Sensei (23 page)

"Gee," Micky said, "I think I forgot to tell Bobby that."

I looked for a minute at the checks Takano had given me. As a Burke, you don't see that many zero's associated with money that often, even after the three-way split. Then, with a grin, I handed one to Mick and one to Art. "You'll notice," I said, "that they're made out in your wives' names. Make sure they get 'em, OK?" I said.

The two men looked at me. For once, my brother seemed at a loss for words. He nodded and said, "Thanks, Connor."

"Yeah, well..."

Yamashita smiled at me. It is a rare event. "You are a good student, Burke."

From him, it was saying a lot. I bowed in his direction. "I'm a slow learner, Sensei." Sometimes I still dreamed about the fight with Tomita, and in the torpid un spooling of memory, the scars on my back still burned.

Yamashita's eyes squinted in that bullet head of his. "No," he said to me. "Any fool can wield a weapon." He took a final sip of champagne. "You, on the other hand, have learned honor quite well." My sensei set his glass down, bowed to us all, and turned to go. He flowed through the crowd and out of sight.

After a while, both the champagne and the conversation began to bubble off. I quietly wandered around the back garden, gingerly edged along the hedges, and made it out of the yard without being spotted by the president. I felt like a kid playing hooky.

It was quieter out here, and across the playing fields the campus glowed faintly in the hushed, humid air. From a distance, it seemed like an OK place to be.

My brother came up to me. "What now?"

I shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine."

"Whaddaya think," he prompted, "time for one more drink?"

We looked at the crowd that filled Domanova's backyard, eyed each other, and smiled, then spoke simultaneously: "Nah."

"I gotta go," Micky said. "Barbecue tomorrow?"

"Count on it."

My brother looked intently at me and patted my shoulder. He started to say something, but stopped.

We nodded at each other, a recognition of things shared that are beyond words. Micky went back for Art. I stood for a while, enjoying the sensation of just being alive. Then I wandered off, over the grass and into the warmth of a season still flush with possibility.

JOHN DONOHUE holds black belts in both karate do and kendo and has studied various Asian martial arts disciplines, such as karate, kendo, judo, aikido, iaido, and taiji, over the past twenty-five years. A nationally recognized authority on the topic, he is also an associate editor of the Journal of Asian Martial Arts and has written four nonfiction books on the martial arts. In addition, he has been a featured speaker at national and international conventions, as well as on television and radio. Visit his Web site at www.johndonohue.net.

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