The Touch

The Touch

Leena Sharpe was never seen around doing housework when her mother needed her. She was either outside finding animals to bring inside or playing with her brothers and the boys of the neighborhood. It wasn’t her fault that her family moved to the country to get a bigger house for their family. And her parents did not consider the fact that there was only one other girl on her street. And that girl was five years older. So Leena’s only option from going crazy was to learn football, baseball or the game played with knives where you toss the knife. It was not a hard game. And to the boys’ dismay, Leena usually won. She had that uncanny knack that enabled her to toss a knife in the air and have it stick in the ground to win.

As Leena grew up, she went to school and made friends with all of her classmates. Time passed and she went to college and got her diploma as a teacher. She still enjoyed participating in sports so when the teachers got a community team together, she was happy to join in. Team sports was lots of fun but there was nothing like individual sports that let Leena be responsible for all of her victories and losses. With each year that passed her urge for competition had to be satisfied for a couple of months.

One afternoon, Leena was talking to her brother.

“Hey Leena, I am going to be doing some errands today. Like to come along?” he asked.

“Well, maybe. Where are you going?” she replied as she put the last of her graded papers into her bag to go back to school.

“I’m going to get my stuff from the cleaners and then sign up for a sports class at the community center.”

“Okay. I’d like to go.”

A half an hour later, Leena was sitting in the front seat of the old car that Henry loved to drive. The air conditioning was not working right but the air from the open window kept the inside of the car comfortably cool.

The last stop of their outing was at the community center. In the office was a line clipboards people could sign up for their classes. Henry went straight to the one on the end and looked at the list. He nodded his head and signed up.

“What is it?” asked Leena as she looked at the other offerings on the clipboards.

“Well I have always wanted to take up fencing. It is given by a friend of mine who is quite a good fencer himself. Want to join?” he said with the inviting smile. “I think I might have an extra piece of equipment. And you can probably borrow a mask.”

The days flew back to the time in which Leena was winning her first championship with the knife game. She knew nothing about the sport except what she saw on television in the movies ‘Robin Hood‘, ‘Zorro‘, and ‘Captain Blood‘.

“Sure. Why not. I need the exercise and would love to make new friends.”

The first day in the class, Leena met the coach of the fencing class who would later be a good friend of hers. Ron had the most ‘happy to meet you’ smile. He also loved to talk about his teenage son, who was a great fencer. But most of all he was a coach. He demonstrated the footwork and hand positions. He encouraged his fencers with such positive energy and feedback that they worked even harder than before.

Leena would be looking forward to Tuesdays and Thursdays with new enthusiasm. She ate her dinner and rushed off to her class in all kinds of weather. She enjoyed learning with her brother who later had other commitments and had to drop out.

Then the most exciting day came when Leena received her own equipment she had ordered. She had bought a practice foil that she nicknamed ‘monster,’ and two electric foils. Since she was going to tournaments, she decided to buy all of the other electrical equipment that she needed. She was so happy when her coach, Ron gave her the order and the comment, “A lot of people told me that you would never make it. But I’m glad that you hung in there.”

There were many tournaments to attend. Most of them were out of town that required driving to at an early hour just to sign up. But the fencers came from all over. Some were even from out of state for the bigger competitions. Leena chose to go to some of the tournaments at the universities. They were usually big. Leena also enjoyed walking around the campuses.

Leena was happy when her bouts began. She donned her white knickers, jacket and mask. Inside the jacket sleeve, she had the electrical cord that would be attached to her foil. She had to wait until her name, and that of her opponent was called for ‘on strip.’ Then her heart would start to pound a little faster.

Leena connected herself to her side. She waited for the judge to check the equipment and then got behind her starting point line. She saluted her opponent, and her judge and listened for the command, “En garde!” Everything in the gym ceased to exist except the fencer in front of her. She got into the fencing position that Ron had made her practice a million times. Her hand was a little shaky but that would soon be gone as the bout progressed. All she needed to do was to touch her opponent five times before her opponent touched her five times. With a certain number of victories, she would be one of the fencers to go up to the next round. It seemed so simple in practice, but she could be out if she was touched one too many times.

