The other one

The stage lit up as the crowd started clapping and his heart quickened. This was it—the day he has prepared for, for months. A bucket list item that so many have and so few get to cross off. The iconic game show host entered the stage and the crowd got even louder. It was surreal—if that’s even the right word. For a moment, he couldn’t believe this was happening.

His opponents were two women, white and from somewhere in the northeast. The woman furthest from him won the taping prior. She had been trailing for most of the game until the very end when she guessed an answer correctly the other players did not. The second was younger yet had an older presence about her. He was curious how they were going to show themselves as unique for the audience in the studio and at home, considering they were so common.

Whatever, they didn’t matter. He was his own competition, and they were merely observers. The categories were shown, and he couldn’t believe it. He felt confident in each one—really confident. One was his major in undergrad, another was close to what he studied at graduate school and the rest were about or close to pop culture, in which he excelled.

He was the first up and came out running. He asked for the movie award category and as the answer was read: “This movie didn’t win a best picture award until the third in its trilogy. What is Lord of the Rings: Return of the King?” He blurted out after his buzzer was the first to register. “Yes!” The host said, and he was in the lead. “I got this,” he thought, and kept giving the correct questions to the answers that flashed on the monitor.

At the first “commercial break” he had earned $2000 more than the person in second place and was feeling good. The breather felt good, but he was also curious about what question he was going to be asked when the show returned from its break. In each episode of the game show, there is a brief introduction of each contestant with a funny anecdote that usually isn’t funny. He worked hard submitting the ones he thought would get a laugh or would show him as interesting and leave an impression.

He was first up. “Tom, welcome, you are from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and I am told that you didn’t always live there. You lived abroad—is that right?” The host said. “Yeah, I actually lived in Shanghai, China teaching High School English and History at an International School for about three years.” he said—trying to keep his voice steady. “Shanghai! Wow, I bet that was an experience. There are what, 25 million people living in that city? How did you get by being one among so many people?” He asked. “It wasn’t hard—I stuck out.” He said with a grin. He heard the crowd laugh and saw that the host got his quip as was quite proud of himself.

As the second part of round one started, he continued to dominate and racked up close to $6,000 going into the second round—where everything was doubled. The “commercial break” came and went and as the new categories were being shown, he couldn’t believe it. All, except for one, were categories that he explicitly studied during the months leading up to the taping of the show. He smiled, grabbed his buzzer, and grew confident that he was going to keep the lead—and win. The round buzzed by and with just a few mishaps and only two wrong answers, he was in the lead. Well, not only in the lead, but he had almost double the player in second place.

During the final round—they were given a category and had to make their wagers. The category was “Children’s Literature” and pausing for a moment not fully thinking it through, he made his wager—everything. He was that confident. If he was going to win, he was going to win big. Having grown up watching this show and never feeling fully represented, he thought now was the time to show another young kid like him what was possible.

As the computer locked the wagers in, he took a deep breath and waited for the answer. The host began: “In the beloved Roald Dahl book, Matilda, what decadent item did Bruce Bogtrotter get in trouble for eating?” “Players, you have thirty seconds.” the host said.

“Oh no,” he thought.

Of all books, it had to be that one. He grew up with books of all kinds but a book about a white British girl having a hard time in school was at the bottom of the list of his must-reads. He didn’t even watch the movie. He knew who the author was but didn’t know anything about the plot of what a damn kid was eating in it.

In panic mode, he started sweating and could feel the beads of sweat form on his forehead. “20 seconds,” the computer blipped, and he could hardly catch his breath. He tried to focus as quickly as he could and thought: “Ok, what is a British dessert? Cake? Pie? A Crumpet? He doesn’t even know what that is so it couldn’t be that, could it?!” He thought. “10 seconds,” the computer alerted again.

“Think. Think. Think. Okay, let’s go with cake—vanilla cake.” He said to himself. “Isn’t that the most common kind of cake? Yes. Has to be.” he reasoned. He took the pen to the monitor in front of him and wrote his answer with 3 seconds left. He put the pen down when the buzzer went off and felt like he was going to pass out.

The woman who was in third went first and as her answer came up, He almost felt pity for her because he knew she was wrong. “Apple pie," it read, and he took a breath because it wasn’t his answer and was told it was the wrong answer. Relief. "She bet nothing, which was smart, but she was still in third place.” He thought.

The second player’s answer came up: “a slice of chocolate cake” and his heart stopped. He looked up and as the host started smiling, Tom felt like someone punched him in the stomach. “That's right! Congratulations!” he said. “Did you bet enough to catch our leader?” He asked and she did—she bet it all. She moved to first place as Tom was sure he was going to puke.

The host could see it on his face as soon as he looked at Tom. “I don’t like the look on your face—did you also say a slice of chocolate cake?” he said. “No, I wrote the other one,” he said, trying to hold it together. “Oh no. I’m sorry. Vanilla isn't the flavor that the young man had to eat. How much will it cost you?” he said with a pause. The wager flashed up and the crowd gasped with disbelief and pity. “You bet everything. I’m sorry Tom, but that will leave you in third place behind Rebecca and Karen.”

“Figures,” Tom thought. All that work and last place.