Developing Animal Instinct

Forty odd (very odd) years ago I was training four days a week at the Filipino Kali Academy in Torrance, living up near Los Angeles City College. Operating at a very high energy level physically, and also writing my little heart out, so that me head was pretty clear as well. One night at about 1:30 in the morning, my girlfriend Toni and I decided to walk down to the 7–11 to get some snacks. The street was dark, lots of deep shadows. But I wasn’t paying much attention, perhaps very casually noticed that there was a human shape blended into one of the alcoves leading to the door of a clothing shop. I was talking to Toni about something or other as we walked…and suddenly I felt something tough me, right between the eyes.

I snapped my head around to the left, and saw that this shape in the doorway was clearly a human being, staring straight at us. I locked eyes with him. He stepped out from the shadow, and started walking ahead of us.

I still felt the “touch” between my eyes. Noticed that he was slowing down, and did a very quick calculation and realized that if he continued to slow as he was, we would run into him in a pool of VERY deep shadow at the corner. I didn’t like that idea. I put my arm out to slow Toni down.

The guy ahead of us slowed down. I slowed down more. HE slowed down more. I stopped us dead. He stopped…looked back over his shoulder…and took off running around the corner.

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