Simon and Papa John

by Ed Coet

conclusion

Papa John combined social skills and morality lessons, based on his Christian faith, with Simon’s martial arts instruction. He taught Simon the evils of drugs, alcohol, and gang activity. He taught Simon that no matter how poor he was he could never justify getting involved in criminal activities. He taught Simon the importance of studying hard and how a good education would be his ticket out of poverty.

Simon listened carefully. He was a very good student. He was also a very good person. Papa John explained that the martial arts were for self-defense and defense of the weak only. He explained how many people fight out of pride and lose their honor as a result. He explained the importance of being non-violent and humble.

Papa John said there was no shame in walking away from a fight. He said that it was dishonorable to stand and fight, out of sheer pride, just so that other people wouldn’t think you were a coward. Papa John said, “Doing the right thing is much more important than risking hurting someone or getting hurt yourself, just so others will think that you are a tough guy.” He also said, “If there is any means of escape, you must leave, even run away before standing and fighting.”

Papa John taught Simon to fight only as a last resort when he had no possible means of escape. The only other time fighting was permissible was in defense of the weak or the defenseless. Examples included coming to the aide of an elderly person who was being assaulted, a defenseless woman in peril or a handicapped person being attacked. Papa John made sure that Simon understood and believed these important values before he taught him any of the deadly martial arts skills.

For two years Simon learned the martial arts in secret from Papa John. He learned advanced techniques that were not taught in local karate schools., techniques that weren’t even known by other martial arts instructors. His training was intense and rigorous. It involved a great deal of conditioning.

Other than school, homework, chores, and church, Simon spent all his remaining hours learning, practicing, and studying martial arts from the world’s foremost martial arts master: Papa John.

At the age of 18, Simon had learned everything that Papa John had to teach him. He was even better than Papa John had been in his prime because Papa John also taught Simon how to avoid those few mistakes that he himself had made. Simon was now the most accomplished, the best, and the most dangerous martial artist in the world. But nobody but he and Papa John knew it. That’s the way they both wanted it.

Two weeks after Simon’s 18th birthday, and eight weeks before he was scheduled to graduate from high school, Papa John died of a massive heart attack. He was given a poor man’s funeral, but with military honors. Simon wanted to do more, but this was all he and Tammy could afford. Only Simon, Tammy, and a priest attended Papa John’s funeral service.

However, much to Simon’s surprise, an official-looking staff car with four shiny silver stars imbedded in a red plate pulled up to the burial site at the veterans’ cemetery where Papa John was being buried. As the bugler played taps, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, America’s highest ranking general, got out of the staff car and walked up to Papa John’s coffin. For several minutes he solemnly stood at attention giving a rigid and respectful hand salute to the coffin where Papa John laid in rest.

Receiving a folded American flag from the honor guard, he walked up to Simon and said, “I am here representing the President of the United States, myself, the United States Army, and the American people. On behalf of a grateful nation, I offer this flag to you in memory of Papa John, the greatest secret hero in American history. May he rest in peace.” Then the general departed. Simon now knew with certainty that all the stories Papa John had told him were true. He and Tammy cried uncontrollably.

All through school, kids picked on and made fun of Simon. They made fun of his clothes and his shoes. Being so poor, Papa John could only afford to buy second-hand clothes from a local thrift shop. They also made fun of Simon because he studied and received good grades. They called him a geek, a nerd, and a number of other profane names. They called Simon a coward because he would walk and sometimes run from fights.

The so-called good kids would have nothing to do with Simon because he was poor and lived in the bad part of town. They knew Simon’s brother was a convicted criminal. Many of them heard the rumors that Simon’s mother was a prostitute and that his father was an alcoholic bum who deserted them. They joked about it in pure meanness. Their cruel objective was to offend and upset Simon.

The local gangs, especially the ESR, left Simon alone because they thought he was a coward and weakling. They didn’t want to recruit such wimps into their gang. They also knew Simon would have nothing to do with drugs, tobacco, or alcohol. Simon was spit on, tripped, pinched, poked, scratched, bitten, slugged and had objects thrown at him. All he ever did in response was to turn the other cheek and just walk or run away. Simon did this even though he knew that he had the ability to wipe them all out if he really wanted to. Even on those few occasions when Simon became angry enough to fight, he remembered the promise he made to Papa John. Then he would back off, controlling and composing himself. Simon loved and respected Papa John more than anyone. He could never break his promise to him.

Simon and Tammy still lived in Papa John’s apartment after he died. One day as Simon approached the apartment, he heard a horrifying scream. It was Tammy pleading for someone to help her.

Simon dropped his books and rushed to the apartment door with world-class sprinter speed. The door was locked. Simon yelled “Ki Aii!” Then he leaped into the air and did a turning back kick into the door. His kick landed with such power that the door burst into slivers. The sound of the cracking hard wood door could be heard a block away.