The bout began. The two fencers moved slowly towards each other. Leena remembered that if the required number of touches was not done in five minutes, the fencer who was ahead would be named the winner.

She extended her arm. The other fencer touched her blade and then lunged at her for a winning riposte. The judge called halt and awarded the point to the opponent. The scorekeeper called out the score. Leena reprimanded herself. The bout went on and Leena lost.

During the time between the next bout, Leena got some good advice from Ron, which was for her to relax and just fence the same way she practiced in the gym. He flashed that ‘you can do it’ smile and patted her on the back. He then went to check up on his other fencers.

There were only five bouts for Leena that day. It was a bitter feeling to her that she had lost. Not only had she let herself down, but her coach, and her club. This was a day of gaining experience that she would keep in her mind.

Classes took on a more serious timbre. The classes were fun, but when it came time to do the practice bouts, Leena was learning to be more focused. She learned to look at the opponent’s movements that might tip her off as to an intention to attack. She listened to the older and more experienced fencers as they relived other bouts that had a lesson in it. Everything was fine until the break came for summer because the qualifiers were going to a national competition.

The next fall season, Leena had her heart set on being one of the best women’s fencers. She had some great friends in this group, but each woman knew that when the judge called ‘en garde’, friendship was put aside and the goal of a victory was in their hearts. Leena was surprised to see that she could actually win a first, second or third place in the tournaments that she had only fenced five bouts in the previous year.

The qualification tournament came during the spring of that year. It seemed like there were a few extra fencers who were fighting to get into the finals and the top four who would go to the national competition. Leena checked all of her equipment. She had dressed in her whites and did some warm up exercises. So many lunges had been practiced. So many parry and ripostes had been accomplished. All of these would mean nothing if not done correctly and at the right time and within the boundary called ‘the strip.’ One toe inside the strip could mean the difference.

Leena fenced with all of her heart. She felt like she was on air when she won. She gritted her teeth to shake hands and congratulated her opponent for their victory when she lost. Her coach came by to console her but she was so busy chewing herself out that he could only say a word or two and then go help someone else.

Through good work and the luck of the people in the pools, Leena went straight to the top. She was so excited with being a member of the finals that she strode around the gym. The finals would be tough, no doubt. One of her fierce competitors was in the finals also and they usually had a bout that left each one totally wiped out.

The judge called each fencer to get hooked up. They saluted each other and the judge. The moment of en garde was called. It was the end of the day. Everyone stopped to watch Leena and the other fencer. The gym smelled of equipment and sweat. Both fencers looked as if had been poured into their clothes. They had been fencing for six hours but did not care. This was for the first place and the honor of leading the group into nationals.

The fencers advanced and retreated up and down the strip as if they had been on the end of a pole that kept them a safe distance apart. Only did the distance decrease when the fencer was getting ready to make an attack. At that time those who had fenced for a couple of years had the vision to follow the lunge-arm extension attack of one fencer and the riposte of the other. One light went on. Red. This meant that Leena’s opponent had scored a point against Leena.

In the next couple of minutes there was a green for Leena and two more for her opponent. Leena came back with two green lights of her own. Time was ticking on. Red light! Green light! It was a tie. The fencers became more wary of their opponent and the distance. Then the timer called “time!” Time was up but there could be no tie. Regulation was over. One minute was left to fence. It didn’t matter because the score was tied.

The command to get en garde and fence was called. Leena’s opponent inched closer to her. Leena knew that she was just inches from the back line. Once she crossed it, the other girl would automatically win. Then Leena thought of one trick that she had heard from someone. She would offer more of her target area in the hopes of drawing the girl to attack and Leena would parry-riposte. But instead the girl ran at her. Leena kept her foot planted and moved her left side of her body to have only the thinnest of the right side as a target. The girl missed and Leena touched the other fencer. Leena had won. The whole gym burst into appause.

The other fencer took off her mask and walked to Leena to congratulate her. Both would go to nationals, but this day, Leena would take home the trophy for first place and be the number one fencer to go to nationals. This was an outstanding day.