“I mean, I know you probably haven’t played video games in a while, but come on! Granddad does better than that,” he said, taunting Abby.
“Yeah, yeah. I let you win to spare your ego,” Abby insisted.
“Psh. Girl, my ego is too enormous for you to hurt.”
“Bet I could hurt you though. How about a friendly little fight? If you’ve got an arcade in the city, I bet there’s a boxing gym somewhere around here too.”
Hiamovi laughed, but Abby did not. “What’s so funny?”
“Wait, you’re serious? You know how to fight?”
“Yes, I know how to fight,” Abby replied, a little annoyed. “Why shouldn’t I? Because I’m a girl?”
“Well… no. I just… uh,” Hiamovi stuttered.
“Can it. You can apologize for the rude assumption by sparring with me. So is there a gym around here or not?”
“Uh… yeah. Yeah, there is,” Hiamovi replied, still trying to get his wits back after accidentally insulting Abby. “It’s actually just down the street from our apartment building, we’ll pass it on the way back.”
“Ah, so that’s where you go all the time.”
“Oh, so you’re watching me, eh?” Hiamovi asked, his confidence making a rebound, but only just in time for Abby to shoot it back down.
“Just enough to know how to avoid you.”
“Oof. That hurt.”
Hiamovi and Abby got back to their apartment building and then went to their separate homes to change into gym clothes. Abby put on a pair of running shorts and a plain black shirt, but she took her time dressing. She was still running the day’s events over in her head, remembering with fondness already the memories she’d just forged with Hiamovi.
She left her apartment and headed down the street to the gym that Hiamovi had mentioned. She went inside to find it mostly empty except for a few dedicated gym rats. There was a boxing ring in the back of the gym with two men inside sparring and two old men standing to the side, one of whom was shouting instructions.
Abby looked around for Hiamovi, but didn’t see him so she decided to wait for him over by the ring. As she approached she realized that the old man who had been shouting was Hector, but she didn’t recognize the other man. Hector saw Abby coming and waved her over.
“What are you doing here?” Abby asked.
“Coaching these two bums,” Hector responded, gesturing to the men in the ring.
“You never told me you’re a boxer.”
Hector laughed and said, “Was a boxer. I used to be a champion back in the day. But what are you doing here?”
“Hiamovi wants to spar.”
“Ah, so he’s teaching you how to fight?”
“I know how to fight!” Abby said, frustrated that yet another person assumed she couldn’t handle herself.
“Sorry, I meant no offense,” Hector said. “Be careful though. Hiamovi is an extremely talented fighter. His father taught him Muay Thai when he was younger, and Bob here trains him in… whatever it is that Bob teaches.”
Abby looked at the other old man, who still had not spoken. He was bald, and looked younger than Hector, or had at least aged much better. He looked to be Chinese, Abby thought. He smiled at her and gave a slight bow.
“His name is Bob?” Abby asked.
“That’s just what we call him,” Hector admitted. “He’s never spoken a word to us.”
“Can he not talk?”
“We don’t know.”
“What about writing?”
“We don’t know.”
“Does he even nod his head?” Abby asked, looking back at Bob, who still stood there smiling at her but doing nothing else.
“Alrighty then,” Abby said, shrugging her shoulders. She heard her name called from behind and turned to see Hiamovi walking into the gym wearing black wind pants and a tank top. Abby would be lying if she said she wasn’t impressed by his physique. He was very well built for a young man of just seventeen, but Abby shoved that thought aside.
“Are they gonna be much longer, Granddad?” Hiamovi asked as he approached.
“Nah, they’ve been going long enough,” Hector replied. He yelled to the two fighters, “Rico, Tommy! That’s enough for today. Come on out.”
The two men threw a last punch or two, then climbed out of the ring. As Hector opened up a chest and began to pull out some gloves and other sparring gear, a red-headed boy that looked to be about Hiamovi’s age came up with a duffel bag on his shoulder and said, “Hey ‘Movi.”
“Jay. How’s it going?” Hiamovi responded, fist bumping his friend.