Simon saw three members of the ESR holding his sister. Butch, the gang leader, was unzipping his pants. They were about to gang-rape Tammy. Simon instinctively knew this was one of those rare occasions when fighting was acceptable. He knew that Papa John would approve of his intervening to help his desperate sister.

Simon quickly went into action as Butch called out to the gang members - “Get him!”

The first gang member to reach Simon was the recipient of a flying sidekick into his throat. All one heard was a quick “ugh” sound as his limp body flopped to the floor with blood flowing from his mouth. Two gang members tried to hold Simon as the third attempted to stab Simon with a knife.

Simon did a flip between the two-gang members who were holding his right and left arms and shoulders. This caused them to crash their heads together. They were both knocked out cold. Simon then did a crescent kick with such speed and power that it knocked the knife through the wall while breaking the arm and dislocating the shoulder of the gang member who was holding it.

Then Simon cupped his hands and with lightening speed hit another gang member’s ears so hard that the pressure caused his eyes to pop out of his head, blinding him. His pain was agonizing. It was a scary, bloody, ugly sight.

Engulfed in fear and horrified by the lightning speed with which Simon had utterly destroyed four of their fellow gang members, all of whom were known to be big and tough, two of the remaining three ESR gang members jumped out of the nearest window. They jetted away with the speed expected from anyone who genuinely feared for their lives. Both gang members soiled themselves from shear fear and the terror of what they had just witnessed.

Now all that was left was the ESR gang leader Butch. Butch was the biggest, meanest, baddest, toughest, and the most feared of any gang member. At six feet seven inches tall, Butch towered over Simon. He weighed 275 pounds. Every ounce of Butch was solid muscle from many years of heavy bodybuilding and illegal steroid use. His muscles bulged everywhere. When he flexed, his shirt split open in the chest and in the arms. It seemed as if his muscles popped out of other muscles. His fists were huge, like fire plugs. He hit like a sledgehammer. As if this were not enough, Butch was also a black belt karate master in his own right.

Butch gritted his teeth. He shouted to Simon, “Prepare to die, punk!” Then Butch lunged forward. It didn’t matter. Unbeknownst to Butch he had just picked a fight with Simon Gaunt, grandson and student of Papa John Gaunt. Butch was about to find out that Papa John had trained and developed Simon into the most dangerous man alive.

Simon met Butch with a flurry of reverse punches, chops, and backhands that were so fast that they would have looked like a blur on even a slow-motion camera. In a split second, Butch’s face looked like it had been through a meat grinder. Blood splattered everywhere. This was followed with a jumping front snap kick, turning back kick, and two roundhouse kicks, all delivered with lightning speed.

The final spinning back kick and reverse punch to the side of Butch’s face knocked out both rows of his teeth and fractured his skull. The crackling sound of broken bones and body slams could be heard by police approaching from across the street. Tammy had called the police while the fight was in progress.

Butch’s entire body flew through the air. His body hit the wall with such force that it imprinted in the wall before it fell to the floor totally limp, like a huge bag of potatoes.

As the police ran inside, they pulled a gun on Simon. Simon was standing over an unconscious and utterly defeated mass of blood and broken bones previously known as the ESR gang leader Butch.

As Simon was preparing to thrust a final spear hand in to the chest of Butch, he paused when hearing the voice of his sister. Tammy cried out, “No Simon! Stop! You’re all I have left in this world. Please stop, Simon!”

Simon looked at the police and then at his sister. “Are you alright Tammy?” When she indicated that she was just fine, Simon backed away and said, “Okay, Sis. I won’t dishonor you or the memory of Papa John: enough is enough.” Simon then held out his hands so the police officer could hand cuff him.

The police officer said, “That won’t be necessary, Simon. Your sister explained everything to us. We also caught the two ESR gang members who fled during the fight. They’ve confessed everything too. It was clearly a matter of self-defense. Thank God you were there to protect your sister. You saved her life Simon. These guys weren’t just rapists, they were also killers.”

Tammy ran to Simon. She firmly embraced her brother. She cried, hugged, and kissed him on his forehead and cheeks. All the while she cried in relief saying, “Thank you, Simon. Thank you, my dear brother.”

A rival gang murdered Mark, Simon’s older brother, in a prison gang fight. Simon graduated from high school with honors. So did Tammy a year later. Tammy married a doctor. She went on to become a schoolteacher who specialized in working with troubled children. Tammy was very happy and she kept in touch with Simon regularly.

Simon became a Special Forces intelligence officer in the United States Army. He was honored to follow in Papa John’s footsteps. Simon was also happily married. He had a son of his own whom he named “Little John,” after Papa John.

A lot of kids thought Little John was a bit of a patsy who always ran from fights. One day a neighbor heard a loud “Ki Aii” from behind the privacy fence next door. As he climbed to look over the fence, he saw Simon shaking his finger disapprovingly at Little John.

Little John stood curiously silent with a sorrowful look next to a tree that had just been split in half. There was no ax or saw in sight.