Chapter Seven – Cycling to Karate

“Okay. Your bike looks good. Remember, as soon as you get there write down how long it took you from the bridge to the shed in your notebook. Take a shower and start warming up. All good?” Dylan smiled and wrapped his arms around Matt. “Here’s a good luck hug and remember, if you meet Gary’s neighbour ignore him. Just peddle a bit harder and leave him behind. You don’t want him in front, he really stinks.”

Matt nodded and pushed his bike down the driveway. He had one last look back at Dylan and Art. Art waved and turned to Dylan. “That was a nervous-looking smile.”

“It would be more nervous looking if he knew what he was in for,” replied Dylan, “I remember my first proper session with Gary. Couldn’t walk for days. Every time I went back I would wonder why and promise myself, this was definitely the very last time.”

Art chuckled. “Sounds like relationships to me!”

Matt checked the time as he left the bridge at the edge of town. He was not sure why he needed the times, but both Gary and Dylan had mentioned it, so he duly made a mental note. Thirty to forty minutes was the estimate to ride to Gary’s farm, ‘Depends how good your bike is,’ Dylan had joked.

Matt had not ridden his bike much and it didn’t take long to feel the effects of pushing a bit harder. The insides of his thighs hurt and his throat started to burn, his breathing got heavier and heavier. Matt reflected on Dylan’s advice, ‘Don’t kill yourself, if you get wheezy, just back it off for a few minutes. But never stop.’ When Matt reached a slightly downhill section he stopped pedalling and coasted. He reasoned he would not lose much time having a rest here. Besides, there were some hills to climb before the farm and he should save his energy for these.

Back at the farm, Heather was leaning on the kitchen bench to steady herself as she looked through binoculars. She called out to Gary, “I think your young visitor’s on the final approach.”

Gary walked behind Heather and put his hand on her shoulder, wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close. “Thanks, honey. I’m on my way.”

“Be gentle, hun. He is such a sweetie. Perhaps a bit fragile, this one.”

Gary kissed Heather on her ear softly and whispered, “I know.” Gary paused while taking a long slow breath. “This is a favour for Dylan, and Simon too I suppose. Let’s see where we end up. Better go.”

Heather picked up the binoculars and looked again at Matt in the distance. “He’s struggling,” she called to Gary as he closed the door behind him.

Matt’s legs were burning now, but he could not take a break on the hill without stopping. At times he slowed down to the point he struggled to ride straight. ‘Pace yourself, but never stop. Never give up,’ Dylan had advised. ‘Think of it as being a fight, if you stop you die.’ Matt heard some loud coughing as he passed a side road. Instinctively he looked down the road and saw a man on a bike.

“HEY,” the man called angrily.

“No way,” thought Matt, not Gary’s neighbour on his very first day. How could he be so unlucky?

“HEY,” louder this time and more menacing.

Matt pushed a bit harder and to his considerable surprise and great delight he found a renewed energy in his legs. Surely the safety of Gary’s gate must be close. Matt pushed and pushed, he could not last much longer at this pace. He heard some coughing from behind. It seemed a bit closer. He snuck a quick look. It WAS closer. He looked ahead and felt a burst of joy, there was Gary’s gate. He dug deeper, pedalling as hard as he could. His lungs were burning but he did not care, he would be first to the gate. Matt pulled off the road and stopped. When he got off his bike he struggled to stand, his legs felt very wobbly. He decided to wait for the grumpy neighbour to pass before opening the gate, Matt did not want the neighbour to see how wobbly he was. But the neighbour did not pass. Instead, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Matt got such a fright that he started to fall over on top of his bike. He prepared to hit the ground but stopped in mid-air. The hand had caught him by the upper arm and pulled him back up.

“Very well done, Matt. Very well done.”

Matt turned, he knew that voice. It was Gary, beaming. Gary put his hand back on Matt’s shoulder. “You put up a good fight, couldn’t quite catch you. Now note the time, there’s a notebook in your locker to write the times in. I will go ahead, just walk slowly up the drive and get your breath back. See you in the dojo.”

