Chapter Four – Meeting Gary

He walked fast to make sure he arrived at Art’s house on time. Walking fast wasn’t a problem as he felt rather excited. Today was going to be an adventure, he was going to meet Gary. He’d heard about Gary many years earlier from his brother Simon. Gary sounded impossible. Impossibly strong, impossibly fast, and just a little bit scary. Gary had been Simon’s karate instructor. Matt slowed down as he approached Art’s house to give himself time to get his breath back. Dylan was standing in front of the old car from the shed, the bonnet was up and he was poking things, pulling on cables with a look of curiosity. Matt walked up and stood beside him. He had not seen the car up close, it seemed very small, almost like a toy.

“The oil looks a bit goopy,” mused Dylan.

“Isn’t oil meant to be goopy?” asked Art.

“Hmmm,” Dylan replied. “Well, I think we’ll get there and back, guess we’ll find out.” Dylan wiped his hands slowly and carefully on a rag, looked at them, clearly not satisfied with the result. “Grab a drink if you need one while I wash my hands, jump in and we’re off!”

Matt felt a slight clunk as he opened the car door. Art noticed and called out, “Just lift the door a bit to close it. I think the elbows are worn.”

“Elbows?” asked Dylan with a smile as he climbed in.

“Well whatever,” replied Art, “it’s arthritis of some sort I’m sure.”

Dylan leaned over to Matt. “Thank goodness they don’t make em like this anymore,” he joked, “check out these dials!”

Matt had noticed the unusual dashboard, this was the oldest car he’d been in. Dylan gave a toot on the horn and waved to Art as they gently rolled down the road. Dylan laughed as he changed gears.

“Wow, this gearbox has character, Matt. I think we’ll do Art a favour and service his car. We might be using it a bit. Put your window down, we’ll blow some of the smell out if we can. It’ll also keep things a bit cooler, there’s no air con in this baby.”

Matt gazed out the window, watching the town slowly rolling by. It was a beautiful, clear summer day. The morning was warm, the afternoon would be hot. They drove inland alongside the river before heading up a minor road into the hills. Dylan drove slowly and treated the car with great care as if he expected it to fail at any moment.

There was almost no chatting on the drive. Once they hit the open road it was just too noisy, particularly with the windows down. Matt noticed that Dylan was continuously adjusting the steering wheel back and forth, even on straight sections of the road. He too reached the conclusion it was a good thing they did not make them like this anymore. Eventually, they reached Gary’s farm and pulled up to the gate. There was a winding gravel driveway that led to an almost entirely hidden house. Dylan parked alongside a shed on the right and looked over at Matt. “Okay, buddy, let’s go.”

Matt detected a waver in Dylan’s voice and thought that he looked a bit uncomfortable and nervous. “Why was this?” he wondered.

As Matt opened the car door a black and white dog came tearing around the side of the house, skidding in the gravel. It was barking, baring its teeth, and lunged at Matt. He quickly pulled his leg back and closed the door.

“Bess, Bess, get over here. Over here you miserable excuse of a dog,” called Dylan.

Dylan put a knee on the ground as Bess approached him cautiously, growling and snarling, but wagging her tail. Bess sniffed Dylan, paused for a moment then started furiously wagging her entire body and jumping at Dylan’s face. Dylan rolled her over and roughly scratched her belly while she playfully bit him on the arm. “You’re a silly dog and you have dog breath. What’s your excuse? How come you have dog breath?”

Dylan waved to Matt indicating he should get out of the car and come to him. “Just stand still and let Bess sniff you. She’ll be fine once she’s had a little nibble. And anyway, she never eats much.” In fact, Bess was very welcoming and Matt even dared to squat down and give her a tentative scratch.

“Looks like I’ll need to shoot that dog and get another one,” said a loud voice, “she’s supposed to chase the riff-raff away.”

“I was wondering what we’d have for lunch,” joked Dylan.

They greeted each other with arms held out wide. Matt watched as they hugged, he could see Dylan being moved side to side as Gary hugged him and patted his back. Gary let Dylan free and walked over to Matt. “Matt, pleased to meet you. I’m Gary,” he said with an outstretched arm.

Matt was struck by the size of Gary’s hands, they were very big, strong hands. Matt followed Dylan and Gary as they walked toward the house. He watched Gary very closely, Gary was about ten centimetres taller than Dylan and seemed twice as broad. Indeed Gary was a very big man. Matt was surprised when they walked around the side of the house to see a complete change of scenery. There was a very well kept garden and outdoor living area. It was like they had just walked from a farm to town in ten steps.

“Heather, are you in earshot? We have guests,” called Gary.

“Guests?” a  gentle voice called back. “Okay, I’ll put the gun away.”

Heather bustled through the door. “Oh, Dylan, how good to see you,” she said as she hugged him long and hard. “Goodness, how long has it been?”

