Roaring Heart

DOUBTS

    It was a warm summer day, and the sun lit up New York sky. The city was chaotic as usual, and the car exhaust gas did nothing but worsen that stifling air, making it unbreathable. Even birds might think so, for they were wandering far and wide, searching for water, or for a tree in which to shelter. They flew in huge flocks, letting themselves be carried by polluted air and hot wind. Finally, a small flock spied safety: a huge garden, luxuriant with plants. They flew faster, then landed on soft grass. They heard a strange sound, like pouring liquid, and they followed it en masse, finding a little fountain from where really fresh water was gushing. They started pressing, shoving, pecking one another, each one wanting to drink more water than the other. One of them separated from the group, perching in a tree under which an Asian featured elderly lady was sitting, watching a lovely scene before her: her husband was doing strange exercises with their grandson, a child who looked a lot like her, but with some western traits. His eyes were almond-shaped, but dark green. His hair, even though black and short, was wavy. The child ran towards his grandmother.

   "Granny, granny! Grandpa is teaching me martial arts! Watch what I can do!"

He lifted his left leg and kicked three times at an invisible opponent, in perfect balance. Then, he sprawled on the ground and did a back flip, tucking himself into a little ball, after which he got up and bent at his hips, in a low position, with his right hand extended before him.

The lady goggled at him.

   "Really good! You will certainly become a great fighter!" she said, ruffling her grandson's hair, which remained a little messy.

    "Really? How long do you think it will take me to become a real martial arts expert?" he asked, eyes so wide they were almost perfectly western shaped.

The lady scratched her white-haired head, thoughtful.

    "It's depends on how much effort you put in your training, and above all, your heart".

    "My heart?" the child asked, not understanding.

   "Yes. If you want to become a perfect warrior, training isn't enough. Every fighter knows it, especially one in particular, the greatest of them all. Do you want me to tell you his story?" the woman asked, looking at her grandson.

The little boy clapped with enthusiasm. "Yes! I want to hear it!"

   "Then, come and sit on my lap!"

The grandson obeyed. Meanwhile, the grandfather had moved closer, sitting on the grass near his wife. It was obvious part of the child's western features must have come from him, because the man had nothing Oriental in his traits. He gave his wife a knowing look. The woman understood, smiled, and nodded. Then, she bent near her grandson, and whispered in a hoarse voice:

   "Now hold on, Akira. You are about to listen to the most amazing story ever told, a story about courage and determination".

It wasn't difficult for the little boy's fervid imagination, to reproduce the scene as though it were real. The images began to flow in his mind, clear, pristine, real, while the boy began living the story.

Time and scene were quite different from those of the little happy family we just left. The weather, above all, didn't seem springtime: the soft March sun barely warmed the city, a less chaotic one than New York, but that didn't mean it didn't match its beauty or lacked its history. Boston districts were almost desert, except when they were full of youngsters goofing off the sidewalks, in order to take a break from studying or going window-shopping. Come to think of it, at around five o'clock in the afternoon a large part of the population was still working, some of them in shops, trying to sell sometimes useless over-advertised products, some of them closed in an office, puffing over paperwork with a deadline and fiddling over ideas for a project to propose. However, some people found the time to do sport, either as a hobby, or sometimes only to relieve the stress cumulated during the day. "Sport & Fitness" gym was the most renowned in the city, always packed with people. It was very big, and it offered dozens of different sports, from aerobics to kick-boxing, from judo to personal training to lose weight. A little boy was running along the perimeter of the training hall in order to warm up. Lost in his thoughts, he bumped against someone. Just a second after, he heard a thud, which resonated everywhere in the room: the sound of something falling.