PARENTHOOD

Chapter Twenty One

Back at Bruce Lee's apartment, his wife Linda cooked all of them some Chinese food and after eating, the children went off to play in Brandon's room while Bruce and the Doctor chatted in the living room. Rain helped Linda clean up the dishes while they talked.

"This is a nice apartment," Rain said to Linda as she dried the dishes for her.

"It is nice but sometimes I miss the states. I didn't really want to come here but we had no choice. Bruce couldn't find any real work in America. Over there they still insist on stereotyping Asians as servants or villains and he couldn't star in anything, not even something he wrote. He wrote a TV show called Kung Fu but instead of giving the lead role to him it went to David Carradine and the reason they gave was that not many people would want to watch Bruce be the hero. What a bunch of bullshit."

Rain nodded in agreement.

"Here in Hong Kong, he's a star and people flock to see his movies. He has all the creative freedom he wants here and he's making lots of money but both he and I miss the states, especially since we'd rather have the children educated there."

"I can understand that," Rain said. "I'm sorry you basically had to move to another country just to find the respect Bruce deserves."

"Well, it is what it is. We can't change people's attitudes, we just have to find a way to work around them," Linda replied. "Do you have the same problem being an interracial couple like us?"

"Well...sometimes..." Rain conceded, "it depends on where we go. Some people are more accepting than others of us. But we have a very supportive family and as long as we have that, we don't care what people think."

"I hear ya, sister. I'm the same way. Bruce loves me and the children love me and the rest of the world be damned as far as I'm concerned," she said as Rain nodded in agreement. "He's really cute too if you don't mind my saying so. You two make a cute couple."

"Thanks. So do you and Bruce."

"Thanks. He's wonderful. He's wonderful with the children. He's a fantastic father to them. Sometimes he worries me though."

"How so?" Rain asked, frowning.

Linda sighed and looked around before leaning in closer to her.

"I get scared sometimes that I'm gonna lose him. I mean, a few years ago he broke his back and almost didn't walk again. He basically willed himself to walk again and in the process perfected his jeet kun do technique but he's made a lot of enemies, people who hate that he teaches to anyone, Asian or otherwise who is willing to learn and I'm afraid someone's gonna do something to him."

Rain kept her face passive. Inside though, her hearts were breaking for Linda. It was 1973, a few months before Bruce would die. Knowing that and knowing what would happen to seven year old Brendan when he grew up tore at her but she knew better than to say anything.

"I'm the same way," Rain said. "I worry about my husband too. He travels a lot and sometimes he takes risks. He was traveling long before he met me but there are times when I worry about him. I suppose it's like being the wife of a policeman."

"Tell me about it," Linda said, finishing up the dishes. "But I wouldn't trade Bruce for anyone else in the world."

"Same for the Doctor," Rain said, drying up the last of the dishes.

Just then, Rain's children along with Brendan and four year old Shannon came into the room. The children were laughing and talking to one another and all of them gathered around the two women.

"Mommy, we're hungry," Brandon said.

"Again? You just ate!" Linda said in shock.

"We're hungry again," Shannon said as the others nodded.

Linda sighed.

"I swear you two are eating machines."

"So are mine. They get it from their father," Rain said.

"I don't know where mine get it from but they're gonna eat us out of house and home eventually. Look, how about if I give you all some apple slices, is that okay?"

They nodded and Linda went to get four apples from the cabinet. She washed them off and cut them into slices, giving each child an equal amount in a paper napkin. Satisfied, the children wandered off while Linda and Rain giggled. They headed into the living room where the Doctor was sitting across from Bruce debating the merits of jeet kun do verses other martial arts. The children gathered around the Doctor while they ate their apple slices and listened to them.

"I agree, my friend," Bruce was saying, "but with jeet kun do, you do not adopt any particular methodology or fighting form so you are free to improvise as needed. In the real world, you can't rely on someone to always follow a certain karate move or a certain kung fu move; people can be unpredictable so you must be unpredictable as well."

"But on the other hand, there are times when you must rely on form, a properly executed move carries just as much power as a free form movement," the Doctor said, playing devil's advocate for the sake of the argument.

"But if you remain a slave to forms, you are doomed to fail," Bruce said.

"Not necessarily. It's true that sometimes you must improvise but practicing forms gives one discipline that one needs in battle and ooo, apple slice."

"Hey!" Chaska said when he snatched one of his apple slices and popped it in his mouth.

"Anyway as I was saying," the Doctor said as Bruce chuckled and Chaska shot his father a look. "There is beauty in martial art forms just as there is beauty in a purloined apple slice nicked from a ticked off son."

He tousled Chaska's hair as Bruce chuckled.

"Your children are beautiful," Bruce said.

"And so are yours. They're a great joy," the Doctor said.

"I agree, my friend. Being a father is one of the greatest joys in life," Bruce said as Brendon and Shannon walked over to him with the triplets.

"Can you show us one of your fighting moves?" Chaska asked him. "Show us what you did to beat daddy."

"How did you beat daddy?" Namid asked. "Cause Daddy is really good at fighting."

"Ah but I've been trying to tell your father that you must be like water," Bruce said.

"What'd ya mean?" Chaska asked.

Bruce smiled.

"You must first empty your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. So be water, my little friend."

"If we gotta be water, does that mean we gotta pee all over you?" Sokanon asked.

"No Soki, don't under any circumstances, pee on Bruce Lee," the Doctor said while Linda and Rain, who were listening in the kitchen laughed.

Bruce smiled and hugged the triplets. The Doctor beamed when they hugged him back and gave him kisses.

"It's sad to see you go," Bruce said to the Doctor and his family as he, his children and Linda stood in their doorway. "I wish you luck and much blessings, my friend, for you and your family."

"And for you and for your family," the Doctor said.

"I hope we can see you again one day," Linda said. "You're welcome here anytime or at our house back in the states if we ever get back there."

"We'll try," Rain said. "Good luck with the movie."

"Yes, I have a feeling Enter the Dragon will be a great film," the Doctor added.

"I hope so. I've put a lot of effort into it," Bruce said.

Each party bid the other farewell and Bruce, Linda and the children waved goodbye. The Doctor and his family waved back and Bruce and his family stood in their doorway watching them go until they couldn't see them anymore. Then they went back inside their house and closed the door.

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