After writing this story I reread it and
realized some flaws I left out a whole middle part that I thought I had included,
so here is the elongated/revised version. Any thoughts you have, as always, are
appreciated.
FOR THE SAKE OF A TITLE.
FOR THE SAKE OF A TITLE.
There were two men who worked in the same office. For
the sake of this story we shall call one of them Mark and the other one
Ben. Mark was built like a quarterback with broad shoulders, big
frame and strong muscles, the works. This was a bit remarkable because Mark had
never really played much football, he stayed in shape by frequently exercising
at the local gym. Ben was Mark’s opposite in almost every way
(except for the fact that he was not female). Ben was short, wore
glasses and not too strong, he looked like the stereotypical geek/nerd.
They were both in love with the same woman, we’ll call her
Sue. They were constantly trying to
one-up each other to prove to Sue that they were the best man. Ben would buy Sue a red rose, and mark would
buy her a whole bouquet of red roses with a couple other flowers thrown in to
accentuate her blue eyes. Mark would buy Sue a ticket to a concert, Ben would
buy her front row tickets to a ballet. It went on and on like this for a few
weeks. Sue didn’t mind the extra attention, she was actually rather flattered,
but she knew it couldn’t go on like this. Eventually she pulled Ben and Mark
aside to have a talk with them.
“Here’s the deal,” she began, “it’s quite clear that both of you
enjoy my company and while I am flattered and enjoy both of you this can’t
continue. I’m sure if you both spent some time together you could find some
common ground. I want you both to find an activity that you both enjoy and
spend the day talking to each other. I’d rather have you two be friends than
opponents
For
their activity they had decided to go to the shooting range. Two men
just shooting targets just basically having a good time. Mark was
better than Ben, but Ben wasn’t bad either. As they were finishing
their last round Ben turned his gun on Mark.
“For
the longest time I thought I was the best shooter around here, but you proved
me wrong.” Ben told him. “My dream, ever since I remember, was to be
the better than everyone else with a gun, to surpass everyone else’s skill. I
wanted the title of Best Gunslinger. I have trained endlessly to
achieve this, but today you have proved that you are even better than me.”
“It’s
not that big a deal, Ben” Mark replied. “I can help you become just as good as
I am, there are only a few modifications you would need to make. With
a little time I could help you become just ast good as I am. Maybe one day you
could become even better”
“Mark
it may not be a big deal to you, but you have nearly crushed my dream,” Ben
explained. “I don’t want to be as good as someone else, I want to be better. The
only way I can regain my title of being the fasted draw, the best shot, the
best with a gun all around is to kill you.”
Before
Mark could say another word Ben shot him. Mark lay there on the ground dying
and Ben walked away, content. Ben was, once again, the best with a gun . . .
for now. He realized he might have lost
his chance with Sue but he had regained his title as The Fastest Draw.
The Moral of the story is: Don’t let anyone or anything stand in the way of
your dreams. :D
