“Great!” exclaimed Danny.
Oh no, I thought to myself. This is horrible. If we went through class together, I might not have to spar against Danny. And even if we did end up sparing, it would be at the end of class and the rounds would be short and I would at least get to see what kind of skills he had during class and figure out how I could beat him. But that wasn't happening.
“Okay,” I said as we walked over the the mat.
We took off our shoes and walked on the mat. Just as we did, Nathan and Kenny came through the door and walked right over to us. They didn’t even have on their gis. They just took off their shoes and walked right onto the mat.
“Are you guys gonna go?” Nathan asked.
“Yeah,” I told Nathan.
“Awesome,” Kenny said.
I could feel myself getting tense, but Danny looked completely relaxed. We shook hands, bowed, and then started.
Danny reached for the collar of my gi. I batted his hand away. He reached for it again. I batted it away again. He reached for it a third time. As I tried to bat it away again, he grabbed it with his other hand and flung me to the ground while he slipped behind me with a wrestling move called an arm drag and then hooked my leg and forced me down to the mat.
“Nice takedown!” Nathan said.
Danny was good. REALLY GOOD. Before I could even think about what was happening, Danny had moved into the mount position—one of the best places for him to be—and one of the worst places for me to be. This meant Danny was on top of me with all his weight in a good position to TAP ME OUT! I couldn’t believe it!
But Danny got a little too excited. He reached his arms around my neck and prepared to choke me, but I grabbed ahold of his right arm, trapped his right leg, and rolled him over so I was back on top, inside Danny’s guard.
That meant I was between his legs, which gave him some control over my bodyweight. But I had escaped his mount and was now on top!
“Nice escape, Marc!” Nathan yelled.
I felt better and was glad that I had regained control. I looked at Kenny and Nathan who were sitting on the side of the mat watching closely. Coach Adam had walked over, too, so he could check out how well I would do against this higher belt. I felt good. I gave them a little nod to let them know I had this situation under control and I was about to do some moves that would crush Danny.
Just as I gave them that nod, I felt a fast movement in Danny’s hips. He quickly slid them out to the side and put one of his legs over my arm and extended his hip as he held on to my arm. I knew exactly what he was doing: an armlock from the guard. But it was too late. I didn’t react in time. Before I could even make a defensive move, my arm was fully straightened out and I had to tap. It was over. I couldn’t believe it.
“Whoa! ARMLOCK!” Nathan shouted.
I already knew that, NATHAN! I thought to myself.
“I guess I got kind of lucky with that,” Danny said.
“I guess,” I said back to him, not even knowing what to say.
“Nice move,” Coach Adam said to Danny. “That was a solid armlock. You have some impressive skills, Danny. Now, you guys take a break. Nathan and Kenny, sweep up the mats and let’s get ready for class.”
Danny has impressive skills, I repeated in my head. I ALREADY KNEW THAT!
Was there anything Danny didn’t have?
I couldn’t think of anything Danny couldn’t do.
Or anything that I liked about him. No. I didn’t like him at all.
chapter 6
Only a few days into summer and it already stunk. I always thought summer was supposed to be relaxing! But for me, it wasn’t at all. And now the one thing I enjoyed the most, jiu-jitsu, had become miserable.
On top of that, my business, Marc’s Meticulous Mowing, had grown. Sure, it used to be fun to mow a couple of lawns during the summer and make some extra money. But now it was just getting crazy. I was mowing lawns, pulling weeds, clearing brush, and doing all kinds of work for people every day.
And today I was at jiu-jitsu again, and of course Danny was there AGAIN. I was telling Nathan and Kenny about all the work I did, and Danny was sitting there listening.
He had a funny look on his face. Like he was surprised I worked so much.
So I said to him, “What about you, Danny? What do you do besides jiu-jitsu every day?”
“Well,” Danny said, “I spend most of my time hanging out with my older brother Anthony.”
“How old is he?”
“He’s fourteen, just a couple years older than me. We do a lot of cool stuff.”
“Does he train jiu-jitsu?” Nathan asked.
“Nah, jiu-jitsu really isn’t his thing,” Danny replied. “We mostly just hang around the house and do fun stuff.”
It was exactly as I had figured. While I work hard every single day, Danny is just sitting around the house doing fun stuff with his brother. No wonder he is so good at jiu-jitsu!
When I got home, I talked to Uncle Jake about all of this. “I like having a business and I like making money, but I think it is just too much right now.”
“Why do you think that?” Uncle Jake asked.
