Heaven’s Will

Tennis players are not allowed to swear when they are playing in Wimbledon. Because of this, line judges and umpires have to learn curse words in every language (Yes! You read right) to know when a player has violated the rules. 

“You know I don’t do well under pressure,” an uninterested Chris said. “True, but it’s different this time, the heavens have smiled upon our fortunes,” Jadon countered. They were both, at the very least, half right. Chris is a bright teenager who loves everything but an appearance under the watchful eyes of a large audience. Though he was one of the most intelligent students in school, he had a modest background and frequent disagreements between his parents made him a timid individual. He would cry any time there’s tension at home and most times the backlash fell back on him like the innocent grass that witnessed a tussle between two wild beasts.  Jadon’s choice of words was most times fascinating. It’s not like they were granted a last minute entry to deliver a speech at the United Nations headquarters in New York in this case. Granted, it was a science exhibition, one where Stephen Hawking would proudly sit back (what else would he do?) and enjoy gracefully.

Chris’ family is a torn one, barely hanging with a support as frail as a spider’s web. A day hardly went by without his father, Dave, complaining bitterly about how Chris and his mom, Cassie, were responsible for his misfortunes. “If only she wasn’t carrying that thing on my worst day on earth,” he would remind himself with a furious tone.

It all happened when Cassie was pregnant. She had left work just an hour after she arrived and headed home when she felt dizzy and couldn’t concentrate on that fateful day. Unknown to her, Dave was on the verge of signing a deal with a special military agency. He had secretly built a special kind of drone that caught the eye of the agency and they were ready to splash the cash, complete all necessary paper work and put the drone into use.

Dave had toiled to bring his dream close to fruition often keeping late nights and other times spending the entire weekend away from home working hard on his dream. Whenever Cassie complained, he would remind her of the harsh economic realities they’re facing and how he needs to put in extra shifts at work to raise a little more cash. He wanted to surprise his wife with the whole story once he’s signed the deal. They’ll move out of their rented apartment, buy a new house by the seaside and spend the following month on vacation on Zanzibar Island. He had it all planned out, in his mind at least.

Innocently, Cassie called her husband telling him she’s home because she was really sick and needed urgent help. Dave could barely hear her talk. “She must be in some deep trouble,” he thought. Dave had told Cassie earlier in the day that he was taking time off work so she was a bit surprised when she got home and couldn’t find him. “Dave must be in the neighbourhood, let me play a little prank,” Cassie said to herself. “I’m sorry, I have to go see my wife, I can’t go on with this. Not right now. Please call me to reschedule my appointment.” Dave told a senior military official handling the details of the deal. “But it won’t…,” the military official tried to counter but Dave won’t have it, he was gone. The presidency had sent delegates to witness Dave give a little talk before putting pen to paper but were irked by Dave’s last-minute turnaround.

Dave got home panting heavily like rookie who just wrestled with Brock Lesnar. He surprisingly met a smiling, stunning-looking Cassie. Apparently, she’s not as sick as she made Dave believe. “Why are you wearing a suit?” Cassie asked rather surprised. “You said you were sick!” an infuriated Dave fired. “Oh! I was just pulling a prank on you, I thought you were in the neighbourhood,” Cassie responded. Dave could only bury his face into his palms as the harsh reality hit him. Cassie sounded so weak and helpless that Pharaoh would have dropped by to help. Except that it was a prank. It was at that point that Dave explained everything to her and she felt like disappearing without leaving a trace. 

Weeks passed, then months and still no word from the military agency. By the end of the fifth month, Dave received a mail informing him that the deal has fallen through. Sometimes life doesn’t present an opportunity twice especially when it involves a silly mistake on your part.  

Dave lived on with Cassie and always held her in contempt. She had Chris not long after and if anything, Dave became even worse, blaming the innocent child for what he knew nothing about. He continued like that as Chris grew older. Dave hated the existence of the poor Chris and is never pleased with him. 

The science exhibition day arrived and Chris and other nine participants were asked to come forward and explain the principles behind their inventions. Like his father before him, Chris had built a drone, one carefully designed resembling a dove and made to sound like various types of indigenous insects depending on the time of the day it is put to use. He only got in because another participant was involved in a car accident and couldn’t finish his design on time. All the participants did well in explaining what they’ve done and not long after, the top three were announced. Chris came a close second and felt hard done by. 

“Let’s hear from the man who built the nifty drone,” the anchor of the event invited Chris on stage for yet another talk. Chris stepped out, visibly lacking confidence, took the mic and began “first of all, I would like to say…” he raised his head and spotted his father in the crowd. He had come to do what? “Chris, you’re nothing but a dream wrecker and no matter how close you come, outstanding success will always elude you.” That is his father’s unforgivable favourite line. Chris tried to continue but broke down in tears instead as those words struck him and for once it seemed true. ‘Outstanding Success’ had eluded Chris. 
  

And cats are cute. Aren’t they?