BLOODLINE Episode 1 by Ironkurtain

BLOODLINE Episode 1 by Ironkurtain

Eric woke up and stopped the alarm clock buzzing for over a minute. The bright sun ray was already halfway across his bedroom. Pushing the blue colored down blanket aside, he yawned and stretched both arms as far as they could reach. Rubbing his eyes, he looked around the bed and bedside table for his cellphone. Then he paused. The house was unusually quiet, especially for a Saturday morning.

No whirring sound of the vacuum cleaner whenever his mother performed the daily cleaning routine that seemed to never end on Saturdays. The alarm buzzed at 10 am. Two hours ago his mother would have pulled the blanket off to wake and remind him that his room wont clean itself.

Eric casually got out of his bed and saw the phone lying on the floor. He might have dropped it when he fell asleep the night before. Picking it up, he checked for missing calls and new text messages as he adjusted the collar of his pyjamas. He paused again and cocked his ears for any sound or movements. Except the muffled chatters of kids playing outside the six storey apartment, the house was dead silent. Wondering what his mother was up to, he headed towards the door of his bedroom.

“Mom!”, he called out as he crossed the living-room, heading towards the dining.

No answer.

Eric opened the refrigerator and took out a half filled bottle of water. Closing the door, he noticed a yellow sticker on it as he raised the bottle to his lips.

“Gone to see someone i will be
back by afternoon. Make sure u
eat your breakfast”

It was his mother’s hand writing and was hurriedly written.

Eric pursed his lips and swallowed the cold water. “Probably gone to see Dave”, he thought with a smirk.

Mr David whom Eric calls Dave was a patient his mother met in the hospital where she worked as a nurse. A few dinner dates and unending phone chats later, a good chemistry had being developed between him and Eric’s mother. Eric got to know what was going on when he noticed the greater amount of time his mother spent on wearing make-ups. And seeing her checking out some dresses infront of the mirror in her bedroom. Dresses Eric never knew his mother had. Some late nights he do caught her in the balcony of their apartment smiling and talking softly on her cellphone.

Eric took a few more gulps of the cold water and grimaced. He hated the taste in his mouth and needed to brush his teeth.

******************************************

It’s 2pm and the dojo was packed with practitioners of different ages and sizes. All of them were doing one form of training or the other since it was the dojo free training day.

The place was big but not that very big and located at the basement of the building. It had everything. Six punching bags hung on the left side. Four of them were heavy bags. Away from the punching bags and against the wall was a big four legged wooden frame that resembled a swing, but smaller. It hanged four heavy sandbags.

Two were above around the chest level with a few inches of space between them and the other two were below and a few inches above the floor with similar space in between them. Next to the wooden frame is a rack of dumbbells and barbells. The right wall was adorned with a large blue colored logo that had “KYOKUSHIN-KAN KARATE” written on top of it and a Japanese inscription on the side.

There was a lot of energy in the place. Some practiced and perfected their ‘katas’ infront of the giant sized mirror facing the dojo. Others were either stretching, hard hitting the punching bags or conditioning their knuckles and shins with the “Makiwara” , a padded striking post firmly attached to the sandbag frame. The little kids contented themselves with running around and play wrestling on the padded floor

After completing the tenth round of a five minutes hard hitting of the heavy bag with both fist and leg combinations, Eric wiped the sweats dripping from his face with a towel. He was trying to control his breath and must have pushed himself too hard. Drinking some of the mineral water he had with him, Eric took a few seconds of rest before he proceeded to the “Makiwara” to condition his knuckles while he cooled off.

Taking the stance and making sure it was right, he began to rhythmically pound the first two knuckles of his fist on the wooden board, unclenching the fist as he withdrew and clenching before it hit the pad. The thumping sound from the blows kept getting louder and louder as he put more power to the punch, earning him a few stares mostly from the beginners.

“Dude…..is that how hard you can punch?”,

Eric paused for a moment and continued. He recognized the voice.

“No wonder guys dont wanna fist fight with you because you might tickle them to death with those lady punches”.

“Oh yeah?”…….i hope you dont mind me tickling you on the neck right now”, Eric began as he turned and faced Stanley, his best friend. “Where the hell are you coming from?”, he asked.

“From the hospital”

“Hospital?…..so what is it this time?, herpes or something worse?”

“Ask your sister…….you should have told me she was a burning bedframe tester”, Stanley feigned seriousness as he tried to suppress a smile.

“Let’s just say i wanted to teach you a lesson”, Eric said.

The two friends laughed and shook hands that was more like grabbing arms. Stanley was more built than Eric but not as tall. He was their high school wrestling champion and he now a member of the national wrestling team. He’s 18, same age as Eric.

“So what’s up with you yesterday?”, Stanley asked as he glanced around the dojo.

“What do u mean?”, Eric wasn’t sure of what he was talking about.

Stanley looked at Eric surprisingly. “About Jerry’s birthday. You promised to attend….only to call at the eleventh hour saying that you wont make it. And you kinda sound rather impatient on the phone”, Stanley stated.

Eric remembered. He was with Janet. Actually he had made his plans for the occasion until Janet called. He didnt know how she got his number and was pretty sure that Liz didnt give it to her. She wanted to have dinner with him. According to her, it was a show of
appreciation for what he did for her last week. Eric had refused the offer and quite vehemently when she was so insisting. Until she told him she already booked a table at an upscale restaurant called the Valentino’s.

The restaurant was well famed in Metro-city and no one ever refuses an offer to have dinner there, especially on a friday evening because there are always the possibilities of meeting a celebrities and getting an autograph. It was said that tables there were booked in days advance, even weeks. Eric had wondered how Janet pulled it off till he learnt that the restaurant proprietress was her god mother.

