Out of Gas

by Randy Dyess

  “I know. It takes some getting used to. I’ve found people who have prepared for everything from building light-weight cars running on moonshine to trains using steam. Things they would love to use today but can’t because of one regulation or another. Our problems would be solved if the regulations just went away and let people be creative again.”

  “Don’t you think that’s a little harsh?”

  “Ted. There are hundreds of thousands of people waiting for this meltdown. They think the government has gotten way out of hand and they are hoping they government will collapse. They want to build everything back up from scratch, but at a reduced level. It is too hard to get things changed today because of the way politicians are entrenched, so if government collapsed, all politicians are fired and we can start over.”

  “You believe that?” Ted asked.

  “I said many people believe that. I tend to side with them, but haven’t crossed the line hoping things will happen. I still hope we’ll spend all this time preparing and nothing will ever happen. I hope after I lose my job at Plains, something else will pop up quickly. I’m preparing for the worse, but still hoping for the best.”

  Kelly popped back into their conversation by saying it was getting late and Ted and Helen should come back over on Friday night so they could go over everything again. Kelly told her mom she would call the real estate agent in the morning to come over and look at their house. She could tell her mom wasn’t ready yet, but Ted jumped in and said that would be fine.

  As they were preparing for bed, Mark looked at Kelly and said, “Now, if we could just get my parents on board like your parents are we would be set.”

  “Your mom seemed to be agreeable.”

  “Yea, but my dad is not. He’s still old school and will need a lot more convincing.”

  “Once my parents put their house up for sale and start making plans for moving in here or on the farm, we can have the conversation with your parents. Maybe my dad and your dad can talk. Someone his own age might have a better time convincing him than we will.”

  “That’s a good idea. Damn, no wonder the community wanted you. I guess I’m lucky they need you so bad they are willing to drag me along for the ride,” he laughed.

  “Smart ass,” Kelly said as she turned off the lights.

  Chapter 19

  The rest of the work week was busy for Mark. Plains Airlines announced their CIO was stepping down due to the ongoing computer bug and Owen would fill in as interim CIO until a new CIO could be hired. Owen and Mark announced to Mark’s team they were starting a project to virtualize every server they had. They couldn’t publicly announce the entire department would soon be out-sourced. Although, when a few staff members talked to Mark after the announcements he did not lie and told them it was going to happen soon. Mark figured word would get around about the short time-frame. Some of the staff needed as much time as they could get to have a job lined up before being let go at Plains. Mark did not want to imagine his staff’s kids going without food because he didn’t let their mom or dad know what was coming down the road.

  Mark also spent several days with Owen interviewing project managers who would be responsible for the virtualization project and the eventual off-shoring project. They both wanted someone as experienced as possible because neither Mark nor Owen wanted to be involved in either project. They both felt like it was hard enough to come to work each day with the knowledge of the upcoming out-sourcing. They knew it would be almost impossible to come to work each day and face the people they would have to get rid of in a few months.

  Kelly had a busy week as well. Texas Restaurants announced they were going to shut down nearly thirty-five percent of their restaurants. Both the Texas Steak and the Upper Crust Gourmet Pizza chains were being closed down by the end of the year. Kelly was put in charge of trying to figure out how to let over six thousand people know they would not have jobs after the holidays. She started to understand what Mark had been going through lately and dreaded the next six months. It did not take her long to start seeing the faces of children on Christmas morning who didn’t get presents because she had fired their mom or dad.

  Saturday morning, when they pulled up to the gas station they found the price of gas had gone up over a dollar a gallon. “Did you see anything about this?” Kelly asked Mark as they pulled up next to the pump.

  “One of the sites mentioned they thought the price would rise a little because of a storm in the gulf, but not by a whole dollar overnight. There has to be something more going on. I bet if we look at the web tonight we’ll find out why.”

  “Yeah. Someone is sure to be all over this by tonight. Still doesn’t help us today. If someone had said something, we could’ve bought gas yesterday and saved twenty-five dollars.”

  “Guess we will have to get used to this. I have a feeling this is just the start. I bet the price of gas will go up by at least a dollar each month for the rest of the year. We’ll probably see ten-dollar gas by the end of the year.”

  “Are you sure this is the right address?” Kelly asked as Mark pulled into the parking lot of a large warehouse.

  “This is the address he gave me. I wonder if he just rents a spare room in whatever business is there to save money.”

  “Maybe, but we’re going to have a hard time finding a parking spot, the lot’s full.”

  “Yeah. I wonder if it’s like this all the time or if something special is going on with whatever business owns that warehouse.”

  They ended up finding a parking spot in the back of the lot. After walking into the door of RJ’s dojo, they were shocked to see the dojo took up the entire warehouse. From the front door, Mark and Kelly could see over a hundred people formed into smaller groups doing some form of exercise or martial arts.

  “Can I help you?” a young woman asked them as they stood there and watched as much activity on the floor as they could.

  “Yes,” Kelly recovered. “We’re here to see RJ.”