“It’s all I do! I have work to do every day. There is just too much. It would be nice if it didn’t take up all my time,” I told him.
“But your business is doing well. You will be able to make a lot of money this summer.”
“I know, Uncle Jake. And that’s great. I want to train jiu-jitsu more and maybe hang around with my friends a little,” I responded. I didn’t think Uncle Jake was going to like this. He wasn’t much of a fan of ‘hanging around’.
Uncle Jake looked at me for a minute, then said, “What if you could do both those things?”
“Both what things?” I asked, not sure what he was talking about.
“Work and hang out with your friends.”
“I guess that would be cool,” I answered back, wondering where he was going with this. “But how can I do that?”
“Well,” Uncle Jake said, “let’s look at your situation. You have a lot of work to do. It takes up most of your time. And you want to spend more time with your friends. I think there is a way to make both those things happen.”
“How?” I asked.
“I think it is time you got some employees.”
“Employees? You mean hire people to help me?” That seemed like a crazy idea. Who would want to work for a kid?!?!?
“Yes.”
Uncle Jake didn’t seem to see what was so unclear to me, so I asked him, “Uncle Jake, who on earth would want to work for a kid?”
“Really?” Uncle Jake asked. “You can’t figure this out?”
I had no idea what he was talking about. So I stood there with a blank look on my face.
“You don’t think your friends might want to earn some money, too?”
Finally, it hit me! Kenny and Nathan! They could help me!
When I got a big smile on my face, Uncle Jake realized I had figured it out.
“Right?” he said, knowing that his idea was brilliant.
“Yes, Uncle Jake!” I told him. “I can get Kenny and Nathan to help me. They can make money, we can get the work done quicker and have more time to hang out!”
“That’s it,” Uncle Jake said.
The next day I got to jiu-jitsu and made the offer to Nathan and Kenny. “Do you guys want some money?”
Nathan looked at me like I was crazy.
“Money? Do we want money?” he asked.
“Of course we want money!” Kenny said
“DUH!” Nathan added.
“Well that’s awesome. Because if you want it, then you can get it,” I told them.
“We just said we wanted it!” Nathan said loudly.
“Okay, okay,” I told them, “but you are going to have
to work for it.”
“Work for it? How? We’re too young to work,” Kenny protested.
“No, you aren’t. You just haven’t applied to
the right companies,” I told them both.
“I haven’t applied to any companies!” Nathan said, laughing out loud.
“That’s right. But I happen to know a company that is growing quickly and needs people with your skills.”
“Our skills? Really? I’m not quite sure if I have any skills at all,” Kenny said.
“Well, you both have the skill of being able to do manual labor,” I said.
“Manual labor? I don’t even know what that is!” said Nathan, still laughing from his last joke.
I laughed too, and finally got it together to say, “Manual labor means hard work. The company I know of needs two manual laborers. People willing to do hard work. But you will get paid for your hard work.”
“Okay. I don’t mind working hard. What is the name of the company?” Kenny asked.
“It’s called Marc’s Meticulous Mowing and Lawn Care!” I said with a big smile on my face.
“Wait, your company? Your lawn mowing company?” Nathan asked.
“It’s really become more than just lawn mowing, I do all—”
“Yes!” Nathan cut me off.
“What?” I asked him.
“Yes! I’ll take the job! Hire me!” Nathan shouted. “I’m IN!”
“Me too!” added Kenny.
“Great!” I shouted. “We can start tomorrow morning. My house at 8:00, after I get done working out.”
“I’ll be there!” Nathan said.
“Me too,” said Kenny.
And just that quickly, I had a whole new attitude about my business. Instead of dreading work the next day, I was actually looking forward to it.
Looked like Uncle Jake was right again.
chapter 7
The next morning I got up early and did a great workout with Uncle Jake. We did pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, squats, and burpees. It was tiring! But I didn’t even have time to be tired. As soon as I got done, I had to get ready to work.
Yep, my business, Marc’s Meticulous Mowing and Lawn Care, was doing great. I had a ton of work to do. During the winter, I only worked on the weekends, but as soon as summer came along and grass and weeds started growing, a lot of the neighborhood had work for me to do.
Right at 8:00, Nathan and Kenny showed up—and they were ready to work! We loaded the tools into my wagon and headed over to the Kurth's house.
I explained to them what we had to do. I was going to be in charge of mowing the lawn; as I was doing that, they would both pull weeds. As soon as I was done with the mowing, I would use the weed-whacker while they were raking up the lawn.
Once I was done with the weed-whacking, we would sweep and clean, and that would be it.
