The Man Who Built His House Upon a Rock CH 16 pt 1

CH. 16

Metamorphic Stone (Changed Under Pressure)

Back

Bright sun shone through the storefront windows. Bamboo shades diffused and enhanced the golden sheen, reflecting off plain white walls and glinting from a dozen highly polished Chinese weapons, until all within was gilded yellow. 

Ginni pushed roughly through the front door, setting the nested bells into an angry clatter, far harsher than their usual melodious tinkle.

“Hey, you’re almost late. Get changed and hit the mat” called a rough voice from the midst of a tightly packed group in the middle of the room.

“I am not late. There’s thirty seconds left and I’m already dressed” she replied curtly, tossing her bag against the wall and pulling her long hair into a tight pony-tail.

“Then move it Princess,” replied Mark. He wasn’t used to a lot of sass and didn’t have to take it as studio owner, Head Instructor and 8^th degree Black Belt, Master of Kung Fu San Soo.

Normally Ginni would never have dared speak so disrespectfully to any authority figure, let alone her Master and friend. However, over the last week her mood and personality had begun to change. Every little irritant seemed to dig under her skin. People were stupid. Guys were too, and only interested in one thing. Her professors were arrogant. Her co-workers at the restaurant were lazy or thieves or both. She was bored with school, hated everyone around her and had found a gray hair this morning.

“They better not piss me off today”, she thought to herself.

Ginni walked past the small visitor’s area and approached a low table. On it rested a hot-plate which kept a porcelain kettle perpetually steaming. Next to the kettle was a tray of a dozen or more small red Chinese tea cups. She flipped one over, poured a tiny helping of the scalding green liquid and lifted it in both hands. Absentmindedly, Ginni turned it towards the icon of Qwan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy at whose monastery the Art had developed and then repeated the gesture toward Mark. In one gulp she downed the brew and exhaled a thick cloud of vapor before stepping onto the workout mat.

Among martial artists it is said that a man only masters his art when he has mastered himself. One early sign of this is the ability to remain calm in the face of attack. Remove the emotion from your mind and it will be able to concentrate on the enemy. Ginni had not progressed so far. Today in fact, she was brooding on what had brought her to this place three years ago.

Shortly after arriving at UVA, Ginni had had a bad date with an upper classman. To be more specific, he had a great date. She was instantly smitten by the intelligent (for a football player) handsome man who swept her off her very inexperienced feet. They talked for hours, had a few drinks, then a few more.

As happens with far too many freshman girls, she discovered just a moment late that not all men are as kind as Daddy or honorable as Grandpa. She tried to say no but it was already past the point of losing that which is most precious. For the first time in her otherwise tightly-controlled life, Virginia Shelton was in far over her head.

Tears and screams did nothing to stop the selfish, disgusting bastard from gaining his full desire. Afterwards she thought about complaining to teachers, counselors, the provost or the Dean’s office but was convinced nothing would come of it. She simply could not lie and say she had not placed herself in the situation or claim to have been ignorant of the ways of the world. Nothing would be done to him because recent false reports had made prosecutors shy unless such an “incident” as they called it, was “clearly intentional and beyond the law”. Because she had gone along until the act actually began, there was a he said/she said factor. Not to mention the boy was a grandson of the school’s largest donor. So Ginni had learned her lesson about trusting in a guy’s honorable intentions and about not being in control of every situation. Bitter were her lessons.

From the torn fragments of her naiveté rose a healthy distrust of men who appeared too good to be true. Ginni also vowed that no one would ever again be able to force her one inch beyond where she desired to go.

To that end, Ginni visited each of the on-campus self-defense courses and clubs, carefully evaluating their relative strengths and weaknesses. She was no fool and realized that something like wrestling wasn’t for her. Upper-body strength was not one of her larger endowments. She inquired about several forms of Karate, Jiu-Jitsu, Aikido, Wing Chun (developed by a woman and very appealing to Ginni), as well as Kickboxing and Muay Thai. But for her, one stood out above all the others.

A month after the assault, while shopping off-campus, Ginni spotted several women in white and black karate uniforms entering a local store with the banner: “Toi Li Ho Fut Hung Kung Fu now open”. She had the time and for whatever reason the name intrigued her, so she crossed the busy highway and followed them in.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes” she later told a friend. “Everywhere I looked someone was doing something different. Judo throws over here, Aikido leverages there. I saw kicks, punches, bodies flying everywhere. I thought one little kid was dead after being tossed six feet in the air, flat like a helicopter and falling hard on the floor. He just popped-up laughing and cried, ‘Do it again’.”

From that moment, Ginni was hooked on Kung Fu San Soo, a little known but very effective art from Southern China. It hit the States in the 1930s and spread from L.A.’s Chinatown so that by the ‘90s there were studios world-wide. Though vastly different from her normal activities, she stuck with it and had earned her own Black Belt just months prior.

“You wanna stretch first?” asked David, a thin good-looking 5^th degree black belt.

“No, I’m good!” she growled.

David’s head turned as he smirked at Mark and Brian. Usually all the upper-belts got along very well and so the occasional bad mood was ignored or more often, greeted with sarcastic humor.

“Who spit in your green tea?” asked Brian with a laugh.

“Oh, very clever,” she replied acidly, “that supposed to be funny?”