  “Is Master RJ expecting you?”

  “Hi, Mark. Hi, Kelly. And these two must be Cheyenne and Dakota?” RJ said as he approached them from an office door on the right. “Welcome to our dojo. Let’s go into the office and talk.”

  “Thank you, Lisa,” RJ said as he led Mark and Kelly into his office.

  “You’re welcome, Master,” Lisa replied. “Welcome to the family, Mark and Kelly.”

  As they were walking into the office, Mark let out a whistle. “Not what I expected.” He said as he took in the decor of the room.

  “How’s that?” asked RJ.

  “Your office looks like a garden patio and not an office. It’s hard to tell we are not outside.”

  “I know. It took me a while to get the plants just right and the lighting to look just so, but I think the space accomplishes it’s goal,” replied RJ.

  “Which is?” Kelly asked.

  “To make me forget that we are actually in a large metroplex full of people who do not care about anything but themselves and the stuff they can buy.”

  Lisa walked in with a tray of tea and RJ asked her if she could take Cheyenne and Dakota out into the dojo and show them around. He asked Kelly if it was ok if they could sit in with some of the children’s groups training that morning.

  “Which groups?” Kelly asked not sure if she wanted her kids to be put into training right away and get hurt.

  “Don’t worry. Sensei Martha is training a group of five-year olds gymnastics now. Learning how to control your body is a big part of what we teach here. I think Dakota would love to learn how to do flips.”

  Dakota’s eyes lit up as she started to beg Kelly to let her go. “Ok. That’s fine,” Kelly responded.

  “What about me?” Cheyenne interrupted before Kelly could ask about her.

  “Sensei Tom is starting a class of eight to ten-year olds in Tai Chi this morning. It is their first lesson.”

  “What is Tai Chi?” Cheyenne asked.

  “Let’s say it’s a form of warm
up like a slow dance. I think you’ll like it once you start,” replied RJ.

  “Mommy, can I go?” Cheyenne begged.

  “Of course.”

  “Lisa, would you be kind enough to take Dakota and introduce her to Sensei Martha and take Cheyenne and introduce her to Sensei Tom?”

  “Of course, Master RJ. I would love to.” Lisa escorted Cheyenne and Dakota to the two groups to start their training while Mark and Kelly stayed behind to talk to RJ.

  “It seems like we have a lot to talk about,” RJ began as he poured everyone a cup of tea. “Would you like to take a tour of the dojo first or talk more about the community Owen told you about?”

  “Why don’t we tour the dojo. The dojo looks impressive from what we saw from the front door. To be honest, we were expecting one of those little rooms in some strip center like most of the other places we see,” Mark said.

  “Thank you. It’s taken me a few decades to build up to this. I actually started out in my garage and built my dojo up from there.”

  “You’ve done a great job,” Kelly commented.

  “Thank you again. My philosophy is it is not the place that matters but what you teach that matters. We are different here. We just do not teach a form of martial arts and nothing else. In most dojos, you go in and start learning Karate, Taekwondo, or Aikido right away with the goal of working yourself to a various degree or belt color. Here, we strive to teach you many things by taking a holistic approach to training. You will learn to increase your health through stretching, exercises, diet, and alternative medicine. Your mind will be strengthened with various forms of meditation and mental discipline. You will increase your physical self with strength training, agility exercises, and stamina training. You will increase your communication skills by teaching others what you have been taught. And finally, you will learn to defend yourself and others through various forms of martial arts. We are not all about punching and kicking, we are more than that. Our goal is to create a better human being by training them to respect themselves and others.”

  “Well, it seems to be working. There must be at least a hundred people training now,” Mark exclaimed.

  “Closer to one hundred and twenty,” RJ replied. “We have a membership of over two thousand who come here to train. This place operates twenty-four hours a day. “

  “Really,” Kelly said with a surprised look on her face. “Two thousand members.”

  “Yes. Like I said, our training is not about punching and kicking. Our teachings are not just around a particular form of martial arts. We teach the person and people seem to respond to that. We even have classes outside of what you would call ‘physical’ training. Members meet here for cooking classes, gardening classes, survival training, medical courses, language studies, political discussions, and even spiritual classes. We have a cooking straight from your garden class every summer which has three hundred students in it. The class is so popular we have had to make sure nothing else is happening in the building when the class is scheduled. This is more like a university than it is a simple dojo,” Mark said with a smile.

  “Wow,” Mark said. “I never knew. My parents never told me about all you have done here.”

  “They probably did, but you were not ready to hear them yet,” RJ said with a steady face. “Many things go on in the world and most people don’t know about them. They either do not want to listen or they ‘just can’t find the time’ to participate. Like your two, it usually takes an event to get them to open their eyes.”

  RJ went on, “The event can be something like you two are going through. It can be a medical issue. It can be a mid-life crisis. Or, unfortunately, it also comes after a tragic event like a form of crime. Many of our members have been a victim or have a family member or close relative of a crime. We have survivors of sexual and physical assaults, attempted murder, victims of bullying, survivors of home invasions and car jackings, and victims of robberies of various kinds.”

