I Betcha you can't...I Betcha I can.
by M.C.



I always enjoy going to the circus when it comes to our town during the
summer. The rides are fast and rough, the popcorn, cotton candy and hot dogs
are good, and the shows are fun to watch. My favorites are the trapezee
artists, the animal acts and, of course, the strongman show. My only regret is
that, being very shy, I've never been able to ask a girl to go with me and,
therefore, always go by myself. Perhaps some day things will be different.

Anyway, as I was waiting on the line to buy a ticket for the "Atlas - The
World's Strongest Man" show, I heard two girls giggling behind me. I thought I
recognised their voices but I was too shy to turn around to see who they were.
Besides, they were speaking in a foreign language anyway. Then I heard one of
them say in English,"I betcha you can't," to which the other replied,"I betcha
I can."

"I betcha you can't."

"I betcha I can."

This went on for about a minute before one of them finally said,"O.K. then,
let's bet a bag of popcorn on it."

"You're on kiddo; a bag of popcorn it is."

At this point curiosity got the better of me and I had to look around and see
who these girls were. I was surprised to see the voices belonged to the two
Japanese sisters whose family had moved into the house across street from me
two weeks ago.

"Hello Ricky," Namiko Yamamoto, the older of the two, said and smiled at me.
She had an extremely beautiful face (for some reason I have always found
oriental features to be very exotic on a woman), long jet black hair that went
almost to her waist and, like me, she was seventeen years old and about to
enter her senior year in high school."Going to the strongman show I see."

"Yes Namiko, as a matter of fact I am. What were you and your sister argueing
about?"

Namiko looked at her sixteen year-old sister Kasumi and they both laughed. "If
you come to the show Ricky, you'll find out; tee, hee, hee." Though totally
confused, I bought my ticket and followed Namiko and Kasumi into to the large
tent where the Strongman show was being held. We sat down together near the
stage and a few minutes later the show began.

The first part of Atlas' performance consisted of him lifting enormous amounts
of weight. Most of the crowd sat in awe as we watched. It never ceases to
amaze me how strong some of these guys can get. I found myself wishing that I
could be like them - because maybe then, the bullies in school wouldn't pick
on me anymore (especially Roger Dalton, the toughest guy in my school who
makes a habit out of humiliating me). "Isn't he just incredible?" I asked
rethorically, glancing over at Namiko and Kasumi. Their response surprised me
somewhat - they looked at each other, said a few words in Japanese and then
began to giggle. I had absolutely no idea what they found so amusing.

After about twenty minutes of impressive weightlifting, the powerful man
turned towards the audience and, in a strong and intimidating voice, asked if
there was anyone in the crowd brave enough to enter the makeshift boxing ring
that was now being set up on the stage and fight against him. I smiled to
myself and thought,"who in the world is crazy enough to go up against this
guy? They'll get killed." But a few moments later I got the shock of my life
when none other than Namiko stood up and began walking towards the ring! She
climbed inside and, with a smile on her pretty face, looked up at the towering
figure of Atlas and said,"You don't look so tough to me big boy. I'll fight
you."

Perhaps Atlas just wanted to humor her, or maybe he was genuinely offended at
being challenged to a fight in front of a large crowd by a girl less than half
his size. But for whatever reason, he accepted her challenge. Namiko removed
the sweater she was wearing and tossed it over to me...then winked. I could
see that her arms were fairly well developed - not muscular like a
bodybuilder's, but more like that of a well trained athlete. And she seemed to
have a graceful, fluid motion as she went through a few exercises to loosen
up. "She must have studied martial arts," I thought. But even with a martial
arts background, what chance could this girl, who I guess stood no more than
five and a half feet tall and weighed perhaps125 pounds, possibly have against
the muscular, six foot-four inch, 275 pound Atlas? (His height and weight I
was sure of because they were listed on the program).

Just as Namiko and Atlas were about to square off, Kasumi stood up and looked
at her watch. I glanced over and noticed she had it in stopwatch mode and as
soon as the fight began, she pressed the button that started the timer. "I
betcha you can't," I heard her whisper to herself. And as if her thoughts were
tetepathically transfered to her sister, Namiko looked over, grinned and
replied,"I betcha I can."

