The Legendary Karate Girl

The sun quietly rose from the hills as she finished her last kata for the day. Her jet black hair shimmered with the morning’s light, and her equally black eyes seemed to smile. As she stretched out on her skimpy bed, she thought about her parents and what they had told her when she was young. Whatever you do in life, do something to help people. In this world, we need all the help we can get. The girl smiled as she remembered her mother’s expression. As she had ever since she had run away, she looked up at the stars and believed she had fulfilled her mother’s order. She was the legendary karate girl.
As the thought penetrated her mind, she said it out loud, “Legendary,” the words rolled over her tongue. It was true she had saved many lives.. Sadly, she remembered her history. Her mother had died in a fight to keep the karate girl safe when she was just 2 months old. Her father had died trying to save her mother’s life. That was before she was born. The girl sighed and rolled over, and in her sleep dreamt of her past life.
She had run away from the orphanage, traveling at night, and hiding away at sunup. She did not know where she was going, but her feet seemed to know her destination. She had few clothes, and every now and then picked something up from the dump.
At sunset, she would rise from her hide away, gather up her few belongings, and begin her travel. One especially freezing night when the moon was directly above her, shadowing her every step, she entered a brightly lit city. She hated cities, because they reminded her of her mother and father, whom, she had not cried about since they were killed. By ducking between garbage cans and hiding in alleys, she made her way to the middle of the city. When she could no longer ignore her stomach’s cries for food, she rested in an ally near a dump and rummaged through it for some scraps. After a meal of left over chicken and water from a spout on the ally wall, she continued walking.
As the sun finally broke through the night, she spotted a building like no other. A faded sign above the door read Karate Dojo. Not having any experience in reading, the karate girl ignored it and slyly retreated to the ally behind the building. By the last light of the moon, she could see in through the back window, there were belts of many different colors placed carefully one after another on a wooden table in the corner. A cylinder shaped mat as tall as her hung lifelessly from the ceiling. Gloves, as big as her head sat slouched, waiting on another table in the back to be used. Above the gloves, was a picture on the wall of a man dressed in white with a black belt. This was not unusual to her. She had seen men in white with black belts before. The man in the picture was punching someone. She could not keep her eyes on the picture. The memory of her mother being punched flashed through her mind, and the next moment she was down on her knees below the window crying. All the tears she had shut away all those years poured out now. She cried herself to sleep that night.
The next morning she heard soft footsteps and the opening of a door. Looking through the window, she saw the same man as in the picture dressed in white with a black belt. At first, she turned away from the sight. But she soon looked back at the curious man, wondering what he would do.
He began punching the hanging mat. She ducked down. She couldn’t believe it! A school to learn how to fight! The more she thought about it, the more she wished her father and mother had come to this school. But maybe this was where people learned to hurt other people, like the man who killed her mother. She shook the thought away. She knew what she had to do.
She stood up, and, being careful not to be seen, began copying the man. She started with his long bow every morning to the picture on the wall. She confronted her fears. She found a piece of wood and carefully copied the drawing. Every night, when the man left the building, she started her practicing. She ceased her traveling. Now she knew how to help people.
Eventually, she mastered every move the man had done, and awarded herself with a black piece of rope, which she tied around her waist.
One night she awoke to screams of help and the crashing of trashcans. She rubbed her eyes and looked toward the sounds. She could barely see a man holding a child upside down by one foot, shouting at the child. A sharp pain reached her chest. But because of her training, she was able to shake it off. Quietly, she grabbed her belt and tip toed behind the man. Silently, she struck his head as hard as she could with her foot. The man fell forward, letting go of the child at the same time. She quickly reached forward and caught the child before it fell. “Run” she whispered. The child took off down the alley, only glancing back once at her hero. Perspiration beaded her forehead as she looked down at the man. Her first instinct was to run. Horrified, she watched as the man slowly came to his feet. He looked a little unstable, so she guessed he was a drunk. His head was bleeding. She did not mean to kill someone after all the work she had done, training, and promising never to practice her karate on someone for no reason. She took the man by his arm and sat down with him.
“Wow. Did you take him down by yourself?” Startled by a voice, the karate girl looked around and saw the man she had been copying for so long. He had thick, black hair, and his voice was low and gruff. She realized with a start that he expected her to answer.
“Y-yes. Y-your not going t-to report m-me, are you?” She finally managed to say. The man smiled and said, “No, not after a good deed. You don’t know who that man is?” The karate girl stared blankly back at him. “The police have been searching for him for months. He escaped from jail, right before they were going to put him to death.”
“You mean, they’re going to kill him?” replied the girl, a little less shaken. But the thought suddenly struck her. Would they try to give her a reward for catching him? She couldn’t bear the thought of being rewarded for hurting another person. “Will you promise me something?” she said finally. “Promise me that you won’t tell them I caught him. Tell them that you just found him unconscious.” Apparently, the man understood. “Sure thing.” He said with a smile. “You want to keep sleeping behind the dojo? I can bring you more blankets if you want.” The karate girl smiled and replied that she would. The man returned to the dojo and the girl retreated back to the ally

The hills swallowed the sun, making the sunset look very much like the one on the night the girl escaped from the orphanage and began her journey. When the karate girl woke, and gazed at the setting sun, she knew what she had to do. It was time to leave her training, and begin her new life. She gathered some food and clothes and stuffed them into a pillowcase. She glanced back at the dojo, and the spot where she had had her first encounter. Smiling, she set off, bare foot, through the streets and into the fading sunset. dressed in white with the black belt now grey and old, shut the door to his dojo and muttered under his breath, “We won’t see another girl like her for a while.”