“I…uh…thought…it was” said Brian with a sheepish bow of the head.

“It’s nothing. Let’s just workout okay?”

She walked over to a cheap stereo in the corner and did something that no one had done in living memory. She ejected the cd Mark was already playing and flipped through the ones scattered on the table. She picked an old and dusty case, smiled knowingly and dropped the disc onto the waiting tray. Master Mark scrutinized her closely. This behavior was out of character and something was wrong.

Normally Ginni was an intense fighter but very precise. One could call her mechanical at times. Every move was perfect but held no real personality. She had given herself to San Soo but not yet taken it into her heart. Now was a chance to test an old Chinese proverb, “One does not know another until he has fought with them.” Under stress, all of a person’s doubts and fears manifest themselves. Mark decided to let things progress…carefully.

She joined the circle and they all presented a clasped fist salute to each other, their left floating like a crescent moon over the right. Ginni, as the lowest-ranked person, moved to the center and prepared herself to be attacked by each in turn. This was as close to real combat as San Soo had to offer. Completely unscripted and moving at 90% speed, only the skill of the participants in holding back the last crucial 2-3 inches on their techniques kept serious injury or death at bay.

Over the speakers boomed the gravelly voice of Rob Zombie, screaming out a war-chant.

Yeah, I am the super-eye
A blackened dream a golden eye
Trapped in a fantasy
A silent clown, a villain see

“Here comes” taunted Brian as he lobbed a right hand lazily at Ginni.

Her reaction was instantaneous and placed everyone else in the circle on notice that Ms. Virginia Shelton had come to break a sweat and maybe a few backs if they weren’t on their guard.

Her left arm swung up and forward to parry aside Brian’s jab while she stepped powerfully toward his center mass. In the quarter second this took, he tried to re-maneuver and spin a right back-fist to her neck but Ginni was thinking three steps ahead of him. She leapt up and straddled his hips, driving him backwards and off balance. Her fingers were on his eye sockets and legs crushing the air from under his ribs. She leaned forward and “bit off” his nose, pretending to spit it back into his face. Finally losing his war with gravity, Brian toppled backwards and hit the ground with a hollow wheeze. Ginni had landed on his diaphragm, driving all the air from his lungs, exactly as she had planned. She rolled forward off Brian’s limp form, “crushing” his windpipe as she went, regained her feet and prepared for the next attack.

Mongrels of pinball filth
Electric shrines to boogey tilt
Dying is to get her way
Get it, get it, she want it, she want it

The entire fight took less than three seconds but already another student was on her. Vanessa, a local Hispanic girl, had anticipated where Ginni would land.

Her vicious side-kick had already been unleashed but Ginni reacted too quickly. Virginia hooked the kick from the inside with her left arm while taking a deep right step in and just to the right. All at the same moment Ginni clasped Vanessa about the neck with her right hand; took a deep backwards left step in the same direction as her right; and pivoted on the spot. The powerful centrifugal forces she generated lifted Vanessa off the ground and flung her ten feet across the mat. She landed awkwardly and let out a moan that was somewhere between a gasp for air and a groan of pain. Again, no more than 2-3 seconds had elapsed from the attack to the thud.

Yeah, she's on fire
That girl's on fire
Burn me up, burn me up

Mark tried to surprise Ginni with a slow left uppercut to the ribs but she deftly blocked it with a raised right knee, catching him in the bicep. She extended her foot forward and kicked him in the fleshy part of his right inner-thigh, aggravating the femur nerve and making him bend forward in agony. She then reached over his back and pulled the deadened arm into a high and tight arm-bar, twisting the wrist to tighten every ligament and muscle. Using gravity to her advantage, Ginni dropped to her back sideways at Mark’s feet and pulled the captured arm over his head. He flipped head-over-heels in a beautiful circle and landed on his shoulders, his legs flopping uselessly over onto the ground.

She's on fire
That girl's on fire
Burn me up, burn me up

David timed his sweep perfectly and caught Ginni from behind as she tried to get up. Her legs flew into the air and she looked, for the slightest moment, like a chicken hung-up waiting to be plucked, head down and grinning stupidly.

Yeah, get going underground
A raven hood a blanket sound
Save thee and aggravate
A ravaging, a frozen slate

Miraculously, she was able to roll out of the fall in David’s direction. He was still crossed-up and off-balance, unable to move which left her with an open shot. Virginia dove forward into his left leg and twisted violently. The torque against his knee was immense. David was spun sideways and fell hard on his back. Ginni rolled him onto his face. Still in the fight, he grabbed wildly at her shoulders as he flipped and caught the hem of her t-shirt, just inside the gi top. His short fingernail left a trace on her smooth shoulder and snapped her bright yellow bra-strap in two. Her eyes widened in barely controlled fury. She crossed his legs once more and folded them up behind his back. Sitting on his ankles, she reached for the weapons board and removed a very sharp dagger from its niche. Her left hand raked into his hair and closed with large tufts emerging from between her fingers. A quick flip of the wrist sent the dagger’s ornamental scabbard flying. Ginni jerked his head back and drew the blade around David’s throat from ear to ear, leaving the finest red line and a single drop of blood.

He is a megaman
Electric spark a desperate man
Track down to run away
Live to kill another day

“Enough!” bellowed Mark. “Ginni, let him go. We need to talk.”