MOMENT OF TRUTH¹ eli moskowitz

king cobra

It had been a few days since Emma had passed. Amara had been in contact with no one other than Johnny. Not Miguel. Not Kreese. Not even Hawk. Just herself and in tears.

Amara questioned why Emma had died. It didn't make any sense. The doctors said that after the transplant she would be ok. So why wasn't she?

Amara went to the kitchen and poured her a glass of orange juice. Johnny was over on his laptop on Facebook.

"Look who decided to get out of bed!" He said in shock by Amara's presence.

She didn't care what she looked like. Grey sweatpants, dark royal blue hoodie, and her hair in a really messy bun with smeared makeup.

"How you feeling, kid?"

"Hurt. Miserable. Like I wanna die inside."

Johnny sighed. "Do you have that anger, raging, determination feeling?" He asked her.

Amara shook her head. "No, it's like. I'm upset and right here hurts so bad." She began to rub the center of her chest, "And I want to scream. I can feel it on the tip of my tongue."

Johnny nodded. That was the feeling. He took a deep breath and looked at his daughter as she was digging in the fridge.

"Listen, I know what you're going through." He began, "My mother...your grandmother died when I was around your age. I felt the same way and all I wanted was revenge." He explained, "I was so full of anger I wanted to fight, and I did."

"Then what happened?" Amara questioned.

"I won the fight." The blonde man answered, "And I did it in honor of her legacy, which is what you should do. It will make you feel ten times better. Put your aggression into the power of your fist."

"Yeah." Amara nodded, "Funny thing is that Sensei Kreese actually told me the same thing. Told me to wait until the time is right and then let all of my rage out."

Johnny nodded as he looked at his laptop. "Is that Ali again?" Amara asked, walking over to see Ali's Facebook messenger up. "Holy shit. What'd she say?"

"'Hey, Johnny. It really has been a long time.'" he began to read aloud. "'I don't even want to think about how many years it's been. But I'm still glad we went to high school in the '80s. No question, we had the best music.'"

Johnny chuckled. "Hell yeah."

"'Life has taken me in all kinds of directions since then.'" He continued to read, "'I've been blessed with my family and career. And I could probably still kick your ass at air hockey. It's crazy how things change.'"

"'I remember we used to see each other every day. Now I don't even know the first thing about you. Who are you now? Your profile is pretty bare. What are you up to these days? Ali."

Amara smiled at her dad's success. As he looked at her with full confusion. "What do I do now?"

"Answer her question. What have you been up to these days?"

Johnny sighed and stared at his computer.

•♪~†~♪•

Amara was sitting in her room. She figured she would take Johnny's advice and work through her emotions. She was packing her duffel bag for the dojo. She had put her white Cobra Kai gi on when she heard a thud coming through the kitchen.

"What was that?" Amara questioned.

Amara rushed into the living room with her duffel to see Johnny at the fridge and Miguel lying on the floor with a bungee jumping vest on. With a rope hanging down from the ceiling.