Read Online You Will Call Me Drog by Sue Cowing - Free Book Online Page A

me behind that ventriloquism book.
    “Cut it out, Wren,” I said to her at recess.
    “Well, I will if you will,” she said. “You’ve been doing this ever since we found that puppet.”
    “No I haven’t. And besides, I’d never do anything on purpose to get
you
in trouble.”
    She brushed a strand of hair out of her face. “I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t know anymore what you would do.”

    At the dojo that day, I put on my
gi
for the first time. It fit loose in the arms and legs and smelled like pine soap.
    “Pajamas!” Drog said.
    I wrapped the Ace bandage around him mummy-style so he couldn’t feel anything if we fell to the floor.
    The girl with the orange belt noticed the bandage.
    “What’s that? Are you injured?”
    “No.”
    “Well then, you should take that off. You can’t do aikido with it on.”
    “I have to.”
    She put her hands on her hips. Why do girls do that, anyway?
    “Why do you think we wear uniforms?” she asked. “You’re not supposed to draw attention to yourself here.”
    “I can’t help it.”
    “Well, let’s see what Sensei says.”
    I waited on the mat with the others and tried to focus.
One-point one-point one-point.
Sensei had said Drog was welcome.
One-point
. He had said no one should get hurt.
One-point one-point
.
    Sensei came in, and the girl nodded toward my bandaged hand. His expression stayed relaxed.
    “Good,” he said. “You’ve all been focusing on your center. I’ve asked Kelly here to demonstrate the basic roll technique. But first I want to do a demonstration of another kind. Parker, please step forward.”
    Uh-oh.
    “Mike, please come and stand next to Parker.”
    Mike was in the beginner’s group too, but a lot older.
    “Parker, hold out your arm. Yes, straight out like that. Mike will push down on your arm as hard as he can, and you will do your best to keep him from moving it. Now.”
    The guy was over six feet tall, and his arm muscles had muscles. I tensed my arm and tried as hard as I could, but I couldn’t resist for even a second.
    “All right, Parker, please step outside with me. The rest of you go back to your one-point and think about ... possibilities.”
    Out on the sidewalk, Sensei said, “You’re going to do this again in a few minutes, only this time Mike won’t be able to move your arm at all.”
    “He won’t?”
    “Plant your feet firmly, about shoulder-width apart, one slightly ahead of the other. That’s it. Now imagine that there is a big root extending down from each foot for about a mile.”
    Right away I felt steady.
    “Put your arm out and see it reaching clear across town, even to the horizon.”
    My arm seemed to grow and grow.
    “Now—most important—your one-point. We haven’t talked yet about the enormous energy you have in there. When Mike pushes down on your arm, breathe out from your center and feel that energy flowing up and out through your arm to the horizon and out into space.”
    That sounded impossible, but Sensei was so sure that it made me want to try everything exactly the way he said.
    “Don’t think about Mike or the other students or me. Don’t even look at anyone. Just focus on your one-point and all that energy flowing out through your arm.”
    We went back into the dojo.
One-point one-point one-point one-point one
. I got myself set and stuck out my arm.
    “The other arm, this time,” Sensei said.
    Oh no.
    Still looking at nobody, not even him, I stuck my Drog arm out and went back to concentrating,
one-point one-point
, thinking so hard about that energy that I barely noticed Mike come toward me. My arm was the longest tree limb in the world, and his hands were like birds that landed on it and then took off again.
    The next thing I knew, people were clapping and Mike was staring at me.
    “Awesome,” he said.
    “You may reset now, Parker,” Sensei said. “Well everyone, what do you think happened here?”
    Finally Mike said, “He’s got something under that