The Agent's Daughter (15 page)

“
Hey, you ladies wanna
party with us?” he said, slurring the sentence, so it sounded like
one long word.

“
Thank you for your offer,
young man,” Angela said politely, “but we are not
interested.”

“
Aw, c’mon. We’ll show you
a slammin’ time,” backward baseball cap guy piped in.

“
Again, thank you. But
no,” Angela said as diplomatically as she could muster.

“
Aw, you’re kinda ugly
anyway,” hoodie said as he walked back to the other man.

Melina grit her teeth and glared at the man.
Angela opened the door to the ice cream shop and pulled Melina
inside. The sound of the bell attached to the door that announced
their presence was still ringing when Melina turned to Angela.

“
I am beyond furious,”
Melina said, still glaring at the man out the window. “I cannot
believe he said that.”

Angela smiled and rapped gently on Melina’s
forehead with her knuckle. “Hello in there. What did we just talk
about on the way over here? Do you think I care one bit about what
some drunken young kid that I will never see again has to say about
me? You have to focus. Remember this. Words can only hurt you if
you allow them hurt you. Now, let’s get us some ice cream.”

The two of them took turns ordering. Melina
went first and ordered a scoop of black cherry and a scoop of
French vanilla. Angela went with a single scoop of butter pecan.
After they had been handed their cones, they moved to the cash
register so that Angela could pay for them. She took her wallet out
of her purse.

“
That is the most unusual
purse I think I have ever seen,” Melina said.

Angela laughed. “You just now noticed the
purse?”

The purse was made of a rich dark brown
canvas and was studded with a dozen little pockets on the outside,
each one about the size of a small cell phone. All of the pockets
were secured with a large ivory button. The purse was topped off
with a shoulder strap that was made out of two eight-inch long
white bamboo rods with six inches of heavy chain between them.

“
Well… in the confusion of
coming in here, I wasn’t paying attention to what you were
carrying. Where did you get it? It’s kinda weird. Bamboo and
canvas?”

“
Just a little thing I
picked up the last time I was in Thailand,” Angela said.

Melina rolled her eyes. “Rats. I knew there
was something I forgot to pick up when I went to Thailand. The
weird purse.”

“
Funny,” Angela said. “I
wouldn’t be so quick to call someone’s purse weird if I were
sporting the watch that you’re wearing. They didn’t have watches
any uglier at the mall?”

“
Hey,” Melina smiled. “I
can’t accept credit for this fashion foul. This is my mom’s
watch.”

Angela froze. “Let me see that watch.”

Melina raised her arm so that Angela could
get a better look at the watch. She took Melina’s hand in hers and
studied the watch.

“
Your mother showed me
this watch once,” Angela said. “Does your father know that you are
wearing this?”

Melina looked down and shifted her feet.
“No. I wear it to school and around places, and then I hide it when
I am around him. It was the watch that Mom was wearing when she had
her accident. I found it in one of the pockets of the pair of
slacks that she was wearing that night. Dad keeps the clothes she
wore on a hanger in the corner of his bedroom. He can’t bear to
touch them, so he does not know the watch is gone. Please don’t
tell him.”

Angela raised her eyebrows and gave Melina a
look that said she might tell her dad and she might not. Then she
turned and walked over to one of the tables and sat down. Melina
followed her to the table and sat down too.

Angela felt the need to change the subject.
“Tell me, dear. Do you have any other hobbies besides reading?”

“
Well, up until Mom’s
accident, I was taking krav maga classes at the studio run by the
company where you and Dad work,” Melina said.

“
That’s right. Your father
mentioned it to me. He said that you had been studying since
elementary school and then you just abruptly quit. What happened?
Did you just get tired of it?”

Melina looked in the air and thought about
it. “That was part of it. I had been studying martial arts since I
was five years old. It’s just… that… oh nothing.”

“
Nothing, you say?” Angela
asked, prying.

“
It’s just that I studied
for all those years to learn how to quickly and most efficiently
hurt people. I enjoyed it, and I got good at it, but I did not see
the point. My dad would only tell me that I was studying so that I
could defend myself, but I think that there was more to it. We had
a major yelling argument when I decided to quit, but after my mom’s
accident, I simply lost the will to hurt anyone.”

“
I see,” Angela said. She
knew the true intent of Melina’s father. “Would it help if you
studied a form of martial arts that was more beautiful and less
brutal such as taekwondo? Many people learn more than one form. I
can show you some moves.”

“
Funny you should mention
taekwondo,” Melina said. “That is what I was studying before my dad
switched me to krav maga.”

“
Is that right?” Angela
said.

“
Yes,” Melina said. “I was
very young, but I remember it as being very graceful.”

Melina thought about Angela’s offer. She
missed her martial arts studies and would love to learn some more
graceful moves, but she didn’t see how a woman that was her dad’s
age could teach her anything.

“
Thank you, Angela, but I
am just not interested in that anymore.”

“
That’s all right. Just
let me know if you change your mind. Are you ready to go pick up
your brother?”

Melina nodded. They got up, waved goodbye to
the boy behind the counter and headed for the door. The bell on the
door now announced their departure and they found themselves
outside.

As they walked toward the car, they heard a
voice behind them. “Did you change your mind about partying with
us?”

It was the man with the hoodie from earlier.
He and backward baseball cap guy had been waiting just outside the
ice cream shop for Melina and Angela to leave.

“
I told you before that we
are not interested,” Angela said coldly.

“
I wasn’t talking to you,”
hoodie said as he put his arms around Melina.

“
Take. Your. Hands. Off.
Her,” Angela said, slowly through clenched teeth.

Hoodie took arms from around Melina, reached
down to his side, and produced a knife. “Why don’t you make
me?”

