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After the movie night, and discovering that the other kids did not in fact want to kill him, Robby had decided to join Miyagi-Fang. His father was thrilled and Miguel was too. But even after he had agreed to join the dojo, Robby waited a week to attend practices. He was still incredibly nervous.
This was the day of his first actual Miyagi-Fang practice.
He showed up early with his father and Miguel. Johnny went to speak with Daniel in order to clarify something about their lesson plan for the day. This left Robby and Miguel alone.
Robby started pacing aggressively. He couldn’t remember what to do with all this pent up energy. His breathing started getting ragged. He was just so afraid of how people would respond to him being here. Miguel’s voice broke through his spiraling thoughts, saying, “Robby, remember what we talked about.”
And Robby did. He had gone to Miguel’s apartment on multiple occasions when he felt anxious. Miguel had taught Robby multiple self-soothing mechanisms, and he was pretty good at them, but sometimes, he still needed to be reminded to use them.
Robby nodded and stopped pacing. As he began to take intentionally deep breaths, remembering to exhale slowly as well as inhaling slowly. Robby began to feel calmer. Once his hands had stopped shaking enough, though Robby had no idea when they had started shaking, Robby started sipping at his water. He felt much calmer than he had before. Robby felt safe enough to notice how happy he was to be back at the dojo.
“Better?” Miguel asked from where he was standing, watching intently. Miguel may have wanted Robby to be able to calm himself down, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t ready to step in and help him if Robby really needed it.
“Yep,” Robby said, taking one last sip of water and flashing Miguel a joking thumbs up.
Miguel just smiled and shook his head at his soon-to-be step-brother’s antics. He had never expected to love Robby this much when his mom and Johnny had started dating, and yet, here he was, caring about Robby like they were really brothers.
The boys hung out until the rest of the class arrived and the lesson started. They were sparing today, one-on-one on the sparing deck. Robby had been paired up with a kid that he didn’t really know. His name was Mitch, at least that’s what Mr. LaRusso called him.
When it came Robby’s turn to spar, he was excited but nervous. He hadn’t done something like this in a long time. He just had to remember that this wasn’t Cobra Kai anymore.
The fight was going well for Robby. It was clear that this other kid, while he certainly wasn’t helpless, lacked a lot of the skill and knowledge that Robby had. Everything was going fine until Robby missed a block and Mitch’s fist made contact with the side of his head.
The sudden burst of pain had him stumbling backwards. He fell over his own feet before he got to the edge of the platform, thankfully.
Mitch still stood at the ready, prepared to continue the fight. Robby sat on the ground, grasping his head, trying to make the pain go away. Through the pain, Robby heard Mr. LaRusso ask him, “Are you okay, Robby?”
Robby was not okay. It felt like his head was being split open. He was in severe pain. Robby managed to faintly shake his head no before whispering, “My head hurts.”
This sent Mitch into a spiral of defensiveness. “I didn’t hit him that hard, I swear,” Mitch said, directing his words towards Johnny.
“I’ll deal with you later,” Johnny said to the boy. Then he walked up to his son and crouched beside Robby. “Do you need to go to the hospital, Robby?”
“I don’t know,” Robby whispered in response.
“In my experience, it’s always better to let professionals deal with potential head injuries, Johnny,” Daniel suggested.
“I know,” Johnny shot back. “Come on, Robby, were going to get you checked out.”
“Okay,” Robby whispered.
He attempted to stand with his father’s help but could not help his trembling. Everything hurt, but Robby knew that all of this pain was stemming from the pain in his head.
When Johnny and Robby left, Daniel dismissed the class. Time was almost up anyway. And no one really felt like sparing anymore.
After Johnny and Robby arrived at the hospital and Johnny explained that Robby may have gotten a head injury, the nurses whisked the boy away quickly to get checked on.
The doctor found nothing at all to be physically wrong with the boy, at least not with his head or brain.
When he told Johnny this, Johnny didn’t believe the doctor. How could nothing be wrong? Johnny had seen the pain in his son’s face and had seen him stumbling to walk. How could nothing be wrong?
The doctor didn’t have an explanation right away, but he did have a theory. He needed more information about Robby before he could be sure though.
“Has Robby experienced any head trauma before?”
“What do you mean?” Johnny asked. He was getting impatient. Johnny just wanted to know what was going on with Robby and help him.
“Has he ever gotten into a car crash or been in a physically abusive relationship in which there was the possibility of head injuries?”
“Yeah. His Karate sensei was a real piece of work. I’m glad we got him out of there,” Johnny said. “He was living at the dojo for a while. There is a chance that he got head injuries while he was there. God knows he got all kinds of other injuries.”
The doctor nodded and made notes on his notepad. His theory seemed to check out, so he decided to explain it to Johnny. “It seems that your son has no actual physical head injury due to the punch. It seems likely that the pain was a trauma response rather than actual pain. He, based on my understanding, has experienced so many head injuries that any hit to the head, no matter how soft, triggers a pain response. It’s more like a placebo concussion than an actual concussion.”
“What’s that mean? Placebo?”
“It essentially means that because you are convinced that something is a certain way, you feel the effects of that. Robby’s mind assumes that the impact on his head will cause a concussion, so his mind began to produce symptoms of a concussion.”
This made sense to Johnny. Well, not actually, but he understood what the doctor meant. Robby wasn’t actually injured, his mind just convinced him that he was.
“What do I do to help him?” Johnny asked. He really just wanted Robby to be as okay as he could be.
“You said that this had been the first day at his new dojo after being in that unsafe one?”
“Yes,” Johnny answered.
“Then my advice is to give Robby a few weeks to adjust to the new environment and feel safe there before you let him actually spar again. He should be alright, but if he experiences something like this again or shows signs of his trauma responses getting worse, for example, severe and frequent panic attacks, changes in appetite and/or sleeping patterns, among others, then, I recommend that he see a psychiatrist and get mental health help.”
“This is the first time that something like this has happened and he doesn’t exhibit any of those other signs,” Johnny told the doctor.
Not as far as you know, Robby, who was listening in from the other side of the door, thought to himself.
Robby figured that the doctor was probably right because, as much pain as he had been in when he came into the hospital, he felt absolutely fine now.
Johnny and Robby went home after that, not saying a word to each other. Johnny could tell that Robby had been listening in and already knew everything that the doctor had said about his condition, so Johnny didn’t feel the need to rehash it.
When they got to the apartment, Robby went straight to bed, even though it was only 5:30. He didn’t even eat dinner yet. But Johnny let him go. He had already forgotten what the doctor had said about changing sleep and eating patterns being a sign of poor mental health.
He didn’t notice that Robby had started to slip away again.