The Unthinkable Happens

The clasped left hands together and waited. Kelsey had this smug look on her face as if she was trying to tell James that she was going to win. But you could see that he regarded this as a formality. He would get this over with quickly and then move on to the semi-finals. I counted them down to 0. It started out as expected. Kelsey was struggling to resist as her opponent drove hers down pretty quickly. In just a few seconds, she was millimeters away from losing, but then, something extraordinary happened. The progress stopped and they seemed to be at a standstill for a long time. The look of frustrated effort on her face changed to that same confident smirk, and he looked like he had seen a ghost. She bent down and seemed to whisper something to him in a low enough voice that no one else heard. They were stuck like this for what felt like an eternity. But eventually, some movement happened.

Except now, Kelsey was turning the tides. Slowly she moved her hand farther and farther away from the table. James' resistance seemed to melt away and it seemed like he could not stop her. She reached up to quarter way, before moving their hands back to the starting position, where they stayed for almost 5 seconds. And then the unthinkable happened. James' hand started moving past the halfway mark towards the table. Kelsey's smirk got more confident, turning into a smile as she inched closer and closer to victory. His hand was now where hers was just a few seconds ago, mere centimeters from losing. With a final big push, she slammed his hand down to the table, securing her win. It was the first time in history that the first , match ended in the younger person winning, and it was this cute little girl that had done it. She had eliminated the oldest guy at the tournament and made it look easy.

"I win." She said matter-of-factly, as if the result had never been in doubt. We stood there shocked waiting for something to happen. Then she turned to us and said "who's next?" before calmly getting up and walking away. James stayed at the table for a few more seconds before getting up and walking towards the bathroom, not saying a single word.

The show had to go on, though. Despite this massive shock we went on to finish the first round. An easy win for me over my 20 year old cousin Chris meant I was going to face off against Davey in the semi-final. But that was later. First was the Kelsey's second match, this time against the second oldest of the bunch. This would be the true test of whether or not the first match was a fluke. Ben was even more muscular than James. Her winning streak would come to an end now surely.

They sat on the table in front of each other. They clasped left hands as before. I made sure to double check their postures before starting the count this time. Everything was in order. I just convinced myself that the first round must've been a fluke. I started the count. As soon as I reached 0, their hands started straining against each other. But not a second later, his hand was emphatically slammed down to the table. No resistance, no fight. Over before it even started. Kelsey had won again.

"Now that was too easy! Were you even trying?" Ben seemed to be in some pain, and probably a lot of humiliation. But the rest of us were again in shock. How had she done this ? The first one was at least explainable, James just stopped trying, got distracted, got war flashbacks. What were we supposed to think about this one? Was this some elaborate prank played on me? Did Ben and James agree to lose just to get me scared of a little girl before revealing that it had all been a ruse? No. Their facial expressions held the truth of the matter. Kelsey had destroyed them. Not only did she beat them, she did so easily and emphatically. There was no hiding it.

My match went as expected. Quick easy victory. But the thought of next opponent haunted me. What was I to expect? Surprising strength? Great technique? A potion that makes me weaker instantly upon contact? I was venturing into irrational territory to justify the unjustifiable. Whatever it was I had to be ready.