| Episode 088 | |
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“Ain’t nothing working,
Hiromi sat.
At her desk, she was situated between two girls as they gossiped
away. With her chin in her hand, she watched as the teacher wrote on the
board displaced so far from her. The teacher turned around with a sudden
flare, her hand held out as she pointed at the class.
In the back of Hiromi’s mind, something skipped a beat. She saw
her hand rising up to deflect the punch that the teacher’s arm
represented. She saw herself follow through with a rear cross to the
woman’s chest that would knock her back a step. That would give Hiromi
the space she needed to kick the woman in the stomach. The kick wouldn’t
land because the teacher would keep backing up. But as she was backing up,
Hiromi would shoot forward and wrap both her arms around the teacher’s
legs and take her to the ground. Once she was on the ground, she would . .
.
Hiromi’s daydream was popped. She looked around in disorientation, then looked back
at the teacher at the front of the classroom. She was droning on about
something with numbers. Hiromi sighed and leaned back on her hand. She
glanced out the window. A small bird sat on a tree branch, chirping away.
Hiromi watched it as it sang, as it sat in the warm sunlight.
She watched as it hopped up and down the branch, its tiny wings
fluttering as it chirped. But it stopped. It turned and stared right at
Hiromi. She drew back, suddenly on the spot as it stared at her. But the
tiny bird chirped one last time, then leapt into the air, flying off.
Hiromi was left in her seat, staring at the bird as it disappeared
into the sky.
In the courtyard, as other students sat down to their lunches,
Hiromi pulled her backpack up close. She reached inside, searching around
for her lunch bag. But as she shifted through the contents of her bag, a
black glove came flopping out.
Hiromi stopped and looked down to see the fingerless MMA glove. She
sighed and reached down to the glove. She picked it up, feeling the
densely padded fingers and knuckles of the leather glove. She held it
close, then smiled weakly before shoving it back into her backpack.
The girls stood in a line on the school exercise fields. In the
bright, sunny day, all the students were dressed in their school exercise
clothes. The boys were taunting the girls while the girls teased the boys.
But while the childish play was going on, Hiromi was staring at the
chin-up bars before the girls.
“Alright, ladies!” Called the gym teacher, blowing on her
whistle. Her stomach preceded her, but her wide shoulders betrayed her
once-athletic frame. “I want you girls to start with the push-ups.”
The girls all groaned, their displeasure startling Hiromi. She looked at
them, genuinely confused.
“Tomino, Kiryu, Sadamoto, Takahiro, Takauchi!” The teacher
bellowed. “You five are up first.”
Hiromi stepped up to the chin-up bar with her four classmates.
“When I blow the whistle,” The woman yelled. “I want you to jump up
to the bar and do five pull-ups.”
“Five?!” Exclaimed on of the girls.
“You can’t be serious!” Said another.
“Five pull-ups,” The teacher said back. “And real pull-ups. I
want your nose to pass the bar at least.” More groans. “Come on,
girls. Now, on your marks! Get set!”
Hiromi looked up at the bar, her fingers flexing on their own.
“Go!” She shouted before blowing her whistle.
Hiromi vaulted up to the bar, her iron grip catching the bar with a
sure hold. She hoisted herself violently up to the bar, touching the top
of her chest to the bar. She let herself drop down, then yanked herself
back up again, nearly slamming her body against the bar.
Over and over, she pulled herself through the air up to the bar,
ripping through the ten reps without batting an eyelash. With the final
pull-up, she dropped down from the bar and stepped back, barely panting.
She looked to see where she had finished in the group.
The other four girls were still struggling with their first couple
of pull-ups. Hiromi looked at her gym class, shock on all of their faces
as they stared at her.
“Kiryu!” Came a shout. She turned to see the teacher coming
storming over to her. “I told you to do five pull-ups.”
“I, I did,” She said, glancing back up at the bar.
“You did five pull-ups?” The teacher asked. “In the time that
these four girls haven’t even done more than three?” Hiromi shrugged.
“Well then,” the woman said with a sarcastic smile of disbelief. “If
you could do five so quickly, I’m sure you wouldn’t mind doing another
five.” She leaned back, smiling as she waited for Hiromi to protest.
“Okay.”
The teacher opened her eyes wide in shock to hear the acquiescence.
But Hiromi jumped up onto the bar, grabbing it just as solidly as before.
With the same explosive motions, she yanked herself up to the bar, pulling
herself up to her chest. She dropped down and ripped through the exercise
in no time. And just as suddenly as she had begun, Hiromi dropped down
from the bar, again only barely panting.
The teacher was standing before her, her jaw on the floor. Hiromi
looked at the woman, then at the other students as they all stared at her.
“What?” She asked uncomfortably.
On the edge of the wind was the cool scent of autumn.
A few green leaves blew in the wind as it blustered by the school.
The doors flung open and the students came rushing out from the giant
building, smiles and joy filling them as they escaped the torment of the
school day.
Hiromi walked with them.
With her thumbs stuck in the straps of her backpack, she walked
quietly. Her head down, she paced through the crowds of students, weaving
her way amongst them, paying no attention to any of them as she walked,
lost in thought.
With her head down and her eyes focused on nothing, Hiromi walked
towards her home. Her light feet kept her safe as she maneuvered
unconsciously around every obstacle. But she found her footsteps feeling
awkward, misplaced. She stopped and looked back at the school, as if
feeling like she was drawing away from the last place she should have been
going. She turned back away from the school, certain it was in exactly the opposite direction she should have been traveling. But she closed her eyes forcefully and took a deep breath. She held the chest full of air, then let it out hopelessly. Her head still lowered, she kept walking away from the school. |
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