SHORT FICTION
Peripheral Vision
This a continuation of the amusing & inspirational anthology about my neighbour Joáo and his passion for taekwondo
“You are tiptoeing around me, Evie,” Joáo warns as he stands up straight after attempting his 37th handstand ( oh, but who’s counting ). Evie giggles and shouts, “Can you teach me how to do that? I can do this!” She launches herself into a magnificent cartwheel and nimbly lands on her feet. Joáo beams and throws a few punches in the air for good measure and for my amusement (I suppose), he tilts his head back and catches my eye ( oops he saw me ) and gives me a side-eye wink.
I am watching Evie cartwheeling around Joáo also known as the Jaguar as he punches the air animatedly and turns to wink at me. Feeling embarrassed, I laugh and smilingly give them two thumbs-ups. Then I pick up the basket of laundry and head outside while recalling my handwritten notes months ago about my incredibly spirited neighbour, Joáo:
“Joáo is a taekwondo junkie; okay, maybe junkie is too strong a word for this athletic jaguar of a man whose reflexes have the literal ability to ‘move’ the air you breathe. He dances around you like a serpentine dancer ethereally spinning on an axis forever…”
At last week’s training session, Joáo averted an awful accident. He did not mention it to me, but I recalled he was somewhat chuffed when he revved his car in his garage, roaring much too loud for my liking that evening. It was Archie who recounted the incident with astonishing detail.
The Jaguar had been sparring with a new opponent from another club. Their version of Joáo is who their club members call the Cheetah. A formidable black belt veteran as even their smallest club members would boldly attest, the Cheetah is not to be trifled with. The Cheetah’s taekwondo prowesses include head kicks and a series of devastating spinning heel kicks. I became giddy imagining the intensity of every moment in Archie’s storytelling. Even with his twinkly gloves, and feet, Joáo conceded defeat.
After the match, Joáo was grabbing his things off the ground when the Cheetah chose to unleash a giant flying leap over and above Joáo’s bent torso at the very moment when Joáo straightened. The Jaguar would later retell this moment to describe the shadow cat lurking in his periphery (his eyes rounded with wondrous awe) like ‘magical tiptoe vision’. He allowed the words to sink in as the children giggled with excitement.
He reenacted his reimagined and recrafted round-the-matrix-style-force-of-a-contortion; the way he swung his body back and around to avoid a dreadful clash with the Cheetah, who landed with a massive thud on the mat with both feet and hands planted on his waist. Face smiling, but his eyes belied an accusing expression that read, “You saw me coming!”
Archie would later joke to Evie in passing that Joáo swatted the Cheetah off the way you would a fly from the wall.
“What did he say?” Joáo boomed from behind Evie who was animatedly blubbering to one of her little friends.
“Archie said…” Evie paused somewhat unsure at first, and carried on in a soft low voice for dramatism, “You flung him off your back like Amalinze the Cat!”
Joáo throws his head back and laughs. He fishes a book out from his gym bag, pushes past his twinkly gloves and opens the book to read the first paragraph with an almost soft purr,
Chapter One in Things Falls Apart by Chinua Achebe: “Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond. His fame rested on solid personal achievements. As a young man of eighteen, he had brought honour to his village by throwing Amalinze the Cat. Amalinze was the great wrestler who for seven years was unbeaten, from Umuofia to Mbaino. He was called the Cat because his back would never touch the earth. It was this man that Okonkwo threw in a fight which the old men agreed was one of the fiercest since the founder of their town engaged a spirit of the wild for seven days and seven nights.”
I look up from the washing line as he is finishing. To his surprise, his sideways glance caught mine. Be still my leaping heart.
Returning his radiant smile, I wink.
