The thing was that it was a small enough dojo… Japanese for "school"… that there weren't all that many students cycling through the place. As a matter of fact, in the month after I joined, only 3 others started there, too; a couple of kids that I figured were probably in middle school, and a woman that looked like she was maybe in her early 30's. It didn't take long before it was clear that the two kids both went to the same school, and were almost certainly friends outside of class. Since they tried to get teamed up together whenever there was any kind of sparring or one-on-one practice, that pretty much left me and the woman as partners – almost everyone else in the place was at least one belt higher than us.
She was attractive, with butter-blond hair a bit over shoulder-length, lovely blue eyes, and a nice figure (in street clothes; in a karate gi [uniform] she was pretty shapeless). She didn't come up but to about chest-high on me, so when we first started practicing together, I tended to try and take it easy on her. But she was a lot more interested in karate (as self defense) than I was, and it didn't take me long to get cured of any such gallantry – if I let myself get distracted by her looks, she wasn't above trying to take my head off or breaking some internal organ that I was still using. What with the padding we wore on our heads, hands, and feet, I finally realized that my chances of actually hurting her were pretty slim, and started trying to do unto her before she could do unto me. When I'd connect with a good one, she'd just get fired up and come right back at me – and likely as not pay me back, with interest.
Naturally enough, there was time for us to learn at least a little bit about each other. Over the course of a few weeks, I learned her name was Bonnie, she was divorced, and shared custody of her ten-year-old daughter with her ex-husband. Though she never said anything about him directly, I was left with the distinct impression that she welcomed the divorce and wouldn't willingly have anything to do with him if it weren't for the kid. She let me buy her a cup of coffee a couple of times after classes, and even celebrate her first promotion with ice cream, but that was pretty much it – she made it more than clear that she wasn't looking to get into another relationship any time soon.
I was working out in the gym one evening when I saw someone that looked familiar. It took a little time for me to realize that it was Bonnie because I'd really only ever seen her in karate class – the face-and-place connection was missing in the gym. I watched her for a little bit as I was doing my routine, and quickly saw that she was as committed to getting herself fit as she was to learning to defend herself. When I finally finished up, I had to walk by where she was working out on one of the machines so that I could get to the men's locker room; as I passed by, I saw from the corner of my eye that she did a double-take when she recognized me.
The next karate class, she surprised the hell out of me by all but demanding to know what I was doing in the same gym she went to. I calmly pointed out to her that it was just a few doors down from the dojo, and reminded her that I needed the extended hours it offered because of the varying hours of my cabbie gig. She didn't seem all that receptive to what I was saying, so I offered to show her that I'd joined the gym about the same time I'd started taking karate. That apparently made her realize that she just might be suspicious of an innocent coincidence, and she was appreciably calmer when she said she'd appreciate that.
I was waiting for her to emerge from the ladies locker room after class, and when she appeared, I didn't hesitate to pull out my wallet and show her my gym membership card. The "Member since " clearly showed that my own membership predated hers by nearly a month. When she handed me the card back, she was clearly embarrassed when she told me "I'm sorry, Jim. You know I'm divorced, but I never told you that my ex-husband was a bit… possessive. When we separated, he essentially stalked me for months, and when I finally got a restraining order against him, he got some of his friends to do it for him. So sometimes I get a little paranoid when something like that happens. I hope you understand, and you're not upset with me."
"No, I'm not upset. Now that I know what the problem was, I can appreciate how it must have looked to you. We're cool again, now?"
With a smile, she answered "Yeah, we're cool again."
I didn't figure she wanted to hang around and chat, so I just told her "Glad to hear that. I'll catch you next time, then" before moving to put my gym membership card away. She simply told me "Next time", and headed for the door.
I didn't hurry about getting my card and wallet put away, or getting out to where my car was parked; I was just unlocking the door when I saw Bonnie pull out into traffic.
It was a few months later, and I was on my way home after a late shift one Friday evening when I saw a bunch of cop cars coming up on me from behind. They were all in full "Hollywood" mode – lights, sirens, and moving fast – and I quickly found a spot at the curb to hug until they'd all gone by. I had just put my rig back into gear when a figure appeared from between a couple of bushes and quickly jumped into the back, then told me "Could we get moving, please? I need to get out of here…"
It took me only a moment to recognize Bonnie; she didn't seem to realize who I was mostly because she was hunkered down in the back seat and trying to look in all directions at once. Only when I asked "It would help if I knew where to, Bonnie" that she stopped to look at who was driving.
When she saw that it was me, the look of surprise on her face was priceless – but didn't compensate for the feelings I got when she told me "I don't know if I should ride with you, or not, Jim. I got myself into something that I wouldn't want you to get dragged into. Maybe I should wait for another ride."
"If you wait, it'll be a while – this isn't what you could call a high-traffic area for cabs. What you got yourself into… would it be what all the cop cars were all about?"
She stayed quiet for a few moments before silently nodding her head. "Suppose you give me a little idea of what's going on, and let ME decide if or how much I'm willing to get involved. If I don't help you, I won't turn you in, either", I suggested.
She hesitated a bit before finally telling me "I got started with an animal rights group some months ago. At first, it was just helping at their facility, but then they started asking me to join them for other things. Each time, it was a little more… unofficial. Tonight, we got into a research place a few blocks from here to rescue some of their lab animals – dogs and cats. I was pretty much okay with that until some of the people I was with started trashing the place, and a couple of others started hiding some kind of devices around the place. That was when I bailed on them. I guess they weren't as good with the alarms as they thought they were, either, because I barely got away from the building when a bunch of security people turned up. After that, I started hearing the sirens and everything, and got as far away as fast as I could."
I nodded my head and told her, "Okay. You were doing something illegal, but you stopped before it got too serious. I can live with that,", before getting us moving.
I'd gone only a few blocks when we came up on what could only be called a police roadblock: a couple of cruisers parked diagonally across the street, nose-to-nose, with only enough room for a single vehicle to pass between them. I could see Bonnie starting to get scared in the back seat, and quickly told her "Just stay calm, and pretend you're tired and sleepy – look out the window, and don't pay any attention to what's going on."