Savior In The Dark (6 page)

       “It’s getting late,” Victor told his dad. “Sophia and I have a dinner we have to go to.  I had this look on my face saying ‘what are you talking about’?

        “I don’t recall you mentioning dinner to me,” I said in a whisper to him. Then he gave his father a hug and a kiss. I did the same and he whispered in my ear, “Take care of him.” I promised him I would.

      Victor took my hand as we were walking out, which wasn’t strange normally, but what was strange was his silence. He was always chirper after seeing his father.  We walked to the car in silence. Then I asked him, if everything was okay. He assured me all was well. “If I had to work tonight,” I said. “I am scheduled to work, but I can call in if you need me.”

        “Just this once,” he said. “I really need to talk to you. I need your support okay.” I told him of course, that he always had my support. “Okay, let’s go,” he said. “I have something nice planned.” When he said that it made me feel better like he was trying to please me only, but I was excited by what he might have planned.

      Along the way, he stopped at the store. “Stay in the car,” he said. I did, but wondered what he could possibly be doing having me wait in the car. Then within ten minutes, he returned and had nothing with him.

          “What did you get?”

          “You will see in due time,” he replied. Boy, he was making me nervous. Then I thought he might have got me a ring. OMG, he is going to pop the question to me. I got all nervous and he said, “It’s okay, why are you so nervous and jumpy?” I didn’t answer him. Then he got it, saying to himself,
Oh, she thinks I’m going to ask her to marry me. I’d love to, but I know she’s not ready for that sort of commitment. I just want to make her happy. I do have to tell her that I have a competition coming up in Seattle, Washington for my belt. I’m still a teacher and a businessman. I have to continue teaching what I love. Everyday these kids I am teaching are getting better, and they are working so hard on their moves for their next bout. I had completely forgotten my competition was coming up in a week’s time. I have to train, harder now to get back to my routine. Sophia was an unexpected bonus in my life and I don’t regret having her with me, but I know she will be a distraction.

    We made it to my house, which was more private than his. Victor was still thinking to himself.
I know she’s been practicing the self-defense moves I have showed her. She is getting good at it. She talks about getting the rest of the girls to do it too. Since the Diner really has no security at all, it will help the girls to be safe if they know how to protect themselves. Since the night of the attack, Hugo has been walking the girls to their cars. But who is there to protect Hugo? Yes he is a big man, and very intimating looking, but just because you are tall does not mean anything. I should know. I have knocked out guys twice his size not in the ring but in the streets, where I fought others in an underground karate ring to get the money I needed to start my Karate Studio.
He realized he had never told Sophia.
This fight will be the last fight I will have to do if I win. It will give me enough money to keep the studio going. The prize money is $500,000. I have to give it a chance. These places are no joke. Peter heard about it and Dan did too. We, the three of us are going to try out for it. We have to, to save our kids and our studio.

     Once inside, I went to make some coffee. I said I was a bit cold and I knew I was just giving an excuse. “Okay, this surprise dinner, do I have to dress up?” I asked. It was a fair question and this dinner was with all the people who were going to the match.

      Since it was an underground event, Victor really couldn’t talk about it. It was an illegal tournament that only the best of the best were notified about. 

     “Sophia, if you don’t want to go or feel uncomfortable, you don’t have to, you know,” he said. I was thinking as he was saying that,
What if something happens to him and I am not there.

       “I’m going. Plus, I can see you in action kicking someone’s butt, and hopefully you don’t get hurt, nor Dan or Peter. Victor, I am going, because I want to be with you, and support you in this. I admired your dedication to the kids and I saw they all mean a lot to you three.”

        “Sophia, I may get hurt, so might Dan and Peter, but we are going to give it a shot because we love to do what we do, and give the kids a future off the streets.” I just go and hug him.

       “I’ll hurry and get dressed,” I replied. “I’ll be right back.”