Keeping an eye on the knife, Angela stepped
back, grabbed a tab on the bottom of her purse, and pulled on it.
The canvas part of the purse fell to the ground leaving the bamboo
handles in her hand.

She was now holding a set of nunchuks.

“
So the ugly lady has some
nunchuks,” hoodie said as he moved toward Angela.

Angela began to swing the nunchuks in a
pattern that had her grabbing them and letting go with alternating
hands with incredible speed. Melina had seen martial arts movies
where they did this, and she always thought that it was fake.
Apparently not.

Hoodie lunged at Angela and swung the knife
at her. There was a loud clang as Angela intercepted the knife with
the nunchuk. It flew out of the man’s hand and across the parking
lot. Hoodie and his friend looked at the knife on the ground,
looked at each other, and then rushed toward Angela at the same
time. Angela backpedaled a few steps to match their speed, and then
she stepped to one side and launched a spinning back kick at the
head of the backward baseball cap guy. Her foot connected with his
cheek. This sent him flying several feet backward onto the hood of
a nearby car, his cap settling on the roof. Angela landed, quickly
crouched down low, and fired a punch up into the crotch of hoodie
who moaned loudly and crumpled to a heap on the ground. Neither man
made an effort to get up.

Melina stood frozen with her mouth open in
disbelief.

Angela stood up, grabbed the rest of her
purse and looked at over at Melina. “All right, let’s get
going.”

They both hurried to the car and got in.
Angela started the car and backed up, making sure to avoid hoodie
still clutching his groin area on the ground behind the car.
Nothing was said as Angela sped out of the parking lot.

Once they were out on the road, Melina broke
the silence. “I take back what I said about the purse.”

Angela looked over at Melina and smiled.

Melina continued. “I’ve thought it over, and
I have changed my mind. I want you to show me what you know about
taekwondo.”

“
Wonderful, Melina,”
Angela said. “What made you change your mind?”

…………………………
.

It was after midnight when Melina’s dad
poked his head through the doorway into her room. He had just
gotten home. At last. These trips were hard on Evan. The longer he
spent away from Melina and Travis, the more it was necessary for
him just to see them when he returned home. Whatever time it was.
He had already checked on Travis, and now he was waiting for his
eyes to adjust to the darkness of Melina’s room so that he could
see her.

But Melina was not asleep.

“
Welcome home, Daddy,” she
said as she sat up.

“
Thanks, kiddo,” he said
as he walked toward her. “I’m sorry I’m home later than I planned.
I ran into some problems on my trip.”

“
That’s okay,” Melina
said. “I had a good time with Angela tonight.”

He kissed his finger and touched the top of
her head with it. Then he walked back to the doorway and paused,
looking back at her. “You have a good sleep.”

“
Let’s try it again,”
Angela said as she moved across the workout room.

Long ago Melina’s parents had converted an
extra bedroom downstairs into a space for exercising. They were
fanatics about staying in shape, especially her dad. The room had
floor-to-ceiling mirrors on one wall, and the other walls and floor
were padded. Her parents had put the padding on the walls so Melina
could practice her krav maga at home. There was a small television
in the corner that Melina’s mom had set up to watch workout
videos.

Melina was so excited about learning
taekwondo techniques from Angela that she asked her if they could
start first thing in the morning. Angela insisted from the
beginning that they were going to spar for real, so both of them
were covered head-to-toe in sparring pads. While Melina still felt
unsure about fighting again, she did miss it, and she rarely got to
spar with another woman. They had been at it for over an hour so
far, and yet nobody else in the house was awake.

“
You are doing great,”
Angela said. “I can see that you have the raw skills, and your
kicks are flawless. But, this time, I want you come at me using the
forms that I have shown you, and I want you to consider not just
the magnitude and direction but the sequence that you make your
attacks.”

“
Sequence?”

“
Yes. Sequencing is the
key to maintaining an offensive. It allows you always to be on the
attack without giving your opponent a chance. You have to keep in
mind a punch or kick that makes sense following the punch or kick
that you are already doing. For example, if I use a kick to the
stomach, that will result in my opponent bending over. I would not
then use a kick designed to target their face at normal eye level.
I would use a low kick or punch instead because that is where their
head will be when the effect of the first kick is finished. All
right, get into position.”

Melina took her position in front of
Angela.

“
Kiaaaaah,” Melina yelled
as she leaped and sent a foot flying at Angela’s face.

Angela blocked the kick with her hand, but
Melina followed the kick with a lunge forward and a rapid punch to
the chest. Angela went flying backward into the air and landed on
the floor.

Melina rushed to help her up. “I am so
sorry, Angela.”

“
No, no,” Angela said,
smiling as she sat up on the floor. “Your technique was perfect.
Well done.”

Angela grabbed Melina’s hand and stood up.
“You know, at this point, I think you could handle yourself against
anyone.”

Melina looked at herself in the mirror. She
hadn’t felt this good in a long time. She looked confident. She
felt confident. At that point, she felt as though she could take on
anyone.

“
You two are up awfully
early,” Melina’s dad said from the workout room doorway. “And
working on martial arts, I see. I thought you gave that
up?”

“
I have been teaching
Melina some taekwondo,” Angela said. “In the process, I seem to
have reawakened the warrior inside of her. Right now, I think she
could kick your butt.”

Melina’s dad raised his eyebrows. Melina was
unaware of his martial arts abilities, so she did not realize just
what a compliment from Angela that was. She felt a taunt was in
order.

“
Yeah,” Melina said,
assuming a fighting stance. “Don’t come in here unless you expect a
butt kickin’.”

“
No problem there, kiddo,”
he said. “I’ve got to go to work this morning.”

Suddenly the smile was gone from her face.
Melina glared at her dad with a fierce look.