Danny immediately let go. I grabbed my shoulder and pretended it was hurt. I wasn’t sure why I did that. I just knew that I didn’t want to tap and acting like I was hurt was the only way I could think of not tapping.
“I’m sorry,” Danny said. “Are you okay?”
“I think so,” I said, rubbing my shoulder like it was hurt. “My arm just got caught in a weird position and I couldn’t move it anymore.”
“Oh, yeah. That move is called an omoplata,” Danny said, nodding his head.
"What?"
“Yeah. That’s a move. I learned it at my old school. It’s called an omoplata. That means ‘shoulder blade’ in Portuguese, the language they speak in Brazil.”
Then I heard Coach Adam from the side of the mat. He was standing next to Uncle Jake.
“Are you okay, Marc?” asked Coach Adam.
“I think so. My arm just got caught in a weird spot,” I said, still trying to cover-up the fact that Danny had tapped me out with such a weird move.
“No,” Coach Adam responded. “Your arm got caught in an omoplata. Nice work, Danny.”
Great. Now EVEN COACH ADAM THOUGHT DANNY WAS SO COOL!
“Do you want me to show it to you? It really isn’t that hard once you get the hang of it.” Now Danny was trying to be my instructor too!
“No thanks. My shoulder kinda hurts,” I said as I rubbed my shoulder some more.
“I’m really sorry about that, Marc. I was expecting you to tap out and then, all of a sudden, you just yelled out in pain,” Danny said, looking very concerned for me—almost like he was MY MOM! This was RIDICULOUS!
"It's fine," I told him. "I'll be just fine."
I slowly got up off the mat, being very careful with my shoulder, holding my arm close to my chest like I could barely keep it up.
“Let’s go. We’ll get some ice on that when we get home,” Uncle Jake said.
“Okay, thanks, Uncle Jake,” I replied.
I said goodbye to Coach Adam and the rest of the people in class and headed for the door, still nursing my arm very carefully.
As we walked down the stairs, out the door and over to where our car was parked, I started thinking about what was going on and I didn’t feel very good about it at all. This was a lie. I was pretending to be hurt. I started thinking about how bad that would make Danny feel. I started to think about the jiu-jitsu team and how much I was letting them down by not being at practices and not training with them because of my fake hurt arm.
Just as we got to the car, Uncle Jake stopped walking. I took a few more steps toward the car, but then turned around to see what he was doing. He was just standing there looking at me. Then, without warning, he threw the car keys at me pretty hard and yelled, “CATCH!”
Without thinking, I reflexively reached up above my head and caught the keys. Uncle Jake stood there looking at me as I stood there with my hand over my head, the keys in my grip.
Uncle Jake looked at me, then looked at my hand, then back at me, then back at my hand again. I didn’t have any idea why he was looking at me so strangely.
Then it hit me: I had caught the keys in my hand with my bad shoulder. Just as I started to lower it, Uncle Jake said, “You aren’t even hurt, are you, Marc?” in the most direct possible way. It actually scared me. And he was right. My arm was fine.
But there was another part of me that was hurt. And now I felt completely awful.
What kind of a kid pretends to get hurt to avoid tapping out? How could I have done that?
“I’m sorry, Uncle Jake,” I told him.
“Sorry?” Uncle Jake asked with a disappointed looked on his face. “Just get in the car.”
“Yes, Uncle Jake,” I said.
I felt miserable. And it was all because of Danny Rhinehart.
chapter 11
We got in the car and Uncle Jake started it up. He didn’t say anything. He just started driving. And since he wasn’t saying anything, I just kind of sat there thinking. Boy, did I feel stupid. I had faked that my shoulder was hurt—but I really didn’t know why. It wasn’t just because I didn’t want to tap out. I had tapped out millions of times in jiu-jitsu and it was fine. That was actually a great way to learn for the next time.
So what was bothering me so much about tapping out this time? I wondered to myself.
I guess Uncle Jake was wondering the same thing.
“Why?” he finally asked as we drove down the road.
But the weird thing with Uncle Jake was that most of the time when he asked a question, he already knew the answer. I didn’t know what the answer was.
“I don’t know, Uncle Jake,” I told him.
“Yes, you do,” he replied. “You just don’t see it yet—or want to admit it.”
“Admit what, Uncle Jake?” I asked him. I really had no idea what my problem was.
“Admit that you are jealous of Danny Rhinehart.”
“Me?! Jealous of Danny? No way! I don’t even like Danny Rhinehart! Why would I be jealous of him?”
“Because of your ego. Do you know what an ego is?”
“I have no idea, Uncle Jake.”
Uncle Jake was quiet for a minute. Then he said, “Your ego is you. It is your thoughts and feelings and how you see yourself and how you see others. It is how you think you fit into the world. And it is what you think of yourself.”
