JOURNEY - on Mastering Ukemi (27 page)

We waited. I started breathing deeply to generate heat and to calm down. We waited and watched.

Over the last fifteen years or so I have occasionally taught basic karate or judo for a week and then held a two hour dojo tournament. I think it is important that everyone who studies aikido also have the ability to use force and the comfort and knowledge that experience at fighting brings. We don’t do it often, but I do it when it occurs to me. Over the last fifteen years, it has not mattered one whit who was participating, black belts or beginners, Curtis has won each and every time.

He is not fast. He does not have quick feet or hands. He is not a big man or powerfully muscled. Frankly, he is a nerd. He is a rocket scientist, after all. But he possesses a will to win and to overcome all odds second to none I have ever seen. It is humbling that one so seemingly meek can suddenly possess the ferocity of a jungle cat when called upon. Yes, Curtis would be the one.

We waited. I have seen so many big guys come into the dojo over the years, tough, strong, young and full of juice, and seen each one find themselves being pinned, thrown, countered or simply stopped cold that I have realized there is nothing inherent in physical characteristics that determine a good fighter. The only thing that matters is heart. If you don’t have the will, the determination, no matter what your gifts, you cannot survive when the final die is cast. There is an old saying… Nothing is more common than unfulfilled genius. I have always understood that to mean that talent means little compared to perseverance.

We waited.

And suddenly a match flared 90 feet up the trail. Curtis disappeared. I gave it a five count and then went after him with the guys on my heels. He would have a ten second window when the guard’s night vision simply did not exist after staring into a flaring match. I heard a grunt of surprise and then the sound of two bodies hitting the ground.

“
Get your flashlight,” I hissed at Christian and a second later a small circle of light illuminated the combat between Curtis and the smuggler. Curtis had him in a half ikkyo pin and suddenly the Tibetan lunged and tried to reach him over his back. Curtis reached out with his left arm and encircled the smugglers throat, let go his right wrist and dropped his weight forward into a vicious choke hold. Five seconds later the struggle ended. The Tibetan smuggler went limp. Curtis held the choke for another five count and then let go.

“
Let me see that light for a second,” said Chris. Christian turned around and pointed it at Chris as he picked up the machine gun. Chris ejected the magazine and looked at the end. “Seems light,” he said. He thumbed the cartridges out into his palm. There were only seven. “Some army. Send out a guard with only seven bullets.” He pushed the rounds back into the magazine and expertly jacked the magazine back into the gun. Then he pulled the slide back and loaded a bullet into the chamber.

“
Locked, cocked, and my finger on the safety. I’m ready to go.”

“
I take it you’ve seen one of those before?” I asked.

On the ground behind us Curtis said, “I think he owns one, Sensei.”

I looked at Chris and saw him smile. It was a genuine smile, nothing like I’d been seeing for the last week.

“
Sensei, what are we going to do with this guy? He’s coming around.” Christian turned the tiny light back to the man on the ground.

“
Roll him over. Isn’t he the bastard that blindsided me? I can’t really tell them apart.” I looked in Bim’s direction; he had been standing there the whole time quietly watching us. “No offense intended.”

Bim looked closer and shook his head, no. Then he shrugged.

The smuggler roused himself and sat up. I turned to Bim and told him to tell the man that we were going to take him to the other side of the river and let him go, but that he must run far away.

The man shrugged and nodded. A sneer crossed his face. Some things are simply universal.

“
Okay, then. Pick him up.” I turned to Christian and said, “When you get about half way across throw him off the bridge and into the river. He’ll swim out a mile downstream and we won’t be bothered by him again.”

Christian laughed out loud and said “Okay! Let’s go.”

We waited and in a few moments we heard a muffled shout followed by a quick shriek and a splash. A minute later they were back.

“
Any trouble?”

“
Nah, I just pretended to stop and tie my shoe and I grabbed him by the ankles and lifted and Curtis pushed. Nothing to it.”

“
What’s the plan?”

“
I don’t honestly know, Chris. We need to get back up to the lodge without being seen, steal the other guns, get our gear and make it out of there before they grab us or shoot us or we get into a pitched battle.”

“
We aren’t going to have much of a pitched battle with seven bullets.”

“
Well, you know what I mean. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m freezing. Let’s go get our coats.” I led the way up the trail.

***

When we had slipped into the narrow alley that ran down the side of the lodge we huddled together and I explained that I was going to go around to the back of the lodge and slip in the back way. “I’ll move up to the rear of the public room and see where everyone is. If it looks like we can pull it off I’ll holler and you come through the front door with that gun at your shoulder and the rest of you right behind. It should startle them, no end. Then we’ll get our stuff. If the other guns are right there I’ll try and grab them when I yell and you might want to think about putting a couple rounds into the ceiling to convince everyone to get down. We’re going to have to play this by ear and I really don’t know what to expect.”

Everyone was quiet. Curtis spoke softly. “Sensei, that is the crappiest idea you have ever had. Someone’s going to shoot you the minute you step through the door.”

“
You got a better idea?”

“
I’ll go,” he said.

“
No. It’s my party.”

“
But you’re hurt. You’re limping. You’re so beat up you can’t even stand up straight.”

He was right. I was pretty beat up. Between the knees and the face and the back I wasn’t my best. Hell, I hadn’t been my best for thirty years. “Okay,” I said. “We’ll go. You and I. Chris has the gun and stays with Christian and Bim up here.”

I looked them over. “Okay?”

Chris asked, “What do I do if I see someone with one of the guns? Shoot him?”

“
You want to shoot him?” I asked.

“
No.”

“
Then don’t.”