Matt watched Gary ride easily up what now seemed to be a very steep drive. Indeed he did walk slowly, he had no choice. Matt put his bicycle in the shed and scuffed his shoes in the gravel as Dylan had suggested. Sure enough, Bess heard this and came tearing around the house barking and growling. He squatted down and Bess ran at him, wiggling her entire body. She sure knew how to make someone feel welcome. As was her way, Bess pushed hard up against Matt’s knees and tilted her head up toward him with her ears pinned back. Matt ran his fingers through her fur, digging down to the skin. Bess it seemed, had a good life, just like the ducks. Matt felt a lot better after a warm shower. His legs were still a bit heavy, but his throat and chest felt almost back to normal. He bowed and walked onto the dojo mats. Matt felt rather awkward waving his arms and swinging his legs. He was aware anyone watching would see he had no idea what he was doing.

Gary arrived. They bowed. “Thirty, twenty, ten,” called Gary.

Just like that, they were straight into it. Gary went through all the same exercises as last time, but with less talking and at a much faster pace. Matt felt his breathing getting heavier and heavier.

“Good effort, you should be warmed up now,” said Gary, “let’s take a short break.” Gary held out his hand pointing to the mat in front of him. Matt knew this to mean he should kneel. Gary knelt in front of Matt. “You’ve already had your lesson for today. Before you arrived actually.” Gary looked straight at Matt in silence. Matt looked back. What could this lesson be? “Could a Matt pedalling up a hill all by himself ever beat a Matt being chased by an obnoxious neighbour, or better still a pack of fierce dogs?”

Matt shook his head.

“Interesting isn’t it. So what’s going on? In part, it is the fight or flight response, a reaction to danger. In part, it is having a why, which we talked about last time.” Gary paused to let Matt consider what he’d said. “But why don’t we just perform our best at any time? What do you think?”

Matt thought for a moment before shaking his head. “I don’t know.”

Gary nodded. “Most don’t. We’re wired to save our energy for when it really matters. For a high-risk situation, or to achieve a goal that really matters to us. Imagine if we could just turn this energy on when we needed it. That would be good, wouldn’t it?” Gary had a habit of speaking slowly when making his points, with sometimes quite long breaks between sentences. Matt had come to understand that he should just wait, Gary would make it obvious when he wanted a comment.

Matt nodded. “Hai,” he quickly added, remembering his etiquette.

“Karate is not just about learning to beat someone up. It’s also about learning self-control and self-understanding. Frankly, I feel this is the most important part. However, let’s focus on beating someone up just for the moment. If Matt in a relaxed state would always lose a fight to Matt in ‘being chased by dogs state’, we’d better learn how to turn that state on. Right?”

“Hai”, replied Matt. Now he understood the lesson.

“This takes effort and this takes pressure. You cannot learn this just by thinking about it. Though thinking is an important part of learning. So you will feel some pressure. But you’ll never actually be at risk. You’ll never be hurt. You can bow and walk out that door anytime you like. You just cannot come back again. Understand?”

“Hai.”

“If you don’t regret coming here sometimes. If you don’t say to yourself ‘This is it, I’m never coming back’, then I’m failing you, I’m not playing my part. I’ll respect the effort you make to come here by training you as hard and as well as I can. You will respect me by putting in the maximum effort you can. Effort is the currency of karate. I do not mind how good my students are, some are better than others. I take note of the effort they make. I respect their effort. Is this clear?”

“Hai.”

“You don’t need to tell me whether this is acceptable to you.” Gary smiled. “I will know the answer depending on whether you return.”

They stood up and started going through drill after drill. Blocking, stepping, punching, jumping, running three steps forward and back, forward and back, endlessly it seemed. Matt was soaked in sweat and starting to struggle to do even the most basic moves. Finally, Gary indicated for Matt to stand to attention.

