Leslie didn’t have much in the way of a yard. A left turn off the main drive formed a loop at the front of the house that enclosed a wide oval of dormant grass. The main drive led to the back “vampire” entrance, as I started to think of it, and connected with the loop on the other side of the house. Between the drive and the forest, the oval of grass was the only area large enough for training.

Since the front of the house had a northern exposure and it was late autumn, the wide covered porch...