The New Recruit Read online

  “But what if I do horrible? What if I get tapped out in ten seconds?! Then what?”

  “‘Then what?’ Like I said, if that is the case, then you learn. You learn what mistake you made. You learn what part of your game you need to work on. You learn what moves you need to practice. Warriors don’t always just do what they want to do. They don’t stay in a nice, comfortable world. They push themselves to be uncomfortable. That is how warriors make themselves better. You should do the same thing. Push yourself to do things you don’t want to do. Does that make sense?”

  It did make sense, but I still wasn’t quite sure about it. “I guess so,” I told him.

  “Okay. Well, think about it. It will make you better.”

  I was thinking about it. Like always, Uncle Jake made sense. And even though I wasn’t quite ready to say yes just yet, I knew it was the right thing to do and I had to do it.

  CHAPTER 11: THE FEELING OF FREEDOM

  I thought I understood what Discipline Equals Freedom meant when Uncle Jake taught me about it last summer. It means that, in order to have freedom in life, you have to have discipline, you have to work hard, and you have to do some things that you might not want to do. And I worked hard, studying and training and exercising in order to be free from bullies and from feeling dumb in class and from feeling weak. But I’ve been learning A LOT more about the discipline of hard work this summer!

  Last weekend Uncle Jake had me make up flyers for my Meticulous Mowing service and hand them out around the neighborhood. He also had me add another “service” to the flyer: PULLING WEEDS. Now, if you’ve ever pulled weeds before, you know how hard it is. You are on your hands and knees, digging into the roots of weeds and pulling them out, and when a yard hasn’t been taken care of, there can be MILLIONS of weeds. I told Uncle Jake I didn’t want to pull weeds. He told me, “I know that. Neither does anyone else! That’s why you will get good money to do it!” Once again, what Uncle Jake was saying made sense. Of course no one likes pulling weeds—that’s why they would pay me to do it.

  Well, during the week, six people called my house and asked for either their lawn to be mowed or weeds to be pulled or both! When I got the messages, Uncle Jake had me call them back each day when I got home from camp and set a time during the weekend when I could come by and do the work. By the time Friday came around, I had both Saturday and Sunday filled with appointments! I figured it would take me about one hour per house, but Uncle Jake told me to schedule enough time for it to take two hours per house, so that’s what I did.

  I figured that, since I was going to be working most of the day, maybe on Saturday I would sleep in. I didn’t set my alarm. I FIGURED WRONG!

  I was lying there, dreaming about a nice, cold mint-chocolate-chip milkshake, when suddenly my covers were ripped off me and Uncle Jake was standing above me. “Good morning, sunshine. What are you doing? Why aren’t you down in the garage for our workout?”

  “Well, I’m going to be working almost the whole day today, so I figured I could relax a little bit this morning.”

  “Sure. You could. If you don’t mind being weak! Just because you have other things to do doesn’t mean you should skip workouts. In fact, if you go through life only working out when things are perfect and you have plenty of time, then you won’t work out very much at all. Even in the SEAL Teams, sometimes we get really busy with training or operations. The good SEALs would still work out to make sure they’re staying in shape. When you miss workouts, you can’t make them up. They are gone. So why don’t you get up, get down to the garage, and get after it?”

  “Okay, Uncle Jake, I’ll be down in a minute,” I told him. So I got up, put my workout clothes on, and headed down to the garage. Once I was down there and started exercising, I felt better and was glad I did.

  Afterward, it was time for me to go do my work on the lawns. First it was the O’Tooles’ house. Theirs was pretty easy because the yard was small. Then it was the Kirths’ house, which took longer because I had to move a bunch of lawn furniture before I started mowing the lawn and then put it all back when I was done. The last house of the day was the Wiltberrys’, and that one took forever. First of all, it was a big lawn. Second, they had stuff all over it that I had to move. And third, they had all kinds of weeds for me to pull. There were weeds around the driveway, around their little sidewalk, and even around a little garden they had. It took forever! I didn’t get back to my house until three thirty in the afternoon. And when I got back, I was tired and dirty and hungry and thirsty, and I felt like it had been a very, very long day. But guess what?

