Uncle Magnum was not happy that I’d missed class last night, again, and he made sure that I knew it. It was obvious because he separated the class into two groups and had one group do the regular warm up and the other group to do the special warm up. I was the only one in the special group. It started off with extra horse-stance and continued with a full fifteen minutes of plank. The rest of the class kept stealing glances my way, wondering why I was being singled out.

I tried to talk to Uncle Magnum about it, but he told me to concentrate on my form, so I suffered through the agonies of warm up in silence. Well, I was silent, but Uncle Magnum’s exhortations to sit lower in horse-stance or to tighten my core in plank were not silent at all. I was seriously beginning to wonder if agreeing to be evaluated by Sifu Zhang was worth the pain and bother. With everything going on in my life, did I really need this now?

It turns out that I did, because just as class was ending, I heard the front door open and Mark walked in. He was wearing a concert t-shirt for a band I’d never heard of and a pair of sweatpants. He was here for the beginner class. God loves me!

When Mark saw the gleeful expression on my face, his expression turned to horror and he started to leave.

“Hold it right there! One more step towards that door and I’ll be on the phone to Grandpa Jake. I’m assuming my comment about your lack of physical fitness has something to do with you’re being here?” I was enjoying this so much and he wasn’t even in any pain yet.

“Hi Abby. Fancy meeting you here. I was just thinking that I should come over and see what this Kung Fu stuff is all about. Figured I’d watch a class and see if it’s for me.”

“Watch a class? No way. Kung Fu is about doing, not watching. Let me show you where you can put your stuff away and I’ll go over the opening salute with you.”

“You look like you’ve had a rough time already. I could come back another night.”

“Nah. Tonight was an easy class.” I lied. It was grueling and I was in desperate need of a shower. “I’ll introduce you to the teacher and get some water while you two talk. We have ten minutes until class starts.”

After he put his things away, I brought Mark over to Uncle Magnum and made introductions.

“Ah, you’re that Mark. You look different standing up. Taller.”, Uncle Magnum said without even the slightest hint of smile on his face.

Mark was caught completely off guard. “I think that most people look taller standing up. I’m sorry, have we met before?”

“The last time I saw you, you were hanging over Abby’s shoulder before she handed you off to some firemen. Looking at the size of you now, I can’t figure out how she managed it.”

Mark understood immediately and answered solemnly, “I don’t know how she did it either, but I have the video saved on my phone. Maybe we can get everyone here to watch it with us and we can try to figure it out.” I didn’t like his smirk as he said the last part and I made a mental note to wipe it off of his face as soon as class started.

“Knowing Abby, you’re going to regret that offer. However, step into my office for a few minutes and I’ll give you the sales pitch.”

“Don’t bother with the hard sell, Uncle. He’s going to be signing up whether he likes it or not.” With that quip, I went up to my room, changed my t-shirt and freshened up a bit. I hadn’t planned on staying tonight, but there was no way that I was going to miss Mark’s first class.

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For once, I didn’t mind horse-stance and I honestly enjoyed plank. I was next to Mark the entire time and made sure that he did them properly. It was my job after all and I think that it’s important to do your job to the best of your ability.

“How long does this plank last, Abby?”, Mark asked while gritting through the pain in his knuckles and shoulders.

“Another three and a half more minutes.” Mark collapsed to the floor at my words. “Come on, Mark, this is the last part of the warm-up. Class begins right after this.”

The look that Mark gave me would have been censored if he’d spoken it out loud on tv, but he managed to get back into plank, if only for a few seconds.

“Just think, Mark. After class you might be hungry enough to have a three or four bowls of your camp stew. I’m sure you’re not aware of this fact but working hard can make you hungry. It has something to do with replenishing the energy that you used up.” I gave him my sweetest smile and proceeded to do some push-ups, just to rub it in a bit. I’d pay for that tomorrow, but right now I wasn’t feeling the pain at all.

“You may think that you’ve won, but this isn’t over, Abby.”

“You’re right. It’s not over, this is just the warm-up. Also, it’s only your first class. I’m expecting you to be here at least three times a week, every week, week after week after week.”

Mark let out a low groan and kept his mouth shut after that.

On the drive back home after class, Uncle Magnum and I had a good laugh at Mark’s pain. He also explained that Sifu Zhang was coming to visit about a week before school would start.

“I know I’ve been pushing your hard these last few weeks, Abby, and I want to thank you for all the effort that you’ve been putting in. This visit with Sifu Zhang is not a normal visit. When you agreed to be tested by him, I fully expected us to be heading back to Raleigh for the evaluation. That’s how it’s always been. I took Charlie out there for his red belt testing, as well as all the others. He’s never come here before.”

“You’ve got a great school, Uncle M. I’m sure he’s going to be impressed with the place.”

“I’m not worried about the school. I’m worried about Sifu Zhang. He’s not just coming to evaluate you and heading back. He has asked if he could stay for a month. This is a man who hasn’t left Raleigh in over a decade. Even then he only left for a few days to attend a funeral back in his home country. He officially closes his school for two weeks a year, during Christmas, but his students are still welcome to join him for daily training, since he doesn’t travel anywhere. I once asked him why he doesn’t go away for a vacation and he answered, “Paul, this is my vacation. Any break that I took would be work”, and now he’s going to take a month off? Something's going on and it's not good.”

“Ok. I can see why you’re worried. It does sound out of character. I still don’t understand why you’re working me so hard, when it’s him that you’re worried about.”

Uncle Magnum sighed. “Abby, compared to Sifu Zhang’s teaching style, I coddle you guys. Your generation doesn’t seem to take well to the tough love approach. I teach the same techniques the I learned from Sifu Zhang, but in a much softer way. I don’t jump on your stomachs during abdominal breathing exercises and I don’t stand on your backs during plank. If Sifu’s going to be here for a month, I want to toughen you up a bit before he gets here.”

“I see. I noticed that you didn’t put that in the brochure when you asked me about the testing. Sounds like a typical bait and switch scam to me. You sold it as, ‘Hey Abby, want to get your red belt?’ but then you changed it to, ‘Hey Abby, want me to torture you for six weeks and then get tortured some more by my old Sifu for a month?’ You really need to work on your communications skills.”

“You’ve just proved my point. You’re too soft.”

“That’s what she said.” Oh shit, did I just say that out loud to my uncle?

Uncle Magnum laughed. Yup, I said it out loud. I need to work on my inside voice more. Time to move this conversation along.

“So where is Sifu staying while he’s here?”, I deflected.

“Uhm. Well, you haven’t been using your room at my place that much lately.”

“Just to shower and change and keep clothes in and lots of my other stuff. You’re seriously kicking me out of my room?”

“For a month. You can shower and change in my room when you need to.”

I blew out a breath and made it seem like it was a serious inconvenience. It wasn’t. I make a lot of sense and I hadn’t stayed overnight in my room for months. I’d been trying to give Uncle Magnum and Margaret all the alone time that I could.

“Fine, but you’re going to have to make it up to me somehow and somehow needs to include less horse-stance and much less plank when this is all over.”