Dancing with the Stars

Chapter 4

Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.

Carl Jung

Get up, you lazy piece of sack. We have work to do. Yell the sergeant as he walks through the barrack, knocking on beds yelling. The sergeant came and stood before Kendall, who was dressed at attention and was already up.The sergeant was an astute muscular marine who was a stickler to the rules. He noticed Kendall's bed was tidy, corners tight. The sergeant yelled in his face why are you the only one up. Kendall quietly spoke as he looks him in the eye, I anticipate your next move and I'm ready for it. That made the sergeant mad, well you can get down and give me 100 pushup while these lazy asses get up and get dressed. He hollered.

10 11 12 he counted and Kendall thought, will he make it through all this? Kendall knew he was running away from his family. He watched his father die and couldn't watch his mother grieve anymore. He thought of his family as he kissed the floor. His sister who will never forgive him or understand why. 88 89 90 He just had to make it through this. He thought of Frank, Norman, Emily and Nancy. Wondering if they were all right. Did they survive this war that nobody wanted to be a part of?

The weeks turn into months. Days blur together. The training was grueling, not just the physical but the mental.

Kendall learned in this business it is better not to get attached. It is something that he learn while he was a marine. You never knew how long you would have. So it was better not to get to know someone. Training was grueling. The first couple weeks you are push doing a lot of exercise, mostly running and push up. Then they push you mentally.

How do they push you?

One night, two guards woke Kendall up out of bed and blindfolded him. They also duct tape his mouth and hands. They push him into a car and took him to an undisclosed location.
Kendall didn't know how long they tied him up and torture him. Nothing that wouldn't heal. Whatever they threw at him, he mastered it. Kendall always thought about how to succeed, how he can get out of this. He was always thinking ahead, never focusing on the moment or the past.

Kendall succeed at this. The guards sent him back to the barracks to rest. They kept looking for ways to break him. They almost did when he witnessed his only friend get killed.

Frank was from the neighborhood that Kendall grew up in. He knew his family, they treated him like a son. Frank was like a younger brother to him.

To see what happen to him made his heart turn to ice. All of his emotions were dead inside and never again did Kendall let anyone get too close.

Kendall remember the day he met Frank. He was a short, skinny kid. Kendall, seventeen, just move into a house in the outer bank of Los Angles. Everything here was different from where he came from in Boston. Especially the weather. It was always hot and dry. So the house Kendall's family moved into had a lot of grey cement to it. It looks dreary, but mom did her best to make it habitable. Kendall spent most of his time outside because it was hard for Kendall to be inside and watch his father whiter away on the couch. Mom was his nurse, and she had little time for Kendall or his sister Bae. So Kendall spent his time roaming the neighborhood. One day, he came across Frank sitting on his porch. Kendall wave and said hello. Frank was shock that Kendall would even look his way. Kendall asked why. He said, "well Kendall I'm a Jap." Kendall reply, silly you of course you are. That day began their friendship the only friend Kendall had and the last one he cherish. Kendall spent a lot time on that porch with Frank. Teasing his sister eating his mom cookies,sipping tea.

   

He learn so many things that summer. How to speak Japanese. Frank dad Norman was really patient with Kendall. He learn to cook and enjoy cooking with Emily Frank mother. Teasing Nancy Franks little sister. Kendell called it his second home. His second family. Frank was the one friend that will haunt him tell the day he died. The friend that was killed because he was nothing more than a Jap.