“Not bad. Who’s this?” Jay asked, gesturing to Abby.
“This is Abby. Abby, this is Jay.”
“Nice to meet you,” Jay said, but Abby just nodded her head once, not wanting to talk to somebody she didn’t know. Jay turned back to Hiamovi and said, “So you’re teaching Fighting 101 now?”
Poor Jay might have thought twice about his word choice had he known he’d be the third person that afternoon to doubt Abby’s capabilities. Abby furrowed her brow and grabbed Jay’s shirt by the collar, turning him around. “I know how to fight,” she said in a low, dangerous tone, almost nose-to-nose with Jay.
“Alright, goddamn! Let me go!” Jay said.
“Make me, if you’re such an experienced fighter,” Abby retorted.
“Is she serious?” Jay asked Hiamovi with a confused look.
“Dead serious, most likely,” Hiamovi replied with a shrug of his shoulders.
Jay looked back to Abby, who was still glaring at him with granite eyes. “Hiamovi’s the fighter, I’m just the geek,” he said.
“Apologize,” Abby demanded.
“Fine, I’m sorry. Obviously you’re a fighter,” he said, and Abby released him. He stepped back, looking Abby up and down once with a wary eye.
“You ready, Abby?” Hiamovi asked, and Abby nodded once.
“Well, I gotta see this,” Jay said as he walked over to stand by Hector and Bob.
“Alright, put this gear on,” Hector said as he handed Abby and Hiamovi some gloves, shin pads, and mouth guards, then helped them get it all on. Once they were ready, the two of them climbed up into the ring while Hector and Jay, who had fetched an old video camera from his duffel bag to record the bout, were leaning against the apron to watch. Bob remained standing where he’d been when Abby first came in, still watching her. She gave him an annoyed glance, but his expression didn’t change at all.
“Alright, let’s do it,” Hiamovi said.
Abby came forward slowly in her usual fighting stance. She threw a left-handed jab at Hiamovi, but he dodged it almost without effort. Next, Abby faked with another jab and threw a hook punch, but he blocked this. Abby moved forward to try to clinch with him, but he side-stepped her and dodged her follow-up spinning hammerfist.
Abby huffed. She was a good fighter, and she was fast, but she couldn’t even touch Hiamovi so far. She was rustier than she thought. She continued to throw jabs, hooks, elbows, kicks, and knees at Hiamovi, but he dodged or blocked almost every strike.
Finally Hiamovi went on the offensive and soon overwhelmed Abby. As they sparred, he would throw out a few quick tips, usually about footwork or movement. He could plainly see that she was in fact a skilled fighter and just needed some brushing up on those skills.
But this only made Abby angrier. Her almost constant sense of anxiety, now coupled with this frustration of being made a fool of, was starting to be too much for her to handle.
After a few minutes, Hiamovi clinched with Abby and took her right to the ground. She landed face down with Hiamovi behind her, pinning her left arm against her back and holding her right arm against the mat. Abby tried to twist away but she was already winded and Hiamovi was stronger than her. He held her down for a few seconds, seeing if she could get out of his hold, but when she clearly couldn’t he said, “Is that all you got? Didn’t anyone teach you any better than this?”
He didn’t mean t
his in a particularly nasty way. He was just trying to talk a little trash and light a fire in Abby’s belly, just like they’d been doing back in the video arcade. But the inadvertent reference to Zach, the man who had taught her most of what she knew, was the last straw. Abby snapped.
With a loud cry she jerked her head up, the back of her skull smashing into Hiamovi’s face, just to the side of his nose. He was not expecting a headbutt in what was supposed to be a friendly sparring session, so it hit him hard. He brought his hand up to his face, freeing Abby’s right arm. She whirled, hitting Hiamovi in the side of his head with her elbow, knocking him off of her. She continued her momentum, rolling Hiamovi onto his back. Abby quickly mounted him and unleashed a torrent of blows down on his head as he covered up.
“You win! You win!” Hiamovi said as he covered his head.
