Unraveling (Second Chances) - By Micalea Smeltzer Page 0,13
engine off and opened the door.
“Good girl,” Rollo said.
I locked the car, and started towards the door… the front door this time, not the back.
As soon as I opened the door to the classroom we’d used last time, I heard, “Well, if it isn’t Katy Spencer, I was starting to think you weren’t going to show up.” Jared raised a brow as he ticked names off on a clipboard. “And you must be Rolland?” he pointed at Rollo.
Rollo made a face. “Please, never call me, Rolland. I go by Rollo.”
“Rollo it is, then,” Jared chuckled, and sat the clipboard down.
I looked around the room and fiddled with my hands. Finally, I couldn’t stand it any longer and spat out, “Where’s Todd?”
Jared turned to face me, giving me a peculiar look. I noticed he had a dimple in his chin. “Todd’s sick, so I said I would cover the class. Is that a problem?”
“Um, no, no problem, at all. I was just… curious,” I plopped down on the floor, wishing it would just open up and swallow me whole. I had to be the most embarrassing person on the planet.
“Okay,” Jared said, facing the room with his arms crossed over his chest. “Todd’s notes say that he went straight into teaching you defense moves. That’s all well and good, but you should also know ways to avoid being a target and I’d also like to demonstrate different moves before I let you have at it.
“Attackers are looking for one thing, an easy target. That usually means a female that’s alone,” he eyed all of the women in the class. “Now, you girls usually carry around a big, heavy, purse. Am I right?”
We all nodded.
“Well,” he said, leaning against the wall, “you can use that to your advantage. Beat the person with your purse. You’re not going to win a fight, but you might buy yourself enough time to run and scream for help. Also, let’s say you’re in the mall’s parking garage; stay in well-lit areas and always keep your keys in your hand. You can use them to stab an attacker, or you could hit the panic button and that should scare him off, because more than likely, someone will come to investigate the noise.
“If you can’t hit your panic button, scream. Scream as loud as you can. Yell, ‘Get away from me!’ Do whatever it is you have to do.
“You’re going to want to conserve as much energy as you can, so don’t wiggle around. You need to keep focused and think.
“You do not want to get any closer to your attacker than necessary. If it’s easier to kick his knee, go for that. Understand?”
We nodded.
Jared pointed at one of the guy’s in the class. “Collin? Right?”
“Yeah,” the guy said.
“Stand up and help me out for a minute,” Jared motioned with his hand.
Collin stood and walked over to Jared.
“There are several different sensitive pressure points on the body. The eyes are one of them. Scratch, gouge, or poke your attacker in the eyes. This should hurt like hell, and it might also leave them temporarily blind, giving you the chance to escape.
“Another area is the nose,” Jared motioned for Collin to stand to the side so that we could see. “Use the heel of your hand and jab, with all your weight, the underside of your attacker’s nose. If your back is to their front, you can also use your elbow or the back of your head,” Jared turned around so that his back was to Collin, and then demonstrated what to do.
“The neck is another sensitive spot on the body. If you hit your attacker with a knife strike,” he showed us how to hold our hand in a knife strike position, and then struck Collin in slow motion so that we could see exactly where to hit on the neck, “you can usually stun someone with this move. If you can’t do that, an elbow in the throat is quite affective.
“Now,” Jared said, “the best place for you to target is the knee. I know you probably think I’m crazy, but hear me out. Unlike these other points, the knee is vulnerable from practically every angle. It should also be difficult for your attacker to grab your leg if you kick their knee. The best points to incapacitate your attacker would be the sides or back of the knee. Although, you can cause a lot of injury by kicking the kneecap.