It felt great to be back home and sleeping in my own bed. The morning after my return, I slept in and took my time getting up. Dad had left to teach his class hours ago. For the next few days, I didn’t have much planned except waiting. Waiting for Eva and James to return, for Shauna to find the rest of our team, for dad’s second summer semester course to start, and waiting for the auction of my gemstones at the end of the week.
With an abundance of free time on my hands, I ate a leisurely breakfast and pulled out my computer to work on my two presentations for Jake. It was best to get this done when things were quiet and everything was still fresh in my mind. The first one was relatively short and simply compared the two potential mining sites in terms of which one had more ore and which I felt would be easier to extract, given the surrounding rocks and the depth at which I felt that the ores were located.
The second report had detailed 3D maps of each of the potential mines, as well as the three existing mines that Mark and I had visited. The maps not only showed the shape of the ore bodies, but also the intervening rock and the depth, to the meter, of each layer of rock and it also showed any underground streams or reservoirs. Based on my scanning information, I used the mining software to calculate the value of each of the ore deposits and to create a model for how best to mine out the ore. Finally, for each of the properties, I created a larger map that included the surrounding areas, those not owned by McKenzie Resources, and showed where they had ore deposits, if any. Each of the properties got it’s own section in the binder, with the 3D maps, ore value calculations and it’s own conclusions and recommendations section.
While I was happy to have finished the work, I still didn’t have any clue as to what all of this would be worth to Jake and McKenzie Resources. Luckily, dad worked at a mining school and he’d have colleagues that would know. My plan was to show dad the binders when he got home and come up with questions to ask his fellow teachers.
Making the binders reminded me that I’d be needing to expand on my list of publicly traded companies that I would be monitoring. The competition was over, but I still had my investments and soon I’d have the foundation’s investments as well. Even if my intention was to hire James to handle all that for the foundation, I still needed to give him the occasional hot tip and I didn’t want to always rely on the same ten or fifteen companies. I made a list of four cities that were an hour or two flight away and started looking for publicly traded companies in those cities. Finding publicly traded companies in New York, Washington, Atlanta, and Nashville wasn’t hard at all. Deciding which companies I wanted to visit was a bit tougher and I ended up spending the rest of the afternoon making my choices.
Having taken three weeks off from Kung Fu, I needed to make up for lost time and I headed over to Uncle Magnum’s place. While traveling with Mark, I’d made it a point to spend at least a half hour a day stretching and when time permitted, I’d practiced my forms. However, that wasn’t a real substitute for class; it merely kept the rust off.
I found Uncle Magnum in his office, working on his student profiles and updating each one with their latest progress and planning out their next series of challenges. He and Charlie each reviewed these files on a monthly basis and made notes for each other so that no student was left stuck in a rut. They wanted all of their students to improve and advance to the next level.
“What do you have planned for me in those files of yours?”, I asked Uncle Magnum as I walked into his office.
“Abby! Welcome back.” He rose from his chair and came around the desk to greet me with a hug. “You have a nice tan, but you also have circles under your eyes. Too much work and not enough Kung Fu. Did you get any practice in while you were away?”.
“A little. Stretching and forms mostly.”, I answered and almost winced as he replied with the words that I knew were coming.
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“Ah, that means that you neglected your push-ups and horse stance. Not to worry. We’ll get that straightened out in no time.” Uncle Magnum gave me an impish grin and rubbed his hands together in glee. I groaned and shook my head in mock disgust.
Uncle Magnum went back behind his desk and continued, “As to your question about what your file says about your future, it says that we need to talk.” He gestured towards one of the chairs in front of him and I sat down, feeling a little trepidation. Usually when I asked him about what came next, he’d tell me about the next form that I had to learn, or he’d introduce me to a new weapon. In all my years with him, Uncle Magnum had never invited me to talk about what would come next. A small pit opened up in my stomach as I waited for him to begin.
“Since I started teaching you, I’ve had your progression planned out and you’ve been following the plan closely. Sometimes you took a little longer to perfect a technique and sometimes you caught on right off the bat. Overall, your dedication and skill has allowed you to make good progress.”, began Uncle Magnum.
“I hear a ‘but’ coming up.”, I filled in as he took a pause.
“But! But since last summer your progression curve has changed. Instead of a steady march uphill, you’ve been taking big leaps forward. Your ability to read your opponents body language has improved significantly, causing your sparring to jump to a whole new level. Your forms are crisper, with more understanding behind each move and even your strikes have gotten more precise and much more powerful. I’ve spoken about it with Charlie and he sees it too. Neither of us knows what to attribute it to. It’s not like you were undisciplined before and you’ve turned over a new leaf. Your dedication had remained constant throughout.” Uncle Magnum paused again, perhaps hoping that I’d explain the change.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t tell him how I’d managed to improve. I knew exactly what had caused those jumps in skill, but I wasn’t prepared to explain it to him. Using the field to encase and scan my opponent had allowed to actually see the mechanics behind every move they made and learn to read body language by even slight shifts in weight or the tensing of muscles. That understanding had carried over even when I wasn’t using the field. I simply knew what to look for and after some practice, it became natural to look for those small changes to figure out what attacks were coming next.
The same thing happened when I wrapped a field around Uncle Magnum while he was doing his forms. Following the shifting and tensing of his muscles allowed me to better visualize flow of the moves and the intent behind each strike and block. My new understanding allowed me to go from merely parroting the steps I’d been taught to being able to truly understand their purpose. Learning how he breathed during each movement gave me better timing in releasing my own energy and making the most out of each strike.
It seemed that anything that I learned using of the field was handled differently by my brain. New techniques were integrated into natural reactions much more quickly and information was much easier to remember. How else could I explain being able to recall the distribution of minerals for miles underground with only a handful of notes? Normally, I had trouble memorizing a list with seven items on it. Anything I learned from a scan became embedded in my memory.
When I didn’t jump in with an explanation, Uncle Magnum continued, “From your expression, I can see that you still don’t want to talk about it. I’m not sure why. You do realize that it’s a good thing and I only want to know more about how you’re doing it so that I can help you and other students improve?”, he asked.
“I know, but I’m not ready yet. I’m also pretty sure that it won’t work with anyone else.” Uncle Magnum’s eyebrows raised a bit when I said that.
“Well, all that was a round-about way of saying that I think that you’re ready to take your red belt test. The only problem with that is that you’re way too young to be taking the test and everyone will think that I’m biased in even allowing you to try. That’s why I’ve contacted my Sifu in Raleigh, Sifu Zhang, and he’s agreed to evaluate you. If his assessment matches mine, he’s agreed to oversee your testing and help guide your future training.” Uncle Magnum eyed me slightly warily as he said this. Maybe he was worried that I’d turn down the offer or that I’d make him look bad in front of his Sifu. He needn’t have worried. There was no way that I’d turn down the early chance for my red belt. It’s what I’d been dreaming of since I was four and took my first Kung Fu lesson.
“I’d love to give it a shot and I’m sure that he’ll have plenty of stories about you when you were training with him.” I gave Uncle Magnum my biggest toothy smile.
“I’ll talk to him about limiting those stories and I’ll warn you right now that if you say one word about this Sifu Magnum business, I’ll make sure that you do ten minutes of horse stance before every class!”