The Winner
It was impossible for Elijah to lose but by now he wanted nothing more than to just quit this damn game show. The game show could keep the tons he had just earned. He was willing to lose all the money and just go back to his normal life.
Nine days ago he came on this game show. He saw it countless times on television and knew he could do it better than the losing contestants he looked down upon. Either they didn’t have the answers or they had succumbed to the pressure. Elijah found the questions easy and wondered why a game show would just give away so much money.
It was another evening where he’d just came home from his well-paying job and was flipping through the channels to clear his mind. As a sound engineer that worked with the biggest artists, he made a good living. He was driving his nice Mercedes E-class and gave dinners to impress his friends. He loved cooking. His cooking made quite an impression and his friends enjoyed his company. It was a simple life but it was his.
That evening — out of boredom — he decided to sign up for the show. He went to their website and filled out a form. In the back of his mind, he already knew there was only a small chance to be invited to the show. The silence of the evening and his constantly correct guesses made him sign up anyway. He drifted off to sleep and forgot about the game show completely.
Here he was at the game show with the cameras aimed at him. As the host — the well-groomed and charismatic David Mondeaux — introduced Elijah, Elijah had to laugh at the thought he got invited to the show. The impeccably dressed David asked the usual introductory questions and the casually business-styled Elijah answered them with confidence. Having worked with the biggest stars, Elijah wasn’t quick to shy away from the spotlight himself. He could easily handle the pressure and knew his wide range of knowledge would make him a legend on this game show.
The rules were simple: answer the first question correctly and you get a hundred dollars. Answer the next question right and you double the money with every question. After you answered the second question right, you get two hundred dollars on top of the hundred dollars of the first question. Elijah could easily see himself going home with half a million. That’s not the kind of money he could easily make engineering songs for big artists. It would take him at least fifteen years to save up such an amount. With this much money, he would buy a house and never worry about a mortgage again. He could work fewer hours and have the luxury to say no to clients who he knew were trouble.
Lost in thought, he was thinking about a nice house he had seen while driving to the studio from his current residence. “Well, Elijah?” asked David. Elijah snapped out of his daydream and — knowing this was live television — responded cockily: “Sorry, I was thinking about what I was going to buy with my winnings. What was the question again?” The crowd laughed and some even whistled. He didn’t answer a question yet but already won the crowd over. The crowd would usually enjoy participants failing but Elijah somehow made them like him. His cockiness didn’t feel like arrogance and the crowd somehow wished they had Elijah’s smoothness without being a jerk.
“Well, are you ready Elijah?” asked David again. “Let’s go”, replied Elijah. The lights were slightly dimmed and the first question was met with a low base sound implying danger. The first question was an easy one but the atmosphere created a sense of urgency and suspense around it.
“Here we go, Elijah. The first question. What’s the brand name of the toys that can be constructed together? The company started in Denmark and the brand's name is a play on ‘leg godt’.”
“This one is easy because I just played with it yesterday. It’s Lego”, answered Elijah.
David let the clock run for three more ticks while staring at Elijah with a stern look. As most show hosts do, David eventually smiled and yelled: “That is completely correct!” The crowd cheered and stage lights flashed as David congratulates Elijah with the first hundred dollars.
“So you are a big fan of Lego Elijah?” asked David.
“Yes, I’ve been a fan of it since kindergarten and it’s still one of my hobbies. The possibilities are endless and with the right…”
David wasn’t paying much attention to his answer and instead signaled one of the cameramen with a thumbs up. The cameraman walked backstage to a blue room. The director — Janice Marble — gave instructions to a couple of dozen employees that were in charge of sound, lighting, and camera work. Janice was a tall woman towering over everyone else. She was stern but had a loving motherly look. The cameraman walked up to Janice and said: “We got the thumbs up. What do we do now?”
Janice took a hit from her cigarette, a sip of her whiskey, and gazing absently in the distance with a little smile, said: “We let him win of course.”
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Part 2 can be read here: https://medium.com/@moiinsayed/the-winner-part-2-91a9572c77b5.
Part 3: https://medium.com/nebulabyday/the-winner-part-3-a5a5f5384f4b
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