“Shut up,” she said pouting.
“That won’t work on me,” I said with a smile. I stood and said, “Lie down”. I balled up the sweatshirt I was wearing so she could use it as a pillow and asked, “Does it hurt anywhere?”
“Nope.”
“Just felt like taking my mind off of things?”
“Maybe,” she replied, her voice muffled by my sweatshirt.
I smiled as I rubbed my hands together to warm them. I spent the next twenty minutes listening to her moan and groan softly as I unclenched knots, relaxed muscles and removed tension from her body. I kept my hands moving, tracing the curves of her body, and my mind clear. I was finishing up with her right hand and wrist when I realized that she had fallen asleep. I smiled and put her hand next to her body and got up. I quietly added wood to the fire and began cutting down another section of canvas, draping it over her. I moved my chair closer to the fire and sat. I listened to the wind flowing through the trees, the crackle of the fire, the soft whisper of Sarah’s breathing, and the million sounds made by the woods around us. They combined together to create a symphony of peace that washed over me and nearly swept me away. I felt myself relax, I felt a calm wash over me and I nearly fell asleep when the fire let out a great pop that sounded like a gunshot. Before I knew it I was standing with my pistol in hand, eyes scanning the darkness for a threat. I quickly realized the source of the noise, put my gun away and sat down. I wiped my face with my hand and let out a sigh. You’re wound tighter that a spring Ryan. Calm the fuck down, I thought. I glance at Sarah and was surprised to see her looking back at me.
“A little jumpy are we?” she said smiling.
“Sorry. Did I wake you?”
“Maybe just a little.”
“Sorry.”
“I’m teasing. What are you doing over there?”
“Well some cute girl stole my sweatshirt so I’m just trying to, you know, not freeze.”
“Well get over here, there’s plenty of room.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, come keep me warm.”
“That I think I can do,” I said climbing under the canvas blanket. As I scooted up next to her she shivered and I chuckled, “Here, give me the sweatshirt.” She lifted her head so I could take it. I draped it over her middle to add to her blanket, put my arm under her head for a pillow and laid my arm across her waist to pull her close. I knew my arm would be dead in the morning but it would be worth it, shit they could cut my arm off tomorrow as long as I could stay like this for the night.
“Hey, James?”
“Yeah?”
“My face is cold.”
I pulled the canvas up over our heads. “There, now it’s like we’re in a tent.”
“This is a cramped tent.”
“I’m not going to complain.” After a few minutes, our breath and body heat warmed our faces and I felt Sarah put her hand on mine and fall asleep. I smiled to myself. I was laying here with the girl I loved, the woman of, what, my dreams? No, my dreams of her paled in comparison. Laying here with her I could forget the day, the world, and the great weight of the hopes, fears, and expectations of a dozen people that rested on my shoulders. For a few hours, there was only Sarah and I, the woman I loved. When the sun rose the next morning I’d have to deal with reality, deal with the people who looked at me for direction. Running out on them like that was stupid, I thought, but as I heard Sarah let out a small sigh I reconsidered, But then again, maybe it was worth it. Tomorrow I’d have to deal with everything again, but tomorrow was still several hours away and I knew that an hour could seem like a lifetime.
CHAPTER 11
Our time together didn’t last for eternity, in fact, it went by far too fast. I woke to Matt speaking loudly and cracking jokes with Jason.
“Come on you two love birds honeymoon is over,” Matt said laughing.
I felt Sarah stir as I moved my hand so I could look at my watch, I pushed the small button on the side of the face and read the time as it was illuminated, seven forty-five in the morning. “Come on guys, it took us a half an hour to find you guys,” Jason complained.
“You awake?” I whispered to Sarah and felt her nod yes. I smiled and whispered, “Watch this.” I pulled back the canvas and stood to face the two. With all the icy fury I felt at myself last night I said, “So you two have been away from the house for more than thirty minutes?” They nodded their heads still smiling. I frowned, “So let me get this straight,” I said raising my voice from a menacing whisper to a normal speaking level “You two, the two people I count on to step up when I’m not around, have left the house, filled with our friends, unguarded for half an hour.” I made sure to lock eyes with Matt as I finished. Their smiles were gone and Matt wasn’t able to hold eye contact with me for very long.
“We didn’t think…” began Jason.
“No,” I said coldly, “you didn’t.” If I hadn’t seen it happen I wouldn’t have thought their faces could fall further, but they did. “I want the two of you to go back. Jason, you’re on watch for the day,” I saw he wanted to argue but he was silenced with a hard-eyed stare. “Matt you’re on water duty for the day and I don’t care who’s on the schedule, you’re going to do it,” I said anticipating his argument. They turned without another word and I turned and climbed back under the canvas with Sarah.
“Wow,” said Sarah “Why so angry? I mean, yeah, it was dumb for them to leave but did you have to be so mean?”