Atlas moved towards his much smaller opponent with a look of extreme
confidence. But that look soon turned to surprise as Namiko struck him with a
series of lightning fast punches and kicks to his body and face. Her blows
came at him so fast that from where I was sitting they looked like mere blurs.
It was hard for me to believe that Namiko could hurt such a powerful man, but
by the way Atlas reacted when she hit him, Namiko's blows seemed to have a
surprising amount of power. "BAM!" With a solid kick underneath Atlas' chin,
Namiko sent her huge opponent reeling backwards, into the ropes. Then,
amazingly, she turned towards Kasumi and me...and winked again!

Atlas bounced off the ropes and charged Namiko, this time with an expression
of rage. But the Japanese girl easily avoided his powerful - but errant -
blows. After several seconds, Namiko saw another opening and slammed her right
fist deep into Atlas' mid-section. She quickly followed that with several more
punches and kicks to his face. The pretty martial artist then whirled around
and landed yet another hard roundhouse kick to the side of his head, the force
of which drove Atlas back against the ropes again. And while the mighty man
was struggling to get to his feet, Namiko gave Kasumi and me the "thumbs up"
sign.

With some difficulty, Atlas pulled himself off the ropes and began to
approached Namiko again; though a bit more cautiously this time. As I watched
this monster of a man try to enclose the seventeen year-old high school girl
who had totally outclassed him so far, I couldn't help but feel impressed that
Namiko had managed to hold her own against him for this long. But surely his
superior size and strength would eventually win out in the end; wouldn't it? I
mean after all, he's a huge, powerful man...and she's just a seventeen
year-old girl.

My theory was quickly blown to smithereens, however, as Namiko launched a
sudden, and devastating, attack. With a another series of well placed punches
and kicks, my beautiful new neighbor forced the larger - but much slower - man
into one of the corners where she then began to pummel him at will. I watched
in awe as Namiko systematically reduced this once awesome man into nothing
more than a mere punching bag for her hands and feet.

Stunned at first by what they were witnessing, many of the women and girls in
the crowd were now on their feet, actively cheering for Namiko. Many started
to chant "Girlpower! Girlpower!" Not that Namiko needed their support (she
seemed to be doing rather well on her own), but she did stop battering her
huge opponent for a moment and acknowledged their cheers with a nod and a
pretty smile; then resumed her onslaught on the now nearly defenceless
muscleman. While Namiko was bashing Atlas in the corner, I noticed that Kasumi
kept looking at her watch. "Less than a minute left," I heard her say to
herself. "You're not going to make it sis," (I still had absolutely no idea
what was talking about).

WHACK! WHAM! POW! SMASH! CRACK! The entire tent reverberated with the sounds
of Namiko's fists and feet as they slammed into Atlas' body. He was completely
helpless now, leaning back against the ropes with his powerful arms hanging
uselessly over the sides. Namiko paused again for a moment, then reached out
and grabbed him firmly by the shirt. She yanked him away from the corner and
dragged the battered man out to the center of the ring (he was so badly beaten
at this point that he could offer no resistance whatsoever). Then, the five
foot-five inch, 125 pound girl smiled and said,"well big boy, I sure enjoyed
this little workout of ours; but I'm afraid all good things must come to and
end. So, nighty-night."

Namiko whirled around and landed one last kick to Atlas' face. The six
foot-four inch, 275 pound muscleman spun completely around before collapsing,
unconscious, on the floor - battered to a pulp by a pretty 17 year-old girl!
Namiko then calmly stepped up onto his chest, and put her hands on her hips.
She smiled at her sister and asked,"Well Kasumi, did I make it?"

Kasumi looked at her watch and frowned. "Four minutes and fifty-two seconds.
You made it with eight seconds to spare. It looks like I owe you a bag of
popcorn."

"That's what you were betting on?" I asked, stunned."That your sister could
beat Atlas up in less than five minutes?" Kasumi nodded her head.

Namiko came back to where we were standing, giggling like a little girl. "Well
sis, that should teach you never to underestimate your big sister; tee, hee,
hee." I looked over at the ring and shook my head in disbelief as I watched
two large stagehands struggling to carry the battered and still unconscious
Atlas off the stage. When she noticed where I was looking, Namiko took my hand
and said,"I'm sure he'll be O.K. Ricky; it might take him a few days to
recover though."

"But what about his ego Namiko? How long will that take to recover after being
beaten up so easily by a much smaller girl?"