Abby finally stopped hitting him, though she sat on him for another second or two, breathing heavily. She got back on her feet and walked back towards the ropes, towards Hector and Jay, who was guffawing at Hiamovi’s expense.
Hiamovi sat up and looked at Abby. Pain and anger overcame his usual coolness and he yelled, “What the hell was that?”
But Abby didn’t respond. Tears stung her eyes and she wiped them away, but not before Hector noticed.
“Are you alright?” he asked as Abby began to take off her gear. She nodded her head and jumped down to the ground, leaving her gloves, pads, and mouth guard on the mat, then walked out of the gym without a word.
“Dude, you got your ass beat,” Jay said to Hiamovi after Abby was gone. Hiamovi was too busy wiping blood off of his face with a towel to respond so Jay said, “Your girlfriend’s got some serious issues, bro.”
“Shut the hell up, Jay. You don’t know anything about her,” Hiamovi said. He felt his nose, making sure that it wasn’t broken, then added, “And she’s not my girlfriend.”
Meanwhile, Abby hugged herself as she quickly made her way back to her apartment, trying to stop herself from shaking. It was still early in the afternoon and she was already exhausted, both physically and emotionally. Just this morning she had begun to think that she was finally beginning to get over the darkness in her past, but now she was not so sure. She felt once more her heart being gripped by bitter hatred as she stepped into her apartment, locking the door behind her. Not towards Hiamovi, but towards… well, she wasn’t sure. She sat down on her couch, closed her eyes, and hugged her knees against her chest.
Abby was not paying attention to the passage of time, but sometime later a knock on her door snapped her out of her trance-like state. She stood up and answered it without looking through the peephole, confident that she knew who it was, and she was right.
“Hey. Mind if I come in?” Hiamovi asked. Abby nodded her head and stepped aside.
“So are you doing alright?” Hiamovi asked as he walked into her living room, to which Abby nodded her head again. “Well then, if it’s alright with you, I wanted to ask you why you went off on me like that. Was it something I said? Because if I upset you, I’m sorry, and I’d like to know what it is so I won’t make the same mistake again.”
Abby paused before responding. She walked over to her couch and sat down. “The man who taught me how to fight… I loved him very much.”
“Oh,” Hiamovi replied. “Oh God, I’m so sorry for what I said. I was just trying to get you fired up a bit. I didn’t mean to actually hurt you.”
“I know. And I’m sorry for head-butting you,” Abby said with an embarrassed look. “Really sorry.”
Hiamovi waved her off as he walked over and said, “It’s no big deal. I’ve been hit worse.” Standing above Abby as Hiamovi was, he noticed for the first time that she was wearing dog tags tucked into her tank top, and he wondered if those belonged to the same man she had just mentioned.
Unfortunately for him, his eyes lingered there for a moment too long. Abby noticed his gaze, which might have been construed as leering without knowing his thoughts, and shot him a withering look.
“Oh, I’m not staring at… those,” Hiamovi quickly said in his defense. He was eager to change the subject, but his next choice of words proved poor. “Your dog tags, where’d you get them? Which, of course, you don’t have to answer because obviously that’s a personal question and I don’t know why I asked it. I Just couldn’t help but notice them. But not because I was checking you out!”
“So you’re saying you don’t want to check me out? You think I’m ugly?” Abby asked, unable to resist adding to Hiamovi’s present embarrassment.
“No! No, definitely not!”
“No, you definitely wouldn’t check me out?”
Hiamovi grinned, despite his embarrassment, realizing that Abby was just teasing him. “I’m just gonna go ahead and quit talking now,” he said, and they both laughed quietly.
“However, I also had an idea,” Hiamovi said. He sat down on the couch, but on the opposite side of where Abby was, giving her some space. “I don’t know if you know this, but I work for my granddad’s organization.”
Abby looked at Hiamovi with narrowed eyes, but decided to hear him out.
“Now, I know you already turned down him down when you first got here, but I’m asking you to reconsider,” Hiamovi began. “I think you and I would make an amazing team. As it is, on the rare occasion that my granddad lets me take a job, I get paired with some kid my age and given some menial task.”
