Orphanage

A boy sitting alone in a room filled with beds stared out the window thinking about what he wanted to do with his life, "What do I want to do with my life? Where will I go to achieve the things I want to do?"

Footsteps were slowly approaching the door of the room.

( Clank! Clank! Clank! — Creak! )

The boy looked over to see who was at the door. It was Ms. Jones, a lady who helped take care of the kids at the orphanage where the boy stayed at.

"Hey Michael, you're not going to play with the rest of them?" asked Ms. Jones.

"I'll come in a bit. I just wanted to think about something," replied Michael.

"Ok, I'll see you out there then," said Ms. Jones as she was about to shut the door.

"Ms. Jones must have someone special coming if she's dressed like that." Michael thought to himself.

Ms. Jones would regularly play with the kids so she would be in casual clothing and not wearing high heels as she was just wearing when she walked in.

A few minutes passed and Michael Chan walked out of the bedroom for the kids and headed towards the backyard or play area.

Arriving at the play area Michael saw a man he never met before who was playing with the kids. The man had weird things on his hands and the kids had weird-shaped gloves and were punching the man's hand.

"1, 2. Nice again! 1, 1. Good!" shouted the man as he was smiling.

Every time the kids' gloves touched the man's gloves they made a popping sound. The sound intrigued Michael as he never heard that sound before, but it satisfied him. He looked on with his eyes wide open.

"Do you want to try it Michael?" asked Ms. Jones, who noticed Michael staring intently.

"I thought you told us to never punch someone?" answered Michael.

"Haha. This is different. So do you want to try it?" replied Ms. Jones.

Michael nodded his head. Both Michael and Ms. Jones walked over to the man.

"Hey Jack, this is the kid I wanted to introduce to you." Ms. Jones smiled as she was talking to Jack.

"Oh Ms. Jones, so this must be Michael," replied Jack.

"Just called me Amber," answered Ms. Jones.

Michael looked at Ms. Jones whose face was now blushed.

Jack took off the glove thing and reached out his right hand towards Michael.

"Sorry if my hands might smell, as these mitts hold a lot of sweat," said Jack jokingly.

Jack looked at Michael who was staring at his hand. Michael reached out his hand to shake Jack's hand.

Michael felt the difference in the firmness of the handshake compared to his.

"Every man must have a firm handshake as a sign of respect for the other man," said Jack.

"Sorry I didn't know that," replied Michael in a timid manner.

"It's alright man. So you want to try hitting the mitts then?" asked Jack.

"That's what they're called?" curiously asked Michael.

Jack went to grab the gloves, holding one of each in each hand.

"The one right here is what we call mitts." Jack raises his left hand. "This is what we call boxing gloves or just gloves." raising his right hand.

"Here put these on," said Jack as he tosses a pair of gloves to Michael.

Putting his hands in the gloves was easy, but strapping the gloves in was hard to do as both his hands were already in the gloves.

"Here let me help you," said Jack as he walked over to Michael.

"Alright, you should be ok now. Let's start with your form, are you right-handed or left-handed?" asked Jack.

"I'm right-handed," replied Michael.

"So your left foot should be in front of your right foot. Also, your hand should look like this." Jack got into the proper stance for a right-handed person.

Michael tried his best to imitate the footing and hand placement of Jack.

"That looks good since you're right-handed this is what we called an orthodox boxing stance. Alright, I'm going to shout out numbers and you have to do what those numbers mean ok?"

Michael nodded his head.

"Alright, so your one is your left hand. I want you to throw a straight punch with your left hand when I say 1. I want you to hit the mitts wherever I put them. Also when throwing your 1 I want you to use your shoulder to push the punch."

Michael continued to nod his head.

"Alright let's start. 1!"

( Poof! )

"1!"

( Poof! )

The popping sound that Michael heard and enjoyed was not being produced when he punched the mitts.

"You have a quick jab there Michael," said Jack trying to stroke Michael's ego.

Michael smiled as he knew Jack was trying to lie to him.

