The Lecture

The giggles of the coeds at the next table broke into her melancholic memories.

"You have got to go to his lecture, he's gorgeous."

"Right, like I don't have enough teachers to listen to without volunteering…"

"Trust me," the first voice interrupted, "this one you'll enjoy."

"Why, other than a good looking professor? Who's probably married with three kids." groused the second voice.

"Not this guy"

"How do you know?"

"I got to show him around the campus. You know that volunteer student aids thing I belong to, well usually it's a bunch of scared freshmen but this time I hit the jackpot."

She began to tune out the conversation behind her. The college, for all its' good points, did have an annoying habit of giving lecture space to the fad of the month.

"OK, the guy is gorgeous, charming, built, yadda yadda..what does he talk about.?"

"He calls his lecture 'The Way of the Monkey'. It's some obscure oriental…"

The second voice again interrupted laughing, "I'm supposed to waste what little free time I've go on some guy talking about his monkey? You have got to be kidding."

"No, no, no, it's about the philosophy and spiritual side of the martial arts. You used to be into that, I really thought you'd be interested."

"Maybe, what discipline?"

"The eavesdropper heard a fist thumping lightly against flesh.

"What was it, damn it was, it was,.." thumping her forehead " I remember, it was "Tai Sheng Pek Far", you ever heard of it.?" The first coed asked.

Her listener sounded startled, "I've heard of it, but I always thought it was just a legend."

The woman strained her hearing to concentrate. The monkey had caught her attention, but the naming of the art scared her.

"What do you mean by legend," the coed squealed," are you telling me we have a legend on campus?"

"Not sure about that, it's the art that is supposed to be a legend."

"How do you mean?"

The second voice sounded thoughtful, "Well, I don' know a lot about it, but it is supposed to be the ultimate martial art, armed or unarmed. The master supposedly cannot be beaten."

"Wow, that's some legend."

"It is, but let me think a minute. See, there is never more than one master and he has to be chosen somehow. That's all I remember, it was just a story one of my instructors used to talk about. I never was very interested in the mystic part of the arts, I just wanted to learn self defense."

"Well, this guy is no legend, he's beautifully real. When I went to the guest house he's staying in…I want called them servants but he said they were friends and students…were putting his things away and I saw his…what do you call 'em, not a uniform but..

"A gi?' her listener supplied.

"I don't think so, more like a short robe."

"Could still be a gi, what color was it?"

"It was the loveliest deep blue."

"Hold it, I've never heard of a dark blue robe before."

"His is, beautifully embroidered in gold and jewels, and a blue. red, and gold belt."

"The red and gold generally means a high master, but that blue…you are beginning to interest me."

"Not as much as me." Thought the eavesdropper.

"Anything else about the robe you noticed?"

"Now that you mention it, there were two monkeys on the back. One had some kind of brown jewels for eyes, and this sounds silly, but it looked so sad."

"What about the second one?"

"Now, that was strange, it's eyes were closed. The robe was just so lovely I couldn't stop looking at it. But it almost made me cry."

"How so?"

"Well, the monkey with it's eyes closed seemed to have turned it's back on, or rejected the first. Probably just my imagination."

"All right," the second coed laughed, "you've hooked me, I'll go. What's this guys' name, anyway?"

"Don't know.'

"Whoa, whoa, what?"

"All he is called is some Japanese title, I was told it means 'The Chosen One', or his friends called him master or sen-sei."

"Yeah, well, sen-sei means master or teacher in Japanese."

The two began gathering their things, preparing to leave.

"Oh, wait, I did hear that female student of his call him something."

They stood, "What was it?"

The listener had to strain to hear the reply, "She called him Ron-sama."