“You must be Matt, lovely to meet you,” smiled Heather as she shook Matt’s hand. “Come and sit down.”

Matt sat quietly and listened to the others talk. Heather asked Dylan endless questions about what he’d been up to. Matt was curious to hear that Dylan not only had a law degree but had been travelling around Asia and Europe. After a while when the talking had slowed Gary pushed his chair back.

“Right, time to see what you’ve actually been up to. Your kit is where you left it. Will meet you in five.”

Dylan gave Heather another hug before leading Matt around the side of the house to what looked like a shed. It was not a shed. When they stepped inside Matt could see it was a dedicated dojo. There were shelves with neatly folded karate gis, a shower, and coloured interlocking mats on the floor of the training area. Dylan collected his gi and showed Matt where to sit. When Dylan returned Matt was most surprised and quite impressed to see he was wearing a black belt. Dylan walked through the door to the main training area, bowed, walked on to the mat and started to bounce around. He looked very purposeful as he worked his way through what was clearly a well-practised warm-up routine.

Gary arrived through another door, that Matt surmised must connect directly with the house. His black belt was almost white around the middle from years of being tied and untied. He smiled at Matt and patted him on the shoulder before bending down and whispering in Matt’s ear, “I’ll soften him up and you can finish him off.”

Matt looked up at Gary and smiled when Gary winked at him. Gary bowed and walked onto the mat. Dylan stopped warming up, faced Gary and they bowed to each other.

“Bag, kata, let me know when you are ready,” said Gary.

“Hai,” replied Dylan.

Dylan walked to the back of the dojo and began to move much more quickly, his gi cracking with punches and kicks. Matt was fascinated. After a few minutes Dylan stopped, he lightly bounced around, and looking satisfied, picked up a square impact pad, walked to the centre of the coloured mats, and waited.

Gary walked over to Dylan. “Warm up each technique as you need, five of your best when you’re ready”.

“Hai,” Dylan replied.

As Gary called the commands Dylan worked his way through a variety of standing punches, stepping punches, kicks, and simple combinations. With each technique, Dylan would build up slowly and nod to Gary before giving the pad five of his best. Matt marvelled at the sound as the pad was hit. “Those hits,” he thought, “were pretty darn hard.”

“Very good,” declared Gary as he put the bag down. “When you’re ready, pick your favourite kata, take your time, don’t rush it, focus on technique and balance.”

Dylan walked back a few steps, he looked down, closed his eyes, took a big breath in and breathed out very slowly and deliberately. He bowed and stepped forward. He yelled a word Matt did not understand and launched into the kata. Matt was transfixed, he had never seen a kata before. He could feel the power and scarcely believe the speed that Dylan moved around the mat.

“Good,” said Gary nodding, “very good.” Gary walked to the back of the dojo and picked up a pad. As he walked back past Dylan he casually handed it to him. “Set?”

“Hai,” said Dylan.

BOOM. What just happened? Dylan had gone flying backwards and was now walking back toward Gary. BOOM and again Dylan went backwards. Matt could see that Dylan was feeling those hits even with the pad. Gary moved on to some kicks and Matt started to worry about Dylan, he was being knocked around and folding in the middle. But he kept walking back. BOOM, BOOM, BOOM.

When Gary had finished he patted Dylan on the shoulder. “Thank you, that was great, I don’t get to hit the pads so often these days.”

Gary and Dylan bowed to each other and walked off the mat. Dylan winked at Matt as if to let him know all was well. After Dylan was changed into his clothes, he and Matt walked around to the patio where Heather and Gary were waiting. There were drinks and, as Matt would come to learn, the inevitable baking. They did not stay for long, but it seemed clear that Dylan would be back soon. He wanted to make the most of the opportunity to train with Gary.

Once in the car and heading down the driveway Dylan said, “I don’t think I’d survive one of those hits without the pad.”

Matt looked at Dylan thinking, “Who would?”

“Don’t worry though,” said Dylan with a smile. “Gary knows what he’s doing, you always make it, just. Did you look at the photos on the wall?”

Matt nodded.

“Simon’s there and so is Liam. Liam was Gary’s son, he died of cancer. Liam was the beast, no one trained harder, or was better than Liam. He had all of the genes and he lived, breathed, and dreamed karate. We were all a bit scared of Liam.” Dylan looked over at Matt and raised his eyebrows to reinforce his point.

“What was Simon like?” asked Matt.

“Simon was very good, he was a technician, with very tidy technique and he was way better than me at kata,” replied Dylan with a laugh. “I think he’d be happy with that assessment. Would you like to learn karate, Matt?”

“Yes,” Matt replied. He immediately wondered if this was true. Karate looked great, but was he up for it? It did look a bit scary.

“I’ll talk to Gary then.”

