"Good Afternoon, Mrs. West, Philip and Jamie. I am Dr. Stanley Chow, the instructor here at the Agency for self defense and hand-to-hand combat classes," said the man known to many people in the Agency as Dr. Pain. His introduction came as the West-King-Stetson family entered the room for their latest Agency training course.
"Hey worm brain, this guy is not much bigger than you are. Maybe you have a chance after all," Philip quietly teased as he faced the somewhat diminutive FRAME of their latest instructor.
"Young Mr. King, I assure you that size has very little to do with your ability to defend yourself should the need arise. And please do not call your brother names in my presence," Dr. Chow chastised. Philip and Jamie glanced at each other nervously.
"There are several KEYS to defending yourself from an attack that we will talk about and demonstrate today," Dr. Chow began.
Noticing that Effraim Beaman was quietly trying to sneak out the door, he quickly called out, "Effraim, would you mind staying to help with some of our demonstrations? My assistant was injured yesterday in a bit of a training mishap, and I could really use your help. I'm sure Scarecrow would appreciate it."
"Um, well, I really have to get back to the classroom. I have these reports to review," Beaman explained as he held up the SHEETS of paper collected from the latest freshmen class.
"Don't worry; I assure you this won't take long. Scarecrow just wanted Mrs. West to learn a few basic techniques for times when she is out by herself. He is planning to teach the boys on his own. Now, let us begin. As I was saying, there are several keys to defending yourself from an attack. The first is to know your surroundings and be aware of items that could be used to aid in your defense," Dr. Chow lectured.
"Do you mean like knowing my way around stores? I do shop at several different stores for our groceries each week since we have two growing boys here and need to stretch our dollar as much as possible. And now, with Lee in the mix, I'm sure I will be shopping even more. Dr. Chow, do you really think that spies from somewhere like Russia would really want to go after me?" Dotty questioned nervously, never really grasping the possibility of any danger before this moment.
"Yes, Mrs. West, unfortunately it is a remote possibility that in order to try and hurt an agent someone will go after the agent's family. But I guarantee you that the Agency makes every effort to protect our agents' families. Also, if you are anything like your daughter, I have no doubt that you can take care of yourself. Here in this box I have several common, everyday items that you might have with you at any given time. Feel free to look through the box and take out any items that you would typically have with you." Dr. Chow suggested bringing out of a box of odd items for Dotty to pick through.
"Well let me see here. I always have my purse with me so I will grab that. And if it's raining out, I would probably have my UMBRELLA, so I will grab that too." Dotty replied with items in hand.
"Excellent choices, Mrs. West. Now, how might you use each of those items to protect yourself? Please demonstrate for us by pretending that Beaman is the attacker."
"Well that's easy. I could bop the attacker over the head with my purse. Trust me; I have a lot more stuff in my purse than this, so I'm sure it would pack quite a wallop. And the umbrella, well I guess I could hit him with that, too," Dotty replied as she slowly walked over to Beaman and began to demonstrate her technique by hitting him repeatedly on the head with both the purse and the umbrella.
"Outstanding job, Mrs. West! You obviously don't need much instruction from me. You think on your feet just like your daughter. Wouldn't you say so, Effraim?" Dr. Chow congratulated Dotty as he pulled her away from her would-be assailant.
"Um, yeah, she's a natural just like Mrs. King." Beaman replied as he slowly began to MASSAGE his temple.
As Dotty and the boys followed Beaman from the room Dotty asked, "Why in the world would they call such a nice little man Dr. Pain?" Beaman just rolled his eyes and groaned softly as he guided the family back through the Agency hallways.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Afternoon Ladies:
3 weeks in a row--getting kind of scared now that I keep coming up with challenge ideas. Anyway this is a continuation of a challenge story I wrote back in March for the April's Fool challenge to write something funny. That response had Dotty and the boys going to training with Effraim. Well they survived the morning or maybe Beaman survived dealing with them...who knows. But here's what happens in the afternoon. As always I don't own them but it sure would be fun. Hope you all enjoy!
3 weeks in a row--getting kind of scared now that I keep coming up with challenge ideas. Anyway this is a continuation of a challenge story I wrote back in March for the April's Fool challenge to write something funny. That response had Dotty and the boys going to training with Effraim. Well they survived the morning or maybe Beaman survived dealing with them...who knows. But here's what happens in the afternoon. As always I don't own them but it sure would be fun. Hope you all enjoy!