  I HAD TWENTY-ONE DOLLARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  TWENTY-ONE DOLLARS—ALL MINE!!! FROM JUST ONE DAY OF WORK!!!

  As soon as I got home, I showed Uncle Jake. He was excited, too! “Nice work, Marc. Or should I say magnificent?”

  “Say whatever you want! I’m happy, and I’m also tired. I’m going to go sit down and relax for a bit,” I told Uncle Jake.

  “What?” Uncle Jake said in a tone that made me nervous—like he had more for me to do.

  “I said I’m going to go sit down for a bit and relax. I’m really tired.”

  “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

  I didn’t know what Uncle Jake was talking about. “Not that I can think of,” I told him.

  “What about your bike?” he said.

  Oh no. I had forgotten something. I was supposed to work on my bike for at least thirty minutes every day—no matter what. But I thought today must be different since I had already worked for almost six hours—plus my morning workout. It had been a LONG DAY. So I figured I would just explain to Uncle Jake that I was tired and he would understand. “Well, since I have been working all day, I figured maybe I could take a break from working on the bike.”

  I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER!

  “That’s not how things work. That’s not what warriors do. When warriors commit to a job, they do it. What you are doing is called procrastination. Putting things off. Saying that you will do things later. That doesn’t work. When a warrior has something to do, they do it and do it right away.”

  “But…” I started to explain to Uncle Jake that maybe today I could just use a little break. But he wasn’t being a very good listener.

  “Don’t ‘but’ me. There are no buts. If you don’t complete the work, then the work doesn’t get done. And once you do it and it is done, you won’t have to worry about it anymore. I promise that once you do the work, you WILL be glad you did. Now. Quit debating this with me, and go out and get to work.”

  Well, when Uncle Jake says “no debating,” that pretty much means no debating. So I walked straight out to the garage and got to work on the bike. I focused on cleaning the rust off of the front rim. I had a little scouring pad meant for metal surfaces and the rust-busting spray that Uncle Jake had given me for the rusty bolts. I scrubbed it pretty hard, and as I did, the rust came off. After the rim itself looked pretty good, I cleaned each individual spoke. It took a little longer than I thought, especially the areas where the spokes went into the rim—it was small and hard to get the scouring pad into those tight areas. But eventually I did it, and when it was all done, the front rim looked GREAT.

  Sunday was almost a repeat of Saturday—except I didn’t even try to get out of the morning workout or working on the bike. I just did what I knew I needed to do. I got up early, worked out, loaded my Meticulous Mowing gear into a bucket, pushed the mower to the houses of the Kellys, the Butlers, and the Wards, mowed their lawns, pulled their weeds, walked back to my house, went straight to the garage, and started to clean and scour the bike’s back rim.

  When I was about done, Uncle Jake came in.

  “Look at the rims, Uncle Jake,” I said as I held up one rim and pointed to the other. “They look awesome!”

  “They sure do, Marc. That’s great. And how much money did you make today?”

  “Another twenty-one dollars!” I said. “That’s a total of forty-two! In one weekend!” />
  “How does it all feel?” Uncle Jake asked.

  That’s kind of a silly question, I thought to myself. It feels AWESOME, of course.

  “AWESOME. It feels awesome!”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Am I sure? Of course I am! I have forty-two dollars and my bike rims look practically brand-new!”

  Uncle Jake stood with a big smile on his face for a minute. Then he said, “I want you to remember this feeling. It’s a great feeling, the feeling of having worked hard and gotten something done. But sometimes we forget how good it feels. So we don’t do what we should. This is the same as how Discipline Equals Freedom. The discipline is the hard work. The freedom is the freedom to buy what you want because you have worked for the money. It is the freedom to ride a bike instead of walking. The freedom is also that feeling, that good feeling of accomplishment. It’s freedom from feeling that you wasted time. Does that make sense?”