The anger I felt last night, the disappointment I had in myself, was still there but yelling allowed me to vent a little, to release the growing pressure I felt in my soul. Sarah had turned so we were face to face. “To be honest, I’m not that angry. You’re right, it was dumb but not enough to warrant that. I just wanted to spend a little more time with you. To do that I had to get rid of them and they wouldn’t have left if I just asked.” She smiled at that, rolled over and pulled my arm back under her head. It couldn’t have been more than ten minutes before my arm was numb again but I didn’t care, I was the luckiest man alive.
It wasn’t long after that thought that we decided to get up and head back. I would have been more than happy to stay there all day but we had to go back to reality. We made the walk in silence, my mind trying to comprehend the last several hours. I knew how I felt about Sarah but I wasn’t one hundred percent sure how she felt. The simple fact of the matter was when it comes to women I am incredibly thick. I didn’t know if last night was like what I had done for Liz or if it was something more. The last thing I wanted to do was to assume and possibly drive her away just when I could have been making progress. Until last night, I’d felt like our relationship was a one-way street, but now it seemed like there might be some construction going on, a second road being built. And, if I’m going to be honest, I didn’t want to embarrass myself or get my hopes up too high. So I continued to treat her the same way I normally did.
Sarah was looking up at the sky, at the clear blue, white clouds and shining sun when she tripped over a root. I saw it out of the corner of my eye and heard her boot strike the exposed root and reacted without even thinking. I reached out and grabbed her arm to stop her from falling, she stumbled but with my help she was able to recover.
After she steadied herself she said “Oh, my hero,” smiling sarcastically.
Looking at that smile, that sarcastic glimmer in her eye, made me feel like a hero, at that moment Superman didn’t have shit on me. I was just about to let go but Sam’s words echoed in my head. Let me let you in on a little secret, she likes you, man. She really does. So stop being a pansy and go for it. Life’s too short. Don’t think. Just do. Instead of letting go I slid my hand down to hold hers, smiling and saying, “Just making sure you don’t fall again.” She smiled and squeezed my hand. We walked the rest of the way like that and I felt like I could take on every Walker in the world. I was invincible and not even God himself could beat me. Unfortunately, as we approached the house those feelings began to fade when
she let go of my hand and a million questions flooded my mind, Was she just being nice? Is she afraid of you? Is she embarrassed? Are you reading into this too much? I wasn’t sure why she did it, or if she even had a reason but I decided to let it go for now and talk to her later.
As soon as I stepped through the door all activity seem to stop as everyone stared at me. I slowed and looked at each of them in turn. What I saw nearly froze me in my tracks and threatened to dissolve the feeling of invincibility that had come to settle in my chest. When I looked at each of them I still saw fear in their eyes, fear of me, of what I had done. When Sarah walked through the door their eyes shifted from my face to hers and they saw that she was smiling. I saw most of the fear drain from their eyes. “How was the honeymoon?” Justin joked.
“Enough of that. Back to work, I’m sure there’s plenty to do.” Before I left Sarah I pulled her close and said, “Meet me on the front lawn in a couple hours, wear something comfortable, like you did for basketball, and make sure you eat now or not at all.” I left her and headed over to Justin.
He put his arm around my shoulder and said, “So, what’d you two do last night?”
“We didn’t do anything.”
Justin let out a big laugh and said, “Whatever you say, man.”
“Seriously, we didn’t,” I said lamely.
“I believe you,” he said still grinning.
“Damn it,” I sighed.
“You’re just not a very good liar.”
“I’m an excellent liar, just ask Jason and Matt.”
“What’s that supposed to me?”
“Never mind,” I said.
I changed clothes, ate a light breakfast, and took a short nap. While sleeping next to Sarah was enjoyable it wasn’t all that restful. I woke with enough time to stretch out my sore and cramped muscles and loosen up.
As I sat on the lawn waiting for Sarah I composed a lesson to teach her how to fight. I had helped other students correct their forms or how to transfer their weight correctly, but I had never taught someone from square one. It would be even harder with Sarah because she was a lot smaller and so she would need to fight differently than me.
“Hey,” I heard Sarah say and I opened my eyes. I hadn’t even realized I had closed them.
“Have a seat,” I said gesturing in front of me. She sat cross-legged and I continued. “What’s the biggest difference between you and me?” she smiled and was about to respond when I cut her off, “Besides the extremely obvious.”
She frowned but then said “You’re stronger. You have a longer reach and you’ve already been trained.”
“Right. We’re going to fix that last one but we can’t change the other two. I’ll always be stronger and I will always have a longer reach. So how are you different than me?”
She was quiet for a bit before saying, “I don’t know.”
“Well, you’re faster.”
“You were moving pretty fast,” she said skeptically.
