The Shaolin Monk
Ross Dale Kelly


I was sitting on a plane on my way back to the states attracting very little attention. I was in my old street clothes that had been sitting in my trunk below my bed for the last year while I wore robes each day in my time in China.

I had been studying the art of Shaolin Kung Fu, and I must say, I was pretty skilled at it by now. Each morning I stretched and ran and worked out on my own, then meditated, ate and went through the exercises with the monks. I was taught and skinny as a piece of wood and limber enough to make a dancer cry.

Upon arriving in the states I set my course for Los Angles, hoping to make it big as a Kung Fu movie star. I soon found out that it wasn’t what I was really interested in and I was more inclined to get some real action to get my blood moving.

But while I was in L.A., I did find myself in a few professional fights. Before walking in to the gymnasium, I bent down to tie my shoe and a child with her mother questioned me, “Hey, Mister! What’s with the dots on your head?”

I replied it meant that I was a Shaolin monk and was well versed in the art of Kung Fu. I had my hair buzzed short and the tattoos were visible through the hair on my head.

When I got into the gymnasium looking for a fight I got some skeptical responses. “Kung Fu won’t get you anywhere in the ring. Take it from me kid, you’re best off acting tough for the cameras.”

I convinced them to get me a fight however and in two days I was back in the ring in a pair of shorts with my guards up ready to take on my opponent. I thought I’d take it easy and feel it out, saving my better moves for a bigger audience.

I stepped in an jabbed twice with my left. The shots went through the guard of my opponent and he stuttered twice. He swung back wide at me and I stepped aside nimbly. I snapped a front kick and hit him in the chest and he went down. Feeling sportsmanlike I didn’t jump on top of him, but gave him a second to recover. He eventually did get up and after some ducking and weaving I knocked him out with a right cross into his jaw.

The next two fights had gone down similarly and though I didn’t get paid very much, I got a lot of hype from onlookers and it was my lucky day after my third fight when I was asked to fight in a cage match for quite a bit of salary. Of course I accepted.

When the fight night came, the announcers were ranting on how there was no one in my corner except the doctors who would attend to my injuries. They explained that my coaches were all the way in China, as I had explained to the press earlier.

I came up as the bell rang for my first fight. I touched gloves with my opponent then jumped in the air and did a full rotation and brought my right leg hard against my opponent’s head. He dropped to the floor hard and didn’t get up.

I gained a lot of popularity after that fight and was signed to do more cage fighting on the network which was televised around the world.

My next opponent I stepped out and high kicked with my left foot to the face and as he crumpled hit him again with another kick to the body. The announcers were saying that they never expected Kung Fu to take a hold in the caged arena. They said I had knock out kicks.

I went on to fight my third fight out to prove that my fists were as deadly as my kicks. I went in weaving and bobbing my head and after a few body blows to my opponent I finished him with an uppercut.

Coming out of the cage fighting league undefeated, I thought I had proved the full potential of Kung Fu. I would continue to train and use Kung Fu in my every day life, not just as a fighting style but as a life style.

AIM me about my work: iTrillian

Creative Writing by: RDK
All Stories Copyrighted
Website html and all stories
copyrighted October 11, 2008 RDK