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This appears in a pre-2010 issue
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Simon and Papa John
Ed Coet
Simon Gaunt wasn’t your average teenager, even though his circumstances resembled the experiences of some of the most troubled of youth in modern-day America. Simon was the second oldest of three children. Their father, Henry Gaunt, was an alcoholic who couldn’t hold down a job. He deserted his family when Simon was just two years old.
Simon’s baby sister Tammy had just been born. Simon’s older brother Martin was still just a youngster himself. The responsibility of providing for three children was not in Henry Gaunt’s plans. When he left, he never called or visited his family again.
Henry Gaunt did not provide for his family in any way. He didn’t even send birthday or Christmas cards much less presents. He was an irresponsible and self-serving bum. He didn’t care about his family or anyone else.
Simon’s mother, Mary Gaunt, had become pregnant with Mark, Simon’s older brother, when she was a16-year old high school student. She dropped out of school to marry Simon’s father. Mary believed Henry Gaunt’s love proclamations and surrendered her virginity to him while under the influence of some cheap wine. Henry had encouraged her to drink to intoxication.
Mary Gaunt convinced herself that Henry would love and take care of her and their child. She ignored every warning that family and friends tried to tell her. Mary refused to believe that Henry was only interested in sex. Henry reluctantly married Mary only because his parents told him that it was the right thing to do. His parents pressured him to “do the right thing.”
Henry Gaunt kept Mary barefoot and pregnant for five years as they survived on welfare, food stamps, and family handouts. He remained unemployed and in a perpetual state of drunkenness the entire time.
When Mary finally had enough and insisted that Henry stop drinking and fulfill his family responsibilities and obligations, out the door he went! Without a high school diploma, Mary Gaunt was forced to work for minimum wage if she could get a job at all. Half the time she was out of work.
Mary tried to provide for her three children as best she could. She understood the huge mistake that she made in her youthful indiscretions. That mistake would define her life, and that of her children, for many years to come. Without an education Mary Gaunt was destined to a life of poverty living in the Five Points area on the East Side of Denver, Colorado.
Five Points was the projects area that most often was referred to as “the slums” or “the ghetto.” The area was infested with poor sanitation, rodents, and numerous health hazards. On every corner, one could see alcoholics, drug addicts, prostitutes, and freeloaders. All manner of violence and crime was commonplace daily, especially after nightfall. It was an ugly and dangerous place to live. Still, rent was cheap in these run down and rat infested tenements and it was the only place Mary Gaunt could afford to live as a single parent of three children.
Concerned about what would happen to her children if she lived in “the ghetto” too long, in desperation, Mary turned to prostitution to support her family. Mary Gaunt was an attractive woman. She reasoned that with the money she could earn through prostitution she could save up and move her family out of Five Points.
Mary dreamed about finishing high school and picking up a trade of some kind. She fantasized about someday having a socially acceptable job that would enable her to move her kids out of poverty without her having to sell her body.
Every day before she came home, Mary would pray that God would forgive her for the sinful manner in which she earned her living. Her work filled her with shame and guilt. Mary’s parents disowned her. They even turned their back on her children, their own grandchildren, upon learning of Mary’s immoral lifestyle. Mary was terrified that her children would also find out that she was a prostitute. She feared losing their love and respect. Sadly, her secret would have to be revealed to them.
Shortly after Simon’s 8th birthday, Mary was diagnosed with HIV. Her many liaisons as a prostitute would prove to be fatal. A week before Simon’s 12th birthday his mother, whom he dearly loved, died in incredible pain from AIDS.
Now homeless, Simon’s grandfather, John Gaunt, whom they lovingly called “Papa John,” was the only relative that Simon, Mark, and Tammy could turn to. Papa John happily and lovingly accepted them into his humble home despite the fact that he was poor in health and in wealth.
That hadn’t always been the case. Once Papa John had been a true specimen of a man. He was an army paratrooper, a ranger, and a Special Forces intelligence officer. He mastered a variety of martial arts styles while stationed in Japan, Korea, Okinawa and Brazil. Papa John was an accomplished expert in Korean Tae Kwon Do, Okinawa Kaji Kempo, Japanese Sho Do Kan, and Brazilian Ju Jit Su.
He was also a Special Forces master fitness trainer and self-defense instructor. Papa John was not one to boast about his extraordinary physical attributes. He was a humble man, a man of faith.
Only his wife and a few select people knew that that Papa John was the foremost martial artist in the United States Army and perhaps the best in the world. He was so fast and deadly that he could thrust his hand in to a man’s chest, pull his heart out, and show it to him before he died. The Special Forces considered Papa John to be a human secret weapon.
