First Cycle - Spring

by Sarah Kassem

  The next day, his mother sent him to sign up for karate club. Her main motivation in doing so was to try and curtail Viktor’s constant insistence.

  Oded drove him to the club, a small, two-storey building in D8 near the cinema.

  The cinema was showing that night “Some Like it Hot”, further evidence unfortunately of its relatively pathetic out-of-date lineup. Once a month it showed what could be considered a ‘new’ film, albeit a pirated copy and so mostly in very poor quality. Sometimes you’d have the outline of peoples’ heads thanks to the video being made in one of neighboring Salix Alba’s cinemas with the aid of a sneaked-in video camera. Quite often on those nights, for want of any other source for the latest movies, the cinema was so full that people would sit in the aisles and on the floor, some even standing or cramming on to already occupied chairs. Those who required a more flexible timetable, comfort, or who generally just wanted a normal movie experience, went to Salix Alba.

  Viktor had actually only been in a movie theater a couple of times. The first time had been two years ago when he and Oded had gone to see ‘Dumbo’. The movie was not a new release and the cinema was quite empty, most people having either already seen it, or in no rush to owing to it being repeated every few weeks. For Viktor though, the movie took second seat to the big screen, the bag of popcorn and the general atmosphere of being at the movies. The only other movie he’d seen had been ‘Honey, I Shrank the Kids’.

  Now, as they walked past the cinema, he looked at all the posters that hung yellowed and tattered on the wall. They were mainly posters of black and white movies that failed to generate any real interest in him and the only coloured posters looked a bit too adult for him and so also failed to capture his imagination.

  That was until he came to one of the last posters, however, and came face-to-face with a man standing in a jungle, holding a machine gun and looking very cool.

  “Oded”, Viktor declared. “I want to see this movie!”

  Oded looked in the direction indicated by Viktor’s finger. “No way Viktor, I don’t think so,” he said as he pulled Viktor away.

  “Why not?”

  “I think Rambo’s not for you.”

  “Why?”

  “The film is very violent, Viktor.”

  “There’s a lot of blood?”

  “Yes, and a lot of people die.”

  Viktor pondered this. He’d already seen movies where people died, but by the time this argument sprung to form he found that they were already in front of the leisure center.

  Oded filled out the form proffered by the lady sitting at the reception desk. After this Oded showed him the dressing room, showed him where to go, and then promised to return in two hours. He was in a hurry, because Helena was waiting impatiently at home to be driven to the Customs’ Office. A new shipment of materials had arrived and whenever this happened she tended to be very irritable.

  Viktor headed to the dressing room where a few guys were already changing, and when he was ready, he sheepishly followed them to the training room.

  The coach was called Angh Park and he looked very foreign.

  Viktor remembered his time in Singapore and such a terrible dread filled him that he almost bolted in a run away from the gym.

  But Angh Park looked surprisingly nice, very friendly and not at all like any of Viktor’s memories of the stern people in the police office in Singapore, all factors that helped to calm him down.

  Angh Park introduced himself. His name was Angh Park, he came from a land called South Korea (Viktor noted to himself the country so later he could look it up in his children’s encyclopedia), he was 29 years old and reportedly had every belt. Viktor thought to himself that he too had quite a few belts at home.

  After this the boys had to introduce themselves in order. Since Viktor had placed himself at the farthest point left of Angh Park, he had the misfortune of going first.

  He thought for a moment and then said. “My name is Viktor Abies, I’m eight years old and I come from here.”

  “Why do you want to learn karate, Viktor?” asked Angh Park.

  Viktor thought again, and, deciding not to say anything about Cristobal, he replied: “I want to be the best and learn about attack and self-defense.”

  Angh Park was impressed. “Have you ever done something similar?”

  “Yes, I’ve been practicing at home.”

  “What have you been practicing?”

  “I’ve been practicing a few things. Always watch the eyes of your opponent, because they are prophecies to his future movements,” (Viktor had tied the guide Cristobal had given him on his bed and read it every morning after waking up and every night before he went to sleep).