      As I was dressing, I knew Victor had been training for a long time, as well as Dan and Peter. I just couldn’t shake off the idea of them getting hurt. Times like this, I wished there was another way, so they didn’t get hurt. But he told me last night they did manage to raise almost $1500 in two different occasions in car wash drives. But it wasn’t enough. Being at the watching end, it’s going to be hard to watch, but I know I have to support him any way I can. I finished dressing and when I came out of my room, Victor’s eyes practically popped out of his sockets. “He said you can’t go dressed like that; the other men will try to fight me for you.” He was laughing so I knew he was teasing me, but I almost took him seriously. I was dressed in a long elegant dress where the top made my breasts just about pop out. My shawl was a see through cover, but not enough to cover me completely. “Do you want me to change?” I asked with a grin. “If you want, but if you stay in that outfit, nobody will eat. They’ll be looking at you all night. You look amazing and I don’t feel like fighting for my desert.”

        “Okay, I don’t want to be the cause of that. I’ll change. I’ll leave this outfit for you only.’ He sighed with his face just stuck on me. So I walked, well almost ran to my room, laughing because I already knew he was going to say that, and I already had another outfit picked out. He responded the way I wanted him to. I was smiling as I dressed in a simple black dress, but not like my last one, which practically screamed, “Love me”. Well, in my mind, if this dinner wasn’t so important, I’d have had other ideas. I am pretty sure he was thinking the same thing.

      I was dressed the way he liked so no one could see anymore of me. Just for him only. I was happy with him. On the ride to the dinner party, Victor asked me what was wrong, since I had been quiet since getting into the car. I was worried. I didn’t know anything about these underground fighting matches. If it was legal, a lot of people would know about it. Since it wasn’t, I worried he was going to get hurt, his friends also. Karate mixed in with boxing can be very lethal. I see how they fought in practice matches against each other. They were not engaged in full contact since the fight was coming up so soon. They didn’t really want to hurt themselves or each other. They were doing this for the gym, for the love of karate, for the kids who wanted to learn. It was way better than being at home playing video games, or worse being in a gang, getting into trouble. They had given so much of themselves to this Karate Studio that it was their lives. It was what made them wake up every day to go in to practice and help the neighborhood kids, and not selfish in anyway. He gave of himself so much to these kids, that it just made you want to help them out. I could see why it was so important to him.

     Victor was looking at me with a curious face, wondering what I was thinking, and then he asked me, “Okay what going on in that head of yours? You have something you want to talk about?”

        “Just thinking about the fight, hoping and praying you won’t get hurt,” I replied. “If it is something you really want to do, I can’t stop you. I’ll be there by your side always.” Victor wrapped his arms around me and told me, “It’s going to be okay. If I thought it was going to be dangerous, I wouldn’t do it. Those kids depend on me. This is the quickest way for me right now. It is the only way I know how to save the studio. If you know of another way, please let me know.”

          It was done. I knew there is no way I was going to talk him out of it, and seeing the passion he had for the kids, how could I do that to him? I would be scared and be on the edge till the fight was over, but I had to be there to support him.

       We had a simple dinner with a group of people who were also fighting. You could tell from the way they acted. They were pretty hostile in manners. They really were not too sociable with us. So we kept to ourselves. Peter and Dan were loving the attention they were getting from the women there. We knew they were there to see who would win. They smelled money, woman like them are gold diggers. They gave people a bad angle on how woman are. I kept Victor close to me. I sure didn’t want that type of woman eyeballing my man. I kept him close all night through the dinner; we were given details of the oncoming fight at a private building owned by one of the promoters. Since it was an underground fight, they changed locations every year so they won’t have problems with the law.

       All the fighters who were signed up had to sign waivers of confidential disclosure for labiality. If they were found giving out information about the fight, they would be in deeper trouble than the law. That scared me, for Victor, Peter and Dan. They were risking everything for the gym. I just wish the fight bought would be over and done with already. It’s like biting nails waiting to be told when the fight was going to be on. All they were told was where, but no time. Guess it protected the investors. There was a lot of money on these illegal fights where just about anything goes.

