Chapter 45

A few hours had passed, and the sun had once again began to set over the quiet community of Kingsberg, Georgia. After a long, hard day of the work, the Kankers and Rodeeia had found their way back to the Williams residence, where they spent a few hours mutually napping, watching television, and enjoying other forms of rest and relaxation.

With the sun slowly setting over the horizon, and hunger quickly setting in amongst the house guests, the group had agreed that it finally time to decide on dinner. This time, Tabby decided to treat the group to dinner, offering to order and pick up a smorgasbord of take out Chinese food from a famous local store. After taking order from her daughters, Lindsay, and the Williams', Tabby took the helm of Rods truck, departing to retrieve the food from the relatively distant restaurant. Fortunately, she did not have to make the trek alone; Lee had offered to travel with her to assist with carrying the food, and to provide companionship on the journey.

As these events played out, the rambunctious Marie and May had decided to take a small walk around the neighborhood. The two girls had found themselves in the middle of a small, grass-filled playground of sorts, located near the end of Rodeeia's street. The playground was quite similar to the one gracing the corner of the cross street and Haventhought Way back in Peach Creek, consisting of a couple of aluminum slides, a sandbox, and a swing set.

Most importantly, the playground contained a modest sized baseball field, which at the current time, was completely empty. Due to the waning sun, the light sensitive sensors had activated the tower mounted flood lights surrounding the field, bathing the well maintained grass in a white hue.

The two Kanker girls, eager to find a way to pass the hour until dinner arrived, had decided to make efficient use of their time. The girls stood in the vicinity of center field, around fifteen feet apart, staring each other down with expressions of determination. Keeping in line with the conversation between the girls two nights ago regarding May's career aspirations, the girls had decided to have a friendly sparring match, in which they would each test their now somewhat unused martial arts skills against each other.

After spending a few moments in silence, Marie lifted her fists to her sides, adopting a smile as she did so.

"So May," said Marie, "You ready for me?"

"Uh huh.." said May as she squinted her eyes, adopting a modified version of the "horse stance."

After waiting a few more seconds, Marie suddenly dashed towards May. The black haired girl initiated the fight by throwing a punch towards Mays face, which was quickly countered with a block by Mays forearm. Almost immediately after, Marie threw another punch with her opposite hand, which was once again countered by May; this time however, the blonde girl took hold of Marie's forearm, stepping to the side as she did so. To Marie's surprise, the ponytailed girl lifted her opposite arm upward, placing it around Marie's chest in a "clothesline" like manner. At the same time, she placed her foot behind Marie's knees and, using Marie's own momentum against her, swept her off of her feet and onto the ground.

Marie, sensing she was loosing her balance, turned towards the ground as she began her descent, breaking her fall as she landed softly on her hands and knees. No sooner than she did, she surprised her sister by sweeping her foot backward, upending Mays feet from underneath her. This action of course, caused the blonde girl to lose her balance, while simultaneously becoming disoriented. Marie quickly used this opportunity to spring to her feet, taking hold of Mays forearm, twisting it behind her back in an uncomfortable submission hold.

"Gotcha now," said Marie in playfully manner as she pressed May's wrist into her back, causing the brace-faced girl mild discomfort, "How are ya gonna get out of this one?"

"Easy," said May in a determined manner, "Watch and learn."

At that moment, May lurched her head forward, and quickly drew it back, head butting Marie's forehead with the back of her head. This action caused a surprised Marie to release her hold on May, at which point the blonde decided to retaliate with a move of her own. Just as she had done when fighting the large brute Gianna back in the city, May took hold of Marie's shoulders, and proceeded to kick herself up into the air, performing a backward somersault, and coming to a head stand of sorts on Marie's shoulders. As she passed over her sister, she performed a 180 degree turn, taking hold of both of Marie's forearms as she did so.

In an instant, May proceeded to cross Marie's arms behind her back, such that they formed the shape of an x. Marie them slowly lifted them upward, at the same time applying a slight outward pressure; an action that seemed to cause extreme discomfort to Marie. The pretty-faced Kanker groaned in agony as she dropped to her knees, seemingly unable to move due to the discomfort of May's submission hold.

"Let's see you get out of this one," said May in a playful manner.

"Jesus Christ," said Marie, "What the hell kind of a hold is this? My arms are on fire!"

"Give up yet?" asked May as she leaned her mouth close to Marie's ear.

"YES!" yelled Marie, "Let me go you moron!"

