Monica. Ch20.

Monica joins the karate club where Eddie trains.

Chapter 20

I managed to join another of the local karate clubs. The students were in line and the instructors had already started the briefing. I was surprised to see Eddie rushing in. I had not realised that he was in this club. He was soon kneeling at the edge of the hall waiting for permission to join the group.

         "All right, Eddie, come and get in line." Eddie hurried over and stood at the end of the line while the instructor continued addressing the students. "Finally I would like to welcome a new member to our club. Monica Hodge, a four KYU. And now that we're all here," he looked at Eddie, "Monica has kindly agreed to give a demonstration for her forthcoming three KYU grading.

         I smiled to myself, thinking it must be a surprise for him as well to see me performing at the club. The time came for the sparing and Eddie was paired up with Dennis, who I knew as another yellow belt holder.

         I glanced over and saw Eddie suddenly dropped to his knees and lunge forward with a punch to Dennis's groin. The effect was immediate and Dennis fell to the floor, curling up as he rolled about in pain. Eddie stood up and again glanced over at the instructors. They had not yet seen Dennis on the floor, but it was only moments later when one of them noticed and walked across.

         "What's up with you, Dennis?" he shouted.

         "Nothing, Sensei."

         "What are you doing on the floor then?"

         "Pains in my stomach, must be something I ate."

         "Well, get up. If you're not fit for training then drop out of the class and wait outside the Dojo."

         "I'm fit," he said. He stood up with some difficulty and stared over at Eddie who just shrugged his shoulders and grinned back at him.

         "Is there something I should know?" the instructor said.

         "No, Sensei, everything's fine." I knew Dennis was not just being friendly by not reporting Eddie. It was an unwritten law not to complain about accidental contact and Eddie would claim to all the club members that the blow was accidental.

         "All right, everyone change partners," the instructor called.

         I noticed the surprised look on his face when Eddie turned to see me standing in front of him. I think I had made a good impression on him and maybe he thought that by choosing to partner up with him, he might just have made a good impression on me as well, but I was not at all impressed with him. I was especially not impressed with his deliberate and illegal blow to his partner's groin. We bowed to each other before taking up our stances.

         "Hello, Monica, it's great to see you here. Is it permanent?"

         "Yes," I said, while glancing at his belt. When I had met him at Anne's engagement party he seemed good company, but he had lied about his karate achievements. I could see a different person than the caring young man who called round my house with the driving application and I didn't like what I saw. "Has your mother washed your belt in bleach by mistake? Only it's turned from brown to yellow."

         "Oh yeah, sorry about that, a slight exaggeration."

         "I saw what you did to that lad you know. It all adds up to give a profile of the sort of person you are. Not only are you a two-timing cheat and fornicator, but also a liar and a bully."

         "I'm not a bully," Eddie said, trying to be funny, but I was not laughing.

         The instructor looked across and called out. "Eddie, you're meant to be sparring not chatting."

         Eddie launched into a half-hearted attack, which I easily blocked and retaliated. It seemed that Eddie didn't mind me scoring the points, I was after all a girl. Not only that, if it appeared he was being rough towards me then his next partner would be sure to be one of the instructors.

         I managed to get past his blocks with a lunge punch stopping just on the tip of his chin before snapping back to a ready position. He laughed at me. "Nearly got me there," he said, almost as a put down. I took advantage of his lack of concentration and spun my leg; my foot catching him in his eye with the force of a punch any heavyweight boxer would be proud of. Both of us were shocked by the power of the impact.

         "I'm sorry. Shit, I'm so sorry."

         "It's all right, it's all right," Eddie said. He stumbled back a few steps, looking a bit giddy as the flesh under his eye began to swell and turn blue.

         "I'll be thrown out, it's my first night and I'll be thrown out."

         "Don't be silly, it was just an accident. I think it was anyway." He gave a laugh as he covered his eye with his hand. "Anyway, we have an unwritten law here, we don't tell tales on each other."

