The Greatest Martial Arts Display I Never Saw

I was in highschool, probably about 11 grade. We had a top engineering university in town that brought in professors from around the world. Some of them had kids. Indian, Turkish (I'm still good friends with a Muslim Turk), all sorts of Asian varieties.

One year there was a little vietnamese kid there. He was 1-2 years younger than me and had a younger sister. I don't recall the story why they were there, I don't think his dad was a prof.

Some of the local 'toughs' smelled meekness on him and they mistook it for softness or weakness. Bullying ensued. Being brave their numbers, threats, and menacing acts grew daily.

After days of escalating cruelity, they found themselves looking at the sky. In an instant, all of them were on their backs. They were bullies no more.

It was the Spring and Track season had kicked off. The Vietnamese kid was running track and suddenly everyone was very curious as to what he could do. It took a lot of pressure to get him to give a demonstration.

Being the biggest guy around, I was nominated to participate. I closed my eyes, felt something barely touch my nose, and I opened my eyes to a circle (about 120 kids) of my schoolmates, bug eyed and jaws slack. Before I found out what happened, practice started and no one would tell me. Sometimes I wonder what he did, still.