Blue Belt

Chapter 6

                                                           VI.

        I put on a pair of jeans as I was getting ready to go out that evening with Jed and his friend Jon, who was not a part of OKA but was a friend he had met at school.  It felt like much of my social life was hanging out with Jed and his friends.  I was learning a lot about Jed, and we were becoming good friends just by association.  Sure, I knew he was assigned to help me out, but he went out of his way to make me feel a part of things.  Weekend nights were one of the things he involved me in.  They consisted of social time out on the beach.  There was an atmosphere out there that would be tough to describe.  People my age drove in to Oceanside from near by towns because it was a popular beach to hang out at, and because a lot of people surfed.      "All set?"  Jed asked as we both were ready to head down to the beach for the evening.  I nodded and followed him out the door as we were going to meet Jon out front and then walk down there.

            Jon had really long brown hair and had an old ZZ Top tee shirt on along with some jean shorts.  I was a bit surprised when I saw him because Jed is pretty clean kept and tidy, while this guy reminded me of something different.  Apparently he works two jobs while going to school and has aspirations of getting a sales position in Los Angeles for a record company.  Jed said he was pretty smart, and admitted to being impressed with this guy who he himself had not known all that long.  He and Jed started talking about a composition assignment they were both working on.  As we walked along the beach toward the pier I tried to break into the conversation a couple of times with some karate questions, but I got a pretty straight answer from Jed and then he and Jon were on talking about something.  I began to just walk along and take in people watching, along with enjoying the chance to walk beside the ocean.  There were plenty of locals out sitting on the beach, and even some preparing for small bon fires in certain spots.  The legendary friendliness, which I had heard pervades the beach on weekends, was truly a vibe I was picking up on yet again.

            As we got up toward the pier we walked by four games of beach volleyball which were going on at the same time.  It looked like six a side.

            "Yeah, my friend Cody should be down here playing."  Jed said looking at Jon.

            I looked around to see if I could locate Cody right after Jed announced this.  Not long after Jed started to jog over toward the game closest to the ocean and pier.  And yes, there I saw Cody.  He had orange tinted shades on even though the sun was starting to set.  He was wearing red beach shorts with no shirt and no shoes or sandals.  Jon and I approached Jed as he was up ahead on Cody's side of that sand court.

            "11-12" the server on the opposite side of the court announced.  The ball went back and forth a few times until the ball was set for a spike by the team Cody was playing against, on the other side of the net from Cody.  The African American on the other side was not quite as tall as Cody, but was getting set for the smash.  Cody had other plans though and jumped up, timing his leap just right, and met the force of the smash with his own fists sending the ball back against the other guy's hands and then out of bounds.

            "Cody", Jed said waving over to him.  Cody pumped his fist still obviously feeling good about his net play as he then waved over back to Jed.  I had not seen Cody with his shirt off prior to this, and noticed that he was even more well built up muscle wise than I previously had thought.  His tattoos were also more noticeable at this point.  I could make out that one was of a torch with some flames firing out of it.

            "Did you see that?"  Jed said looking at me.

            "Yeah.  Impressive."  I said back.  "Do you play?"  I asked Jed.