Page 48 of Emergency Exit
Shihan turned off the round clock, and the class began to strip out of their gear.
“OK, but I’ve seen both of you without your meds, and yeah, forget teaching you a new skill, but usually, you’re OK once we start sparring. But, Ash, you seem really distracted. What’s going on?”
“He checked his phone like eighty-two times before class,” said Bonnie, spitting out her mouthguard. She pulled off her headgear, and her ponytail stuck up like a rooster comb, stiff from sweat and hair product. “I think he’s hoping someonecalls.”
There was a chorus of mocking oooohs from his friends.
“I thought you were dating that girl,” said Brad. “I mean, I don’t pay attention, but you saidHarper and Iso often it stuck in my brain.”
“Harper canceled all my date invites and didn’t text to say why!”
“Oh,” groaned Carlos.
“Sucks, bruh. Sorry,” said Bonnie.
Shihan Brad stared at him with an open mouth for a long second. “This some millennial, Gen Z, generation whatever bullshit, isn’t it? How do you cancel invites without talking to someone?”
“On the calendar!”
“Oh! You sent a girl calendar invites? That seems really impersonal.”
“I’m ADHD, and I think she’s on the spectrum, so we need calendar invites. I don’t know how the fuck you normies live your lives without a calendar, but some of us need digital assistance.”
“I’m a normie, and I still can’t exist without a calendar invite,” said Bonnie.
“I write things on the calendar that hangs on the wall,” said Shihan.
It was Ash’s turn to stare. “I don’t even know what that means.”
“It’s got baby animals on it. One for each month.”
“I know what a calendar is! I don’t know how you keep track of anything that doesn’t live on your phone.”
“Because I don’t live on my phone.”
“This is some Zen karate master bullshit, isn’t it?”
The rest of the class laughed, and so did Brad.
“No, it’s just because I’m old. So what happened? Shecanceled all your dates?” Brad still looked puzzled.
Ash looked around. Bonnie was struggling with her shin pads. She liked the Tae Kwon Do style that went on like soccer shin guards. They stayed in place great while sparring but could stick like sweaty glue when taking them off. Carlo was still removing his hand gear and moving as tiredly as Ash felt. The three other students had gone for water.
“So?” asked Carlo, looking up. “Spill it.”
Ash felt silly unloading his problems, but they all seemed sympathetic.
“I went to pick her up at work, and they said she’d already left with Josh. Who the hell is Josh? And then I checked the calendar to make sure I hadn’t screwed the pooch somewhere, and she’s not on any of the invites. She went in and declined all of them!”
“And she didn’t call you? Did you do something?” asked Brad, sounding skeptical.
“Well, she asked about my brother, and that’s the last time I heard from her. And between Rowan getting shot and Halloween, and me getting that first batch of research from your brother’s firm, I haven’t had a chance to follow up with her.”
“And the medication issue,” said Carlo drily.
“Yeah,” admitted Ash.
“The files on Danny’s stuff look OK, though, right?” asked Shihan nervously. Ash understood. It was hard to watch brothers go through something when there was nothing to do but cheer from the sidelines.