      After the dinner, which I couldn’t eat much knowing what I was hearing, it was uncomfortable for me to hear. Last year’s champion was there, and pretty much threatened everyone there who was fighting, they were not going to win. He would remain champion again. He was pretty scary. He was huge and lean and had muscles on top of muscles. I guess it was his way of trying to discourage the fighters not to come in to the ring. But for such a high prize, everyone was ready to fight. Everyone had a reason to get that money. But I didn’t listen. My mind was on Victor’s studio. I wished there was a way for him to still save the studio. He had tried the banks. He was already overextended on loans for the place and the bank would not give him anymore. Since he already had a note on the place that it was showing no sort of profit, bookkeeping records showed it to be more of a neighborhood free gym than a karate studio. But I know it wasn’t. They all lived, breathed and loved what they did. I spent the night with Victor. He was restless, anxious about the fight, for good reason. He could lose it all. And he could get seriously hurt. I didn’t go to work. I had slowly been withdrawing my savings to stay afloat. I gave notice to my landlord, since I was going to be living with Victor. My job, well it wasn’t the greatest job. But the owner understood when I asked for some time off.
He thought I was expecting. I laughed at that thought, but then it would be something to be a mother with a child. I quickly put that thought away. I am in no way ready for a child. Then we been having sex without protection, so I might get pregnant.
That night in Victor’s arms I slept like a baby.

          The next day we went to the park for a jog. I needed to keep my girlish figure, so I went along with the guys, jogging. We had already done four laps around the park. It felt as if we were jogging in New York Central Park, but we were just in a regular park, going a few times round and round. It felt like it went on forever to me. As soon as I sat down, drinking my water, I saw Peter on his cell phone. He ran over to us and said, “It’s tonight at 8:00 pm.” I was shocked in a way, but not really surprised. I was dreading that call. Victor got up from the grass and said, “Come, let’s get to the house. I need to freshen up.”  Victor told Peter and Dan where to meet up, so they could leave together for the fight. But not without me they don’t.

      In Victor’s studio, he put a sign up saying it was closed for two days. So it was quiet. You could not hear nothing at all. Here I am thinking Victor getting ready to take a shower. Nope he was downstairs hitting the bag, kicking it, punching it. He was practicing some moves. I had never seen that before. He was like a man on fire. I watched him and told him to save his energy.

      “I am just loosening up my body,” he explained. “If I go into the fight stiff, I’ll suffer more damage to my body.”  I had to take his word for it. I have never fought or even seen him do any type of karate, just a few lessons here and there. But I knew I was going to be so nervous.

      As we all got ready to go, Dan, and Peter were waiting for us. We left as a group. I didn’t want to drive. I told them I was too nervous. I didn’t want to get into an accident going there. As we turned the corner in the van we were in, the warehouse came into plain view. So many cars were parked there already. We could women in fine dresses, and men in expensive suits. I thought we were in the wrong place. But nope, it was the right place alright. Victor was quiet the whole way there. I didn’t want to bother him while he is in deep thought, maybe thinking over karate or boxing moves in his head. The champion was there, all talk shouting to the men he would or might face that were going down, flat on the canvas. That man gave me chills. Like the first night I was rescued by Victor. He was my savior that night, and had been ever since. Tonight was when he really needed me. I had to be strong for him. I told myself he could handle himself. I had to, or I would go nuts and tell him, “Let’s go home”. As the guys got to the dressing room, they all had their gear with them. I went to sit down in the viewing area. Victor kissed me and told me not to worry.  With a smile, I told him, “Okay, just be careful. I love you”.

          About half an hour went by. The place was full of men and women. A man was going around collecting bets with the viewers. If someone was to rob a place here, that night would be the best time. But looking around, there were men with guns to the side of them. I guess they were thinking the same thing.