“Not really,” Chester said. “These are street bikes.”
Emily pondered the significance of this fact.
“What about the logging trail about a half mile down on the right? Can you take one of these over the hills on something like that?”
“Maybe, as long as it’s not too rutted. But these tires won’t have much traction on loose dirt or gravel.”
Emily and Connie led Luther and Roxie back to the main building, while the others admonished Ethan on keeping their new benefactor safe. Luther signed some papers he only dimly understood at Emily’s behest. Roxie beamed over his shoulder the whole time. She discussed security arrangements, including the tunnel, and suggested that dirt bikes might be an important precaution to take. Luther shook his head disapprovingly.
“Ain’t no way I’m riding one of those skinny little things. I’d feel like a circus clown on one of them tiny tricycles.”
“Have it your own way,” Emily said. “It’d just be for emergencies. But if you’re totally opposed, then figure out your own escape route.”
Roxie punched him in the shoulder and said, “Don’t be so stubborn. If our lives depend on it, I’m telling you right now, we’re getting on something that can make it over those hills.”
A few minutes later, having said their goodbyes, Roxie leaned into the rear window of the SUV to have one last word with Emily.
“Don’t worry, honey. Jackie and I will get that restaurant up and running as soon as we can. It may take a couple of months, but Luther’ll come around.”
Chapter
24
The Break Up
“Hey, Rincon, who let you in?” Jimmy Waring yelled across the patio in mock surprise at seeing Danny.
When a teenage boy’s parents go out of town in the last week of the school year, it can mean only one thing: party. Jimmy invited mainly seniors, as well as his teammates, and any girls he could entice over. It was going to be loud, and there was a pool.
“Yeah, it’s not like you’re on the team anymore,” Jeff Schenk said, slapping him on the back.
“Good one, Jeff. Football season’s over, so there’s no more team,” Danny replied, pretending to get the joke. “Ha ha.”
“No, seriously,” Jeff said. “Coach already called the first meeting of the team for next season. Marty and I are co-captains.”
“Congratulations, then,” he said, looking bemused.
Jeff was not the sharpest tool, but large enough to anchor the offensive line. Danny didn’t really care who was doing what on the football team anymore, though he couldn’t completely suppress his surprise at this selection. Marty Gibson was a different matter—a bit larger, and quite a bit smarter. He could be a leader. Both of them were at the center of some nasty business a couple of months back, a scheme they’d devised to embarrass him at the dojo. That Jeff seemed to have forgotten it already left Danny shaking his head, especially since Emily ended their mischief by humiliating the two of them in sparring.
Sophomores and juniors, soon to be the juniors and seniors on the team, crowded around, as if seeking some sort of affirmation from an old veteran they were in the habit of deferring to. If he was going to party with these guys, he’d have to accept what passes for conviviality with them.
Earlier that afternoon, the main event of the weekend played itself out, a beach barbecue down at Lake Moomaw for the entire school. The student council had run fundraisers almost every weekend since Easter for the purpose. In the end, a bit more than three thousand dollars was spent on food, drink and live music to celebrate the approach of summer vacation.
“Ronny Pugh is probably taking your spot as starting tailback,” Jimmy said. “And Darnell Cox is number two.”
“And Barry Hamer’s gonna be quarterback,” Jeff added.
Danny grunted a vague acknowledgement of information he didn’t really care about, though it was obviously electrifying to the rest of them. He had other things on his mind.
“You guys’ll be tough next year,” he offered absentmindedly.
He tried to wander off, but the crush of the team was too great. They still wanted to entertain him, maybe measure themselves against a departing senior.
“Hey, Rincon,” Darnell called out. “Did you and Emily, or Michi… whatever, did you guys break up?”
“Yeah, I hear she kicked you to the curb,” Jimmy said, in good-natured commiseration.
Danny glowered at Darnell. Teenage boys banter about that sort of thing all the time, but this time the question felt intrusive, even rude. And the worst part—he wasn’t wrong about him and Emily. On the walk over, Danny
had
been thinking about how it might be over between them, and wondering how to tell her. After Seoul he just didn’t know how to get comfortable around her. “She killed those guys, and it was kinda cool, and way scary,” he thought. “But that ferocity, she just turned it on and they were dead, in like the blink of an eye. And then she stared down the barrel of that guy’s gun like she didn’t care.”
