The Test  by  Anatkh

The Test
August 2008’s sport’s challenge

They were really two tigers, filled unsated energy and lust for action. One would lunge out as the other took a step back responding with his own counter attack. They were not red fighter and blue fighter; they had surpassed that. Long since. They paced and circled, waiting for the opportune moment, ready to spring when the time came. Both calculating, trained fighters.

They should be.

After all they had waited for this moment for many years now. Perhaps it was too far for Lara to say that every thing the two had done in Taekwon-do until this point was in preparation for this moment, but it was close.

If the white belt was the blank page, by black belt the page was written. The philosophy was that black belt was the true beginning. She supposed that this was true. After first dan you had until ninth degree to be perfect.

“Time!” called the timekeeper, Mr. Arnolds, as he threw the beanbag into the ring, signaling for the two fighters to stop the sparring match.

Though Lara couldn’t hear from where she sat, she knew that Mr. Cass was telling the red fighter and blue fighter to face him and bow, then bow to each other and finally to shake hands. She knew the routine well enough, for she had done in many times before. Being a black-stripe did that to you.

Taking his mouth guard out, Edward strode proudly over to her. “What did you think?” he asked breathlessly sitting down.

“Good,” she said, inspecting her camera lenses. “You weren’t exactly blocking Jess right. I thought you should have crossed your arms more. And your 180 was-“

“Shush you,” murmured Edward leaning in with a kiss.

Pushing him away, she laughed. “Not now. It’s your test.” She glanced around the do-jang. “Master Kwan is watching,” she warned pointing to the seventh dan who was responsible for awarding Edward his first dan.

“Prude,” snickered Edward edging closer to Lara so as to allow his Hosinsul partner Jess to sit down beside him. “You did good,” he murmured slapping his friend on the back.

“You weren’t blocking right,” said Jess, sitting legs tucked underneath him, unlike Edward who preferred the more casual pretzel style. “You never crossed your arms.”

“That’s just was Lara was saying!” exclaimed Edward exasperatedly, almost laughing.

“And no doubt that’s what Master Kwan is saying,” interjected she.

Nervously, Edward glanced over at the master who sat at the table, making comments on their test papers. He wasn’t so much as frowning, so much as he wasn’t smiling. It was rare that Master Kwan smiled while doing or teaching his art, despite being the easy-going man that he was. Out side of the school, he was one of the most amusing and kind man that Lara had ever met.

“You don’t think…” began Edward a nervous twang in his tone.

“Don’t worry,” assured Jess, “he’s never flunked anyone at this stage.”

“That was a little blatant,” snapped Lara aiming her camera at Jess and focusing.

“I’m just saying…”

CLICK

“Delete that please,” said Jess turning his head away.

“No.”

He shrugged.

“Say you’re sorry and I’ll delete it,” offered Lara taking another picture of the very disgruntled looking boy.

“I wasn’t saying anything about you, Lara,” began Jess, weighing each of his words in the calculated manner that he used when sparring. “I’m just saying that there have been a lot of black-stripes that don’t test even though they’re eligible. He just doesn’t want to flunk them at the ceremony.”

CLICK

“I’m sorry if it’s a sore spot for you,” apologized Jess, not sounding sorry in the least.

“Lara,” said Edward softly, “put the camera away.”

Frustrated, she shook her head and took one of both the boys. It wasn’t fair that they were allowed to test for black belt when she had tested and passed for black-stripe before either one of them had. Didn’t Mr. Cass always say that anyone who passed for black-stripe was ready for his or her black belt test?

“You just weren’t allowed to test on a technicality,” explained Jess, still in measured tones. “I think that it’s bogus, but hey we all have to follow the rules.”

“The rules are crap.” She should have been allowed to test. Though Master Kwan was nice, he was as inflexible as brick when it came to Taekwon-do’s rules and customs.

Edward shrugged his shoulders.

“You just like them because they help you,” sighed Lara.

“Look, I served my community. I did what was required. I didn’t like doing it, but I did it. It was required.”

“Whatever.”

CLICK

“Our group is up for patterns,” observed Jess, standing up.

Sighing, Lara watched as the two began to do their patterns needed to go up, patterns that she had learned and memorized and could perform to perfection. The only thing that prevented her from going and testing along with them was her unwillingness to do 100 hours of community service that was required for testing. She understood the symbolicness of it, but she just was never too keen about picking up trash along the roadside, working at the town fair, or reading to little kids. And doing what Edward had by dressing up as a monkey for some class was so unappealing she couldn’t even begin to comprehend it.

By the break, she was almost annoyed to see the man who had insisted that she do something to serve the community come over to her.

“Hello, Lara.”

“Salve, Master Kwan,” she said standing up and bowing- feet in a V, eyes forward, arms at side- even though she wasn’t in uniform.

“Your friends are doing very well in their test,” observed Master Kwan.

“I’ll pass that along to them. Edward was worried about his blocking.”

“I noticed that he wasn’t crossing his arms,” said Master Kwan sagely. Glancing at her camera, he asked, “May I see?”

Nodding, she handed the camera over to Master Kwan who began to look through the pictures that she had been taking for the past three hours of the test. Mostly of Edward, but some were of Jess and other were of the others who were testing, mostly adults that she didn’t know too well. Edward at eighteen was the youngest person on the test. She would have been the youngest at seventeen, but technicalities…

“These are very good,” said Master Kwan handing her back the camera. “Few do action shots well. You’ve done it very nicely.”

“Thanks.” He loved her work, but didn’t love her lack of community values.

“I’m not sure if you know this, but I teach photography at the high school.”

She nodded. She hadn’t attended the public high school, since she had gone to a private school on scholarship. That didn’t stop her from knowing that Edward had taken a photography class under his tutelage. It had been one of Edward’s favorite classes after all.

“I’ve been looking for a TA for some time now,” he continued.

She hadn’t known that.

“If you’d like to,” he said, “I think that we could arrange this as your community service project.”

“I would love to.” She meant it. What with this gap year… she had wanted to spend it figuring out what she would be doing with her life. Maybe this was a sign?

“I’ll let you know the details later,” he said beginning to walk off. “Be warned, I’m a tough boss when it comes to art.”

Oh yes, she knew.




Author’s Notes: This story is for my best friend and sister Gaby.
Some phrases you might be unfamiliar with:
sparring: a fight between one or more opponents. There’s step sparring- with a certain amount of steps and counters- and free sparring, which is what Jess and Edward were doing, nothing is determined and it is similar to a “real” fight. (The goal of Taekwon-do is one-step sparring where only one attack is given and the person responses with several counters, needing no more than 2 or 3.
Hosinsul: Prearranged sparring between one or more people. Supposed to be for a black belt test. Most like a street fight. Knives and other weapons can be used, one of the rare times weapons are used in Taekwon-do (only showing defense from weapons).
Dan: Degree of black belt. One is the lowest, ninth is the highest. There are very few of them in the world.
Master: honorific used for someone over 6th Dan.

Taekwon-do was developed in the 1940s-1950s as a modern martial art using physics in Korea. Until 2003 it was the only martial art with its creator still alive.

Hope you enjoyed my August 08 sports challenge.
-Anatkh