”Now,” Sven said, circling her slowly, “let’s practice wrist exercises. The strength in your wrists is pathetic. To study Akido, that has to change. Like this …”
For another half hour, Margo exercised her wrists until her arms trembled and her wrist-bones ached.
”Very good. Now, let’s practice standing.”
”Standing?”
Sven crossed his arms. “Are you going to question everything I tell you or do you want to learn something?”
”Yes! I’d just like to learn it before I’m eighty!”
Sven’s appraising stare was about as warm as last winter’s icicles. “You can’t even crawl yet and you want to run the marathon?”
Margo clamped her lips shut. If she antagonized her teacher, Kit would yank her right out of training. Her mother’s voice came back to her: Margo, you’re too inpatient for your own good. Slow down. You’ll get it all done. Yes, she would-but would she get it done in time? She was still fighting a relentless deadline, but if she hoped to succeed, she had to do things their way. If only you hadn’t gotten sick, you bastard …But he had. And like Sven Bailey’s relentless personality, there was nothing she could do to change that. She could only adapt and incorporate the fact into her plans.
Margo drew several deep breaths. “Okay. All right. I’m sorry. Mom always told me I was in a tearing rush to do everything, even when I was learning to crawl. I’ll do better. I promise.” She tried a sweet smile and knew she’d succeeded when a little of the darkness left his scowl. “Okay, Mr. Bailey, how am I supposed to stand? Show me.”