Dojo Double

by Dave Sypher

"I will,” the man vowed, gently leading his wife out afterwards.

  Taking the paper bag with her additional meals in it, Shinju looked up the closest grocery store.

  It was dark, but there were people coming and going from the store.

  Pulling out her backpack, Shinju put on her headlamp before going inside.

  Chapter twenty-one

  Shinju was met at the door by an impressively large employee who stood guard over a partially opened door.

  "You can’t come in unless you have cash,” he told her.

  Looking him up and down, Shinju noted the name on his tag: Gage. He looked to Shinju like the product of a love affair between a football player and a competition weight lifter.

  "I have cash,” she reassured him.

  "Okay, here’s what you do. You pick up your items, and you write down the price on this sheet of paper, and take that with you to the register. Please don’t try and rip us off on the prices. Our cashier knows how much most everything costs, and if you’re caught lying about a price, we’ll throw you out without your stuff. Got it?”

  "Yes, I understand,” Shinju agreed, taking a pencil and piece of paper from the man.

  She entered the store, but despite having been warned about panic buying, she was amazed to find almost all the bread was gone. She did find a loaf of bread that had been baked in the store’s bakery sitting in an open bag, and she snatched it up before someone else saw it.

  A family began following her through the store, and she realized they were using her headlamp to locate items they wanted.

  "Do you need anything from this aisle?” She asked the man, who gave her a sheepish smile.

  "I didn’t think it was that obvious that we were following you,” he said.

  "I’m a trained observer,” Shinju reassured him. "So tell me, do you need me to light the way to anything down that aisle?”

  Running feet came at them from the dark. "The milk is all gone,” a panting boy gasped out to the man.

  "Damn it,” the woman said.

  "Let’s check the baking aisle,” Shinju steered them down it. Shining her light at the bottom shelf, she pointed, "There. Get that powdered milk and make sure you pick up water so you can reconstitute it. You can also use evaporated milk, but that will be a bit on the sweet side.”

  "Great, thanks,” the couple said, picking up three boxes of powdered milk. "Now we can have cereal.”

  Going down the cereal aisle, they selected four bags of generic cereal, as much of the boxed cereals were already picked over.

  Keeping the fact that she had very little refrigerator space in mind, Shinju grabbed two boxes of breakfast bars for herself.

  They continued through the store in the same manner, and when they reached the hardware aisle, they discovered one small flashlight that hadn’t already been bought that had rolled to the back of the shelf.

  "Break that open, put the batteries in, and we’ll use it to finish our shopping,” the man ordered his son. "Leslie write down the flashlight and batteries on our list.”

  Squinting at Shinju, the man said, "Thanks for helping us shop, especially for the tip about the milk.”

  "No thanks necessary,” Shinju reassured him. "We’re all in this together.”

  "Amen to that, sister,” Leslie said to her before the family hurried off in the gloom.

  Fortunately, it was summer, and there were copious numbers of coolers available in the seasonal aisle. Shinju took the largest one she could find and went to get in line.

  It was a long wait, as only one register was open.

  One young woman was reading prices from people’s lists while another removed items from each cart, bagging it as the cashier punched prices into a calculator watch. After the total was obtained, it was written down in a notebook, and then the tax was calculated and written down. Once each order was done, the price lists were taken from the customers and put into a money bag. Shinju realized that once the power came back on that the store’s employees would need to key in each order by hand. She wondered if the store would’ve closed had someone not been wearing a calculator watch.

  When it was her turn to check out, she immediately said, "I also need a block of ice, please.”

  Picking up her phone, the cashier called to someone on the other end. "I need a block of ice, Lucas.”

  Turning to Shinju, the cashier squinted at her until Shinju belatedly turned off her headlamp.

  "Did you bring your own bags, or would you like to buy them?”

  "I’m from out of town, so I need to buy them,” Shinju said.

  The woman who was reading the lists took Shinju’s pencil and recorded the four bags she needed on it.