         The instructor clapped his hands and called out to the students to get into line. They lined up and straight away the instructor noticed the swelling around Eddie's eye. He walked over to him. "And what happened to you?"

         "I walked into the edge of the door earlier on in my haste to get here, because I was late."

         "A bit careless and a bit strange that I haven't noticed it before now, isn't it?" He walked back to the centre of the line. "Listen up, there's been two injuries tonight I feel may be of dubious origin. This shows a bad lack of control. Let me remind you all this is a traditional karate Dojo. It is not The Flashboys school of kickboxing and street fighting. Karate can be a risky sport and accidents do happen. I expect a slight injury now and then, but I don't expect them twice a night. The seniors will pair up and carry on with kumite. While you are sparring, I will mingle amongst you and try to see who is going wrong, and why. All the juniors will practice katas with James at the far end of the hall. And if Monica doesn't mind assisting James," he looked at and received a respectful nod from me, "then that'll leave an even number of seniors to pair up."

         The training came to an end and Eddie was waiting for me to come out from behind the girls' changing screens.

         "Thanks for not saying anything, Eddie, but I feel really bad about deceiving people."

         "You're not deceiving anyone. The instructor knows who done it, you can be sure of that."

         "Well, why didn't he pull me up over it then?"

         "It's your first day and you're a great asset to the club. He won't want to risk losing you and with your skills he can see you're likely to be his first female black-belt holder."

         "All the same I should never have done that and I really am sorry."

         "Forget it. So how are you getting home?"

         "I'll get the bus."

         "I've got the old Commer van outside. Will you let me give you a lift home, as long as you don't mind sharing time with a two-timing cheat, fornicator, liar, and bully?"

         "But you said you weren't a bully," I said.

         Eddie gave a short laugh. "I'm going your way anyway."

         "Well, all right then. I didn't fancy going home on my own. So what happened to the car then? Anne told me you had a flash Granada."

         "That was weeks ago and it wasn't mine anyway, I was looking after it for my brother while he was over in Spain."

         "So you lied to her. Why do you have to tell lies all the time?"

         "I didn't lie to her. I never said the car was mine, I just didn't tell her it wasn't." We got in the van and Eddie started the engine before looking over at me. "How did you get on with your driving licence application?"

         "Oh yes, hang on." I looked into my handbag and took out the licence. "Look, all ready to go. All I have to do now is to save up for the lessons."

         "Don't pay for lessons yet. You can learn all the basics first, learn to drive and then if you need it, take a couple of proper lessons with a driving school just for the finer points."

         "Won't that teach me bad habits?"

         "Depends who's teaching you. I taught Terry, one of my mates from work and he passed first time without paying for any lessons at all."

         "You'll have to teach me then," I said.

         "All right, I will."

         "I was only joking. I couldn't put on you like that."

         "Don't be daft, it'll be my pleasure. I enjoyed teaching my mate, and I'm sure I'll enjoy your company even more." He smiled at me, selected the gear and when he let out the clutch the van shot backward. "Ooops," he said.

         "Is that the first lesson then? Try to know which way you're going."

         "I'm always doing that. The gears on the lorry at work are the other way round and it gets a bit confusing." Eddie drove off and made his way to a long, straight, deserted, street. He stopped and got out of the van.

         I was a little worried that my earlier impression of him may have been right after all. "What is it?" I said. "What's going on?"

         "Come on then, change places. Your first lesson: pulling away and stopping, pulling away and stopping. Get used to the pedals and the gears."

         "I wasn't expecting a lesson right now, tonight."

         "Are you frightened?"

         "No!"

         "Well, do you want to learn to drive or not?"

         "Of course I do but in a van. Won't it be more difficult?"

         "No different to a car, in fact it's probably easier. Come on then, get in the driver's seat."

         I hurried round full of excitement and with a beaming grin on my face. We spent a bit of time getting familiar with the controls and then we began the pulling away exercises. Although I began with some problems co-ordinating the clutch and gears, Eddie seemed pleased at how quickly I managed to correct myself and I was soon pulling away and stopping confidently, though still a bit jumpy.

