During the water break, Earl Harris set aside his work completely and walked to the far edge of the side mat. He kept his distance. He had no intention of interrupting the class, but when Nia drifted to the edge of the group to get a drink from her water bottle, he positioned himself nearby and waited until she glanced up. "Hey there," he said, keeping his voice easy.
"You've been doing karate long?" She looked at him calmly. Not suspicious, just composed. "Since I was four," she said.
"Four?" He kept his voice neutral. "You're what, nine now?" "Yes, sir."
"That's a lot of years," he said. "Who trained you?" "My grandfather," she said. "He has a dojo back home."
"What style?" Harris asked. She told him. He was quiet for a moment.
The lineage she named was not a commercial school. It was a traditional system, old, technically demanding, associated with a very specific international competitive network. The kind of training that produced elite athletes. Not many people in a dojo like Iron Gate would have recognized the name.
Harris recognized it because he had once competed against someone trained in that lineage and had spent the better part of three rounds unable to touch them. "Your grandfather still teaching?" he asked. "Yes, sir," she said. "I'm staying with my aunt here for a few months.
He wanted me to keep training while I'm away." The bell called the class back to the mat. Nia capped her water bottle and walked back to her spot in the line. Harris watched her go.
He was still standing there thinking when he noticed something on the bench near her duffel bag. She had opened the bag to get her water bottle and in doing so had shifted some of its contents. A small object had slipped free and was sitting at the edge of the bench. A circular medal on a ribbon, gold colored, slightly turned.
He walked over, slowly and deliberately, and looked at it without touching it. The metal was real, tournament quality, the kind given at officially sanctioned events. The engraving on its face was clear, Junior World Karate Championship, gold. He stood very still for a moment.