  "Your total is fifty-nine eighty-four. Lucas will go with you so he can bring the cart back in after he’s loaded everything into your car,” the cashier told her.

  "I don’t need help,” Shinju said as she pulled out her money.

  "Sorry, but we don’t want to have to chase carts around all night, and Lucas is available right now,” the cashier insisted.

  "Okay,” Shinju relented while collecting her change. "Come on, Lucas. I’m sure you want to get back inside as soon as you can.”

  "Right,” Lucas took control of the cart, laying a baseball bat across the child seat. "Let’s go.”

  They were almost to the door when the yelling started.

  "You have to let us in!”

  "You said you don’t have any cash, so there’s no way we can check you out.”

  "Fuck that. Everyone is supposed to help everyone else in an emergency, and this is an emergency!”

  "I said no,” Gage repeated.

  "Let me in, asshole,” the voice went up in volume.

  Hearing the escalating threats, Lucas stopped Shinju’s cart while grabbing his bat and hurrying to the door.

  Taking up a stance behind Gage, Lucas, began smacking the business end of the bat against his palm.

  "You try to force your way into the store, and you’ll regret it,” Lucas warned the man.

  "Fuck you! You touch me, and I’ll sue you down to the ground.”

  "Based on what evidence?”

  "The security, oh fuck, power’s out. Come on, Barry, let’s get out of here. One of the restaurants is likely giving food out so it doesn’t go bad.”

  "Fine,” Barry growled. He was wearing a shirt with torn off sleeves, showing off his twin tattooed biceps. They were large, but his belly was larger, and he waddled as he left.

  "Is it nine o’clock yet?” Lucas sighed.

  "Five till. That’s close enough,” Gage decided. "We’ll check out whoever is left in the store, but I’m not letting anyone else in.”

  "I’ll tell the others,” Lucas said, pulling out his phone while waiting for the two belligerent men to get in their car and leave. "Hey Sara,” he said, "Gage says it’s five to nine, and he’s not letting anyone else in, so once you get the last of the people checked out, we should clean up as best we can, then lock up and go home. I want us all to walk out together, as we’ve already had two jerks without cash trying to come in. Count down the drawer and put the cash in its own bag and drop it in the safe so morning crew can check it against the hand-written orders, assuming the power is back on by then. I’m walking everyone out from here on, so if you need someone to fetch anything, call for Jake. He’s not going to get any stocking done tonight, so he should stop trying to set up the stock cart and help us out until we all go home. Have Jake check every aisle to make sure there are no stragglers before you count down your drawer and drop the money bag in the safe.”

  "Got it,” Sara replied, sounding relieved.

  The car left as Lucas spoke with Sara. He waited another thirty seconds before taking hold of her cart again. "You others, wait here until I get back. When you’re done loading your cars, get in and immediately lock your doors, and don’t stop for anyone until you get where you’re going. Don’t honk for help when you get home unless you have to, as you don’t want anyone
seeing you carrying groceries into your houses. All right, let’s go,” Lucas laid his bat on Shinju’s cart again, stepping out into the night.

  Lucas loaded the bags into her car, and was waiting for Shinju to find her keys and unlock her door, when the sound of pattering feet preceded Barry barreling into Lucas, knocking him to the ground.

  "Not so tough now, are you, bitch?” Barry was short of breath and wheezing from the speed of his surprise attack. He kicked Lucas in the back as he spoke, causing him to cry out in pain.

  Turning to the store, Shinju shouted reflexively, "Call the cops!”

  Turning back to see what was happening, she saw Barry glaring at her in the dark.

  "You’re going to regret that, cunt. I was going to let you leave, but now I see I’m going to have to teach you a lesson, too.”

  Barry balled one hand into a fist before lunging at her, and Shinju mentally cursed the California legislature for making it extremely difficult for people like her to protect themselves, forcing her to leave her gun at home in Arizona.