Once, while on a secret military mission, Papa John was shot twice while saving the lives of two fellow soldiers. They were being held hostage by terrorists. Papa John killed five of the seven terrorists in hand-to-hand combat, all by himself, prior to being shot.
The two remaining terrorists, upon witnessing what happened to the other five, didn’t stick around to see if their bullets had killed Papa John. They were too afraid of Papa John’s extraordinary martial arts abilities. Papa John received America’s highest award for valor, the Congressional Medal of Honor, for the heroics he displayed on that particular mission.
Few people took notice when the President presented it to him. The citation had to be classified due to the secret nature of the operation. While presenting Papa John with the Medal of Honor, the President openly wept. He said America had never had a more courageous, selfless, and patriotic hero than Papa John.
Sadly, because of the secrecy involved in his military missions, the public could not know about his heroics. Papa John was medically discharged, under honorable conditions. His combat wounds forced his medical retirement. He was provided with a small veteran’s disability pension.
Papa John recovered from the bullet wound in his chest but the second bullet logged in his spine. It paralyzed him from the waist down. Beth, his wife, worked as long as she could to help out financially.
Sadly, Beth Gaunt was diagnosed with breast cancer. She died just two years after Papa John’s discharge from the army. Papa John was devastated. He loved Beth so deeply that he would never fully recover from her loss.
It was hard for Papa John to go on living. Wheelchair bound, Papa John lived on his small VA pension in a tiny Five Points apartment where a seemingly ungrateful society could care less about his war wounds, heroism, and national service. Only Simon and Tammy, and his deep faith in God, gave him the will to go on.
Time passed by quickly and Martin, Simon’s brother, turned 19 while serving a 20-year sentence in the Texas State Prison. He had been convicted of trafficking in illegal drugs and narcotics. Martin Gaunt had already served two terms in a juvenile detention center for possession of illegal drugs, involvement in gang activities, and repeated expulsion from school for poor attendance, failing grades, and a long history of inappropriate behavior.
Unbeknownst to Papa John, Martin had already been involved in drugs and gang activity while his mother was still alive. Martin was a drug addict. He developed his drug addiction through involvement in the East Side Raiders or ESR as they called themselves. ESR was a gang that recruited its members locally. They tried to establish a sort of perverted community bond.
The ESR recruited young. They focused on teenagers who were immature, impressionable, gullible, and easily led. Gang leaders slowly initiated and grew them into the gang. By the time they were old enough and mature enough to understand what they had gotten themselves in to, they had already developed a drug habit and a history of involvement in criminal activities. The gang was like an “evil” family that they needed to feed their out of control drug habits. They also needed to maintain a protective gang shield because rival gangs soon targeted them.
Once in the ESR you were committed for life. You could never quit or leave. The gang, fearful that you would tell what you knew about gang activities, would kill you and even members of your family if you tried to leave the ESR. The ESR was extremely violent.
For its youngest members, the ESR leaders made gang life seem like a brotherhood that looked out for each other. Nothing could be further from the truth. All loyalties were for the ESR, even before family and God. Few members actually believed in God. Those few who did have faith dared not mention God in gang circles.
Papa John was determined not to let Simon and Tammy fall into gang activity and drugs like their older brother Martin did. He decided to teach Simon the many martial arts skills that he himself had mastered. Although Papa John’s disability prevented his performing many of the techniques he had mastered, he still had them committed to memory. He still knew how to explain and teach them. Papa John wanted Simon to be able to protect himself and his younger sister.
On Simon’s 16th birthday, Papa John finally told Simon about his years in clandestine Special Forces operations. The stories intrigued Simon, but he wondered if it could all be true . Papa John also showed Simon the Medal of Honor that was given to him for bravery above and beyond the call of duty. Simon admired it even though he didn’t understand the medal’s full significance.
Papa John made Simon promise to never reveal the secret skills he would teach him. Simon promised to keep the secret always, and Simon’s word was his bond.
Papa John combined social skills and morality lessons, based on his Christian faith, with Simon’s martial arts instruction. He taught Simon the evils of drugs, alcohol, and gang activity. He taught Simon that no matter how poor he was he could never justify getting involved in criminal activities. He taught Simon the importance of studying hard and how a good education would be his ticket out of poverty.
Simon listened carefully. He was a very good student. He was also a very good person. Papa John explained that the martial arts were for self-defense and defense of the weak only. He explained how many people fight out of pride and lose their honor as a result. He explained the importance of being non-violent and humble.
