Synopsis: Grasshopper at My Feet
Character(s): Peter Caine (Master Po, Young Caine (grandfather), Caine (Peter's father) in flashbacks).
Time Period: Five months after Caine has left Chinatown. Peter is a priest.
Story: On a hot summer day, Peter reflects on the past and finally understands one particular lesson.
Author: Alisa Joaquin
Disclaimer: All characters are borrowed except those created by me. All other characters (from KF:TLC and we know who they are) are property of Warner Brothers. I promise to give them back when I am done with them (of course I do not know how long that will be.) I give permission to archive. Scenes taken from Kung Fu (the Pilot) and Kung Fu: The Legend Continues Pilot episode, Initiation.
Grasshopper at My Feet
By Alisa Joaquin
Three Generations Ago
Master Po and young Kwai Chang Caine are by a fountain in a garden at the temple. Master Po instructs his pupil.
Master Po: Close your eyes. What do you hear?
Young Caine (closing his eyes): I hear the water. I hear a bird.
Master Po: Do you hear your own heartbeat?
Young Caine listens only to shake his head: No.
Master Po: Or the grasshopper, which is at your feet.
Young Caine looks down in surprise and sees a grasshopper jump as Master Po's cane disturbs it.
Young Caine: Old man, how is it that you hear these things?
Master Po: Young man, how is it that you do not?
Present Day
Peter Caine sat by the water, meditating. Summer's heat has driven everyone out of doors. The apothecary room was just too hot to work in. It has been five months since Caine left on his journey to find the truth of the photograph. Many have come and gone, asking for Caine. Just as Peter had fiercely thrown himself into the work as a detective, he now threw all his energy into being the best priest he could possibly be with no regrets. Today, though, thoughts of his father and the lessons that he had tried to impart caused Peter to pause. Oddly, one thought came to him as he sat on the cool grass, the day that he wanted to learn to fight. His thoughts drifted back to that day.
Peter: How long must I study to be like you?
Caine: Ten years at the very least.
Peter: What if I studied twice as hard as all your other students?
Caine: Twenty years.
Peter: What if I practiced day and night? No television, no schooling, it's boring anyway, no diversions, just Shaolin principles? How long?
Caine: Thirty years.
Peter. Hey! This doesn't compute, Pop.
Caine: Don't ever call me that.
Peter: But why if I work harder does the study time get longer?
Caine: When one eye is fixed upon your destination, there is only one eye left to find the way. Focus on the now.
Peter: But I want to fight.
Caine: So did my grandfather when he was your age. But Master Po made the Grasshopper see the wisdom of stillness and unconscious thought. The trick is to fight only when there is no other alternative.
Peter: Grasshopper?
Caine: Oh, yes. Do you not hear the grasshopper at your feet?
Peter looked down at his feet only to see the bare temple floor.
Peter: There is no grasshopper at my feet.
Caine: There will be.
Peter's thoughts were interrupted as a soft sound came to him. He looked down and to the right of his bent knee he spied a small insect, green and brown against the grass. He reached down to pick it up and realized that his father's prediction all those years ago had come true. For resting now in his hand he could clearly see just what it was he had heard. What had been sitting at his feet was a small grasshopper, nibbling the grass.
"Grasshopper, I understand now, Pop."
Peter watched as the grasshopper jumped from his hand back into the grass. The grasshopper had always been a symbol in his family, a symbol that meant something special. For if one could hear the grasshopper, one would truly know stillness. And with one fluid motion, Peter rose and walked back to Chinatown and to those who needed the skills of this particular Shaolin.
End