“Gary?” thought Matt. He had presumed that Dylan would teach him. He was not so sure about training with Gary.

“How about an ice cream? I reckon I’ve earned it,” asked Dylan. Matt raised his eyebrows in reply.

“Righty, let’s go get them! We’ll leave the car at Art’s and walk in. Parking might be an issue.”

It was indeed busy in town and parking would have been tricky. There were also plenty of people vying for somewhere to sit, so Matt sat at a table to hold a seat while Dylan waited in the queue. Matt was not used to getting an ice cream in town. As his father would always point out, they were much cheaper at home. He did mention this to Dylan, however, Dylan had replied, ‘Just think about how much I’ll save once I’m dead!’ Matt was not too sure about the logic, but could not think of a reply. Matt and Dylan sat in silence, slowly eating their icecreams, enjoying the sun, and watching people walk by.

“Hey, there’s someone I know, gosh what’s her name?” mused Dylan quietly to himself.

“The ice queen,” replied Matt. He immediately regretted saying this, he did not know her at all. He was just repeating what he’d heard others say. Matt had seen her in town many times, always with dark glasses, always with copious, yet impeccable makeup. She was of voluptuous proportions with long dark hair. “She was,” Matt thought, “very beautiful.”

When she walked into a shop nearby Dylan said, “Wait here, buddy, be back soon.” Matt watched Dylan walk to the shop, drop the remainder of his ice cream in a bin on the way, and stand just inside the door.

Dylan could not hear the conversation, but he did see the shop assistant reach into the cigarette cabinet. He had long, straight thinning hair, and Dylan guessed  he looked a lot older than he was.

“One day,” said Dylan loudly, he paused. “One day you will be so ugly that children will cry when they see you and just to be kind, their mothers will scratch their eyes out.”

She stood very still, put both hands on the shop counter and leaned forward with her head down. Dylan could see her head shake slowly from side to side. What he could not see was her smile. The shop assistant noticed the smile and looked at Dylan with his head tipped and eyebrows raised.

“One day,” she said, before pausing to gather her thoughts. “One day you will be even smellier. So smelly in fact that when you walk down the street the birds will fall dead from the sky and the flowers will suck themselves back down into the ground.”

“One day,” said Dylan, he paused. “You will be so fat that all the concrete paths you walk on will crack and your personal gravity will suck the moon from its orbit so that it splats into Earth.”

She took a big breath and smiled. Although she came here often the shop assistant had never seen her smile. “Dylan… you cheeky bastard.”

She turned around. Dylan held his hand out and wobbled it from side to side. “Maybe not so ugly,” he said.

Matt watched the two of them walk back to the table. He very much hoped that Dylan would not mention the ice queen comment.

“Jude, meet Matt.” Jude smiled and waved.

“Jude, do you remember my friend Simon from school?” asked Dylan.

“The athletics guy?”

“Yeah, that’s the one. He was friends with your brother too. Matt is Simon’s little brother.”

Matt groaned inside. Yes, Simon was the athlete and he was anything but. Also, he was not used to hearing Simon’s name used in general conversation. He was very surprised to see Jude talking and smiling, he’d only ever seen her looking somewhat expressionless and unapproachable. Matt sat quietly and listened to Dylan and Jude catch up. He soon learned that they once had a relationship based entirely on teasing and this used to drive Jude’s older brother bonky. When Dylan would visit the teasing would interrupt serious boy stuff, like pimping their bicycles and practising stunts. It seemed that Dylan had been quite the wheelie master. After a while, Matt decided to walk home. Dylan promised to get in touch after he spoke to Gary about karate. Matt looked back before heading around the corner and could see that Dylan and Jude were still laughing and reminiscing. He walked slowly back to his house. He was still thinking through the karate idea. He liked the idea of learning karate, but at his own pace. He was not so sure about training with Gary at all.

“Hi,” called Matt as Bill passed the kitchen window. Bill understood this as code to drop by Matt’s room for a chat.

“I met Gary today, the karate teacher,” offered Matt to see what Bill would make of this.

“Oh yes, what did you think?”

“Well, I’d like to do karate. But I don’t know if I can yet. Dylan’s going to ask.”

“Are you sure it’s right for you?” asked Bill.

Matt knew this meant that Bill did not think that karate was right for him, or more likely that Matt was not right for karate. 

“Dunno,” replied Matt. He really didn’t know. He certainly never wanted to be hit as hard as Dylan was.

“Well let’s see what happens. Where’s the karate club?”

“I don’t think there’s a club. It’s at his farm.”

“How will you get there?”

Matt could hear the tone of voice that said, ‘What a hassle? How far out of town? How much will it cost?’

“Dunno. Maybe ride my bike,” offered Matt.

“It’s way too far to bike, boy.” Bill turned and walked away.