  Kelly looked through the office window at the people nearest the front door. She started to ask a question before RJ stopped her, “Not everyone out there has a story to tell. Some of our members are like you and just want to learn to protect themselves against anything that could happen in the future. They are concerned with the way the world is heading and don’t want to rely on someone else to take care of the safety of their family. Also, there are quite a few members who simply enjoy the mental and physical aspects of the training we provide here. They are not yet ready to commit to our world of an upcoming crisis. They are simply here because what we do gives them mental peace and a healthy body.”

  Kelly looked relieved at the statement because she still hadn’t come to grips with her kids and herself learning how to hurt someone. She still pictured her kids turning into bullies because some martial arts teacher behaved like they tended to do in the movies. RJ picked up on her uneasiness and said, “Why don’t I walk you around and tell you more about the place.”

  RJ walked Kelly and Mark around his dojo and introduced them to various teachers and students. Kelly saw the kids having a wonderful time learning how to do various Tai Chi movements and gymnastic rolls and flips. She looked around at the large variety of students and activities and noticed a group of kids sitting quietly in a corner and asked RJ about them. “What are they doing over there?”

  “Those are a special group of kids who are learning to handle anger issues. We run a program with the state and local school districts to host kids who have trouble with keeping their anger in check. Part of the program does involve a mental health counselor, but this part helps them channel their anger into something else. Right now they are learning how to meditate to calm themselves down when they feel angry. They go from the basic focus meditation they are doing now to more advanced forms which takes their energies and dissipates it. They will move on to various physical exercises to drain their energy as well. It’s not much different from what everyone learns, just in a different format.”

  “Don’t some of them turn out to be bullies once they learn how to fight?” Kelly asked.

  “Not really. Some try to bully others around. If we catch them acting like bullies, we make them team up with someone like Suzy,” RJ responded as he pointed to a little girl not much bigger than Cheyenne. “Suzy is eight and has been training here for four years. She is one of our ‘bully killers’,” Mark said with a smile.

  “Bully killer?” Kelly looked with a frown on her face.

  “That is a nickname we give little girls who are good at defending themselves. Suzy can handle anyone who is not more than two feet taller than she is or about a hundred pounds heavier. She takes those bullies and just flat-out knocks them on their ass if they try to over-power her. She trains them to respect others by showing them anyone can defend themselves, no matter what their size. Most kids who come in here as bullies learn to control themselves. After their experience here, they never know when some girl, half their size, will throw them across the mat and look down at them asking if they are hurt. It only takes a few times with a few different girls before those bullies start to back off. Don’t get me wrong,” RJ said when he saw the shock on Kelly’s face. “We don’t do this in a way to embarrass the bully in front of everyone. That would be counter-productive. We have methods in which they are taught to respect others without losing face. It has worked many times and we have a very high success rate with calming bullies down.”

  “Really, after they learn to fight, they don’t get worse?” Kelly asked.

  “You’ve used that term twice,” RJ responded. “As a practice, we don’t teach our members how to fight. We teach them to defend themselves. There are some advanced members and people who are members of the community who believe what we do about the future. I teach offensive methods and weapons to this group, but the vast majority of the regular members are not taught to fight, just how to defend.”

  “What’s the difference?” Kelly interrupted.

  “Teaching them to fight wo
uld involve mostly offensive moves like punches or kicks. We teach very little of that here. What we teach is how to redirect an attacker away from you. How to use body mechanics against an attacker and how to utilize certain pressure points to make them let go of you. This type of defense does not require strength or size. Just knowledge,” RJ countered. “Our main weapon here is running away after you get the attacker to let you go. Like I said, some members want more offensive moves because they feel like they want to defend family members who may not be able to defend themselves. We do teach that as well, but we do not teach someone to go on the attack unless others are in the process of attacking.”

  “Donna said she put her attackers in the hospital,” Kelly said as she looked at RJ.

  “Yes, she did. Donna was attacked by multiple people. For her to survive she needed to put the attackers on the ground in seconds and in a state she didn’t have to worry about them again. She needed to do this so she could concentrate on any new attacks from the rest of the group. This is also something we teach our students, because you can’t always run away when cornered. If there is more than one person attacking you and you only ‘wrapped’ up the first one, the others would cause you problems. They will either injure or kill you.”

  RJ looked at Kelly and said, “We both know this is not a perfect world. Law enforcement is not always there to save you. People who are crazy or desperate enough to attack you in a parking lot will not listen to reason. They will not leave you alone if you simply throw one of them to the ground. They will come at you hard and the only chance you have if you cannot run is to injure them and take them out of the fight before they win.”

  Mark wanted to lighten the mood again so he asked about an older woman who was working with a much younger man. “What about her? She looks like she’s eighty. Do you really believe she could defend herself against that man if he was really trying?”