Facts

Her palms were sweaty and starting to get prickly and itchy, a sign the anxiety was worsening. She would need to take her anti-anxiety medicine if she couldn’t steady herself. In her lap, sat her little black book. She started to rub it between her two hands like she was trying to start a fire with two sticks. A fire that would ignite and burn bright with her winning the quiz show’s $20,000 grand prize. In her book were facts. Facts seemed irrelevant and disregarded these days, but they all mattered to her. She’d been collecting facts her whole life. From the time she could toddle out to the backyard and study an ant hill, she’d obsessed over collecting information and storing facts. Each fact helped her make sense of the world, a place that had made her feel like a space alien all her life.

At home, she had several tall bookshelves of identical little black books filled with facts. The facts ranged on the minutest of subjects from the dates and places of Churchhill’s most famous speeches to French cuisine complete with Julia Child’s favorite recipes to The Large Hadron Collider’s construction. Her compulsion to document facts had prepared her for this moment. And in five minutes, she’d step onto a platform behind a fluorescent-lit podium alongside her two competitors and test her knowledge against theirs. But she was ready, she knew she was. And it was this little black book, the one with coffee rings, chewed corners, and dog-eared pages that would win her the $20,000.

The facts in this book were carefully curated and selected from her library of little black books. These were the facts that often get overlooked and forgotten or are so obvious they fail to get noted or documented. The kinds that make it onto quiz shows. She had religiously watched quiz shows as part of her training and preparation for this day. On sleepless nights, on the train, during dinner, she would watch the hosts and contestants. And now she would no longer be a spectator, but a contestant. This was her moment and the ultimate test of her knowledge of facts and her skills at recording facts into this one little black book that had become her talisman.

Each fact was a piece of trivia that could become a question. Her brain flipped through each of the 240 pages. Her tiny, meticulous penmanship documented each fact in fade-proof, smudge-proof archival ink. She had even doodled images to strengthen her photographic memory. Which Shakespeare play is the longest? Hamlet (doodle with a little pig holding a skull). Who was the legendary Benedictine monk who invented champagne? Dom Perignon (champagne flute with name tag reading "Dom"). Can you name three landlocked countries? Ethiopia, Hungary, Laos (outlines of each country and her mother's initials).

She looked at the analog watch on her thin, waifish wrist with its blue veins and her brain flitted to another fact. In Greek culture, the color blue is believed to ward off superstition of “the evil eye.” And, at that moment, she locked eyes with a producer wearing headphones, carrying a clipboard. It was time. The producer escorted her onto the stage and checked her podium’s mic.

Sandwiched between two other people, she looked to the man on her left and the woman on her right and then down at her black oxford shoes reminding her of the worn leather of her notebook. The notebook’s reminder was a shot of confidence stronger than any tequila. She took a gulp and slowly exhaled. The lights, the gameshow board. It was intoxicating. Blood rushed through her ears, and she heard nothing. All noises were cancelled except the host’s baritone, aristocratic, albeit slightly arrogant British voice. The first question her buzzer didn’t work; she swore it didn’t. She knew the answer! It was Japanese Yen on page 30 in her book under currency with the symbol JYP. Another question she knew the answer to. Sea of tranquility. She could see the sea so clearly in her mind’s eye on the far side of the moon but her hand shook too much and she missed the buzzer. The man on her left confidently answered with a smugness irritating her humble sensibilities. Then, came the next question and she hit the buzzer, an electrical current ran through her body and her back stiffened. She felt she’d reach a higher level of consciousness. She was on a different plane now. Everything faded away except her little black book, her buzzer, and the host’s voice. The questions came and went with her answering each one. Hank Aaron, Jupiter, Mad Hatter’s Disease, Weeping Willow, Dingo, Fenugreek, Pythagoras, Prussian blue, diamonds, six, College of Cardinals, Coulrophobia, Football War, zoot suits, Emily Dickinson, daylight savings time, Curling, Cleveland, Krampus, Gemini, Twitter, avocadoes, EGOT, William Henry Harrison, Godzilla.

With each question, her mind serenely thumbed through the pages of her little black book. It held all the answers. This tremendous, little black book that had been her constant companion since she applied for the game show. It would not let her lose. Facts were facts! They still mattered. She was in the lead, she was winning, going to win $20,000.

Then, came the last question, “What dog breed does Queen Elizabeth II favor?” She hit the buzzer and answered Pembroke Welsh Corgis. She was right! She won! Facts won! And this answer too was in her little black book. Her heart beat faster than a hummingbird’s. She started to run but tripped catching herself on the podium as she ran to her little black book to kiss it. She was $20,000 richer and would use it to buy more little black books!