He stepped to that side of the roof and launched into his first form, the punch combination that started off the Monkey Sequence. The Monkey was familiar to him but to get to the next level he had to learn the Tiger perfectly so he could test for his purple belt. Purple marked the turning point between know-nothing beginner and respectable mid-level student. He’d been going for close to three months now and was eager to make the jump.
Purple was a dark color, so different from yellow, white, or orange. Just the fact that you had a dark color around your midsection made you look like you were on your way. Dark belts were real.
The Monkey started with a series of punches and then slide-steps with blocks that led to kicks. As Rough started into these, he gradually left his thoughts behind. As he went on, he started to punch harder, kick with more force. His body loosened up.
In ten minutes, he had his jacket off and was practicing the opening of Tiger. It felt good to sweat in the cold wind, to move faster than when he started, to go through the Monkey as fast as he could.
Now just the start of Tiger was his challenge: to go through it clean and as fast as he could. It was just seven punches, four blocks, and three kicks, with steps and changes of direction in between, but it made for enough of a challenge. He ran through the sequence in his head: punches, blocks, kicks.
I am reading this book on my Kindle and thoroughly enjoying it. (I think the published book is significantly better than the original podcast draft, much tighter story and cleaner descriptions of the world these people live in.) Recommend the book if you like action fiction and enjoyed The Wire series. This book is not for your minivan, so put on your headphones or read the printed word. The podcast of the story, printed book and/or eBook versions available at all the usual places and at SethHarwood.com.
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