Champions, We Were

“Today's the day!” His voice echoed throughout the house. “Everyone, get up! Today is the day.” Lights were turned on throughout the house as the excited man pronounced over and over that today was the day. “All this hard work. All this sacrifice. Today is the day!” His announcement was slowly drowned out as the water from the faucet gave him a hug and muted his excitement. It would have been quiet enough for the residents to sleep, but that was all an illusion because as soon as the water stopped, the man started right back up! “Let’s go!” He yelled as other doors opened as he made his way to the garage. “Oh my gosh! I can’t believe today is the day. I didn’t think it would ever come, but here we are. Time to go to work!” Once all the residents of the house were in the car, the man cranked up and drove toward his destination.

As the drive proceeded, everyone in the car was privy to his plan to become a champion. He laid out every strategic move he had to make to achieve his accomplishment. Though he hoped this scenario wouldn’t happen, anyone in the car could substitute for him and the same result would be achieved due to his explanation of the detailed plan. Every rotation of the wheel provided a steady countdown as he inched closer to the arena. His breath became heavy as he allowed the silence to finally overcome his mind and the vehicle. Inhale, hold it, exhale. Inhale, hold it, imagine, and then exhale. He repeated these steps as the other inhabitants allowed his focus to overwhelm him. Because if he’s a champion, so is everyone else. Inhale, hold it, imagine, and exhale. “It’s time,” he calmly proclaimed as the jump of the wheel taking higher ground signified his arrival. “It is time!” He yelled.

As he finalized his plan in the occupied room, he sat in the chair, deep in his thoughts. While he coldly stared at the other occupants in the room who strove for his same goal, his mind briefly reminisced about the people he loved. His children, how they would cheer for him when he first started this tedious journey to the championship. He was nowhere close to the shape he is in now, so multiple times he would fail. But, they cheered anyway. It would make him smile, but he knew he needed to actually hold that gold up before they would really understand what being proud of their dad was. His wife, who would sit beside their cheering children, could sense the pain of the loss and would console her grieving husband. But he really didn’t want to be consoled, because the goal of that was to dissipate the grief. He would rather bottle it up and use it as fuel so that he could become the champion that she could really love. Today was it. Today was going to be the day he made them all proud. Today, they can cheer for real. Today she wouldn’t have to console a loser husband, but a champion man! That was today!

He wiped the smile off his face because it was time to focus. His cold stare came back across the room. Others in the room who originally considered a conversation felt the coldness of his look, forcing them to walk away, concerned and somewhat afraid. They had seen him turn on his modes before, and they knew he was dangerous in them. Everyone agreed that he was the best at his craft when he entered that mode. They were also certain that after all these years of perfecting that mode, he was going to silence the critics today. Everyone also agreed, though, he was not the friendliest person to be around when he flipped that switch. Since today was the championship, they could tell he flipped the switch and turned the dial to the max. So a simple “Hi” may cause a disturbance in the dog inside of him, and that is something they did not want to awaken.

Inhale, hold it, imagine, and exhale.

A buzzer is heard to signify the beginning of the game. The man stood up with visible steam emitting from the fire burning within. No longer would he allow people to say that he is the runner-up. Today, he will be the one. Every drop of sweat, every blotch of blood, every moment he sacrificed will all be worth it at the end of this allotted time. His familiar friend, the tunnel, welcomed him with open arms as he stepped inside without an ounce of fear. He briefly remembered the first time he stepped inside. In those days, it overwhelmed him as he buckled under the immense pressure the channel contained. The intimidation of either the impending doom or fame could be too much for some to handle. And as they say, if you can’t take the heat, then get out of the kitchen. But today, he controlled the temperature because he was the blaze. His steps toward the venue seemed to echo louder than the chants of the thousands waiting for his entrance. He exhaled the breath of the leviathan as the adrenaline changed him from just a man to a being of untameable power. His companions who walked beside him shivered in fear that they might also be consumed in the chaos that was about to be unleashed. He placed his feet one step away from the entrance and stared at his battlefield.

Inhale, hold it, imagine, exhale fire, and consume.

The buzzer sounded briefly as the roar of the thousands deadened it as a new champion was crowned. Though he was a familiar face, he was new to being the greatest on the mountain. His breath slowed, the flame extinguished, as his dream leaped from his mind and into the history books. Moments before, he was the unshakable warrior. But now he collapsed to his knees as a feeble and weeping man. His companions tried to pick him up, but they failed as the stream started to flow as the visions of the work it took to get there, and the sacrifices he made streamed in his mind. “Breathe,” he said to himself. “We did it. Breathe.” He took a deep breath to compose himself because the multitude wanted to hear their champion.