“There is one more thing to consider today. Karate is not just about hard work, it’s also about understanding ourselves and self-control. One area we’ll focus on is self-calming for example. Let’s start with a simple exercise. Let’s kneel. Now with your knees slightly apart, put your hands on your thighs with your fingers on the inside. Now, roll you head back and lean back a little like this, slowly bring your head forward until you feel balanced. The idea is to make sure we are not hunched forward and need to use tension in our muscles to stay upright. That looks good. Now close your eyes, take a big breath in so that your belly sticks out, hold for a count of three and breath out very slowly. As you breathe out focus on nothing but your belly relaxing and falling as far forward as it can. Try that on your own for five breaths. Focus on nothing but your belly relaxing.”

Matt slowly went through the exercise.

“Now open your eyes. Please try that at home, once each morning as soon as you get up and once each night, just before you get into bed. Think about how you feel, try and understand what changes within your body. You will learn to calm yourself in a single breath while standing, while walking and very importantly when threatened. This will help you stay in control and make better decisions.”

They stood up and bowed.

“Before you go, come and have a go on this,” said Gary pointing to a bar mounted off a wall. “It’s a chin-up bar, let’s see how many you can do.” Matt watched as Gary gripped the bar and did a few quick chins ups before letting go and putting a small stool under the bar for Matt to stand on. Matt stepped up and firmly gripped the bar. He did a small jump and a chin-up, then two, then with much leg kicking and straining a third.

“Three,” said Gary, “go and put that in the back of your book with the date. Each month you will get three attempts to do as many chin-ups as you can. Simon and Dylan could each do one hundred over three attempts. Dylan can set you up with a bar at home to train on.” Gary smiled. “Well done. Take a shower, you’ll have clean clothes in your locker. Heather has very kindly washed the ones you arrived in. Once you‘re all cleaned up come through this door into the house. We’re in luck, Heather has been baking.”

Actually, Matt had been smelling the baking for the last hour and it reminded him of just how hungry he was. He definitely had not eaten enough. While having a shower he noticed it was hard to lift his arms and legs, he’d never felt like this before. Once dressed Matt poked his head cautiously through the door to the house. Gary and Heather were sitting at a table chatting quietly. Heather looked over and smiled as she stood up.

“Please come in, Matt. Come and have a seat.”

Gary pulled a chair out from the table. “Sit up and eat, you must be hungry.”

Indeed Matt was hungry. The smell from the dojo was enough to remind him of that, but sitting with food under his nose was almost too much.

“Start with this,” said Gary as he picked a scone and slice of cake and put it on Matt’s plate. “We don’t want you going hungry because you’re shy. Eat those while you decide what you really want.”

Matt smiled. “Thank you.” As Matt looked up with the cake in hand he noticed a piano. Not one like Art’s, it was a huge one, open at one end like a big seashell.

Heather noticed Matt’s focus on the piano. “Do you play the piano, Matt?”

“Not really,” he said, “I’ve only had one lesson.”

“Same as karate, a lot better than you used to be!” joked Gary.

“Well, you’re very welcome to practice on this one when you visit,” Heather offered.

“Thank you,” Matt replied. He turned his attention to eating, Gary kept topping up his plate and Gary and Heather chatted about their plans for the week. When Matt had eaten slightly more than enough he sat back in his chair and looked around the room.

“All done?” asked Gary.

Matt nodded. “Yes, thank you.”

“Okay. Throw your bike on the back of the ute. I’ve got a job to do in town so I can give you a ride. Which is just as well as we’ve gone a bit late.”

“Thank you. Are you sure?” asked Matt. He’d been preparing himself mentally for riding home.

“Absolutely, see you in a few minutes,” Gary replied. Gary watched Matt walk out the door, before turning to Heather. “Poor little bugger. Left to his own too much it seems. He has some heart though, I hope he comes back. Let’s pack some food.”

“All done,” smiled Heather.

“What a woman,” said Gary as he gave her a long hug and a kiss on the cheek.