"Let us try this 1!..1!"

( Poof! Poof! )

"When I say 1,1 try to get your hand back in place before throwing another punch," said Jack and he was demonstrating.

"After you punch, always bring your hand back to protect yourself, if I see you're not protecting yourself I will slap you, not hard of course."

"1!"

( Pop! )

When Michael heard that noise his face lit up with joy.

"1! 1!..1!"

( Pop! — Pop! Pop! )

"Good this is what we call a jab, now remember to get your hands back and also breathe out every time you throw a punch. Alright, keep your hands up."

"1!"

( Pop!)

"1!"

( Pop! )

"1!"

( Pop! )

"Good! Now try to take a small step in with your left foot when you throw a jab. When you throw that jab and step in, use your back foot to kinda push off. Alright. 1!."

( Pop! )

"Nice exactly that. You must be a natural, do you feel uncomfortable with moving around like that?" asked Jack.

"I'm not sure," replied Michael.

"Let's try it a few more times," said Jack.

"1! — 1!"

( Pop! — Pop! )

After each of Michael's jabs, Jack took a step or two back, which led him to step in more to throw a jab that would connect to the mitts.

Michael's left hand hung below the appropriate position and Jack prepared to slap him.

Michael saw the slap coming and brought his hand up as he leaned backward towards his right-hand side to avoid the slap.

"Good that you saw it coming and even prepared for it," said Jack.

"My left shoulder is tired," replied Michael.

"Haha. Alright, let's try your right now." laughed Jack as he replied to Michael.

"Alright so when you throw your right or also known as your 2, you want to imagine your back foot to squash a bug like this."

Jack threw out his right hand and twisted his right foot outward from his body as he was squishing a bug.

"Your 2 should be a kill shot so throw it with all you can. Now let me see your 2," said Jack as he raised his right hand.

( Pop! )

"Good again. 2! — 2!"

( Pop! — Pop! )

"Good! Good! Show me that you can put it together, I want to see you throw in a 1 and step into a 2. You got it." said Jack eagerly.

"1! 2!"

( Pop! )

Michael threw his jab and stepped in to throw his right, his feet planted in the ground, his right foot twisted which led to him twisting his hips also. He squished the "bug" and made contact with the mitt.

( Boom! )

Jack felt the power travel through the mitts into his hand.

"Wow! Quiet the power you got the–"

"Ahhhh!" shouted Michael in pain grabbing his right wrist.

Ms. Jones ran over to Michael.

"Are you ok Michael?" asked Ms. Jones, concerned about Michael.

"Yea I'm ok just that my wrist was hurting," replied Michael.

"Take off your gloves and let me have a look," said Jack as he ran towards Michael as well.

They took off the gloves and saw Michael's wrist swelling up.

"My fault, I should've known that this might happen," said Jack

"It's alright it's my fault for hitting the mitts too hard," replied Michael.

"Let's take you to Nurse Hutchinson," said Ms. Jones and she was escorting Michael to the nurse's office.

"Wait, I almost forgot." Michael turned back and walked toward Jack.

Jack looked concerned about what Michael was gonna say or do.

Michael reached out his left hand

"Thank you for teaching me coach Jack," said Michael as his hand was out waiting for a handshake from Jack.

"No problem, get well soon and I'll take you to the gym I work at," said Jack shaking Michael's hand, he noticed how firm the handshake was compared to earlier.

Michael couldn't stop smiling knowing that once he feels better he has a chance to hear that popping noise again, but now he felt and heard a new noise that piqued his interest and that was the booming sound he heard when he threw his right hand.

Michael made it into the nurse's office and was getting his wrist checked.

"Welp, lucky for you no broken bones or torn ligaments, just a simple wrist strain. Some ice and time will do the job. It should take about a week or two before your wrist is back to normal. In the meantime rest and ice your wrist well, you hear me, Michael?" The nurse looked into Michael's eyes.

"Yes ma'am," replied Michael.