"Tai Chi Tom" didn't look too unusual as he stepped out onto the tennis court. But there was that long flowing hair. Coming out from under his backwards mounted baseball cap. He was still hanging on to that early Agassi look into his middle age.
Even though Tom had lost a step of his once stellar speed, Tom could still definitely project his chi on the tennis court. Tom explained his chi that first day in our tennis class.
It didn't take us long to see it. He had an inner force. And yet he was calm, smooth and effective. He made it look effortless. His energy just flowed. He taught us how to flow on a much smaller scale, but we did it.
Tom knew how to gracefully sidestep things. It was visible as he would glide to the optimal hit point, marshall his chi, and then step into the ball. It would look like it was slow-motion, yet his hits would frequently surprise his opponents with their pace.
Tom also knew how to navigate his clientele; his BRATs, he lovingly called them. Brats? Beautiful / Rich / with ATtitude. There were egos to manage, to nurture, to massage. There were egos that needed to be controlled. Sometimes there were some real challenges, but Tom usually made it look easy.
That is, except when it came to Jessica. Jessica just had a power over Tom. And the usually cool Tom could sense he was losing control. She put him out of his comfort zone. She put him off his game.
Everybody knew Jessica was stunning. She was gorgeous, athletic, intelligent and financially successful. She had this incredibly charming personality most of the time... and then there were events. Events that left Tom obsessed, angry and worst of all... dazed, confused ... and scared.
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