Patreon or PayPal Me keeps this site and its author alive. Thank you. |
Stories from the Verse
Re Verse All
Chapter 107: Hastings 219
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Beam 95
As she was closing the kitchen door behind her, Lauren called, “Call us if you need any help.” She realized that was a bit foolish, as their host wasn’t likely to need help in his own kitchen, but she felt as if she should make the offer. She set her cart out of the way and sat on the sofa.
“So,” she said. “Training.”
“Training,” Tommy replied flatly.
“Well, we haven’t really done much, but let me ask what you can do that I don’t know. Have you ever done a handspring?”
“Um--no.”
“What about a cartwheel?”
“Maybe. When I was seven.”
Lauren nodded. Tommy was clearly not athletically oriented.
“How many pushups can you do?”
“Pushups?”
“Did they eliminate pushups?”
“No, I know what they are. I don’t know. Three?”
Well, three was better than none.
“Show me.”
“What, here? Now?”
“We’re not going to be able to practice falls or throws or anything, so if we’re going to do any training we probably have to work on muscle strength. Pushups.”
Tommy actually managed five before she gave out.
“Excellent. Sit-ups?”
Perhaps resignedly Tommy rolled onto her back, put her hands behind her head, and churned out fifteen sit-ups.
“O.K.,” Lauren said. “Take a break.”
“There’s more?”
“We’ll see.”
Lauren was not at all sure what more there was. About all she could think was that after a rest Tommy could do the pushups and sit-ups again. How long should she rest? Lauren realized she was woefully inadequate at what a beginner ought to be able to do. Of course, that wasn’t the question, really. The question was what could Tommy do, and how hard should Lauren push her?
In the end, she decided not to push, but to leave the training at that for the day. They would return to the tumbling and rolling when they had a more private place to stay.
Their host called them for supper, and they headed for the kitchen.
“I’m sorry,” Lauren said. “We seem to have skipped the introductions. I’m Lauren, and this is Tommy.”
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with five other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #392: Characters Resting. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