Gary gave the bike a jiggle to make sure it was settled in the tray of his ute. “You must be special,” he said as he tossed a small paper bag to Matt. “Some snacks from Heather.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me,” replied Gary, “if Heather wasn’t looking I would have kept them for myself.” With that said they were off. Gary handed his phone to Matt. “Here, call your folks. They must be wondering where you are.”

“As if”, thought Matt. However, he called Bill and let him know they were on their way. What he didn’t know was the real reason for the call was to let Bill know that Gary would be visiting.

Gary had the most relaxed driving style Matt had yet encountered. He doubted they hit the speed limit at any stage. As he looked out the side window he felt his eyes starting to droop and without warning he fell deeply asleep. Gary looked across at Matt with his head uncomfortably on the window and mouth open. He slowly pulled off the road, picked up a jacket from the back seat and rolled it up. He gently lifted Matt’s head and put it back down on the jacket.

Matt briefly opened his eyes and looked directly at Gary. “I’m going to train like Liam,” he said, before falling back into a deep sleep.

Gary put both hands on the steering wheel and stared into the dimming light. He took a long breath, wiped his eyes and looked at Matt. “Where did that come from, buddy?” he said quietly to himself. Gary drove the remainder of the journey even more gently, to allow Matt to sleep in comfort. He crept up the driveway and parked behind Bill’s car. He remembered the house now, he had seen it after Simon’s funeral. It hadn’t changed much, if at all. He quietly lifted the bike out of the tray and put it in the carport. He heard the house door click as Bill came to meet him. Gary held his finger to his lips, then put both hands to the side of his face to indicate that Matt was asleep.

 

“Good to see you, Bill,” he whispered as they shook hands. “He’s showered with clean clothes on, so we can just pop him in bed. Where are we heading?”

Bill pointed to the sleep-out. Gary nodded. “Open the door, I’ll bring him in.”

Matt did not wake as Gary carried him to his bed and lay him down. Bill pulled the duvet over him and pushed it down around his neck.

Gary motioned to Bill to come over to his ute. “I’ve got something for Matt.” Gary lifted a large chilly bin from the back seat. “When he wakes up he is going to be ravenous. He’ll eat your neighbour’s cat if you don’t feed him.”

Bill nodded and smiled. “I think that’s a risk already.”

“Okay. We have a tray of eggs, bacon, pork chops and some spuds. I would start with four eggs, six rashers and chop. That would be a good start.”

Bill raised his eyebrows and smiled. “Ok.”

“I’m serious,” Gary replied, “that boy has had the biggest day of his life today and he gave it hell.”

Bill nodded. “He was pretty excited about it.”

“We will see,” said Gary, “you’ll know before me. When he wakes up in the morning he’ll either be busting to get back to training, or he’ll want to change his name and leave town. I can never tell which. I let the kids decide for themselves.”

“By the way,” asked Bill, “how much do I owe you? How much will this cost?”

Gary looked down for a few moments, moving his lips slowly as he thought. He looked Bill straight in the eyes. “Nothing. This is for Simon.”

Bill watched Gary reverse slowly down the driveway, they waved and Bill headed back inside the house, put the food in the fridge and headed for bed.

Bill had woken before his alarm went off, which was unusual. He checked the time, five-thirty. Plenty of time to snooze. He looked across at Jane, she had her own bed now. It was easier that way. What had woken him up? He became aware of a shuffling and sliding sound outside his window. He sat up and lifted the blinds.

It was Matt. He was sliding forward, jab, jab. Then back, jab, cross. Bill watched in silence as the memories flooded back. Simon used to wake him up early when training in the carport. Bill got out of bed quietly, walked to the kitchen and opened the door.

“Matt, early breakfast?” called Bill.

“Yep, I didn’t get any dinner.”

“Shhh, Jane’s asleep,” replied Bill while holding a finger to his mouth. “Give me five minutes head start.”

“Yep,” said Matt as he turned around and went straight back to his drills.

“Well”, thought Bill, “that answers the karate question.”