Day of the Dragon (2 page)
“So!” Alison said suddenly. “Wanna learn?”
Mark wasn’t able to answer Alison’s question right away. But he was certainly thinking about it as he left the school. Was it possible that kung fu could really help him become better coordinated? Alison and Eric seemed to think so. But what if he tried it, only to fall flat on his face in front of other students?
“I dunno,” he said out loud.
“Dunno what?”
The sound of Jonas’s voice jolted Mark from his thoughts.
“I, uh, I dunno if I should get an ice cream on the way home,” he stammered. He decided not to tell Jonas what he’d really been thinking about. Jonas would just make a joke about it.
“Ice cream? Stop by my house,” Jonas said. “We’ve got a freezerful. My dad’s working on a new game. He likes to take ice cream breaks when he gets stuck.”
Mark and his friends thought Mr. Malloy had the coolest job ever. He worked at home, dreaming up new video games for kids.
“So what’s this new game going be?” Mark asked. Jonas shrugged. “He likes to keep it a surprise until it’s done. But last time, I figured it out. He needed to know what the hardest tricks in vert boarding are.” Jonas rolled his eyes. “He could’ve asked me, but no. He got a bunch of lame-o books on skate-boarding from the library.” He grinned. “Anyway, he left the books lying around. It didn’t take a genius to guess what the game was about.”
“Books, huh?” Mark looked thoughtful. “Listen, Jonas, I gotta get going. Catch up to you later!”
Ten minutes later, Mark walked up to the front desk at the public library. Two minutes later he walked out again, empty-handed. The librarian had told him all the library’s kung fu books were checked out.
Of course, there was another way to learn about kung fu. When he got home, he hurried to his family’s computer and logged onto the Internet. He typed the words “kung fu” into the search bar. A long list of Web sites appeared on the screen.
“Now we’re getting somewhere,” Mark said to himself. For the next hour, he clicked on different sites. On one, he learned that kung fu is a Chinese martial art that has been practiced for thousands of years. Another site was filled with photos of kids and adults doing kung fu moves. That one also told him that a kung fu training hall is called a
kwoon
and that kung fu instructors are called
sifus.
The last site opened with a photo of a fantastic-looking creature. It was a Chinese Dragon, a mythical beast with special powers. The site explained that some kung fu schools teach students the traditional Chinese Dragon Dance. When they perform the Dance, the students wear a Dragon costume. The costume has a huge head and a long tail. The dancers in the head make the eyes blink and the mouth open and close. The dancers in the tail make it flutter up and down, like a long wave.
“The Chinese Dragon Dance is an important part of the Chinese culture,” the Web site stated. “The Dance has been handed down from generation to generation. Each move in the Dance is carefully worked out so that the Dragon moves with grace.”
“Cool,” Mark murmured. He wondered if some day he might be part of the Dragon Dance. And as that thought crossed his mind, he suddenly realized he wanted to take kung fu lessons.
Now all he had to do was convince his parents.
To Mark’s surprise, his parents were very agreeable about his taking kung fu. So three days later, Mark found himself standing in front of the mirrored wall with four other kids, waiting to start his first lesson.
I wonder if they’re as nervous as I am,
he thought. “Welcome to the
kwoon
!” Eric Hale walked to the front of the room. “I am your
sifu,
your teacher. Please call me Sifu Hale. Ready for your first lesson?”
Mark and the other children nodded.
“Then do as I do.” Sifu Hale clasped his hands in front of him and bowed. As the students imitated him, he explained, “We bow every time we enter the school, before and after each class, and before each fight. Bowing shows respect for your teacher, for each other, and for this school. As you will learn, respect is a big part of kung fu training.”
He smiled. “But enough of that. Let’s stretch out, then begin the lesson.”
Sifu Hale led them through a series of stretching exercises to warm up their muscles. Then he told them to stand in a line facing the mirror. “Today, you’ll learn one stance, one punch, and one kick. We’ll practice each separately and then put them all together into sets.
“Most kung fu moves have animal names,” he continued. “This is the horse-riding stance. See if you can do it.” Sifu Hale spread his legs shoulder-width apart, toes pointed out slightly. He bent his knees. Then he made his hands into fists, turned them so his wrists were facing up, and tucked them in at his waist.
The children copied him. When Mark looked in the mirror, he saw he did look like he was riding a horse.
“From this stance, you can move into others. You can also deliver a punch —” Sifu Hale’s right hand suddenly darted out — “or a kick.” His left leg flashed up and back. “Let’s try punches only to start. Watch yourselves in the mirror.”
Mark did his best to imitate Sifu Hale’s moves. He thought he’d done them right until Sifu Hale called out, “Mark, move your thumb to the
outside
of your fist. Thumbs
inside
the fist can be broken when the fist strikes something. And when you punch, start with your hand turned up. Then corkscrew it around and strike with your first two knuckles. Those knuckles are the biggest. In a real fight, they’d do the most damage to your enemy.”
