Training Classes

I brightened right up at that. I had forgotten about all the new clothes I would be getting. The bulk of the clothes we had picked out had either had to be altered or assembled from scratch.

"Do you think Morton will be able to come up with something useful? Doesn't he just do sexy clothes for large-breasted types, like us?"

"Don't underestimate Mr. Morton," she said. "He's been in business for quite some time and he has a few tricks up his sleeve. For instance, I know he does a lot of work for some movie studios down in Miami. One-off costumes are a staple item for him. Many of them are quite, ah, outlandish."

"I didn't know there were movie studios in Miami."

"They're mostly direct-to-DVD and mail-order companies."

"You mean pornography?" I was shocked and appalled. Well, titillated and intrigued, anyway.

"I do mean pornography. That's what Morton means when he says 'confidential'. He doesn't dare let on to his society customers than he also sells clothes to porn stars and exotic dancers. He can do both because his shop is state-of-the-art computer-operated hardware. He makes most everything to order, except for the few racks he has up front. No stock means no warehouse, no insurance, no inventory tax, no guessing fashion trends. Do you remember how he measured you?"

"The computer with the cameras? I thought that was kind of high-tech for a dressmaker."

"It's the key to his business. He showed me his back room once when I told him how surprised I was that he was able to produce custom orders so quickly. He's rather proud of it."

"So that's what he meant when he said he could get a better fit on some of the clothes that I thought fit perfectly already."

"The things he makes for you will all fit like a glove. That's why I think he's the best choice to do your costume. He can do it fast, we know it will fit, and his specialty is unusual or unique clothes for women with figures like ours."

"Great! I can't wait to see what he comes up with."

"After that I called around to see about martial arts training. You would not believe the number of karate, aikido, judo, kung fu, bushido, kendo and ninjutsu academies there are just in the city limits. After talking with a few of them I had almost decided that you would be better off taking several different classes to see what would work best for you.

The last man I spoke with seemed to have the best solution. His name is Xaiolong Li and he teaches a style of Kung Fu he called Jeet Kune Do." She tried to pronounce each syllable as she had heard it. It sounded funny hearing her trying to imitate a Chinese accent.

"I don't know much about Kung Fu, but it seems to me I've heard of that style. I think it was in a movie — no, I saw it in a TV program on that guy who was in all those movies, Bruce somebody."

"Bruce Lee. Yes, you may have seen a biography of him. I remember seeing a few of his movies when I was younger. If I remember right, he was responsible for the slow-motion photography film technique you see so much of in movies now."

"Was he a director, too?"

"No, he was just so fast that that was the only way they could get him on film."

"They had to slow the film down so they could see him move? Jeez, how good was this guy?"

"Good enough so that 30 years later he is still revered as one of the great masters of the art, apparently. Anyway, Mr. Li teaches this Jeet Kune Do style, which he says combines the best elements of all the other styles into a more practical form. He said that the emphasis was not so much on form as effect. I gather you don't want to spend weeks trying to learn to stand like a crane or move like a snake?"

"You gather correctly. I just want to be able to have enough control so I don't hurt someone any more than necessary."

"Then your first class is Wednesday afternoon right after school. He is about three blocks out of your way coming home, so you won't need me to drive you over there every day. It's the old mattress factory on River Street. Do you know where that is?"

I nodded. Bambi had certainly been busy making all these arrangements.

"I also got in touch with the fitness equipment company. Would you believe they are going out of business already? Anyway, I was able to get a good deal on some mats and some other things that they had in stock that they were looking to liquidate below cost."

"What other things?"

"Let me surprise you. The mats are down there now. The rest will be delivered or installed by the contractor when he finishes redoing the room. I wasn't able to give the contractor much to go on. If you have any ideas now is the time to tell me about them."

"I'm sorry. I can't help you. I have no idea what it should look like."

"Color? Light? Dark? Wall treatment? Pictures of Elvis on velvet?"

"Please!" I laughed. "No Elvis. Dark, maybe, or dark gray. I know! In History they showed us a film about World War II ships that were painted in all kinds of bold geometric patterns to disguise the outline of the ships. It seemed crazy to me. I mean you'd think they would stand out better with those big designs on them, but I liked the graphics, it made them look like optical illusions. Can we do something like that?"

"I think you're talking about dazzle camouflage. I remember Ben watching a program about that on TV. I didn't understand it either, but I know what you mean. All the graphics made it hard to judge the shape of what you were looking at. You want to do a wall treatment like that?"

"Yeah. I think it would be neat. The graphics would break up the shape of the room and it wouldn't look like such a big rectangle."