The girl of his dreams vanished in that moment. She’d become something else, beautiful as before, but also somehow too much for him. He watched her at the lake that afternoon, hanging with Melanie and Wendy, but he kept his distance. The three of them in bathing suits caught the eye of more than a few boys. As smooth as Emily looked, he knew her body would feel so much harder to the touch, not at all soft, the way boys tend to imagine girls.
“Is that true?” Ronny asked. “Did they break up?”
“I always said she looks fresh,” Darnell said.
“That girl must be a sweet ride,” Barry said, the subject of the conversation having just caught his ear. “What’s she like, you know, in the sack?”
“Shut up, Barry,” Danny snapped back.
“What are you so angry about? I’m just asking.”
“I know what it is,” Ronny said. “He never got any.”
“Is that why she dumped you?” Barry needled. “For being too gentlemanly?”
This conjecture drew the sort of catcalls and taunts one might expect from a crowd of teenage boys.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Danny growled, trying to reclaim some dignity without giving in to their insinuations by offering a denial.
“I hear she’s pretty tough, what with all that ninja stuff she does at that dojo,” Darnell said with a laugh.
Jeff cringed at the reminder of just how tough she could be. He’d experienced it first hand and didn’t care to think about it. He tried to shrink back into the crowd, afraid of… he knew not what. Danny turned to walk away.
“Ninja sex,” Barry snorted. “I’d like to get me some of that.”
That was the last straw. Danny turned back and roared something incoherent at his former teammates, then shoved Barry to the ground. “Shut your damn mouth,” he snarled.
Before he knew it, Barry was back on his feet ready to fight. He was a bit larger than Danny, thicker around the chest and shoulders, but not trained to fight. He swung his right arm around toward Danny’s head. The punch seemed to take forever to come around. Blocking it was easy… but then what? A reverse punch to the center of his chest? That’s what his
Shotokan
training urged him to do. He also knew an ill-considered punch could inflame the crowd and start a brawl. He pushed Barry back into Ronny and Darnell, his eyes blazing at them.
“What’s your problem?” Ronny yelled. “You broke up with her. It’s not like the rest of us can’t have a shot.”
In an instant, Barry was back in his face, hissing innuendos about Emily, belittling his masculinity, trying to provoke him.
“Get away from me,” Danny yelled as he pushed him back into his friends.
Barry stumbled into Ronny and Darnell, who tripped and fell to the ground. Danny blocked another haymaker from Barry, and this time couldn’t hold back that reverse punch. Barry crumpled to the ground, gasping for breath.
This was the trigger for the rest of the boys on the team who were milling about. Half a dozen young men attacked him, mostly without knowing what the fight was even about. Danny blocked and parried the first few punches, looking for a way out. He was about to use his feet to settle things, to kick a knee or something higher, when he saw the girls at the other end of the backyard. Wendy and Melanie had noticed the fracas developing on the patio. Emily turned to look and her eyes caught his.
The question flashed across his mind: “What am I doing? This isn’t how I wanted this evening to go.” He pulled himself into a defensive position. No more punches, no kicks. He’d block them, maybe get a little bruised up. But he wasn’t going to hurt anyone. Perhaps they’d lose interest soon, so he wouldn’t have to be ashamed of fighting in front of her.
“Break it up,” Steve yelled, as he and Wayne pushed through the crowd and pulled people off Danny. As the former quarterback, he still exercised considerable authority over the younger players. They didn’t know Wayne, but the fact that he was so much larger than any of them commanded some respect.
Steve helped Danny up and Wayne dusted him off.
“You okay?”
“I didn’t need your help,” Danny brayed petulantly. “I could take those clowns any time I felt like it.” He stomped off into the house to sulk, but mostly to get out of Emily’s sight. He wasn’t sure what irritated him more, the fact that she saw or that he cared. In the back of his mind, the thought burrowed its way through his already shaky self-esteem that somehow she had regulated his behavior. He held back because that’s what she would have wanted, and worse yet, he knew she’d have been right.
~~~~~~~
Soon enough, the tempest of emotions outside dissipated and the team’s attention turned elsewhere, having little interest in deciphering the puzzle of Danny’s feelings. Bragging about exploits yet to be performed on the football field was much more engaging. The music played on, a few girls managed get themselves thrown into the pool, kids who were not old enough to drink became intoxicated, and at least one boy threw up in the bushes.