“So why the change of heart?”, Stanley asked Eric, interrupting him in his thoughts

“Home issues”, Eric lied and picked up two 12kg dumbbells from the rack. “My mother needed my help in sorting out some stuffs………work stuff”.

“Ok”, Stanley murmured thoughtfully as he watched his friend do the curling exercise.

“So how was it………the birthday”. Eric asked and pursed his lips as he curled up the dumbbells.

“It was okay. Lots of drinks, good food and alot of old friends from high school attended”. Stanley replied

“What about Jerry?”.

“Quite disappointed when he heard you won’t be coming. He wanted to know why, so i told him you were on a date with your girlfriend”. Stanley smiled.

Eric completed the tenth rep. He re-racked the weight and looked at Stanley.

“You knew that he wasn’t happy because of my absence in his party”. he began. “Then you told him i didn’t make it because i chose to go on a date with a girlfriend?……….congratulation……you are a genius and a best friend indeed”.

“Dude i know you were out seeing that girl…..dont tell me that you were at home helping your mother”. Stanley said with a funny look.

“Which girl?”. Eric wondered if he had seen him and Janet.

“The rich girl, the one whose mother is a fashion designer”

“You mean Liz?”. Eric was relieved. “Dude she is just a friend and i wasnt with her that day”, he sighed. “And she also has a boyfriend”, he added.

“Really?…” . Stanley asked looking at Eric intently. “…because last time we were together, she had this thing in her eyes each time she stared at you. Like some kind of hunger”.

“I know she doesn’t eat people, so i don’t know what you are talking about”. Eric said and picked up his mineral water bottle.

“Aw come on man, an expression like that means something must have happened or perhaps…..something…..is going on between the two of you”. Stanley said.

“Something like what?”

“Did you bang her?”.

Eric ignored the question and picked up a 10kg barbell from the rack.

“You banged her, my God you banged that chick”. Stanley’s face lit up with excitement. “Dude you are ……..you are really dangerous. How did you even pull that off?……..knowing the kind of family she is from and her rather rude personality, you still got her on her back……infact you are…….”

“I did not bang her or whatever rubbish you are talking about”, Eric cut in. “And please can we talk about something else.

“Something like what?”. Stanley asked. He wanted to hear more about Liz but could see that Eric wasn’t interested.

“Like why you are here…..and the real reason for going to the hospital”.

“Well…..”. Stanley dug his hands into his jeans pockets. “…….am here to see my friend and know how he is doing. As for going to the hospital, i went there to receive my medical certificate”.

“What is it for?”

“Training tour. The wrestling team will be going to the United states for a two weeks training tour”.

“And you are among those selected?”.

“Yep”.

“Hm…….lucky you”. Eric gave a faint smile. “So you will be going to the olympics i guess”.

“No the coaches will use it to select those who will compete in the olympics for intensive training”. Stanley said. “So if i make the list, you will be watching me on t.v” he said proudly.

“What about your dream career of being a psychologist?”. Eric asked.

“It is still on the table. If i don’t make the cut, i can still go back to school”. Then stanley looked at Eric from head to toe. “Dude, why don’t you go for the national karate team try-outs. Am sure you will make the team”.

“Nope…….not interested”

“Why?……i saw the way you kicked ass in the last national karate tournament. They said you were the youngest competitor to ever reach the final”.

“And i lost”. Eric sighed.

“Lost to a guy who is almost a silver back gorilla”. Stanley put in. “I thought the ‘manimal’ was going to pulverize you till i saw him trying to survive the blitz you were throwing at him…….i still dont know why the judges declared him the winner”.

“Anyway am still not interested”. Eric said, trying to concentrate on his ‘karate curling’ exercise. “Activities like that tend to attract alot of publicity, and i like it quiet. Besides the karate for the Olympics is a different style.

“What’s the difference?”. Stanley asked

“It is the light contact style. Ours is the full contact. A knock down karate. We hit to knock down or knock out opponents and not to score points”. Eric explained.

“Oh………that explains why you were pounding the crap out of that wood”. Stanley said and pointed at that wood. “By the way how long have you been practicing?, seven years?”.

“Twelve years”

“Twelve??,….i thought you told me seven”.

“That is for boxing”

“Boxing?……is there any other that you are training i also dont know of?”.

“Judo and Krav maga……..practiced both for ten years”

Stanley stared at Eric with his mouth open. Then managed to say “Boy…..i didn’t know all that”.

“There are alot of things about me that u dont know”. Eric said inaudibly and continue curling the weights.

After almost an hour of training in between conversations with Stanley, Eric went to the locker room. He took off the sweat soaked training cloths and took a five minutes cold shower. When he was done, he put on his cloths and stuffed his training gear inside a black colored adidas duffle bag. A few nods and goodbyes with ‘Oss’ to the other boys, Eric stepped out of the room and head towards the dojo exit door, where stanley stood waiting.

“Ready to roll?”. Stanley asked

“Yeah……..”. Eric began as he checked his cellphone. “…….hm…what is this?”. he saw a new text message in his phone. He checked and saw it was a bank alert. Some amount of money had being transferred to his account.

“What is it?”. Stanley asked as he tried to sneak a peak at Eric’s phone.

“These guys are really serious”. Eric murmured thoughtfully as he stared at the amount of money he received.

“Which people?, what are you talking about?. Stanley asked impatiently.

“None of your business”. Eric replied, putting his phone away when he saw how inquisitive stanley was. “You pay for the taxi rider”. he then said to stanley

Stanley protested as both of them exited the building and headed towards the main street.

A “Makiwara” and how it is used for knuckle conditioning

BLOODLINE Episode 1
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