“You have been on this journey a long time. How does it feel to finally reach the top?” the instigating investigator asked as she placed the microphone in his face. A small piece of the man became enraged with the question. But he had been there long enough to understand that she was only doing her job, and it was a fair question. His greatness was foretold years before, but he never could deliver that championship. So he had to answer. “Yeah. You said it. It has definitely been a long journey. Lots of work, lots of sweat, lots of sacrifices. And it paid off because I’m here.” She opened her mouth as she was about to speak a follow-up question, but after putting a finger to her ear, she decided to change it up. “Well, congratulations! You did it! And you will be known as one of the best to do it!”

The crowd roared again as the president of the organization crowned him the champion of champions and handed him the golden trophy. He held it up so the hundreds of thousands could give him his flowers for his achievement. Though the multitude was just a sea of faces, he scanned the crowd, hoping to catch a glimpse of a few individual droplets. But what he sought, he did not find.

His companions jumped around with him as they celebrated the victory. Everything he ever dreamed was now in his hands. He stared at it in silence while the festival of praise continued to dance around him. He imagined over and over how this very celebration would be when he started what felt like a never-ending story. But now, as he obtained the glory, an unexpected void pierced his body like he was overtaken by the nothing in this suddenly ending story. His quietness appeared to the outside world as a strong passion for the game that he had just conquered. But if they could peel back the layers of his mind, they would discover that the true reason for his silence was that he found himself locked in an empty echo chamber. He called out, hoping for some type of reaction, but he only found himself alone. Then, as the championship rain started to pour, the bubbles of the alcohol brought him out of his chamber and back to reality. “Champions!” Someone yelled as the expensive drink opened, with very few people tasting it. They handed him a bottle as he placed a fabricated smile on his face and opened it. “Champions!”

An after-party was planned by his companions to celebrate the final achievement of the man. He declined because he believed that he could finally rest knowing he did it. So for tonight, he was going to drive home. As he got in his car, the lights flashed like a lightning storm all around. He sat in the midst of the storm for a second just to think. Again, he searched for the feelings that he believed would be there, but again, he found just an echo chamber. A flash in the front of his car brought him back to reality. He waved and then slowly drove away from the battleground.

As he made his way home, the interior of the car became a representation of his own interior. There were no detailed plans being laid out on this journey back. There were no exciting yells, no hyped-up music with bass pulsating the speakers, no celebrating voices, just stillness. Now and then, the award would shimmer from a street light, which would catch the man's eye, causing him to take a glance before focusing back on the road. “We did it right?” He would sometimes say to the golden object, but it didn’t respond. At the final stoplight before his house, he found himself taking a deep breath and longing for the stars to show as he looked beyond the lights. But the artificial bodies denied him the joy of the real ones. But they did provide him with a slight glimmer from the object that he had sought over the past years. He looked again at it. “Did we?” he asked.

He placed the new decoration on his table as he looked around his house. It was different this time. His most recent routine was to eat, do some exercise, watch a rerun of himself to discover his missteps, and then go to sleep. But that night, he didn’t feel the need for that routine because he was the best in the world at his craft. He sat down on his couch before unconsciously deciding to do at least one thing from his routine. But this time it wouldn’t be from an old video. He viewed these reruns in his head. They played on a different output, but he still critiqued them with the same result. He took a deep breath as the images continued to play while he started to walk through the house in the reverse order of the morning. As the doors closed, images that were specific to that room played in his mind. The encouragement that used to come from his personal cheering squad always made him smile. But the only sound heard tonight was the echo of the securing door. He stood in the silent hallway for a few minutes, as he longed for some type of cheer. But the house provided nothing but creaks and echoes of his own previous missteps.

He returned to gather his award before going to his own room. After looking around and wishing for a ghostly movement, he decided to place the decoration on the end table before walking back to close the door. As he released the knob, he realized why he felt like he had lost, though he was crowned the best. His heart, which had been muted so the warrior could train, started to reveal all the years, the days, the minutes that he had lost since he felt the solace of a partner’s love, no matter the game’s outcome. “Breathe,” he said to himself again as he sat on the bed next to the end table.

He looked forward as he saw his reflection in two different places. In one place, the untameable beast that was also champion reflected with a golden shine. In the other, a normal man was reflecting in multiple pieces amongst a shattered glass. The longer he stared, the signs of that unstoppable warrior would dissipate, because there was no more war for him to fight. But the reflection of the man would shatter even more, until it broke him to the point that he would collapse into a feeble and weeping man.