“I don’t think I understand,” I said.
“Well, let me put it to you like this. If someone has a big ego, that means they think they are the greatest thing in the world. They think they are better than other people. They think they deserve to be at the top. If someone’s ego is too small, then they lack confidence. They don’t think they can do well—they don’t think they can win.”
“A person’s ego should be balanced in the middle somewhere. They should have confidence, but not be overconfident. They should believe they can win, but at the same time know they are going to have to work hard to get there. So ego isn’t good or bad, it is just something you have to learn to control.”
“Okay, Uncle Jake. I think I get what you are talking about. A person shouldn’t think they are the best thing in the world, but they shouldn’t think they are the worst either. Is that right?” I asked.
“Yeah, that’s it. And if ego goes too far in one direction or the other, it is a problem. If you think you are the greatest, you don’t work as hard or train as hard because you believe you are the best—so you end up losing. If you think you are the worst, you won’t have any confidence and you will get shaken up when things go wrong—so you end up losing. So, like I said, you have to keep your ego balanced in the middle. Confident, but not cocky.”
“Okay. I get it, Uncle Jake. But what does this have to do with Danny Rhinehart and me?”
Uncle Jake took a deep breath. “The problem you have with Danny is that he is good at everything. He is smart. He is fast. He is strong. He is even good at jiu-jitsu. And on top of all that, he is actually a pretty nice kid. His being so good at everything bothers your ego. Your ego wants YOU to be the best. But your ego sees that Danny can beat you in a lot of things. And that hurts your ego. That bothers your ego. It bothers you too. So you don’t like Danny, but you don’t even know why. But the answer is obvious to me. You are jealous of him. And that is caused by your ego.”
I didn’t even know what to say. I just sat there. We pulled into the driveway at my house. I didn’t open the door because I knew the conversation wasn’t over yet. I still needed to figure this out. Uncle Jake knew that too.
Finally, he asked, “What is it you don’t like about Danny?”
I still didn’t know what to say.
“Is he mean? Does he bully? Does he pick on kids? Is he rude or obnoxious?”
As usual, I could tell Uncle Jake already knew the answer to these questions.
“No,” I answered, “he’s not any of those things.”
“What is it then?” Uncle Jake asked.
Once again, I could tell Uncle
Jake knew the answer to this question. So I figured I might as well admit it.
“Well. I guess I am jealous of him,” I confessed. Then I just got really emotional—I couldn’t help it. “He’s just so good at everything!” I admitted, as tears started to come out of my eyes. I was totally embarrassed, but I couldn’t help it.
“He’s good at running and math and pull-ups and even jiu-jitsu. And my friends that used to look up to me—Nathan and Kenny—now they look up to him even more. And it just doesn’t feel very good to work so hard and come up short in EVERYTHING.”
Uncle Jake sat quietly, then he kind of chuckled—he laughed!
“What are you laughing at, Uncle Jake?!?” I asked him.
He laughed a little bit more, then shook his head and said, “Ego.”
“What? Why is that funny?” I asked.
“It’s funny because I’ve seen the same thing so many times—ego causing all kinds of problems. It caused me more problems than you can imagine. And it is going to keep causing you problems until you get it under control. Guess what, you aren’t going to be the best at everything all the time. You aren’t going to beat everyone and be smarter than everyone. That’s not the way things work. And if you let it bother you this much, you will always feel like this—angry at yourself—angry at other people. Angry at the world. But if you can control your ego—put your ego in check when it needs to be put in check and allow it to be strong when it needs to be—you won’t be angry, you’ll be happy. You’ll do better. And you’ll be a better person.”
It all started to make sense now. But I wasn’t sure where to go with it. I thought about it a bit. Then I asked Uncle Jake, “How do I learn to get control of my ego?”
Uncle Jake smiled and said, “You become friends with Danny Rhinehart.”
That wasn’t the answer I wanted to hear.
I didn’t like that idea at all. But I knew that Uncle Jake was right.
chapter 12
I stayed up late thinking about everything Uncle Jake had told me. I knew he was right; it all made sense. But then in the morning when we were working out, he told me something that seemed crazy.
As I was doing pull-ups, I heard Uncle Jake come closer to me.
"So that arm wasn't really even hurt at all, was it?"
"Not really, Uncle Jake."
“You need to apologize to Danny and Coach Adam,” he said gravely.
“What?” I asked, knowing that this would make me look horrible.
“I said you need to apologize to Danny and Coach Adam. For faking the arm injury. For causing drama. For making Danny feel bad about hurting you and making Coach Adam worry. You need to apologize.”
“But, I—,” I stuttered as I started to try and figure out how I was going to get out of this one.