Papa John said there was no shame in walking away from a fight. He said that it was dishonorable to stand and fight, out of sheer pride, just so that other people wouldn’t think you were a coward. Papa John said, “Doing the right thing is much more important than risking hurting someone or getting hurt yourself, just so others will think that you are a tough guy.” He also said, “If there is any means of escape, you must leave, even run away before standing and fighting.”
Papa John taught Simon to fight only as a last resort when he had no possible means of escape. The only other time fighting was permissible was in defense of the weak or the defenseless. Examples included coming to the aide of an elderly person who was being assaulted, a defenseless woman in peril or a handicapped person being attacked. Papa John made sure that Simon understood and believed these important values before he taught him any of the deadly martial arts skills.
For two years Simon learned the martial arts in secret from Papa John. He learned advanced techniques that were not taught in local karate schools, techniques that weren’t even known by other martial arts instructors. His training was intense and rigorous. It involved a great deal of conditioning.
Other than school, homework, chores, and church, Simon spent all his remaining hours learning, practicing, and studying martial arts from the world’s foremost martial arts master: Papa John.
At the age of 18, Simon had learned everything that Papa John had to teach him. He was even better than Papa John had been in his prime because Papa John also taught Simon how to avoid those few mistakes that he himself had made. Simon was now the most accomplished, the best, and the most dangerous martial artist in the world. But nobody but he and Papa John knew it. That’s the way they both wanted it.
Two weeks after Simon’s 18th birthday, and eight weeks before he was scheduled to graduate from high school, Papa John died of a massive heart attack. He was given a poor man’s funeral, but with military honors. Simon wanted to do more, but this was all he and Tammy could afford. Only Simon, Tammy, and a priest attended Papa John’s funeral service.
However, much to Simon’s surprise, an official-looking staff car with four shiny silver stars imbedded in a red plate pulled up to the burial site at the veterans’ cemetery where Papa John was being buried. As the bugler played taps, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, America’s highest ranking general, got out of the staff car and walked up to Papa John’s coffin. For several minutes he solemnly stood at attention giving a rigid and respectful hand salute to the coffin where Papa John laid in rest.
Receiving a folded American flag from the honor guard, he walked up to Simon and said, “I am here representing the President of the United States, myself, the United States Army, and the American people. On behalf of a grateful nation, I offer this flag to you in memory of Papa John, the greatest secret hero in American history. May he rest in peace.” Then the general departed. Simon now knew with certainty that all the stories Papa John had told him were true. He and Tammy cried uncontrollably.
All through school, kids picked on and made fun of Simon. They made fun of his clothes and his shoes. Being so poor, Papa John could only afford to buy second-hand clothes from a local thrift shop. They also made fun of Simon because he studied and received good grades. They called him a geek, a nerd, and a number of other profane names. They called Simon a coward because he would walk and sometimes run from fights.
The so-called good kids would have nothing to do with Simon because he was poor and lived in the bad part of town. They knew Simon’s brother was a convicted criminal. Many of them heard the rumors that Simon’s mother was a prostitute and that his father was an alcoholic bum who deserted them. They joked about it in pure meanness. Their cruel objective was to offend and upset Simon.
The local gangs, especially the ESR, left Simon alone because they thought he was a coward and weakling. They didn’t want to recruit such wimps into their gang. They also knew Simon would have nothing to do with drugs, tobacco, or alcohol. Simon was spit on, tripped, pinched, poked, scratched, bitten, slugged and had objects thrown at him. All he ever did in response was to turn the other cheek and just walk or run away. Simon did this even though he knew that he had the ability to wipe them all out if he really wanted to. Even on those few occasions when Simon became angry enough to fight, he remembered the promise he made to Papa John. Then he would back off, controlling and composing himself. Simon loved and respected Papa John more than anyone. He could never break his promise to him.
Simon and Tammy still lived in Papa John’s apartment after he died. One day as Simon approached the apartment, he heard a horrifying scream. It was Tammy pleading for someone to help her.
Simon dropped his books and rushed to the apartment door with world-class sprinter speed. The door was locked. Simon yelled “Ki Aii!” Then he leaped into the air and did a turning back kick into the door. His kick landed with such power that the door burst into slivers. The sound of the cracking hard wood door could be heard a block away.
Simon saw three members of the ESR holding his sister. Butch, the gang leader, was unzipping his pants. They were about to gang-rape Tammy. Simon instinctively knew this was one of those rare occasions when fighting was acceptable. He knew that Papa John would approve of his intervening to help his desperate sister.
Simon quickly went into action as Butch called out to the gang members - “Get him!”
