End Of The Line

Thank you, Mr. Miyagi.

Crossing over the railroad tracks I take notice of all the classical cars just sitting in front of the house "whoa" I mumbled as Daniel just nods knowingly "yeah, I did the same thing" he said placing his bike in front of the house "come on" he ordered as he knocks on the door of the house.

When no one answers Daniel looks at me confused, but I could only shrug I was just tagging along, Daniel was told to meet Mr. Miyagi here for training, but apparently, the only thing he had done so far was clean the older man's cars.

"Hey, listen," I say to my older brother pointing to my ear as I hear the dull sound of thudding like someone was banging something, following Daniel through a side gate we walked into a beautiful garden.

"Wow" I whispered glancing around "This is beautiful" Daniel agreed as he walked over the decking with me following him "Mr. Miyagi, this is great" he called over to the old man who was on the ground working.

"You've got real fish in there" My brother laughed seeing the Koi fish swimming around in the large pond "This is outrageous" I laughed knowing this was the best garden I've ever seen in my life, it was like something out of a fancy home-style magazine.

"I thought Chung Lee's restaurant was nice; you beat his act" I just rolled my eyes at my twins jokes as I moved to sit next to him on the decking that Mr. Miyagi was currently sanding "This is paradise. Did you do this yourself?" the older Japanese man just grunted in affirmation.

Picking up one of the circling things I looked it over as Daniel did with the other "Are these bongos?" I snorted as Daniel quickly took mine out of my hand with a grin "No, I got it" putting both items on his hands he clapped them together enthusiastically "Hare Krishna."

Mr. Miyagi laughed at Daniel as his eyes crinkled in humor "Daniel-san, you much humor" glancing back at the older man I scrunched my nose when I heard the rough sound coming from the circular things "What are they?".

"Japanese sander" Miyagi stated as he gave me a warm smile, "What do you do with them?" Daniel questioned as he played around with the sanders "Funny you should ask" Miyagi retorted as he grabbed Daniel's hands and placed them on the deck and circled each one across the wood "Right circle. Left circle".

"It'd be easier going back and forth" Daniel suddenly moved the sanders up and down as Miyagi jumped to stop him "But you go circle" the older man stood as my brother continued to sand "Right circle. Breathe in, breathe out".

As Miyagi moved to leave, he looked at me over his shoulder "Katherine, follow Miyagi" raising my eyebrow I shot a look at my brother who simply shrugged and continued to sand under Mr. Miyagi's instruction "Right circle, left circle. Breathe in, breathe out — whole floor. Right circle, left circle".

Following the Japanese man into his home silently I felt nervous as he led me to a room, I've never been alone with the man before and, sure,  I trusted him but not knowing what he wanted from me didn't do much for my anxiety.

Watching him pick up a pair of punch mitts and red boxing gloves I frowned "Put on" Miyagi instructed with a neutral face, and I felt inclined to do as he says, mainly because he was putting on the punch mitts at the same time.

"You too much anger" Mr. Miyagi stated as I tightened the gloves to fit snugly on my wrists "tell me something I don't know" I muttered with a huff feeling out of place and a little attacked by the shorter man.

"bad attitude not teach you how to conquer anger, Katherine-san. Understand?" nodding slowly at his words I sighed knowing his words were valid no matter how much I hated that this man could see through me.

Lifting up his hands Miyagi got into a defensive stance and motioned for me to come forward "now jab" extending my arm forward I gave a weak punch to the mitt only to receive a small tut of disapproval back "hit harder."

Again I sent another useless punch, and I could tell I wasn't going to be able to do this so I lowered my fists "I'm sorry I can't I just.. I have too much on my mind right now and.." I stopped my rant short when I noticed he wasn't listening to my excuses.

Miyagi put his mitts on my shoulders as he looks into my eyes "No think about life, no excuse. Just do. Think too much, and you no live. Understand?" once again, I was nodding at his sincere words but I was still trying to make sense of what his cryptic words were telling me.

"You have to much anger and no sad" The older man stated as his gazed never dropped from mine as I gulped "to be happy, you must be sad" I frowned thinking about those words, I always hated letting myself feel sad for too long, it made me feel weak.

"Think anger and jab" pulling my fists back up I thought about my anger in general and threw a punch "better but still no good" Thinking about my abusive deadbeat father I punched "again," I thought of my many arguments with my brother and how I always came second "better Katherine-san".

Next, I thought about watching Daniel get beat by my friends "more," remembering how happy I was "more" having no-one "good" gaining friends and losing them "much better."

"breathe in, breathe out" by now I was sweating and jabbing the pads so quickly, and sharp I couldn't focus on the man in front of me, I was too busy thinking of my pain and loss that I didn't realize I had started to cry.

"Good Katherine, good" pulling back my fist I thought of the one person I was the angriest at, the person who always seemed to let me down the most, my most hated enemy. Myself.

Swinging my fist I gasped as it made contact and I dropped to the floor sobbing to myself as floods of tears overtook me, and there was nothing I could do to stop it, I finally understood; to get rid of anger you have to let out the grief.

Feeling the gloves being taken off of my hands I opened my eyes to meet sympathetic ones as Mr. Miyagi knelt in front of me and put his hands on my shoulders again before pulling me to his chest silently.

We both sat together for a while, and the only noise was the sound of my heartbreaking cries until the older man began to croon in Japanese, and I realized he was singing to me.

Slowly my tears began to dry up, but Miyagi showed no signs of moving until I did, as he gently rocked up back and forth in a very fatherly fashion "The sun is warm, the grass is green" he whispered to me as I moved back to look at him "huh?"

Mr. Miyagi just smiled at me "If ever Katherine-san get angry, just you repeat those words" I repeated the words softly to myself as I blinked slowly when a wave of fatigue flooded me, I'd been angry for so long feeling sad was exhausting.

Giving the older man a small smile, I helped him back up to his feet "Thank you, Mr. Miyagi."