  Chapter twenty-two

  Shinju knew that the immediate threat to her health was that she must not let Barry land a punch on her. His size and weight meant that he could do serious damage to her, so she quickly backed away from him, turning when she was no longer next to her rental car.

  Seeing Lucas’s bat lying on the shopping cart, she ran towards it, but Barry beat her to it.

  "Oh no, you don’t, princess,” he growled, snatching up the bat and throwing it away. It landed with a clatter before rolling away. Barry gave her a feral grin, rattling the shopping cart at her before shoving it out of the way.

  Seeing no other option to prevent being beaten, Shinju bunched up her leg muscles, wheeled, and sprinted away as fast as she could. When she was two parking rows away, she stopped, looking behind her to find that Barry wasn’t chasing her. Instead, he was delivering a punch to Lucas, who was struggling to climb to his feet.

  Hearing shouting, Shinju looked at the store front to see several of the female employees holding their phones up to record the attack. Gage was moving as fast as he could in Barry’s direction.

  Lucas was knocked to the ground again, this time landing on his butt.

  Seeing that Shinju had stopped running, Barry pulled out his keys, dragging one across the side of her rental car with a screech that carried to where she was standing and set her teeth on edge.

  "I’m giving you something to remind you that you shouldn’t butt into other people’s business, bitch,” he taunted her. "Remember every time you see this that you made someone angry with your big mouth, and maybe next time you’ll keep it shut.”

  Angered by his sexist attitude, Shinju wondered what she could use against him as a weapon as all her groceries and leftovers were in her car. However, she was wearing her backpack, and she remembered her bear spray as Barry dragged Lucas to his feet, punching him again so that he sagged, inert, to the pavement.

  She shrugged her backpack off, but hesitated to reach into it as Gage arrived at the scene of the fight, shoving Barry away from Lucas.

  Barry grunted, but responded by spinning and landing a respectable punch in Gage’s stomach.

  The wind knocked out of him, Gage, almost doubled over, and Barry pressed his advantage, punching Gage twice in the face in quick succession.

  Unlike Lucas, Gage was large enough to better withstand Barry’s onslaught. He straightened, turning his head and spitting out what was probably blood before saying, "Is that all you’ve got?”

  "Oh, I got more,” Barry said, "I definitely got more.”

  The two big men stopped exchanging words, instead exchanging punches.

  "You hit like a girl,” Barry remarked as he and Gage paused to catch their breath. Seeing that help had arrived, Lucas edged away from the two combatants, climbed to his feet, and began staggering towards his baseball bat.

  Seeing that Lucas intended to retrieve his bat and escalate a fistfight to possibly deadly proportions, Shinju fumbled in her backpack for her can of bear spray.

  "Bear, Barry, what’s the difference,” she muttered to herself as she ran to rejoin the fight.

  Priming her can of bear spray, she decided to try to take charge of the situation.

  "All right, everyone stop this immediately!”

  Gage and Lucas immediately looked at her, while Barry took a step back before looking at her.

  "What the hell do you have there, bitch?”

  "Bear spray, and if all of you know what’s good for you, you’ll stop fighting right now,” Shinju said. She didn’t know what effect bear spray would have on people, so she decided to try and bluff her way into stopping the fight.

  "Lucas, don’t you dare raise that bat against Barry. Barry, you’ve made your point about being a bad ass, so why don’t you get lost? Gage, I’m glad you came out to help Lucas, but it’s time to stop fighting.”

  "You gonna let that bitch dictate what’s going on?” Barry was indignant. "Or did you arrange this ahead of time with your girlfriend to save yourself from getting a proper beat down?”

  "Are you drunk or high?” Gage snorted. "This woman is nothing more than a customer I’ve never seen before who was getting escorted to her car when you decided to commit an assault against one of our employees because we couldn’t let you take food without paying for it. Now here’s what should happen: You should get the hell out of here and never come back.”