The first gang member to reach Simon was the recipient of a flying sidekick into his throat. All one heard was a quick “ugh” sound as his limp body flopped to the floor with blood flowing from his mouth. Two gang members tried to hold Simon as the third attempted to stab Simon with a knife.
Simon did a flip between the two-gang members who were holding his right and left arms and shoulders. This caused them to crash their heads together. They were both knocked out cold. Simon then did a crescent kick with such speed and power that it knocked the knife through the wall while breaking the arm and dislocating the shoulder of the gang member who was holding it.
Then Simon cupped his hands and with lightening speed hit another gang member’s ears so hard that the pressure caused his eyes to pop out of his head, blinding him. His pain was agonizing. It was a scary, bloody, ugly sight.
Engulfed in fear and horrified by the lightning speed with which Simon had utterly destroyed four of their fellow gang members, all of whom were known to be big and tough, two of the remaining three ESR gang members jumped out of the nearest window. They jetted away with the speed expected from anyone who genuinely feared for their lives. Both gang members soiled themselves from shear fear and the terror of what they had just witnessed.
Now all that was left was the ESR gang leader Butch. Butch was the biggest, meanest, baddest, toughest, and the most feared of any gang member. At six feet seven inches tall, Butch towered over Simon. He weighed 275 pounds. Every ounce of Butch was solid muscle from many years of heavy bodybuilding and illegal steroid use. His muscles bulged everywhere. When he flexed, his shirt split open in the chest and in the arms. It seemed as if his muscles popped out of other muscles. His fists were huge, like fire plugs. He hit like a sledgehammer. As if this were not enough, Butch was also a black belt karate master in his own right.
Butch gritted his teeth. He shouted to Simon, “Prepare to die, punk!” Then Butch lunged forward. It didn’t matter. Unbeknownst to Butch he had just picked a fight with Simon Gaunt, grandson and student of Papa John Gaunt. Butch was about to find out that Papa John had trained and developed Simon into the most dangerous man alive.
Simon met Butch with a flurry of reverse punches, chops, and backhands that were so fast that they would have looked like a blur on even a slow-motion camera. In a split second, Butch’s face looked like it had been through a meat grinder. Blood splattered everywhere. This was followed with a jumping front snap kick, turning back kick, and two roundhouse kicks, all delivered with lightning speed.
The final spinning back kick and reverse punch to the side of Butch’s face knocked out both rows of his teeth and fractured his skull. The crackling sound of broken bones and body slams could be heard by police approaching from across the street. Tammy had called the police while the fight was in progress.
Butch’s entire body flew through the air. His body hit the wall with such force that it imprinted in the wall before it fell to the floor totally limp, like a huge bag of potatoes.
As the police ran inside, they pulled a gun on Simon. Simon was standing over an unconscious and utterly defeated mass of blood and broken bones previously known as the ESR gang leader Butch.
As Simon was preparing to thrust a final spear hand in to the chest of Butch, he paused when hearing the voice of his sister. Tammy cried out, “No Simon! Stop! You’re all I have left in this world. Please stop, Simon!”
Simon looked at the police and then at his sister. “Are you alright Tammy?” When she indicated that she was just fine, Simon backed away and said, “Okay, Sis. I won’t dishonor you or the memory of Papa John: enough is enough.” Simon then held out his hands so the police officer could hand cuff him.
The police officer said, “That won’t be necessary, Simon. Your sister explained everything to us. We also caught the two ESR gang members who fled during the fight. They’ve confessed everything too. It was clearly a matter of self-defense. Thank God you were there to protect your sister. You saved her life Simon. These guys weren’t just rapists, they were also killers.”
Tammy ran to Simon. She firmly embraced her brother. She cried, hugged, and kissed him on his forehead and cheeks. All the while she cried in relief saying, “Thank you, Simon. Thank you, my dear brother.”
A rival gang murdered Mark, Simon’s older brother, in a prison gang fight. Simon graduated from high school with honors. So did Tammy a year later. Tammy married a doctor. She went on to become a schoolteacher who specialized in working with troubled children. Tammy was very happy and she kept in touch with Simon regularly.
Simon became a Special Forces intelligence officer in the United States Army. He was honored to follow in Papa John’s footsteps. Simon was also happily married. He had a son of his own whom he named “Little John,” after Papa John.
A lot of kids thought Little John was a bit of a patsy who always ran from fights. One day a neighbor heard a loud “Ki Aii” from behind the privacy fence next door. As he climbed to look over the fence, he saw Simon shaking his finger disapprovingly at Little John.
Little John stood curiously silent with a sorrowful look next to a tree that had just been split in half. There was no ax or saw in sight.