  “It does, Uncle Jake. Just like the discipline of studying and working out and training jiu-jitsu gave me freedom, the discipline of working hard for what I want also gives me freedom. And, of course, the freedom feels good.”

  “That’s the feeling I want you to remember—the feeling of freedom and accomplishment—especially when you have hard work ahead of you. Will you remember that feeling?”

  “Yes, Uncle Jake. I will,” I told him. And I meant it.

  CHAPTER 12: OLD SHOES

  For the past few days I have been gathering intelligence on Nathan. I learned a lot. I did this by using surveillance, which is another cool thing I learned from Uncle Jake. It means to watch something very closely and take note so that you really understand someone, what they do, and why they do it. Uncle Jake gave me some instructions on how to gather intelligence by using surveillance.

  He told me to get close but not too close. To stay at a distance and watch but to make sure that I was actually doing something and not just standing there watching. So I figured out some good ways to make that happen. When Nathan was playing baseball, I watched him from the jungle gym while doing some sets of pull-ups and other easy exercises. During lunch, I sat two tables away, facing him so I could see him but still not stare at him. I would just eat my lunch and watch him out of my peripheral vision. Uncle Jake taught me about peripheral vision. It means that you aren’t staring right at something but you are instead watching it from the sides of your vision. COOL! Also, when we were in the classroom for art or in the library for reading, I would sit a couple of tables away. Again, I would do whatever project or assignment we were supposed to, but I would make sure that I was sitting in such a way that I could see what Nathan was doing.

  The first day I completely FAILED! When I got home, Uncle Jake asked me to write down everything I learned about Nathan. So I did. I only wrote He talks a lot and gave it to Uncle Jake.

  “That’s it?” Uncle Jake asked me.

  “Well. Yeah. I guess. That’s what I saw.”

  “We already knew he talked a lot! Mission failure!” Uncle Jake said with a smile on his face.

  “Mission failure? No way! I watched him all day!”

  “You watched him, but you didn’t see anything,” Uncle Jake said.

  “Okay. Now I’m confused. What the heck does that mean?”

  Uncle Jake looked at me for a few seconds, then said, “It means that you didn’t actually gather any intelligence. We are trying to find out everything we can about Nathan. All you figured out is what we already know. You need to look for details. How does he get to school? What kind of shoes does he wear? What kind of socks? What does he eat for lunch? What kind of backpack does he have, and what does he keep in there? How does he get home from school? Find out everything you can.”

  I didn’t understand why this was important at all. Who cared about all this stuff? “Why is all this stuff important, Uncle Jake? I already know he is a mean kid. I should just fight him and get it over with!”

  Uncle Jake shook his head and then said sharply, “No, Marc. NO. That is not what we do. We don’t go around fighting people just because they are annoying. That is an emotional move, and remember: Warriors don’t act on emotions. Warriors have to understand why they are fighting. Right now, you don’t know. But if you can figure that out, then we can make a logical decision about how to solve this problem. That might mean a fight, but it should really mean something else. Fighting is only a last resort, if all your other solutions have failed. As warriors, we are prepared to fight, but we avoid it if we can.”

  “Okay, Uncle Jake. I get that part, but I sure don’t understand what his lunch and shoes and backpack have to do with any of this,” I told him.

  “We need to understand our problem. If we don’t fully understand a problem, then we can’t solve it in the most efficient way possible. So stop complaining and gather better intelligence tomorrow at school.”

  “Okay, Uncle Jake. I will.”

  So the next few days I did what Uncle Jake said. Here are some things I figured out about Nathan:

  1.  Nathan has old shoes. In fact, his shoes are so old that there are holes in the soles, and his right shoe actually has a hole in the bottom that goes all the way through to his sock.