  Angh Park looked pleased. The other boys stared at Viktor.

  After everyone had presented themselves Angh Park showed them what they will learn. He talked again about belts, and Viktor began to see that belts apparently were something like medals, furthermore that black was supposedly the best color.

  Viktor watched then as Angh Park performed a few movements, and he was completely thrilled by it all as it looked exceedingly cool. Everything Angh Park did was performed very quickly, his legs and hands and arms cutting through the air before he turned on one leg while the other leg smashed into an imaginary head, his fists smashed the air, he took a run and ended up with angled leg to the chest of an imaginary opponent. Viktor decided that Angh Park was the coolest person in the world.

  They had to warm up first and so began with ten laps around the hall. After this they had to make some circles with their arms, touch their toes and stretch their legs. Angh Park talked all the time and stressed the importance of warming up and stretching, and that they should never forget to warm up properly.

  “Run! Run a lot. And run on a regular basis,” he cried, as they began to stretch the muscles on the inside of their thighs. “Running strengthens the body. Running gives you energy and clears the mind. Running gives you endurance and stamina. Running fills your brain with oxygen, makes your blood clean and makes your thoughts crystal clear and razor-sharp!” They had to do a few pushups after this and then circle their shoulders and stretch their arms over their heads backward. “Run. Run as much as you can and as often as you can. Then make sure you always have a good stretch and make your muscles supple and ready for karate!”

  They had then to line up in rank and file before Angh Park announced:

  “Karate begins and ends with respect!”

  He stated that Karate is a martial art whose emphasis is on agility, quickness and strength.

  “You will not learn how to beat each other up here. You will learn to control yourself, to possess your body and tame your mind. The control of the mind is the path to the goal. At the same time control is the goal itself.”

  They all nodded and tried to control their minds.

  “There are many methods that can be applied, and these you can learn over time. Only by knowing can you be successful and maintain dignified control. Only what we know and understand is controllable. The mind dwells in the body. The first step to controlling the mind is to control the body. Running and meditation are the basic elements of this control. Our course allows you to get to know your body, and meditation allows you to get to know your mind. Only by knowing can you be successful and maintain dignified control. Karate begins and ends with respect!”

  Each of the guys had to repeat the sentence “Karate begins and ends with respect”. Angh Park then made each and every boy repeat the sentence again so he could be sure they didn’t forget nor make a mistake.

  “There are in this world no shades of gray in human relationships”, Angh Park said, and placed himself before them all. “Two counterparties are never on the same level. There is always a higher party and a lower one. Senpai and Kohai. Accordingly, there are no ‘winners’ but only Senpai. And there are no ‘losers’, but only Kohai.”

  They all nodded even though they understood nothing.

  Then the
y showed Angh Park the welcome ceremony. In pairs they had to front up to each other, with closed heels and feet, directed at 45° to the outside. Then they had to kneel with thighs that formed a V, put their hands on their thighs and make a very straight back. They then had to close their eyes and breathe deeply. Then they had to put their left hand on the floor, put their right hand next to the upper body, and bend it till it their forehead touched the fingers and then they had to say what was something of a respectful greeting each other “Ossu”.

  “Karate begins and ends with respect!” Angh Park called out and they all shouted “Ossu!”

  Viktor was completely thrilled by everything and still filled with euphoria when Oded picked him up. He cried in the car constantly “Ossu!” And explained to Oded, and afterwards to his mother, in detail all about the welcome ceremony while he kept repeating “Karate begins and ends with respect!”

  Helena listened carefully and watched with some amusement as Viktor knelt before her, touched the ground with his head and remained quite still, thinking to herself that in fact perhaps this whole karate thing was not too bad.

  That night Viktor was kneeling in his room and stayed for almost an hour with closed eyes in the welcome position, trying to breathe deeply and firmly and to control his mind. When Helena looked in, having found the peace coming from his room quite disturbing, she saw that he was practicing what he’d learnt and with wide eyes she very quietly closed the door again. Then she looked up to heaven and sent a silent prayer of thanks while hoping that Viktor would forever have fun doing karate.

