| Moment of Awesome - Emily Bright: Emily meets with advanced hand-to-hand instructor Garrison Kane to ask for help.
“I want to learn to fight.”
"Fight what? Fascism? Intolerance? The Good Fight? I like that one." Kane dusted off an already dust-free bench and sat down. "What do you want?"
Emily frowned and then nibbled at her lower lip. This wasn't really what she'd been expecting when she'd thought about this all in her head. It had seemed much easier. You asked and then there was a training montage. At least, that's how it went in the movies
“People who want to hurt me. Um, maybe people who want to hurt my friends too? But they all seem a lot better at fighting than me already so probably I just don't want them to have to help me all the time. That seems unfair.”
"How much do you want to hurt them? A lot? Until they can't fight again? Maybe kill them?"
Emily’s hands came up and she backed away a step before her brain had even processed the full question, head shaking in denial.
“Kill? No! I just. I don't know. Enough that they stop. I just need to know how to get away better. I just. I want to know how to make it so they can't chase me till I can get away.”
"OK, relax. I was just pushing. It is important to know what people want. Some ask for training because they want vengeance. It is important I understand." Kane got up from the bench. "So what do you know? Did some kids Karate? Booty Camp? Tai-Bo?"
Emily dropped her hands, pushing the cuticles on one hand with her thumb as she tried to breathe through the momentary panic before straightening again and giving him a wry smile.
“Nothing, really. They've been showing us some stuff with the Generation X training program but I feel like everyone there at least knows the basics. I mean, ask me to move a bale of hay and I’m your girl or make it so a horse doesn't try and bite you but I don't do the fighting thing.”
"So let's get started. Hit me." Kane said, his arms at his sides.
“Oh! Um, okay. Do I just, um, just walk up and...Do I aim anywhere at all?”
Emily wrung out her hands and gave them a shake before stepping closer. She wondered if she was just meant to throw a punch wherever. She wondered if it was better to aim for centre mass, or maybe somewhere meaner. That's what they said you should do right? Get them in the nuts and they'd think twice. Centre mass seemed better though, she was sure she'd heard somewhere before that it was. Or was that only guns? God, why was this so hard?
"Hit me. Fist. Chair. Throw a book at me. Do something, kid. Anything."
That seemed simple enough. Just. Just hit him. She could do that. Emily walked forward until she was in what she thought was suitable punching range and aimed a closed fist at his shoulder. It felt wrong as she felt it connect like she'd been trying to push past some kind of ‘this is wrong, you shouldn't hurt people’ feeling in her head.
"OK, you touched me. Try it again. Think like... I'm calling you a... dingo? I don't know, give me an Australian insult. Use that and throw that punch."
“Oh, you'd be yelling at me probably, calling me a dumb cunt. That was kinda popular.”
Emily breathed in and tried to picture Garrison as someone who had actually insulted her. She imagined how her Mum reacted when someone cut them off in traffic and smiled for a moment. Her mum always had to add money to the family swear jar after a shopping trip to town.
She let her breath out and aimed for his other shoulder, trying for harder this time, or at least something that didn't feel like a tap. It felt, wrong still. But she'd not entirely pulled back before she connected this time. She had hurt her thumb though.
“Ow.”
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