"Gee, I guess I can't do anything about that; can I? I'm afraid that's
something he'll have to deal with. After all, he did issue his challenge to
anyone in the audience; didn't he? Can I help it if he wasn't good enough?"
Then this beautiful martial arts supergirl surprised me yet again. She grabbed
me firmly by my shirt and pulled me towards her...and kissed me on the lips!
"Come on Ricky, why don't you try and forget that I kicked your macho hero's
ass and let's just enjoy the rest of our time here at the circus. Kasumi and I
would be very honored if you would be our date for the remainder of the day.
And oh yes, I believe little sister owes me a bag of popcorn; don't you?"

"Yes," Kasumi sighed. "But if I had known what a wimp that Atlas turned out to
be, I would have bet only four minutes."

"And you still would have lost. I would just have had to work a little bit
faster that's all, and not have had as much fun (giggles)."

The rest of that day was like a dream come true for me. I had these two
beautiful girls for dates, and during the course of our time together I
discovered a lot of interesting things about them. Among them: That their
father is an executive for Toyota and was transfered to the United States to
be one of their main West Coast distrubitors. That from the age of three, both
Namiko and Kasumi had been engaged in studying various forms of oriental
martial arts intensively in a special school where they were trained by
masters (their parents thought it would give them self confidence - boy, were
they right about that). And that they would be living here for at least five
years - which means Namiko would be here through her college years.

I also told them things about myself; like what kind of movies I like, my
favorite foods - that I've never even tried sushi - and about my bully problem
in school, especially with Roger Dalton (I couldn't help but notice the
strange smile Namiko had on her face when I told her about him).

It was just after we finished riding the roller coaster that Namiko squeezed
my hand tightly (and I do mean tightly) and said,"Ricky, I think you're a real
cutie pie. And since we live right across the street from each other, and
you're the only boy I know here in America, how would you like to be my
boyfriend? I'd be very honored if you would accept." (So much for Japanese
girls being timid or shy).

A beautiful girl that could easily beat up a circus strongman in under five
minutes asking me to become her boyfriend? I had to pinch myself to make sure
it really wasn't just a dream. "Yes," I managed to blurt out after a moment or
two of hesitation. "Yes Namiko, I'd love to be your boyfriend." The next thing
I knew I was being hugged by this surprisingly strong 125 pound girl who could
probably lay out half of our football team by herself. "Does life get any
better than this?" I wondered.

It was while we were hugging that we suddenly heard the sound of people
screaming. It seemed to becoming from the area where the wild animal cages
were. "I wonder what's going on," Namiko said. We didn't have to wait long for
an answer.

"Run for your lives!" several people shouted as they raced past us in a panic.
"The tiger has escaped, and he's coming this way!"

Before Namiko, Kasumi and I even had time to collect our thoughts, we heard a
loud, ominous growl near-by. I turned around and literally froze. For there,
not fifty feet away - and heading right for us - was a fierce, 500 pound
Bengal tiger. From somewhere deep within me I found the courage to stand in
front of my new girlfriend and her sister and yelled,"you girls make a run for
it while I try to distract him (to this day I don't know where I got the
courage to do that; I'm not exactly the bravest guy around).

But much to my suprise, instead of trying to escape from the impending threat,
Namiko calmly said,"that's very brave of you Ricky, and very sweet, but it's
quite unnecessary. Then I heard Namiko and Kasumi speak a few words to each
other in Japanese...and then they began to giggle (with a fierce tiger
approaching us I remind you!). And then I heard Kasumi say to her sister,"I
betcha you can't," to which Namiko replied,"I betcha I can..."

One Month Later...

Well, a lot has changed in my life since that dramatic day at the circus. For
one thing, Namiko and I are hot and heavy in the boyfriend/girlfriend
department and my problems with the bullies in school have magically
disappeared. Well not exactly magically, I guess that when your girlfriend
holds a fourth degree black belt in karate, the tough guys tend to leave you
alone. I do have to confess though, I really enjoyed watching Namiko beat the
crap out of Roger Dalton. She forced him to apologise to me in front of the
entire school. That made up for all the years he'd been tormenting me. In fact
he even stands to the side now when I pass him in the halls.

And every night before I go to bed, I look at my new wall poster. It's a
blow-up of a picture that appeared on the front page of our local paper a
month ago. In it there's a beautiful, long-haired Japanese girl smiling as she
flexes her muscles. She's standing with one foot on the chest of a huge tiger
that she had just battered into submission in about four minutes (Kasumi
wasn't too happy about that because it cost her another bag of popcorn). And
above the photograph the headline reads, "Ferocious Tiger No Match For High
School Girl!" One thing's for sure...I'll never bet against Namiko.