Author Note: Based on this prompt at the puckracheldrabblememe: "I teach Taekwon-Do to kids age 4-9. I paired boy and girl together. After a few minutes I noticed the boy wasn't defending himself or fighting back, but standing there taking the hits. When asked why, he said he didn't want to remind her of her dad."
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Except the mistakes. Those are all mine.
Seldom a Misfortune
Rachel has been living in Lima with Mark and Aaron Berry just under a year when she is first part of the Taekwando class he teaches as part of the JCC's summer program. She's one of the older kids in the age group, but she's such a tiny thing, all dark eyes and hair, you can hardly tell. Even with a range of 5 to 9 year olds, it isn't a large group - the Jewish community in Lima, Ohio is not that large.
He doesn't know much about the family, and what he does know is pieced together from hearsay and gossip - though the ladies at the synagogue do like to gossip. According to Miriam Goldman, the Misters Berry originally had tried surrogacy. The first woman they'd found had backed out, and second and third attempts had unfortunately ended in miscarriages. Devastated and in need of a change of scene, the Misters Berry had packed up and moved to Cleveland. When they'd come back three year's later, they'd brought Rachel with them.
"A foster child," he remembers Chava Puckerman tisking, "Her mother overdosed, and who knows what the poor girl's father got up to, but I overheard Mark say something about jail."
"So lucky, too, that the girl doesn't seem to have the kind of problems that go with that lifestyle. Though I supposed they might still turn up. I know I wouldn't want to bring up some stranger's child." That would have been Shoshanna Ben-Israel, who could always see potential threats in other people's children, but was oblivious to her own son's obsessive behaviour.
He doesn't know much more, just that the adoption was finalized about 6 months ago. Mark and Aaron Berry are fairly private. They do dote on the girl, maybe spoil her even, but she's so quiet and withdrawn he suspects in part they would do anything to break her out of her shell.
When it comes to teaching Taekwando, he's a little concerned about pairing her with Noah Puckerman, but most of the other kids in her age range know each other and have already paired off. Noah is a little terror who once took out the JCC's ceiling fan when he hooked a dog leash over it to try to fly like Superman, but the other option is Jacob Ben-Israel and, well, that's not something he wants to inflict on the girl. Besides, he's seen Noah with Rachel at the synagogue more than once, and the little girl does seem to lose a little of her shyness around the bold, mohawked boy.
He shows them some basic moves and leads them in a few exercises on their own, before sending them to their pairings to try the routine out. He's helping one of the younger kids adjust his stance when he glances up and is surprised to see tiny, quiet Rachel just launch herself at Noah.
He gets a pit of dread in his stomach because, while the moves follow what he had just taught them, there's a desperation to them that is a concern. To his great surprise, Noah doesn't move, not even to defend himself. He calls a break, sends the class outside to the playground, and pulls Rachel off of Noah. She's wild-eyed and flailing, and it takes her a full minute to come back to herself. He's about to reprimand her when her big brown eyes well up with tears and she dissolves into quiet sobs.
He's a bit at a loss of what to do, and blurts the first thing that comes to mind. "Noah, why did you take the hits? Why didn't you block the way I showed you or defend yourself?"
Noah looks at him like he's stupid, and maybe he is because he's got a crying child and he's asking about Noah's defense strategy. "Blocking looked just like hitting to me, and I didn't want to remind her of her dad."
He's absolutely horrified, standing there helplessly while Noah helps Rachel up from the ground. "C'mon, Rach," Noah says, taking her hand in his. "I'll push you on the swings."
As they walk out together to the playground, hand in hand, he reminds himself to correct the next person who calls Chava Puckerman's son a little hellion.