I walked quietly down the alley completely aware we didn’t have a plan at all. It was a joke, but we had to do something or we would freeze. The wind was quieting and I knew that once it died the snow would begin to fall. Curtis slipped up beside me as I looked around the corner.

Soft light fell from an open doorway about twenty feet down. I walked gently toward it. I was careful to use the tiger walk, rolling the outside little toe first and gently settling my weight on the rest of the foot. When we reached the door I realized we had passed a large window that opened into a room for porters and cook boys to stay. It was empty. The open door led into a hall that climbed back up the slope we had just descended. There were several rooms on either side of the hall and then a short flight of stairs, then more rooms… kitchens or what have you. Light came from the room to my left.

I walked to the opening and realized it was another short hall. Very slowly I looked around the corner. I saw one of the guards sitting quietly on a small stool. His gun was leaning against the wall in front of him. Easing back and turning to Curtis I made motions and tried to indicate what I had seen. He nodded and then I heard a noise. We flattened against the wall, but it was the sound of a woman or a child crying. I heard a slap and then a grunt and then more crying. It was directly on the opposite side of the wall where we stood.

Suddenly I realized that the guard must be sitting next to another doorway and was guarding the rebel leader. I turned to Curtis and saw that he already got it. I motioned that I would go in first and that he should grab the gun. He nodded. We eased back forward and I glanced around the corner again. The guard had not moved. For a second I thought about sending Curtis in first but then decided that I had hit the heavy bag with straight right hands about a quarter of a million times over the last fifty years and if I couldn’t do this now, then what was all the hard work for? I took a deep breath and let it slowly out trying to settle my center and calm my pounding heart. It didn’t do a thing. I went through the doorway with my left foot first, took one step and threw my big right hand with a speed and power that would have made Sonny Listen smile. Just like hitting the heavy bag, I hit that Maoist rebel right between the eyes with everything I had.

I immediately spun to my left and went through a curtain into the next room. The thief was lunging off the bed and trying to get to his weapon on the bunk on the opposite side of the room and I stepped into his way. He went for my throat with both hands. This time the years of training took over and without thinking I spun into a perfect ikkyo, grabbing his wrist and then his elbow on the same arm and spinning tightly. His body flew in an arc and the top of his head slammed into the door frame, an eight by eight timber that did not move. I dropped him and he was very still. Curtis came into the room with the gun to his shoulder and took it all in.

A young girl lay cringing into the back corner of the bunk. She was naked, but did nothing to try to cover herself. She looked terrorized and in shock. I picked up a robe, or blanket off the floor and very gently, very slowly offered it to her with both hands extended. She looked down and after a moment she took it and pulled it around herself. I pointed to the door and she nodded and got up and slipped out of the room.

We looked around. The rebel leader’s gun was on the opposite bunk. I took it and ejected the magazine. This one was heavy, clearly full. I laid it back down and we looked around the room for what we could find. There were numerous cell phones and IPODS, cameras, and other pieces of electronic hardware I could not even identify. There was a Dell laptop. I saw my camera and ejected the memory card, but then, regretfully, left the camera there. None of the rest looked familiar and we moved on.

I saw his trousers on the floor and picked them up. There was a huge wad of cash money in his pocket. I saw Dollars, Euros, Rupees, British Pounds and several currencies I could not even identify. These thieves had been busy and doing this for a while. Curtis was going through some clothing that had been piled into the corner, but nothing that would fit any of us. I lifted the top of the bunk and discovered a huge assortment of gear. There were many sleeping bags still stuffed into their ruck sacks, rope, flashlights, crampons, mountaineering equipment, back packs, and cooking equipment. The box was filled with gear.

“
Curtis, you go through this stuff and grab what we’re going to need. I’m going to get Chris.” I picked up the machine gun and headed out the door. Once again adrenalin flooded me and I ran up the steps, machine gun in my fist. I was suddenly Casey Ryback. I was Rambo. I was John, freakin,’ Wayne. I was going out there and take on the whole damn Maoist rebel army all by myself. I refused to think, just act.

I didn’t let myself look at the truth. I didn’t let myself face reality, because if I had, I would have been cringing into a corner myself.

Because the truth is that I am not Rambo. I am not John Wayne. I am a tired, broken old man limping slowly down a darkened hall with a rusty gun I could barely lift, let alone shoot.

But I was a man who had made a promise to a boy’s parents and I was not turning back.

I passed dark rooms and decided that Christian and Chris had waited long enough and that too much waiting and tension could make bad things happen, so I walked right into the light of the public room and shouted in my best command presence voice, “Come on in!”

The outer door burst open and Chris came in with gun at his shoulder and scanning the room. They didn’t know whether to look at me or Chris. He saw me as I immediately pointed my weapon to my left. He did the same and we looked hard for the other gun. The thieves were in shock. They sat frozen to their seats with eyes wide and creeping terror on their faces. There were perhaps twenty men in all and they did not like what they were seeing. I might not be Rambo, but they had all seen Rambo and a huge angry American with a machine gun pointed at them was not something they had ever imagined happening to them. Several began to actually shake with fear.

“
Bim, ask where our porters are. Ask about Cook. Where is our gear?”

Bim spoke with one of the rebels for a few minutes and I could see that the news was not good. I walked over and pointed the gun directly at the man and he spoke much faster, but kept shaking his head and whining. Finally he stopped and I looked at Bim.

“
Sahib, he says that they were packing yaks to go to China when our porters came. They were put into the supply train with all our gear. Same as Cook. All went to China. Come back with more trade goods then let them go. Very sorry, but everything is gone.”