade just so we can try to win a prize.” He shook his head. “Anyway, I should have said something sooner. I’ve known all along that what we were planning wasn’t quite right.”

  Just then, X walked into the room.

  “Wait’ll you hear this —” Jonas started to say when he saw him. But X cut him off.

  “I heard most of what Mark said. And you know what? He’s right. We shouldn’t go as a Chinese Dragon.”

  He sat down. “I was over at the skatepark, asking Alison where we could practice using the costume. When she found out what we were up to, she kinda said the same things Mark’s just said. And she told me something else, too.” X stared at Mark. “She told me that you’ve been taking kung fu lessons!”

  Savannah touched Mark’s arm and smiled. “You have, Mark?”

  He shrugged. “Only a few lessons so far,” he said.

  “I found out about the Dragon stuff when I was researching kung fu.”

  “Really?” Bizz sounded impressed. “That is just so cool!”

  “Man, wait’ll my dad hears this!” Jonas said. “I bet he uses you in his new video game!”

  As the kids asked Mark why he’d started taking kung fu and what he’d learned so far, relief trickled into his body. They weren’t making jokes about it after all.

  Of course they’re not, a voice inside him said. They’re your friends.

  That trickle turned into a flood when X said, “So, we’re gonna scrap the Dragon idea, okay?” Everyone nodded. X picked up a toilet paper tube.

  “Now there’s just one problem. What kind of costume can we make out of all this stuff?”

  Silence fell over the room as the kids looked at the supplies they’d so carefully gathered. Jonas plucked a roll of purple crepe paper from the table. “Maybe we could wrap ourselves up and go as mummies?” he suggested.

  “A purple mummy? I don’t think so,” X said. “Besides, it’ll be more fun if we’re all part of the same costume.”

  While they were talking, Savannah taped some strips of crepe paper to a paper-towel tube. She fluttered the tube over her head like a flag.

  Or like wings, Mark thought. Suddenly, he sat up. “Guys, I think I’ve got it!” he said. And as he explained his idea, the others began to smile.

  CHAPTER TEN

  The day of the Halloween parade was crisp and cool. Contestants gathered at the town hall where the parade was to begin. They would march through blocked-off streets to the Square, where the parade ended.

  The youngest group of contestants — toddlers dressed up as cats, clowns, and little witches — started the festivities. Most rode in strollers pushed by their parents.

  “No competition there,” X remarked as he watched them go.

  Next came the kindergarteners and first-graders. “Half of that group will bail after the first block,” X said. “They get tired and start crying for their mothers. I’ve seen it before.”

  “‘Seen it before’?” Bizz whispered to Mark. “Been it before is more like it. That’s what X did when he was in first grade!” Mark smothered a laugh.

  When the second- and third-graders had begun their procession, X called everyone together. “It’s almost our turn!” he said, his voice filled with excitement. “Everyone got their inlines strapped on tight? Then get into your positions! Mark, you’re in front!”

  “What?” Mark almost fell off his skates. “But you’re the head! I’m supposed to be behind you!”

  X grinned. “Change of plans. We all agreed that since this was your idea, you should be the head.”

  “You’re not afraid that I’ll fall and mess everything up?”

  “You won’t.” X thrust the costume’s head onto Mark’s head. “We trust you.”

  The head felt heavy, which was no surprise. It was made of papier-mâché. On the top were two huge bug eyes and long antennae made from wrapping-paper rolls.

  Mark tugged the head on tighter. X fastened a sheet they had dyed bright purple and blue around Mark’s neck. As he ducked under the sheet, he said, “I’ll be behind you the whole way!”

  “And we’ll be beside you,” Savannah said. She gripped one of Mark’s hands. Jonas took the other. All three extended their arms out to their sides. Attached to their arms were cardboard tubes. The tubes were decorated with dozens of strips of multicolored crepe paper and aluminum foil. Pipe cleaners held the strips in the shape of wings.

  “Look at the bird, Mama!” a little boy standing on the side called out.

  Then Charlie and Bizz took X’s hands and extended their arms. More wings appeared. Behind them, the tightly rolled sheet formed a skinny tail.

  “A bird with four wings?” the boy’s mother said.

  “No, wait! See the antennae on its head? That’s not a bird! It’s a — a dragonfly!”

  Mark heard X give a muffled whoop. “They get it! So far, so good! Now let’s get this dragon flying!”

  Mark took a deep breath, squeezed Savannah and Jonas’s hands, then pushed off. He skated slowly, making sure his friends were following. He needn’t have worried. They’d practiced flying so much in the past week, they were like a well-oiled machine. He led them from one side of the parade to the other. From the corner of his eye, he saw the beautiful wings move up and down, slowly and gracefully.

  Applause followed them throughout the parade. When they reached the Square at last and took off the costume, X cried gleefully, “Hear that? That’s the sound made for a first-prize costume! I can’t wait to get on that podium and accept our award!”

  Mark hoped X got his wish. But as for himself, he was happy right where he was — flying high with his friends.

  Is Kung Fu Right for You?

  Kung fu is a Chinese martial art. Buddhist monks were the first people to practice this ancient self-defense technique. Today, people all over the world study kung fu. And it may surprise you to find out that more than fifty percent of the people who learn kung fu are children.

  Anyone can study
kung fu. But to succeed in the sport, students must be ready to work hard. One session of kung fu can be an hour to two hours long. Sessions begin with stretches to warm up the body. Then students practice different fighting and defense techniques — over and over and over again. This repetition strengthens muscles and teaches students to react quickly and automatically. Quick reactions are important when defending yourself.

  Quick minds are also important. If kung fu students don’t stay focused on what they’re doing, then they will not succeed in a match. So they must learn to discipline, or train, their minds to stay sharp. They are also expected to behave properly in and out of class. Students who throw tantrums, goof off, or cause trouble for others usually don’t do well in kung fu.

  People who practice kung fu have a lot of self-confidence. They learn to trust themselves. So if having a strong body, a sharp mind, and confidence in yourself sounds good, then kung fu may be right for you!

  The eXtreme Team

  #1 ONE SMOOTH MOVE

  #2 DAY OF THE DRAGON

  #3 ROLLER HOCKEY RUMBLE

  #4 ON THIN ICE