The Janitor's Girl

Part 4

Yet another major change in Heather's life was when she her mother introduced her to Feng Dai a few weeks after Darnell had gone home from the hospital.

After hearing what had happened to her daughter, a close friend of Dawn's introduced her to her great uncle, a tiny old Chinese man. He was soft-spoken, gentle and very, very old.

Feng Dai had moved to the United States ten years before to visit and spend time with his American nieces and nephews, it had been a great adventure for him and he had come to love his American family a great deal. Eventually, he decided not to go back to China.

He had a round face covered with fine wrinkles around the eyes and mouth, proof that he smiled a lot. His heavily accented voice was soft with a musical lilting quality to it and his slanted light brown eyes had a merry glint.

To Dawn he looked very unassuming but when she shook his hand the thick, horny calluses made it feel like she was gripping a rough tree branch. Her impression of him changed instantly.

They were in what looked like a small warehouse, just two blocks from Heather's high school, a corner of which was sectioned off and had been converted into a living area. The inner walls of the warehouse were lined with strange stands holding wood and metal implements she didn't recognize, wooden dummies, what looked like folded mats, and other items she couldn't identify.

The old man offered her tea then motioned for them to sit on a pair of long, low stools set against the wall.

Dawn told him what happened to her daughter, about Darnell, about being a single mother, about the fears that something would happen to her again. She wanted Heather to be able to take care of herself. She ultimately asked him if he would teach her daughter to defend herself.

Which was the reason her friend had brought her to meet the old man. He was a master of Chinese martial arts, which he referred to as wushu or kung fu, and had been teaching his family since he'd arrived. With his family's encouragement and help, he'd started a small school and been able to support himself quite well. He was very good, with a reputation for teaching not just the art of fighting but the philosophy behind it, he held his hand-picked students to very high standards.

Feng decided that he liked this beautiful, very tall woman and was very interested in meeting her daughter. He agreed to meet Heather and then decide if he would take her as a pupil.

Dawn left Feng's place feeling jubilant and exited. She knew, and knew for a fact, that Master Feng would immediately take to her daughter and that her daughter would like him also.

Heather met Master Feng Dai after school the following day and Dawn had been right, they had taken to each other immediately and her instruction in wushu had started right away.

Being on the cheer-leading squad and playing soccer, along with having taken gymnastics in the past, she was limber, strong and fast with what seemed like boundless endurance and energy. All of which helped her somewhat, but Master Feng's goal was to make her faster and stronger. He had her doing obscure exercises using buckets filled with water or sand, he had her clean and scrub the school inside and out using only motions he specified, she would sometimes spend hours in one position or performing a single movement or series of movements, some of which included him smacking her with a switch when she messed up. First came discipline, and with constantly reinforced movements came what he called muscle memory. He taught her stances and forms, kicks, punches and throws, and then came her favorite ... weapons. She learned how to handle staves of various lengths, clubs, knives, swords, among other weapons.

Heather's days were full and exhausting. If she wasn't busy with schoolwork, she was at cheer-leading practice or soccer and every day she was at Master Feng's school. But she loved every minute.

She spent so little time at her home that she barely saw her mother. When she wasn't in school or training with Master Feng, she was with Darnell. She would still help him out at work, though not every day. Most of the time, while he finished up his work at the school, she'd make herself comfortable at his place, she'd take a shower then do her homework.

After he'd get home and after she'd finished her homework, she'd drag his coffee table out of the way and show him what she'd learned from Feng. He'd sit back on his couch and admire the lovely curves of the beautiful young girl in front of him, the flair of her vibrant hair, the fluid grace of her movements, and the look of intense concentration on her fine features. Though he couldn't help but find her incredibly attractive, he admired her as he would a beautiful painting on the wall of a museum, behind a self-imposed barrier ... from a distance.

As the days passed, Heather's skills far surpassed Feng's wildest expectations. Her natural grace, agility, strength, flexibility, and tireless energy combined with a rigorous routine and an instructor skilled far beyond the average led her to a point far more advanced than any other student Feng had ever taught.

Heather introduced Feng to Darnell and, strangely, they became instant friends. They met several times a week to drink tea, eat and talk about movies, both of them being avid movie aficionados. Feng considered Darnell a person of character with high moral standards, someone who could be depended on to do the right thing. Feng had a great liking for him, though he despaired of ever convincing him to exercise and eat well. Every time they met, he offered to teach him kung fu but the fat man, with a belly-bouncing laugh, refused every time.

And so the days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months and the months into a year.

To be continued...