Page 55 of Tiger's Quest
Kishan ran at Ren and attacked from behind. Then it was my turn. Ren ran toward me, and I grabbed his arm and jumped on his back. I threw my arms around his neck in a brief stranglehold but then pecked him on the cheek before hopping down.
“Good. Lesson two. If the attacker knows more martial arts than you do, don’t fight him. Just try to disable him. Go for the stomach or the groin, and punch or kick as hard as you can.”
Kishan attacked again and started a complicated martial arts assault. I recognized a jump kick to the face with his knee bent and a roundhouse, but he also did a lot of complicated moves I’d never seen done before. Ren kept backing away, moving out of Kishan’s range until he found an opening and punched Kishan hard in the stomach. Kishan got up right away and came back at him again. This time, he fought harder and threw Ren to the ground, which was when Ren punched upward, stopping just shy of debilitating his brother.
“If you have to pick one or the other, choose the groin. It’s much more effective. Lesson three. Go for the sweet spots. These are the eyes, the Adam’s apple, the ears, the temple, and the nose. For the eyes—gouge with two fingers, like this. For the ears—use both hands and thump against both ears at once, as hard as you can. Everything else is a flat-handed, hard chop.”
Ren demonstrated each one then asked me to practice on him again. He wanted me to actually hurt him because he wanted it to be realistic. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.
Kishan growled and got up, pushing Ren out of the way. “She’s never going to learn like this. She needs to feel a real attack.”
“No, you’re too rough. You’ll hurt her.”
“What do you thinkthey’lldo to her?”
I put my arm on Ren’s. “He’s right. It’s okay. Let him try.”
Ren reluctantly agreed to stand back against the wall.
I stood nervously with my back to Kishan, waiting for the attack. He came up behind me, grabbed my arm hard, and twisted me around. His hands went around my throat; he was strangling me. I heard a vicious growl before Kishan was thrown against the far wall. Ren stood in front of me tenderly touching the red fingerprints on my throat.
He yelled at Kishan, “I told you! You’re too rough! She’s going to have bruises on her neck!”
“It needs to be rough to be realistic. She needs to be ready.”
“Ren, I’m okay. Let him try again. I need to prepare myself so I can think clearly in an attack. You might need me to save you someday.”
He stroked my neck softly and looked at me, undecided. Eventually, he nodded and moved out of the way again.
Kishan ran to the other side and hollered back, “Don’t think. Just react.”
I turned away to wait for the attack. Kishan was quiet. I listened hard for his footsteps but heard nothing. All of a sudden, his arms were wrapped tightly around me from behind, and he was dragging me. He was too strong. He was choking me. I wiggled, wrestled, and stomped against his feet, all to no avail.
Desperate, I sucked in a breath and popped my head up against his chin. It hurt. Bad. But, he loosened his grip enough that I slipped out of his grasp and to the floor. Then, I stood up suddenly, rammed my shoulder into his groin, and punched him as hard as I could in the stomach.
Kishan fell to the floor, rolling over. Ren barked a loud laugh and thumped his brother on the back before returning to me. “You asked for it!Don’t think. Just react.Oh, man! I wish I had a camera!”
I was shaking from my effort. I did it, but I seriously didn’t think I could handle more than one opponent. How would I be able to protect Ren if I could barely hold my own? “Is Kishan going to be okay?”
“He’ll be fine. Just give him a minute.”
Ren was thrilled with my small victory. Kishan stood up grimacing. “That was good, Kelsey. If I was a normal man, I would have been down for at least twenty minutes.”
I felt a little dizzy. “Uh, guys? Can we stop for today? My head is spinning. I think I need some aspirin. Remember, I don’t recover as quickly as you two.”
Ren sobered, felt my head, and found a big lump forming. He insisted on carrying me to the car, even though I could walk perfectly well. When we got home, he settled me on the couch, punched Kishan hard in the gut just to make a point, and went to the kitchen to get a bag full of ice for my head.
As we practiced for the next two weeks, I started to feel confident that I could maintain my composure during an attack. Kishan and Ren also started taking turns circling the grounds at night, making sure that nobody could slip in to surprise us.
I stowed an emergency backpack under the front seat of Kishan’s black GMC truck with clothes and other items I would need in a hurry. I put my quilt, traveling papers, the ruby earrings, and Fanindra in the bag. Ren and Kishan filled it with money from several different countries and added a bag of clothing for themselves as well. They parked the truck about a mile down the main road and covered it with branches to camouflage it.
I always wore my amulet and Ren’s locket bracelet, but I was worried about my ribbon box. If we had to leave town quickly, I didn’t want anything to happen to it. Ren suggested that we mail a package to Mr. Kadam for safekeeping. We shipped my ribbon box and several other irreplaceable personal items to India.
Keeping the mood light was difficult, because we all felt that something bad was coming our way. Kishan joined us now for movie nights and usually ate all the kettle corn, which annoyed Ren. We stayed home most nights and I cooked. Kishan easily ate twice as much as Ren, who atea lot. The Safeway delivery guy probably thought we were running a bed and breakfast with the amount of food we had delivered each week.
One Saturday in March, I suggested a trip to Tillamook and the beach. The weather was supposed to be unseasonably warm and sunny. The likelihood of it actually being that way and staying that way was minimal, but the beaches of Oregon were beautiful, even in the rain. The minute I promised chocolate peanut butter ice cream, Ren became very supportive of the idea.
We packed ingredients for s’mores and a change of clothes in the back of the Hummer. I drove to Lincoln City and then turned right on Highway 101, which ran along the Oregon coast. It was a pretty drive, and both tigers stuck their noses up to smell the ocean when I cracked the windows. Later, I pulled in to the Tillamook Cheese Factory Visitor’s Center and parked in the spot farthest away from the crowds.