Mark tried the punch again. Sifu Hale nodded and told him to try it with the left hand. “Both arms and both legs must be able to do these moves,” he said. “Otherwise, you’re only fighting with half your body.”
Left. Right. Left. Right. After ten minutes of punching from the horse-riding stance, Mark’s arms were aching. He was relieved when Sifu Hale moved on to kicks.
“This is called a side kick. Bring your knee up to the side of your body as high as you can. Your upper body leans away from the leg for balance. Then lash out with your leg. Strike your opponent with your instep or heel. Try it slowly at first.”
Mark was determined do this move right the first time. He didn’t want Sifu Hale to correct him in front of everybody again. So with as much force as he could muster, he kicked out to the side with his right leg.
To his horror, the kick was so strong that it lifted him right off his feet! He landed on the mat with a dull thud.
Well, this is just great,
Mark thought. He rolled to his back.
So much for the klutz miracle cure.
As Mark lay staring at the ceiling, he heard giggles from the other students. He wished the mat would swallow him up. Instead, Sifu Hale pulled him to his feet.
“When you fall, you must get up again,” the teacher said quietly. “Otherwise, you will lose the fight. Now, try the kick again, slowly this time. It might help if you separate the kick into four parts. One, knee up. Two, leg out. Three, leg in. Four, foot down.”
Still burning with shame, Mark crouched into the horse-riding stance again. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to do the kick. But when he broke it into four parts, he found it was easy to do.
He was just getting good at side kicking when Sifu Hale changed the exercise again. “This time, I’ll call out different combinations of punches and kicks. Start each combination from the horse-riding stance, and do the best you can. Ready?”
“Yes,
sifu
!”
“Right punch! Right kick!”
Which is my right? Which is my right?
Mark thought frantically. He flailed an arm and a leg on the same side of his body, hoping he’d picked the correct ones.
Sifu Hale continued to call out different combinations. First, he paired punches and kicks. But soon he started calling for three moves in a row, then four. By the end, Mark and the others were doing five moves. Mark barely had time to think about what his body was doing before it was time to begin the next set.
Finally, Sifu Hale clapped his hands. “You’ve all done a fine job today,” he said. He led them through some stretches again, then asked them to sit on the floor. “Each class ends with a short session of meditation. Close your eyes, cross your legs, take deep breaths, and relax.”
Mark did as he was told.
“Before our next class, practice what we learned today,” Sifu Hale said. “And think about something.” He paused before going on. “In class today, some of you thought it was funny when a fellow student made a mistake.”
Mark’s heart started to pound.
He’s talking about when I fell!
“But let me ask you,” Sifu Hale said quietly. “How would you have felt if you were the one being laughed at?”
The
kwoon
was silent except for the sounds of breathing.
“Respect for your fellow students’ feelings is very important. Show them respect, and they’ll show you respect. Remember,” Sifu Hale added, “you may be the next one to make a mistake.”
After class, Mark found it hard to look the other students in the eye.
They probably hate me for getting them in trouble,
he thought. But as he was about to leave, one of the students, a girl named Angie, tugged on his sleeve.
“Mark,” she said. “I’m really sorry I laughed.” “That’s okay,” Mark replied. “I’m used to it. My friends laugh at my clumsiness all the time.”
Angie frowned. “Doesn’t that bug you?” “Sometimes,” Mark answered truthfully.
“Maybe you should tell them,” Angie said.
Mark knew she was right. But he also knew he wouldn’t follow her advice. Standing up to his friends just wasn’t something he was very good at.
When he got home that afternoon, his mother told him X had called. “He’d like you to call him back. It’s about Halloween,” she said.
“Oh, shoot!” Mark said. He’d been so busy with kung fu, he’d forgotten all about the Halloween parade. He dialed X’s number.
“Hey, bud,” X said. “Big meeting at my house tonight to talk about the costume. Jonas thinks he’s found the perfect thing. Be here at seven, okay?”
Mark agreed and hung up. He was relieved that Jonas, not X, had come up with the costume idea.
But at 7:05, his relief turned to dismay.
The kids were all seated around the kitchen table, munching popcorn. With a grand gesture, Jonas laid a book down and flipped it open to a page he’d marked. “Here it is, this year’s winner!” he announced.
X pulled the book toward him. From where he was sitting, Mark couldn’t see the picture.
“C-o-o-o-l,” X said admiringly. “What is it?” “Says here it’s a dragon,” Bizz replied, reading over X’s shoulder. “Doesn’t look like any dragon I’ve ever seen.”
X lifted the book up so the cover was off the table. Mark blinked when he saw the book’s title:
The Beginner’s Guide to Kung Fu
.
“Hey, where’d you get that?” he asked Jonas. Jonas rolled his eyes. “My dad checked out every kung fu book the library had. Big mystery what his next game is about!”
