As my karate training progressed my father took an interest in Master Ryan's class. It may have had something to do with me using all the ice in the ice cube tray's after each class, or the new way I was walking, with a slight limp. Anyway, he became a little curious. After about three months, he said, "You know what?, I think I am going to come to karate today and see what you are doing." Utt..... Ooh !!! I knew this wasn't going to be so good. You see, my Dad wasn't the mellow type, quite the opposite. He was a self professed tough guy from the Bronx, with more that a few street fights under his belt. I just had a gut feeling that this was going to be an interruption in my goal of being a lethal weapon. Just as I predicted, we entered the school. My father asked Master Ryan if he could see what was going on behind the mysterious beaded curtain. Master Ryan looked at my father with a scowl, it was as if my father said bad about his mother. Oh Boy, this isn't going well I thought.... was my father crazy or something? Did he really ask to get a glimpse into the inner sanctum? Master Ryan face once again distorted and he began his transformation into the devil Lucifer. "No one but my students goes in there!" he stated firmly to my father. As I stood there I could see that my father wasn't comprehending English at the time, and started to walk into the training area. At this time in my young life, I knew two things for sure, my father didn't have any intentions of becoming student, and two this was going to turn out real bad. At this point I am going to freeze the story because this was a pivotal point in my life. Three options were present at this time, my father was going to die, Master Ryan was going to die, which was highly unlikely, do to the fact Master Ryan, just a couple of months previous to this, had received an award, at the Aaron Banks "Oriental World of Self Defense" show, as the "Deadliest Man Alive. " (This event was held at Madison Square Garden with all of the greatest martial artists performing and was attended by 16,000 spectators, more about that show in upcoming blogs), or more important, after killing my father he was going to kill me! I used to like watching western movies as I was growing up. My favorites were "The Lone Ranger", Roy Rodgers, and Hop-Along Cassidy. This situation had all the drama of the showdown at the "OK Corral." But before any punches or kicks were thrown, I noticed the two of them in some sort of negotiation. I couldn't hear what was going on but I knew from previous experience with my family there was a deal being struck. You see my father comes from Little Italy in the Bronx, and grew up with guys that had these strange names, like "Harry the Horse", "Sonny", "Frankie the Fish" etc.... I know the adults reading this get what I'm talking about, but the kids are just going to say Huh?. Let them discover this part of American history on their own. Still to this day I don't know what transpired but I knew my kung fu fighting days were over.......for now.Technorati Profile