"Okay," said May, at which point she release the nearly paralyzed Marie, causing her to fall to the ground.

After dropping to her knees, gasping for air as she took hold of her chest, Marie turned towards May with a somewhat annoyed expression.

"Alright, you got my attention," said Marie, "What the hell was that."

"A secret move," said May in a playful manner, smiling as she did so.

"Some secret move," said Marie as she rose to her feet, "As soon as you pulled up, it felt like my whole body was paralyzed."

"That's the point," said May, "It ain't called The Bear Trap for nothing!"

"Bear trap, huh?" asked Marie, "Where'd ya learn that one?"

"Daddy," said May, "He knows all kinds of cool submission holds. I've sparred with girls at the YWCA that he be taken mixed martial arts for years, and none of them know how to react when I give em the bear trap or the butterfly kick. I even used it to get what I wanted from the Ed's a couple of times when we first moved to Peach Creek.

"I really gotta start training with Daddy again," said Marie as she stretched her arms, attempting to alleviate the pain, "From what I just witnessed, I don't know what the hell you don't have to be confident about. You're strong, and you know techniques nobody else knows, so what do ya got to lose?"

May adopted an expression of sadness.

"I guess," said May, "But.."

"No buts," said Marie, "I've seen enough, and I think we had enough training for the night. My body is sore from all the work at the church anyway."

At that point, Marie began walking away from Marie's position.

"C'mon," said Marie, "We still got time to make it to town before dinner."

"To town?" asked May, "What do we need to go to town for?"

Marie turned towards May, displaying a sly smile as she reached into her pocket.

"To drop this off," said Marie as she removed the small bag containing hairs from all of her family members, "After seeing the way Mom reacted to us going through that woman's stuff, I am even more convinced that we are dealing with some funny business."

"That woman?" asked May, "Oh you mean Aunt Katie."

"Oh yes," said Marie in a sarcastic manner, "Aunt Katie..."

Marie placed the bag back into her pocket, and proceeded to continue on her way.

"Come on knucklehead," said Marie, "There's a shortcut to town through the woods. We'll be there and back before anyone suspects a thing."

May paused for a few moments, after which she proceeded to reluctantly follow her older sisters lead, jumping the chain link fence surrounding the baseball field and disappearing into the woods.

All was quite calm back in the Williams residence. Inside the house, Rodeeia's husband and two sons remained in their individual bedrooms, sleeping off the fatigue induced by the hard work they had performed at the church. Likewise, Katie remained asleep in the den; stretched out on her belly on the pull out sofa, with her hand buried in a bag of chips.

The still silence characteristic of the property was broken by the sound of the rear patio door sliding to the open position. Soon after, Lindsay emerged out into the yard, donning the athletic gear she had worn the previous night for her cross country training. She soon spotted Rodeeia, had taken up post near the koi pond; her back was turned towards Lindsay as she worked to feed her beloved fish.

Lindsay proceeded to approach the rather stout woman, initiating a conversation in a somewhat sheepish manner as she came within speaking distance.

"Um Rodeeia?" said Lindsay.

"Little T," said Rodeeia as she rose to a standing position turning towards Lindsay as she did so, "Back for more torture are ya?"

Lindsay giggled.

"I guess," said Lindsay, "I did promise you I'd be back, didn't I?"

"Well it's nice to see that ya got the work ethic," said Rodeeia as she tossed the empty fish food bag into the trash can, "Alright, let's warm up. Remember those dash and pat drills we did yesterday?"

"Yes," said Lindsay.

"I want ten laps," said Rodeeia, "Go!"

At Rodeeia's command, Lindsay immediately dashed towards the concrete field of cones, and proceeded to complete ten laps of her training drills as requested by Rodeeia. The tall blonde executed her task flawlessly, patting downward as she passed each mark with precision, indicating a stark improvement in her hand-eye conclusion.

Upon the conclusion of of her last lap, Lindsay ceased running coming to a stop in front of Rodeeia, who stood with her hands behind her back as if she were hiding something.

"How was that?" asked Lindsay.

"Great," said Rodeeia, "Looks like your gettin' used to using that beautiful body to your advantage, huh?"

"I guess so," said Lindsay.

"Alright, alright," said Rodeeia, "Now it's time to shake things up a bit."

At that moment, Rodeeia proceeded to toss a basketball in Lindsays direction, performing a rather quick bounce pass. To her surprise, Lindsay managed to catch the ball without issue, and upon doing so gazed downward at its leather surface with an expression of curiosity.