Lost In Place by Mark Salzman

Author:Mark Salzman [Salzman, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-0-307-81426-5
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2012-01-04T05:00:00+00:00

That turned out to be my last lesson. I was upset over the strangulation tutorial, because it was obvious that we hadn’t learned anything. Who didn’t know that if you strangle a guy he’ll lose consciousness? And the slapping-the-stomach part—well, he could have just told us that and we would have believed him, for God’s sake. It was such a stupid way for Sensei to vent his temper that I knew I couldn’t continue with the lessons. I spent the next few days drafting a letter to him thanking him for what he had taught me and apologizing for letting him down, but explaining that the Path of the Warrior just wasn’t for me. I walked over to Michael’s house as I always did before we drove to lessons and handed him the envelope and asked him to give it to Sensei.

“What is it?” he asked benignly. He had no idea what I had been brooding about.

“I’m quitting lessons.”

At first Michael thought I was joking. When he realized that I was serious, I saw where the expression “his face fell” came from. It was as if all the muscles in his face went loose, and he looked about five years old.

“You’re cradding lessons?” he asked, in a strange, thin voice. “Cradder” was a word he had made up to describe the sort of person who takes karate for a few months, practices on weekends and then quits when it gets tough. Here he had turned the word into a verb.

“Yeah, I guess I am.” I held my breath waiting to see what his second reaction was going to be, and when it came it was pretty much what I would have predicted. His expression turned to one of sheer disgust.

“Sure, I’ll give him the letter, cradder.” He put it in his pocket, climbed into his car, slammed the door and drove away, leaving me to wonder how to spend my first Thursday night in nearly three years away from him.

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