  "Fuck you,” Barry said, "You’re just too much of a pussy to win a real street fight, and you’re trying to hide behind some split tail so you don’t have to get beat down in front of the other split tails over there. By the way, bitches, I’m going to be over there to break all your damn cell phones once I’m done with these three. Apparently, I need to start with you,” Barry pointed at Shinju.

  He stepped towards her, and Shinju pressed the trigger on her bear spray, releasing a large cloud of the stuff. Gage and Lucas jumped out of the way of the majority of it, but Barry gasped, inhaling and coughing as the spreading fog engulfed him.

  He plowed on through it, though, and began laughing when he was in free air again.

  "That’s it? Bears must be pussies, too, because I’ve been pepper sprayed before, and this shit ain’t nothing compared to that.”

  "Crap,” Shinju had to make a split second decision to try and run again or fight.

  "Blunt force trauma it is for you, Barry,” Shinju challenged him, raising her can as menacingly as she could. "You try to hit me, and I’m going to beat you with this can. It won’t be pretty, but it will hurt you. I have to warn you that it may break bones, and if you give me no choice, I’m going to hit you in the head as hard as I can, and that will seriously injure or kill you.”

  "You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about,” Barry scoffed, but he paused anyway when Shinju gave him a grim smile.

  "You better listen to me, because I do know what I’m talking about. If you attack me and I am forced to really hurt you, it won’t be the first time that’s happened.”

  Gage and Lucas were giving her odd looks, sensing the truth in her statement.

  Barry opened his mouth again, when a new voice called out, "No one’s hitting anyone anymore. Police. Show me your fucking hands right now.”

  Shinju looked to her right, seeing a uniformed officer standing there with his gun drawn.

  "It’s about time you got here,” she muttered as she raised one hand before bending and gently placing her canister of bear spray on the ground.

  Straightening back up, she moved until she was standing next to Gage who had Lucas on his other side.

  "You, smart mouth, lean against the car, hands on your head, fingers laced,” the officer said.

  "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know the drill,” Barry surprisingly did as he was told.

  Once Barry was handcuffed, the officer turned to them.

  "I don’t have more cuffs with me, so you’re just going to have to sit down on the pavement with your legs
crossed. Don’t any of you try and get up, or I’ll be forced to deal with you until my backup gets here.”

  Doing as she was told, Shinju sat quietly while the officer took Barry to his car and wrangled him into the back.

  The officer was walking back towards them when the power was restored to the area. The parking lot lit up. The lights weren’t bright, but after the blackout, they appeared dazzling to Shinju. She blinked several times as the officer looked them over.

  "Okay, we’ve got employee, employee, and who are you, miss?”

  "I’m the customer Lucas was escorting to my car,” she pointed him out, "When Barry here came back and attacked us without provocation.”

  "Save your accusations for the judge,” the officer said.

  "It’s true,” Gage affirmed. "We refused to let Barry and his friend in because they couldn’t pay us in cash, and he threatened us before leaving. Lucas told him that he would help defend me, and we thought Barry left. Lucas walked this woman to her car, and when he was about to come back in to escort the other customers to their cars, Barry showed up and knocked him to the ground.”

  "And then he kicked me in the back,” Lucas said.

  "Fine, so you’re all saying that this Barry was the instigator?”

  "It’s true,” Sara came forward, holding her phone out to the officer. "I got most of it in my cell phone.”

  She played the video for the officer, who told her, "I’m going to need a copy of that for evidence.”

  Looking at the small crowd of people clustered at the front of the store, the officer asked, "Are the rest of you customers?” Shinju turned her head, watching most of them nod. "Did any of you others record this incident?” Seeing almost everyone nod, Shinju sighed. It was one thing to protest being watched every minute in modern society, but there were times when it came in handy having nosy people with their cameras ever ready to leap into action.

  Four more patrol cars soon arrived, and after taking down the names of all the witnesses and receiving promises of being given copies of their video recordings of the fight, the other customers were allowed to leave.