  Mitosis

  Viktor and Cristobal were playing cards.

  It was a game that Cristobal had invented. To play you first shuffle the cards then deal them out evenly. Each player then counts how many kings they have and the one with the most wins. After a few turns however, the game became quite boring. As Viktor didn’t know any other card games, Cristobal invented a new one. As such the cards were once again shuffled and dealt, this time with each player only receiving five cards. The aim was then to see who had the highest number once the face value of each card had been added together. Once the cards had been shuffled and dealt out, they counted up their scores. Unfortunately though, even after playing this game for a while, it also soon became quite boring.

  Cristobal was then suddenly overcome by a whimper inducing, apocalyptic and primeval hunger, a hunger so fierce that the two of them had to head to the kitchen in hunt of food. Viktor made a jam sandwich while Cristobal looked in the fridge and all the cabinets before settling on honey. After they retreated back to Viktor’s room, sat on the floor and ate.

  “Oh, I forgot!” Viktor cried suddenly. “A lizard visited me a few days ago. He sat in my shoe, looked at me and then went away.”

  Cristobal froze, turned pale and fluttered in horror. He began to cough and almost suffocated till Viktor slapped him on his tiny back. This stopped the coughing fit but unfortunately Cristobal passed out, making Viktor extremely anxious and dizzy with fear as he thought the bird had in fact died. He put Cristobal on the bed and lay down himself until everything stopped inclining horribly to the right like a sinking ship. Sometime later Cristobal awoke and began to cry. This did nothing to settle Viktor’s nerves, nor his beating heart, and so he ran to his backpack and took out his asthma spray. He inhaled deeply and gave Cristobal a blast as well. When they had both calmed down, Viktor asked what was going on.

  Cristobal could not talk properly, instead he was hyperventilating and stammering unintelligible things.

  “What is?” Viktor cried in a trembling voice.

  Cristobal gasped: “It’s started! Bad things will happen now. Bad bad things!”

  Viktor took another blast from his asthma spray.

  “Viktor, do you know who this lizard was?”

  Viktor shook his head and chewed on a corner of his bed cover.

  “Did he tell you his name?”

  “No.”

  “Did he say anything?”

  “He said ‘Good evening’, and looked at my toys and asked about you and then he went.”

  “Did he do anything else?”

  Viktor shook his head.

  “How did he look?” Shouted Cristobal.

  Viktor had to describe the lizard in as great a detail as he could, while Cristobal noted and recorded everything in his notebook.

  Cristobal then flew a few frantic laps around the room, screaming: “Viktor, lizards are members of the ‘Reptiles Association Against Sola Fide’. It’s all very complicated, and you wouldn’t be able to understand it all just yet, even I don’t really understand it. But what is important and what you have to try and understand is: they are very, very evil animals. Do you understand? Very, very evil!”

  Viktor nodded. “Very, very evil animals,” he repeated in a whisper.

  “Yes, Viktor, very, very nasty animals! I’ll report that this lizard came to see you and they’ll analyze what it means. Very likely... oh my God...,” Cristobal collapsed, cried and whimpered something completely unintelligible.

  Then he sniffed and said, “Very likely it will visit more often now and it’ll do terrible things to you, very very terrible things, so very, very terrible things, things you can’t even imagine. Terrible, you understand, terrible!”

  Viktor nodded and took yet another blast from his asthma spray.

  “They taught me what to do, what to tell you if this ever happened.” Cristobal stammered. “But I’ve forgotten. I had no idea this would happen so soon. Everything’s happened so early! Ohgodohgodohgod, I’ve forgotten!”

  Cristobal massaged his temples, staring intently at the ceiling as he kept muttering “Reptiles Association... Viktor... Reptiles Association... Viktor...”

  Then he suddenly hopped on the bed, fluttered around the room and turned a few spirals in the air and shouted, “I’ve got it! I remember, I remember!”

