Junior Year Box Set

We went around and around about what to do. Something Caryn pointed out was that I needed to spend money before the end of the year or I’d have a huge tax bill. While I believed in paying my fair share, I didn’t believe in giving it away.

We took a break, and I left to find Rosy. She made me a sandwich. Caryn was busy making phone calls, so I decided to go to the exercise room and lift. It felt good to get a serious workout in. When I was done, Caryn was ready for me.

“I called one of my professors and explained what we were working on and the dilemma we had about making money and helping people. He reminded me of an old proverb: ‘Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.’ He suggested that you have a job-training aspect to your business. I told him about the farm you were considering buying and how it was labor-intensive.

“I also told him about the charities you currently support, and he came up with an idea. If you buy the farm, why not allow the pregnant women to earn extra money working there?” she asked.

“Some of them might also need housing. My friend Peggy is staying in my apartment while I’m here. I’m sure other girls might need the same,” I said.

“You’ll need someone to help train them and give them skills they can use in finding a job,” Caryn said.

Ever have one of those moments when everything comes together in your head? I guess you would say I found my clarity.

“There’s a community of Mennonites who live near the farm I’m looking at. There are women in the community who helped homeschool some of my classmates. I bet they’d be willing to help teach the girls we’d be helping, both toward their GED if needed and to learn skills on the farm. The Mennonite Church is active in helping the community. What if we partnered with them?” I suggested.

“You could even start a farm stand where you’d sell produce raised on the farm. For the girls who didn’t want to learn farm activities, they could at least learn about running a retail business,” Caryn said.

“I think we have a start. We need to talk to my mom about buying the farm first. I want to make sure my grandma would help oversee things. I’m sure there’s lots more that’ll need to be done to get the farm back up and running.”

Caryn kicked me out so she could get started. It was exciting to see her get excited about helping me achieve my business goals.

◊◊◊

What better way to enjoy a Southern California afternoon than to go surfing? Fritz and I had a great time. You could tell when school let out; I smiled when the usual guys showed up. One of them had a new board from the surf shop I’d bought mine at. He’d gotten a mermaid with her bare chest on display. His friends teased him that his mom must not have seen it yet.

There were a couple of paparazzi taking our pictures.

“You someone famous?”

“Not really. I’m filming a movie and got the afternoon off,” I said.

“What year are you?”

“I’m a junior in high school.”

“Who’s the old guy? Is he some kind of perv?”

“He’s teaching me to surf,” I said.

Yep. That was all the interrogation I got. I was now one of the guys.

◊◊◊

After surfing, we drove to the dojo to practice. Fritz had me pounding a body bag. Cassidy had taught me mostly open-hand strikes. Fritz explained that there were times when you would need to just beat someone.

We also worked on my core so I could take a punch better. He put boxing gloves on Paul and let him punch me in the gut. Fritz told me that most people would hit you with a closed fist, and there were times you needed to be able to take a punch. Paul was disappointed when I was able to withstand his punches. What he didn’t know was that Cassidy had been teaching me Tai Chi. Those lessons included how to avoid the worst of a blow by twisting my body to lessen the impact.

I wanted my chance to punch Paul, but Fritz had decided he wanted to keep him around and had me pound the bag instead.

Once we warmed up, Fritz worked with us on how to disarm someone. He quickly ran through moves I’d learned. When Fritz would find one I didn’t know, he’d slow down until I had the basics. He promised we would work on them over the next few weeks. I had visions of disarming Cassidy when I got home.

◊◊◊

After dinner, Halle and I watched the movie Fargo. It was funny to listen to their accents. The film was shockingly graphic with the violence. Overall, I liked it.

Caryn found us when the movie was almost over.

“Would you give me another massage?” she asked.

Halle wanted to get to bed early, so I took Caryn to the exercise room. Greg had express-mailed some oils and a cream with analgesic that the trainers had used on me. For Caryn, I used the cream.

“What did you do to your back to mess it up so much?” I asked.

“I slipped on some black ice. At first, I thought I’d just wrenched it, but it hasn’t been getting better. That is until you gave me that massage.”

“If it doesn’t get better, you might want to get it checked,” I said.