Kai tries to run away again, and the
first time, Edna have stopped him from the first time, but this time he was able to run away, this time he
goes to Toussaint’s building and he leaves after that place after finding Suds
(the drunk who used to be a fighter). Toussaint is a kid Kai’s age, who gives
him some fighting pointers, tells him fighting has roots in slavery because men
could prove their manhood, and wants to hear stories about his father because
his died in WWII. Toussaint’s mother is a maternal figure for Kai.
She is very poor, but shares her food and love. Toos tries to help Kai
talk in a way more appropriate for his neighborhood.
Kai get’s beaten up a lot and even
the small kids also and when Kai tries to fight back for the first time, the
kid runs away with a bloody nose, but his older sister finds him and beats him
badly in a garbage can. Hector has to say something to convince her to
stop. Hector cleans him up in Cutty’s garage then and then he talks to Kai’s
dad about him needing to learn to box at the YMCA. Edna is very
judgmental. So, Kai and his father have some talk about having been in the war,
his brother Han being a Chinese boxer, and how he (TK) is American, but maybe
China would be better for Kai because he’s is very weak. He needs to learn some
boxing so that he can help himself preventing the bully.
Kai’s father takes Kai out of
school to go with him to the bank to deliver the money he had been trusted to
transport. Kai father do like this because he wants to teach Kai about
honesty and work ethic, but they didn’t communicate well together.
Mr. Lewis was an African American
instructor at the Y, supervisor over the other instructors. He believes
in a mind-first approach to boxing. Mr. Lewis encourages Kai to speak
clearly because Kai is the only American-born child in the family and he was the
only one who struggles with English because the others had had formal teachers.
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