Fly Like A Hawk

Chapter 69 - Okinawan Sparring Deck

I finally caught up with Hawk, a few metres from the dojo, stalking down the sidewalk. "Wait up!" I yelled, jogging to catch up to him. "Please...."

"What's the point?" He stopped and turned to look at me, "why did I ever think I could fit in here?" I could see his pain, the hurt in his eyes.

"Please Eli, it's just gonna take some time." I pleaded and he looked at my desperate expression.

"I know, I know you really want this to work and I'm sorry that we hurt you, Demetri and I, but being in the same karate dojo isn't the only thing holding our friendship together." He took my hands in his, holding on tightly and reassuringly, "I know you care about everyone getting along, and we are trying but if they don't want me there I can't do anything."

"I want you there." I mumbled, looking down at our intertwined hands.

"I know." He replied, pulling me into a hug, "come on let's go back to mine, I have an idea." He released me and I nodded, with that we continued on down the street towards his house.

Eli used his key to unlock the door then stood back and waited for me to go inside, I walked in and started taking off my shoes while he closed the door behind us. "You want a drink? Anything to eat?" He asked and I followed him into the kitchen.

"Ummmm, you got Dr Pepper?" I asked, leaning over the kitchen island to watch him as he ducked into the fridge.

"It's Mr Pibb, will that be ok?" His head popped up to see my response.

"Yeah, Pibb's fine." He placed it on the counter and slid it over, riffling through another drawer for something else.

"You want pizza? I can order in or we have...." He trailed off and made a loud rustling sound in what I assumed was the freezer, "cheese and ham." He showcased it up in front of me.

"I like cheese and ham, that'll do." I scooted a chair over and sat down, swinging my legs while he busied himself cooking pizza. "So what's your idea?" I asked.

"Oh, that, well..." he trialed off as he closed the oven then held up a finger, "I'll be back in a minute." He ran off into the other room and eventually came back with a pen and a piece of paper. "Ok," he started drawing and I leaned over the island in order to get a better look, "so this is Miyagi-do dojo." He drew a rectangle on the page then traced it with the lid of the pen.

Moving to draw more he added an extra piece of space to the back. "This rectangle here is the length of the entire Miyagi-do compound." He traced the overall rectangle then pointed at the line separating the old rectangle and new, "this here is the space between the Miyagi-do dojo and the perimeter so that means that the back fence of Miyagi-do cuts off a whole piece of extra space."

"Do you have another pen?" I asked.

"I'll go get you one." He disappeared then reappeared with a red pen, "here you go."

I took the lid off and started to draw. "See if we can utilise this space," I pointed at the spare land, "then we can expand the size of the dojo so that Eagle Fang and Miyagi-do can all train in one place but separately."

"We're going to need to level out the area." Eli answered, using his pen to draw another rectangle in the empty space, "why don't we build a deck?"

"What kind of deck?"

"Well, Demetri was telling me about the other decks, he said that they were specifically designed to provide the optimal space for karate. I think it was an Okinawa Sparring deck. Anyway, we can build a bigger one than the others as we've got more space."

"You've really thought this through haven't you?"

"Yep, I've just gotta sort the physics and the maths and then it'll be ready-" the alarm on the oven went off and we both looked at it. "But first pizza!" He grinned, removing the pizza from the oven and serving it on a plate.

We munched on the pizza while we worked on the plans for the deck and when we finished the pizza we relocated to the games room that Eli's family had in the basement. There was a long couch and a table, as well as a games console and huge tv.

Some time later we had a pretty comprehensive plan of the Okinawan sparring deck, I sat back on the couch watching Eli finalise his plans and somehow I fell asleep watching his fingers click the keyboard of his computer. I drifted off to the repetitive click of the keys.