“In case you forgot, I’m also about your age,” Abby interjected.
“Yes, but you don’t act your age like the others do. You’re smart, you’re reserved, you’re strong in every sense of the word, and you obviously can fight really well.”
“So I should do this just to make your life easier?”
“No, not just that. I really think that this would be good for you, Abby. I won’t pretend to know you on any level of deepness, but I can already tell that you were made for this kind of thing. Like you were destined to be here.”
Abby shook her head and said, “I don’t know, Hiamovi. It doesn’t feel right to me.”
“You don’t have to do it, of course,” Hiamovi said, “but I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t be disappointed to never see you work with us.”
There was that word again. Both Hector and Hiamovi had now said that they would be disappointed if Abby did not join them. Abby was not so certain she was worth anything to their mission, but she did not exactly have a good record when it came to making choices for herself. She felt like the only time that she had ever done anything good with her life was when someone else was guiding her. Maybe Hector and Hiamovi really did know what Abby needed to be. Maybe this would be the purpose she was seeking.
“If I were to say yes,” Abby finally said, “what could I expect to be doing?”
“Mostly reconnaissance work,” Hiamovi replied. “It’s never terribly dangerous, but with a girl like you at my side I think Granddad would let us try something a bit bigger.”
Abby nodded her head as she pondered. Honestly, what did she have to lose? It would be far from the most dangerous thing Abby had ever done, and it sounded like she would not even be doing it very often. This might finally set her on a path where she could find some purpose, some meaning to her life above just cooking diner food and hiding in her apartment.
“I guess I could give it a try,” Abby whispered.
Hiamovi seemed surprised but thrilled with Abby’s decision. He smiled wide, put his arm around Abby’s shoulders, and said, “Alright! Welcome aboard!” Out of instinct, Abby pulled herself away from his arm and put a little more distance between herself and Hiamovi. “Oh, sorry,” he mumbled as he pulled his arm back and clasped his hands together awkwardly.
“No, don’t be sorry,” Abby said. “Old habits, you know? I don’t… I don’t mind you touching me. Sometimes. A little. When I say you can.”
Hiamovi smirked and replied, “I think I can manage that.”
Abby said nothing but gave Hiamovi a small grin.
> “Okay, I’ll go ahead and take off. I’ll let my granddad know that you’re with us now,” Hiamovi said as he got up from the couch. “Don’t get up. I can see myself out.”
“Bye, Hiamovi,” Abby said. He stopped to smile sheepishly at her, then he left.
Abby sat on the couch for another moment, looking at the ground with the faintest trace of a smile still on her face. She liked Hiamovi. Sometimes he tried too hard to connect with her, and it could lead to some embarrassing situations, but he obviously liked her and cared for her. And that made Abby feel really good.
Chapter Eighteen
Hector was indeed thrilled with Abby’s decision. But before he sent her and Hiamovi off on any mission, he wanted them to spend more time together, to learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and to mesh together. So every day, usually after Abby was done working, she would meet up with Hiamovi and they would go spar together, train with Bob, exercise, or even just talk.
Abby was still very slow to open up to Hiamovi, and he had to accept infinitesimal increments of progress in their relationship. She kept any conversation focused on things relating only to the resistance movement and would rarely allow Hiamovi to turn it towards her personal life, on the occasion that curiosity got the better of him. He once tried finding out who the man was that taught her how to fight, but pressed a little too far; Abby gave him the cold shoulder for a week after that. She still wasn’t ready to talk about Zach.
Finally, after three months of training together, Hector had a mission for Abby and Hiamovi. Hector was explaining their assignment to them late in the morning, in the living room of Abby’s apartment.
“There’s an old warehouse over on the south side of town, near District 3,” Hector was saying. “It’s guarded by soldiers and it’s where low-level shipments come in: food, clothing, nothing worth the extra security in District 1.”
His Name Was Zach (Book 2): Her Name Was Abby Page 18