We went to work and it was awesome.
Nathan and Kenny worked hard and we got the job done fast!
Then we moved to the McDermott’s house, then the Washington’s house, then the O’Brien’s, and finally the Madison’s. It took a while, but it was still moving A LOT faster than it did when I had to do it alone.
I could see that Nathan and Kenny were starting to slow down.
“You do this every day?” Nathan asked me.
“Yep. Pretty much,” I replied. “But with your help, at least we can finish early and have some time to relax before jiu-jitsu.”
“That’ll be good.”
We finally finished the last house, loaded up the wagon and headed back to my house. When we got there, we put the tools away.
“Well, I’m going to go get something to eat,” Kenny said.
“Me too,” Nathan added.
“Okay. Wait one second.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out eighteen dollars. “Nine for you and nine for you,” I said as I handed them nine dollars each.
“Really?” Nathan asked.
“Yep. You guys really helped me out today and I appreciate it. Now, who wants to work again tomorrow?”
“Me!” Nathan shouted.
“Me too!” added Kenny.
“Awesome. Well, I’ll see you guys at jiu-jitsu tonight.”
After they both left, I went inside and sat down on the couch. I was feeling tired, but boy was it nice to have some time to relax. I was also hungry, so I got up and walked toward the kitchen. Uncle Jake was sitting at the dining table doing some work.
"How was it?" he asked.
"It was great. They both worked really hard. We had fun and got the job done in less than half the time.”
“That’s great. And it leaves you some time for your run,” Uncle Jake said.
This caught me a little off guard. I had finished work early. I was going to make some food and relax for a while.
“Well, actually, Uncle Jake, I was just going to grab some food and….”
“You should eat after the run, so your stomach doesn’t bother you,” Uncle Jake cut me off.
“I know that, but I was not actually planning on running. I already worked out today and I just did a bunch of yard work and I have jiu-jitsu tonight so I was just going to, you know, relax a little.”
Uncle Jake sat and looked at me. Finally, he said, “Oh. I thought you wanted to get better at running.”
This was one of Uncle Jake’s little tricks, and I knew it. He knew it too.
But it was working. “I do want to get better at running, Uncle Jake, but….”
“But nothing,” he said, cutting me off. “‘Relaxing’ does not make you better at running. Running does. Now go get your shorts on for a run.”
He was right. I knew it. I went and put my shorts on and then headed to the front of the house where Uncle Jake was waiting.
“Let’s see you pick up the pace today,” he said. “Okay?”
“Okay, Uncle Jake,” I told him.
“Alright, then. Standby…BUST ‘EM!”
I took off running and Uncle Jake was right with me.
He held a little bit faster pace than me, and I tried to keep up.
“Let’s go. Step it up!” Uncle Jake said. I tried for a while. But then it started to hurt a little too much, and I just couldn’t keep going. I slowed down.
“Don’t let up!” Uncle Jake said, turning his head over his shoulder and looking at me. “Stay with me.”
“I’m trying….” I panted.
“No, you’re not,” Uncle Jake said. Then he looked ahead and picked up the pace, pulling even farther ahead of me. He didn’t look back again. He got to the corner, turned around and passed me as he headed home. He was running as fast as I could even imagine a person running—it was like an all-out sprint! And he didn’t even look at me. He just looked ahead, and his face looked like he was in pain that he was just holding back—it was actually scary to see.
I made it to the corner, turned around and headed back. When I got there, Uncle Jake was sitting down, waiting for me. He looked at me and asked, “How was it?”
“Not bad. I think I improved my time a little bit. So at least I’m moving in the right direction.”
“Why can you talk?”
“What?”
“You’re talking. Why is that?” Uncle Jake asked, looking mad.
“Well, because you asked me a question, Uncle Jake,” I responded nervously.
“That’s not what I mean. You’re talking because you didn’t go hard. If you went hard, you wouldn’t even be able to talk when you finished. You stayed in your comfort zone.”
“My what?” I asked Uncle Jake.
“Your comfort zone,” he said sharply. “That’s where you ran. Where you were comfortable. Where you could handle it. Where you weren’t breathing too hard and there wasn’t much pain. That nice little place where everything feels just fine. That’s how you ran and that’s how you always run. That’s the comfort zone. And that’s why you aren’t running fast. Because it hurts to run hard.”
This didn’t make any sense to me. Why would Uncle Jake want me to get hurt? “But, Uncle Jake, I don’t want to get hurt.”
Way of the Warrior Kid 3: Where there's a Will... (A Novel) Page 3