“What are you waiting for?” Melanie asked.
“Yeah, Em. Are you gonna let him stew all night?” Wendy asked.
Emily knew her friends were right. She needed to say something to Danny. But did it have to be tonight?
“C’mon guys. We just need to give him some space. Okay?”
“
We
need to give him space,” Wendy said, pointing at Melanie and herself. “But you gotta talk to that boy.”
Emily growled and stomped off to find Danny. To get through the patio doors entailed pushing past the football team, including Ronny, Barry and Darnell. She thought about walking around to the front door to avoid them, and felt a wave of revulsion at the idea.
“Coming through, guys,” she said. “Make way.”
“Hey, sweet cheeks,” Barry said with a leer, aping for his buddies. “Where you goin’?”
His arm snaked around her hips and reeled her in, and she didn’t resist right away.
“Hey, Bar,” she said with a smile, when their faces were only a few inches apart. “Aren’t you a little out of your league?”
She let him feel her hips grind against his for a brief second and then pushed him gently away. When he reached for her waist again, she swung her opposite hand down to grab across the back of his hand from below and twisted sharply in and up. The hold was so deceptively simple, so basic, he hardly noticed it at first, and could scarcely defend against it. As soon as her fingers had control of his palm, with her thumb pressing against the back of his hand, he couldn’t resist spinning down to his knees, arm bent awkwardly behind his shoulders, squealing the whole way. A tiny thumb pressure and he yelped in pain.
“Whoa, Barry,” she said. “Are you crying like a little girl?”
Darnell and Ronny watched, frozen. She sneered at them. What could they do about it, after all? Hit a girl? But the slightest move to intervene and she was ready to jam the heel of her foot into either of their faces, and she wouldn’t even have to release Barry. With a sharp glance, she communicated this thought to them.
“Hey, Jeff,” she called out, spying him cringing on the other side of the patio. “Aren’t you the new co-captain? Why don’t you teach your new quarterback some manners… that is, if you want him to be able to throw a ball next season.”
“Lemme go,” Barry whimpered.
She leaned down to snarl in his ear. “If this is what I can do to you with one hand, just imagine what Danny could do anytime he felt like it.”
When she released his hand he slunk away, turning to say something once he was out of her reach. One look at the fire in her eyes dissuaded him.
Danny was not to be found in the kitchen or the dining room or living room. Could he have gone upstairs? Standing at the staircase, she heard voices coming from the front porch.
Sitting on the steps just outside the door, she found Sherry Caldwell, one of Amanda’s friends from the cheerleading team, trying to offer Danny some unspecified consolation. Emily watched from behind the screen door, curious if she would feel anything—jealousy, anger, resentment. Strangely, or perhaps reassuringly, she felt only a vague sympathy. “Sorry, Honey,” she thought. “But you can do better.” One deep breath to focus her resolve, and she stepped out on the porch. Sherry looked up to see Emily looming over her from behind. Danny didn’t turn his head.
“Excuse me,” Sherry said indignantly.
“It’s okay, Sherry,” Emily said. “Can you give us a minute?”
The girl looked like she wanted to object, and turned to Danny for moral support. But he said nothing, made no sign that he even knew she was there. After a moment, Sherry stood up and walked back into the house, clearly upset.
Emily took the slam of the screen door as a signal to sit down. Neither one spoke for a few moments. Talking with Danny was never this difficult before, and she knew what that had to mean.
“I’m sorry about Seoul,” she said finally. “Connie kept saying it was a mistake to bring you. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“What? Don’t you think I can handle it?” he replied angrily, staring at his shoes.
“I wouldn’t have brought you at all if I thought that,” she said coolly. “You know that’s not what I mean.”
He grunted, apparently satisfied. When he turned to look at her, she saw the mixture of sorrow and frustration in his eyes.
“You were really brave in the fish market,” she said, exaggerating for his benefit. “And at the gangster’s house.” She knew he didn’t like the idea of his girlfriend rescuing him. But what else could she have done, once she’d put him such perilous situations.
“I didn’t do anything… just let those goons pin me against the wall while you dealt with their bosses.”
“Yeah, I know. But you could have fought back, and probably taken those guys, and you didn’t. That made it a lot easier for me to come to an understanding with the
yakuza
.”