“But what?” Uncle Jake interjected. “You lied. There is no excuse for lying. When you don’t tell the truth, it will always come back to haunt you. And lying is disrespectful to others and will destroy any level of trust you can have with a person. Being trustworthy is one of the most important characteristics a person can have. On the battlefield you have to trust the people you work with. And if you lie, it can get people killed. Do you understand that, Marc?”
“Yes, Uncle Jake. I do.” I felt HORRIBLE. Of course, my parents had told me that lying was bad, but I had never really realized how truly awful it was to lie.
“Good. Now, you need to apologize. To them both. Tonight. At practice.”
That was it. When Uncle Jake got that tone of voice, there was no getting around it. “Yes, Uncle Jake, I will,” even though I hated the thought of it.
We kept working out and didn’t say anything else. As I worked out, I thought about everything that had happened. And more stuff started to make sense. First of all—I should not have told a lie. It made me feel AWFUL. I also started to realize that it was my ego again that was making me not want to apologize. My ego didn’t want to admit that I had lied. My ego didn’t want me to look stupid and untrustworthy. So I didn’t want to say anything.
When we finished working out, Uncle Jake looked at me with a serious expression. “You are going to become friends with Danny, right?”
“Yeah, I am, Uncle Jake,” I responded, knowing that was what I had said I would do.
“Do you know what makes people friends?” he asked.
“They hang around with each other?” I responded, thinking that’s what made me friends with Nathan and Kenny.
“No,” Uncle Jake replied. “That’s not it. Friends trust each other. To build trust you tell the truth. Even if it hurts your ego. That’s what you have to do tonight.”
“Okay,” I told him.
That night when we got to jiu-jitsu, I walked into the academy. Coach Adam had a surprised look on his face.
“I didn’t expect to see you for a few days,” he said. “I figured your arm was hurt pretty bad.”
I looked to the ground, then over at Uncle Jake. Uncle Jake just nodded at me—his way of saying it was time for me to tell the truth.
I took a deep breath. “I didn’t get hurt, Coach Adam.”
“What?” Coach Adam replied, with a puzzled look on his face.
“I’m not hurt,” I said again, “and I didn’t get hurt yesterday.”
“Well, then what were the yell and the icepack and the holding all about?” Coach Adam asked in a pretty frustrated tone.
“I faked it, Coach Adam.”
“You faked it?!” Coach Adam exclaimed.
“Yes, I did Coach Adam. I’m sorry,” I told him.
“Let me guess. You didn’t want Danny to tap you out with that move?”
“Yes. He has tapped me out before. But—I didn’t even know what he was doing was a real move. And I have been training. And I’ve tapped him a few times too. And…well….”
“Ego,” Coach Adam said, “that’s your ego.” Uncle Jake nodded his head.
“Yes, it is, Coach Adam. Uncle Jake explained what ego is to me. And this was definitely my ego getting the best of me.”
“That’s a shame. I hope you can put your ego in check. Because if you and Danny train together and actually help each other, you will both get a lot better— very quickly. You need to be pushing each other. And you need to keep your ego off the mat!”
“I will, Coach Adam,” I told him, “I will.”
“And you need to apologize to Danny. He felt really bad and believed that he had hurt you.”
“I will, Coach,” I said.
“Yes, you will,” Coach replied, then he looked over on the mat where Danny was warming up, and yelled, “Danny! Come over here!”
Danny jogged off the mat and came over to where we were all standing.
“Marc has something to tell you, Danny,” Coach said.
“I’m really sorry about your arm, Marc. I didn’t mean—”
“It’s okay, Danny,” I cut him off. He didn’t need to apologize to me. I needed to apologize to him. “Danny, I actually need to apologize to you.” He looked at me, very confused. “You see, you didn’t hurt my shoulder. At all.”
“I didn’t?” Danny asked.
“No. You didn’t. I wasn’t hurt. I just pretended to be hurt so I didn’t have to tap. I didn’t think that what you were doing was a real move, and I was embarrassed and didn’t want to tap out. So I just yelled and pretended to be hurt. That was the wrong thing to do—and I’m sorry.”
Danny kind of smiled. Only this time, it seemed like he was truly being nice.
“It’s okay. There are times I don’t like to tap either. I’m just glad you are okay, because you’re really good at jiu-jitsu and I want to keep training with you.”
I was surprised. Danny was still being nice to me, even though I had lied to him and made him feel bad thinking he had hurt me.
Now that I had started to understand my ego and get it under control, I realized how jealous I had really been of him. And I realized that he hadn’t been the problem. I had been.
“Thanks, Danny. I am really sorry. And I want to keep training with you. And I don’t care if you tap me out or not—it will just help me learn.” Uncle Jake smiled at me.
Way of the Warrior Kid 3: Where there's a Will... (A Novel) Page 5