  He collapsed on the bed in order to try and get his breath back before he demanded an atlas. Viktor ran into the living room and dragged a large atlas back to the room. Cristobal flipped to the last page, where a large white island was laid out.

  “Do you know where that is?” asked Cristobal.

  Viktor shook his head.

  “That’s Antarctica, you know, the South Pole.”

  “South Pole,” repeated Viktor.

  “Exactly, Antarctica. Look, there is Abramskaya, the stronghold of the League of Birds. It’s our headquarters and where the generals live: the Emperor penguins. Our complete storm trooper squads are there as well: the snow petrels and giant petrels and silver petrels and shearwaters hooks and many others.”

  Viktor looked at the small dot that Cristobal was pointing at.

  “I will now say something important,” whispered Cristobal. “Something very, very important. Are you listening to me?”

  Viktor nodded vigorously.

  “Not far from Abramskaya there is a place called Cahuc. Here, you see these mountains? These are the Admiralty Mountains. Cahuc is not far away. It’s a place that doesn’t appear on any maps, so no one knows it’s there, only the League of Birds. Cahuc, listen Cahuc! That’s the name of the place. This place is very cold and very dark, there are no plants and no animals, because it’s too cold and dark for them to grow. But Cahuc is the safest place in the world, Cahuc is incredibly safe, 800% safe, do you understand?”

  “Cahuc is good,” Viktor said.

  “Right! Cahuc is very, very good. That’s right. Now listen to me. These reptiles will always be coming here and doing terrible, terrible things to you. I’ll show you a way to escape it, a way that you can always go to Cahuc when it becomes unbearable. There you’ll be out of the firing line and can wait till everything’s safe again. I’ll report back tonight and there are some special command causes that I’ll adapt in order to show you what you can do. We expected this to happen at some point, but that it’d happen so quickly or so soon, no one would have ever thought.”

  Viktor nodded even tho
ugh he had no real idea what Cristobal was on about.

  “I have to go, Viktor. I have to report all of this. Before I do though, we better check everything and search the room. We’ll make sure it’s clean.”

  Viktor thought to himself that they would just check to see if the room was clean, but he soon saw that Cristobal meant make sure there were no lizards hiding anywhere. They looked everywhere and ransacked every drawer and examined every corner, but the room was apparently reptile free. Viktor had to promise that he would from now on always keep the window closed and always search the room just in case someone was hidden somewhere.

  Cristobal gave Viktor a tight hug before he flew away.

  Viktor quickly closed the window and then stood there, staring through the glass at the twilight beyond. He was confused by everything and tired, deeply tired. He watched the birds in the trees outside his window. There were mainly small brown birds, whose name he did not know, and among them a few blackbirds. They sat silent and motionless in the trees. Viktor did not know how long he stood there, staring out, trying to sort out his thoughts and take control of his mind from the confusion, but no matter what he did he failed. The sky was black and the stars glittered, the street lamps spread their dull light. A few birds joined the others and sat down on the branches, he heard an owl. It seemed to Viktor as if there were more birds in the trees now than there had ever been before. He often looked out the window but he had never really paid much attention before to exactly how many birds would gather in the trees and as such he wasn’t sure if there were more or not. He felt like someone was watching him and he craned forward to better peer out the window.

  Suddenly, there was an abrupt movement. Viktor was so startled that he fell backwards and at that exact moment a dozen magpies flew to his window, sat on the window sill and looked vigilantly around. He saw a few hawks sitting in the tree, and three eagles hovering in the sky. A pair of big eyes glittered in the dark tree and he heard several owls hoot.

  Viktor got scared, closed the curtains and went to bed. He pulled the blanket over his head and wanted to fall asleep very quickly. Sometime later he looked out from under the blanket and saw that it was 1 o’clock. He walked quietly to the window and pulled the curtain carefully aside and looked out. The magpies were still there, sitting on the window sill restlessly while looking constantly in all directions. He peered past them at the tree and, though it seemed to be quiet and empty, he soon saw it was filled with birds. A few eyes flashed at him and he heard a deep owl’s hoot.