         Later, we pulled up outside my house and as we got out of the van, my mother came out looking concerned. "You're late, Monica, I was getting worried."

         "Sorry, Mrs Hodge, it was my fault, I talked Monica into taking her first driving lesson."

         "Oh, well that's great, and how did she do?" my mother said, after first giving a puzzled look over the van as if to disapprove of it as a training vehicle.

         "She was okay, she's picked it up quite well, a little jumpy on the clutch but once she gets used to it she'll be all right."

         "So how many lessons do you think she'll need?"

         "Hard to say right now, but if she carries on like today, she'll soon be putting in for her test."

         "Er, excuse me," I said, "I am here you know."

         "I'm just saying you were all right."

         "Yes, and at least I went in the right direction." Eddie started to laugh at my comment.

         "As long as you're safe anyway," my mother said, still with a bit of concern to her voice.

         "I'm sorry, Mum, I should have thought. I'll phone you next time."

         “Yes, perhaps you should. I didn’t know you wanted to drive, Monica. Perhaps I can take you for some lessons now and then, and in a proper car.” My mother walked back to the house leaving us to say our goodbyes in private.

         “I hope I haven’t lost my driving instructor job?”

         “No, Eddie. I think my mother would be too nervous with me driving her car.”

         "So," he said. "I'll pick you up on Sunday and we can do some driving for an hour or so. What do you say? About three o'clock."

         "We have dinner just after three."

         "Tell you what then. I'll pick you up at one, we'll do the lesson and then I'll take you down The Regent for a drink before I bring you home for your dinner."

         "That sounds great, but I'll get you a drink. It's only fair."

         "Fine, we'll have two drinks then."

         I reached over and kissed his cheek.

         "What's that for?" he said.

         "For being so nice to me and because of the nasty things I said to you and for your swollen eye and especially for the driving lesson."

         "Does that mean I get one of them every time we have a driving lesson?"

         I smiled. "You'll have to wait and see." I walked off feeling pleased with myself. I had enjoyed myself at the first session in my new karate club and the driving lesson from Eddie had been a fantastic unexpected bonus. I spent a little time thinking about Eddie and how inside Eddie the two-timing cheat, fornicator, liar and bully there seemed to be a nice lad hiding there.

         I walked out to the kitchen to speak with my mother. I'm just making a drink," my mother said." Do you want a cup of chocolate or something?"

         "No, I'm so tired. I just want to get cleaned up and have an early night."

         "Alan phoned earlier from that pub in Mile End, The Globe. He wants you to call him, said it's urgent. The number's on the table."

         I picked up the slip of paper, looked at the number and then dropped it into the pedal bin. I looked out of the kitchen window and over towards the tower block. Above the garden wall there was flashing blue lights. "Look at all those blue lights. I wonder what's going on."

         "I don't know, but it's been going on for nearly half an hour. A drugs raid I suppose. There's some right strange people in that block."

         "Yes, I suppose so. I'm off to bed then. If Alan rings again." I hesitated.

         "Yes," my mother said expectantly.

         "Tell him I said to shove off."

         "Monica!"

         I went to my room and walked across to close the curtains. The blue lights were still flashing and I looked towards the block and could see a police officer at one of the windows. From a distance I thought it looked like WPC Oakes and I gave a wave, but still I was a little surprised when the officer waved back, as if she had been looking across into my bedroom. I thought if it was WPC Oakes, then the next time I saw her I could get all the gossip first-hand about what was going on at the flats.

         I lay in bed feeling the ring on my finger. I couldn't bring myself to take it off; I had waited so long for it. I wondered if I should retrieve the telephone number from the bin and give Alan a call, but I was tired and before I could put my thoughts into action I drifted off to sleep.

Monica. Ch21.  (18+) The police close in, but the stalker gets away. #1998236 by Bruce.