“Just trust me,” I held both my hands out, palms up and level with the ground. “You ever play this game when you were little?” She nodded and placed her hands mere millimeters above mine. “Good, don’t let me hit you.” I looked directly into her eyes and she returned my look before looking at her hands. I tensed the muscles in my hand and forearms and moved my hands just the tiniest bit. She jerked her hands away. Too eager, I thought. I kept looking at her as she smiled in embarrassment and put her hands back in place. This time, I brought both my hands over the top of hers and slapped them. She had barely begun to pull them away. I smiled and put my hands out, again and again, she placed hers over mine. Again and again, I would hit the back of her hands, never looking away from her face. She was already getting better but couldn’t avoid me. After a while, we switched places and she tried to slap me and each time she would miss. I could tell she was getting frustrated and just as I was about to stop the little exercise she nicked my middle finger. She let out a yell of excitement. I smiled and said “Good job. Now, I told you that you were faster. So why did you lose so badly?”
“Because you’ve been trained, you’ve practiced.”
“Exactly. When we’re done you’ll be faster. Alright, stand up,” I said getting to my feet. I proceeded to show her some stretches and warm up exercises and spent time correcting her movements. “Ok. Get into a fighting stance.” She stood with her feet slightly apart with arms raised. I saw about a dozen problems right off the bat and began to point them out. I put one hand on her chest just below her collarbone and pushed. To her surprise, she began to fall backward. “You have terrible balance,” I laughed.
“I do not. I used to do gymnastics when I was little, I’ve just forgotten.”
“Spread your legs a tiny bit farther, keep your weight on the balls of your feet and bend your knees.” I pushed her again and stumbled back a little. “Better.” We spent a few more minutes on her stance and balance and then switched to offense. “Fighting stance,” I raised my hands, palms facing her, “Punch.”
She cocked back her right arm and punched. My hand barely moved back and inch. “What was that?” I exclaimed. “Ok. First things first, don’t bring your arm back before punching. It doesn’t help and it makes you slower. When you punch rotate your arm and waist. Your thumb should be skyward when you start and parallel with the ground when you finish. Rotate your hips and shoulders to get your weight behind the punch and finally don’t just punch my hand, punch through it, drive it back.”
Her next punch was much better, she managed to punch through my hand but she let her guard down and overextended. “Again,” I barked. This time, when she punched I shot out my right arm and tapped her lightly on the side of the head. She looked at me like she was offended that I would hit her, even as lightly as I did. “Keep your guard up.” Once we were done with the basic mechanics of punching we moved on to the basic of kicking. I showed her the different types, front kick, side kick, roundhouse, quarter-roundhouse, showing her the different ways to pivot and transfer her weight for each one. The last thing I showed her was a beginner’s form, a series of movements that flow into each other, like a dance. I told her to follow along with me as I slowly went through each step, explaining them and correcting her movements. I told her to practice what I had shown her on the punching bag in the pool room and to practice the forms I had taught her. “I’ll write up some exercises that will help you build lean muscle and make you faster, but we’re done for now.”
“What? Already? What about all the stuff I saw you do?”
“What stuff?”
“Like holds and stuff. You were even fighting with your knees and elbows. That stuff.”
“That’ll come later. We’re working on the basics for now. Stuff like balance,” I gave her a little shove, “for now, real ninja stuff later,” I said smiling.
“Fine,” she said a little disappointed. “Can you show me how to dodge a bullet?” she asked sarcastically.
I laughed “This isn’t the Matrix.”
“Dang. That would’ve been handy.”
“Tell me about it,” I put my arm around her and we started to walk inside.
“Ew, you stink,” she said pushing me away playfully.
“I hate to break it to you but you’re no spring flower yourself.”
“Excuse me!” she said with indignation, “I always smell good.”
“That might be true most of the time but not right now,” I said with a wink.
“Hey, you better watch it. I can beat you up now.”
“Give it your best shot,” I said happily. Out of the corner of my eye I saw her begin to pivot on her left foot. She’s actually going to try and kick you, I thought as I reacted. I turned and caught her leg in my hand, holding her by the ankle. I smiled and raised one eyebrow saying, “Sloppy.” I turned and kept walking towards the house, but I didn’t let go of her foot, forcing her to either fall or hop along behind me. She chose to hop and complain the entire way to the front door. When we
reached the three steps that led to the door I looked back at her. She looked at me angrily but with pleading eyes. “I won’t make you try and jump these,” I said and let go of her foot.
“You’re a jerk.”
“True, but look at the bright side.”
“And what’s that?”
“Your balance is better,” I said grinning. She slapped me on the arm and walked inside. I figured that since I was already dressed and warmed up I would go through some advanced forms. Normally the forms aren’t much of a workout but if you add the tensing of certain muscles for each step it can feel like you’re carrying a lead weight, especially if you go slowly. When I first began, it was difficult, I hadn’t tried any of these forms for years but soon enough I was flowing easily from one stance to another. Sweat poured down my face, my muscles burning, and I couldn’t remember all the stances, but I was getting through them.
Survivors Series (Book 1): Heroes Aren't Born Page 16