  2.  Speaking of socks, his are dirty and don’t match. They also look like maybe a dog chewed on them.

  3.  Nathan’s pants have holes in one knee. And guess what? He only wears one pair of pants—at least, in the last three days he has. The first day I noticed the hole. The next day, I saw the same hole, and the next day as well. When I thought about it more, I realized that Nathan pretty much wore the same pants every single day during the entire school year!

  4.  On top of that, I also realized that Nathan only has two or three T-shirts and wears them over and over and over again.

  5.  Uncle Jake asked me what kind of backpack Nathan has. But there was a problem with that one, because Nathan doesn’t have a backpack. He carries his stuff in an old plastic grocery bag, and not just his snacks—everything.

  6.  And for snacks, Nathan must not get very hungry during camp, because he never brings much to snack on. Over the past three days, he only brought a snack one time—and it wasn’t much of a snack at all. It was just a plastic bag with some potato chips in it.

  So after three days, I told Uncle Jake all I had learned about Nathan. I told him that he was dirty, didn’t eat healthy foods, and was too lazy to even change clothes!

  “Is that what you think, Marc?” Uncle Jake asked me.

  “Well, YES!” I answered. “Of course! If he doesn’t want to be dirty, why won’t he change clothes? If he isn’t lazy, why doesn’t he get a backpack to carry his gear around in? And if he wants to eat healthy foods, why does he just bring potato chips to school?” It all made perfect sense to me.

  “Maybe he doesn’t have money for new clothes. Maybe he can’t afford a new backpack. And maybe he doesn’t have any healthy food at home so that he can fix himself healthy snacks for the day. Did you ever think about that, Marc?”

  I certainly had not thought about that. “No, Uncle Jake. Not really.”

  “Okay. Well, think about it now: Maybe Nathan and his family don’t have the money to buy new clothes, get a new backpack, or have good food. You don’t know. And if they can’t afford good clothes, do you think they can afford a nice house? A car? Video games and TVs and a big garage with a gym in it? And jiu-jitsu lessons? There is a chance that they can’t afford much of anything. And how do you think that would make a person feel? How would it make you feel?”

  “Not good, Uncle Jake.”

  “That’s right, Marc. Not good. That’s why we gather intelligence. So we know what the problem is. Maybe Nathan has more problems in his life than just having a big mouth and being annoying.”

  “Maybe,” I said as I thought about all the nice things I have. “Maybe.”

  “All right. Well, we will gather some more intelligence soon. Until then, keep your cool.”

  “Yes,
Uncle Jake,” I told him. “I will.”

  Uncle Jake walked out of the room, and I changed into my pajamas. My nice, clean pajamas. And I wondered to myself if Nathan even had pajamas.…

  Probably not.

  CHAPTER 13: CONSISTENCY

  “Well? What are you going to do?” Uncle Jake asked.

  I knew he was going to ask me that. Today was the last day to sign up for the jiu-jitsu tournament—and Uncle Jake wasn’t going to forget it.

  Part of me had thought that if I just ignored it and didn’t say anything, then maybe by the time Uncle Jake remembered the tournament, it would be too late to sign up.

  I should have known better! Because it was the first thing Uncle Jake asked me about this morning!

  But it was fine. I had been thinking about what Uncle Jake told me. I was afraid of losing, but Uncle Jake told me that being afraid of losing is okay. And even if I lose, I would learn.

  But I was still nervous about it. “Can I tell you at the end of jiu-jitsu class tonight?”

  “You are going to have to, because today is the last day to sign up for the tournament,” Uncle Jake said.

  “Okay. I will.”

  When I got to jiu-jitsu class, we warmed up, worked on some new moves, and then did some training.

  In between drills, I talked to Nora. She’s a year younger than me and is a lot smaller than I am, but she is REALLY GOOD at jiu-jitsu. She’s been doing it for a long time—and she does all kinds of competitions. She asked me if I was going to enter the tournament.

  “Are you doing it?” I asked her.

  “Of course I am!” she said without any hesitation at all. It was kind of amazing. Here was Nora, younger than me and smaller than me, and yet she wasn’t afraid AT ALL. “Are you?” she asked again.