“I’m not falling for that. Paul warned me that Cassidy can kick my butt. I was wondering if you’re any good.” Chuck replied.
“You just saw a girl beat me. What do you think?” I asked.
“Chuck looks like he’s had some training. I’m not sure you two should spar,” Cassidy said.
“Oh, come on. I promise not to hurt him. I just want to know if he can hold his own, for security purposes,” Chuck tried.
“As long as he can play football on Saturday,” Cassidy said.
Chuck squared up in more of a wrestler’s stance with his knees slightly bent and on the balls of his feet. I dropped into my normal fighting stance with my left foot forward. On Cassidy’s command, I closed the distance and sent a right to pop him in the ear. I quickly did the same from the left side. Chuck managed to block both and grabbed both my wrists. I knew instantly that he was a Krav Maga practitioner, and I’d just made a grave mistake.
Chuck stepped towards me as he twisted to face away from me. My arms ended up over his shoulder, and he stuck his butt into me. It was merely a matter of him leaning forward and throwing me over his back. I landed hard, and he crouched down to deliver the finishing blow to my throat.
Before I got up, I knew that Cassidy was disappointed in me. I’d wanted to see if Chuck was any good, and I’d confirmed what I suspected. He could more than hold his own. I also knew that what I’d done was stupid. Once he got hold of me, it was all over. I knew better.
In our next bout, Chuck was the aggressor. What he didn’t know was that I’d been on the defensive with Cassidy for nearly a year and a half. In that time, I’d learned to protect myself. Chuck wasn’t Cassidy. He was bigger and stronger than she was, but I had a longer reach and was faster and stronger than Chuck. And I was in much better shape.
I would give ground and then circle away from Chuck’s attacks. He was getting frustrated.
“Come on!” he barked and motioned for me to counterattack.
When you get into these types of sparring matches, things happen in the blink of an eye. Chuck decided to escalate the intensity of his attack. He had me on my heels, but then I surprised him when I threw a wild-looking left. One second, Chuck thought he had me, the next he was crumpled on the mat, out cold. I’d used a bone strike to catch him right below the ear and behind his jaw.
We’d learned about bone strikes in Cuba, and I’d had it done to me. Shiggy sprinted over when he saw Chuck go down. It took Chuck a few seconds, and then his eyes opened.
“What the hell happened?” he asked.
“You told him to fight back, and he just gave you a little love tap,” Cassidy said.
“David, I’ve warned you. My insurance will go through the roof if you seriously hurt someone,” Shiggy scolded me.
“Sorry. I didn’t plan to knock him out.”
“You’re banned for a week. If you do it again, I may make it permanent,” Shiggy ruled.
Shiggy returned to teaching his class. Cassidy didn’t look pleased.
“Why were you playing with him?” she asked me.
“What are you talking about?” Chuck asked.
“He bypassed several opportunities to turn the tables on you.”
“He’s good,” I said.
“I know he’s good, but that doesn’t mean you should hold back. Your goofing around might have gotten you hurt. You know the first rule,” Cassidy said, glaring at me.
“To end it as soon as possible.”
What was the fun in that, I wondered? I did feel sorry for knocking him out. I didn’t think I’d hit him hard enough, but I’d hit him in precisely the right spot. If I’d thought about it for even a nanosecond, I wouldn’t have thrown that punch. Cassidy was right. If I’d done as I was trained, we might still be sparring, and I wouldn’t have been banned for a week. I’d simply reacted to an opening.
I thought back and realized I’d done damage to all my security people the first time we sparred. My mom had read me the riot act when she saw the knot on Fritz’s head after I’d bopped him with my Bo staff. Coach Hope had been tossed and landed flat on his back. We might need a new security guy for me to try to kill.
“Are you implying that David could take me?” Chuck said, obviously not believing it.
Cassidy proceeded to educate Chuck on his deficiencies while I left to take a shower. When I came out of the locker room, they were in deep discussion as she demonstrated what she was teaching him. I think she saw that he was better at hand-to-hand than Paul was.
I walked over to watch Brook as she practiced with a young boy who looked very serious. It was apparent they were evenly matched. Brook had gotten much better since she started. What I liked about her was that she was able to be rough-and-tumble and not complain if she broke a nail. Then later, she would be all girl and worry about how she looked.
