Wax On Wax Of

The day after dinner with the Larussos, I was eating breakfast with my mom when she asked, "When is your first practice with the Larussos?" I replied, "This afternoon." She said, "Okay, I'll take you there." She continued, "Do you need any equipment?" I said, "No, he just said to wear training clothes and have a spare set of clothes." She replied, "Okay," and we continued chatting until the bus arrived.

After school, I ate lunch and took a shower. I was thinking to myself, I wonder if we're going to have our training montage like he did with Robby. I grinned, imagining myself training over a lake, doing air kicks. After getting out of the shower, I got dressed. Mom shouted from downstairs, "Hurry up, we've got to go!" I replied, "I'm coming!" I ran downstairs, and Mom said, "Let's go." We got in the car and headed to the Larusso household.

Once inside, Amanda told us, "Jack, Daniel and Sam are waiting for you at the dojo." I replied, "Okay," and went to the dojo in the backyard, where I found Daniel showing Sam a roundhouse kick. He looked at me and said, "Oh Jack, come join us! I was showing Sam a special kick." I looked at him with a gobsmacked expression and walked forward.

Daniel said, "Line up." He paused and continued, "In this dojo, we teach respect, respect for yourself, respect for your teammates, and respect for your enemies." He added, "When you are fighting in real life, you're not trying to harm your opponent. Your goal is to defend yourself. To do this, you need to keep a level head and purge your emotions; being angry will cloud your judgment and lead to mistakes." Sam and I nodded. Daniel said, "Let's go show you how we do karate in Miyagi-Do."

We walked a little further and saw some dirty cars. Daniel turned to us and said, "Wait here." He turned away, and Sam said, "This is my least favorite part," with a depressed expression. I looked at her with a questioning glance, but before I could say anything, I saw Daniel walking toward us with a bucket, mops, and sponges, smiling.

Some time later, you could see Samantha painting the fence while I was cleaning the cars, with Daniel watching us with a reminiscent smile. I was ready to explode with anger. He said, "Good job, Jack, but try to do something differently: stroke the sponge once forward and once backward." He took my sponge and demonstrated, saying, "Like this, wax on, wax off." He returned the sponge, and I copied his actions while saying, "Wax on, wax off." He looked at me with a proud smile and said, "Exactly."

I couldn't contain myself any longer and turned to Daniel, saying, "When are you going to teach us real karate? You're just having us do your chores! And why are these stupid cars so dirty?" He replied with a serious expression, "I'm teaching you karate." I responded, "No, you aren't. You're just showing us how to sand your floor, paint your fence, and clean your cars." Daniel said, "How to clean cars, huh?"

He stood in front of me and said, "Show me sand the floor." I did the motion, but he said, "No, like this." He demonstrated slowly, and I copied him. Then he said, "Now show me wax on, wax off." Again, he did the motions, and I followed him. He continued, "Now show me paint the fence—up, down, up, down." I copied him while murmuring, "Up, down, up, down." He said, "Now, show me wax on, wax off." He punched toward my face, but I blocked it with a gobsmacked expression. Then he said, "Show me paint the fence," and he punched my face again, but I blocked it at the last moment by doing the exercise. Lastly, he said, "Show me sand the floor," and he kicked toward my stomach, but I pushed his leg aside by doing the motions.

I realized that he had indeed slowed down his hits because of my age, but I learned the defensive motions that would work in most situations. Then he unleashed all the attacks simultaneously, and I blocked them. His serious expression softened, and he smiled. He said, "Today, you learned karate." He turned to both of us and said, "Now continue; you have cars to clean." We all started laughing while the women watched from the side, smiling softly.

That's how we spent the rest of the day. As it was getting late, Amanda decided to host us for dinner. Afterward, we said goodbye to the Larussos and returned to our house. I went to...