A Curse
Lamont, a toucan, was meeting with his friend Dontel who was a parrot. The two were getting together to play some tennis which had become a great pastime for both of them. They would play tennis as often as they could and then go for smoothies afterward.
Lamont went to the tennis court and waited for Dontel. As he waited he couldn’t help but think what kind of smoothie he wanted to get today after the tennis match. Usually, Lamont would get a kale smoothie with berries and almond milk with a shot of beeswax in it. Lamont wasn’t sure what beeswax did exactly but it was supposed to be healthy and that was good enough for Lamont.
Lamont rarely ventured outside of his normal smoothie preference but today for some reason he was feeling adventurous.
“Bad news!” Dontel shouted as he arrived at the tennis court.
“What’s that?” Lamont answered back.
“Bad news! The Smoothie shop is closed today!” Dontel announced.
Lamont was devastated. Now not only was he not going to get a chance to try a new smoothie today, he wasn’t going to get any smoothie at all.
“Damn, that’s a massive bummer!” Lamont lamented. “I was really looking forward to trying a new smoothie today too. How am I supposed to focus on tennis now?”
“I’m sure you’ll figure out a way, you’ve won each of the last 5 matches we’ve played.” Dontel reminded Lamont.
That was true, Lamont had been on quite a winning street but being so devastated that the smoothie place would be closed was definitely going to take a toll on his game today. Lamont was never good at getting over adversity quickly. It usually took some time.
Lo and behold, Lamont was not able to overcome the smoothie shop being closed and lost today’s match to Dontel. Lamont put up a fight but ultimately the distraction of the closed smoothie shop was too much to overcome.
“Hey well, at least I broke your streak today,” Dontel announced, “Decent day for me at least, got pretty tired of losing to you every day.”
“Yeah, congrats man, you played well and I’ll get you next time,” Lamont replied.
“Well, what are you up to now?” Dontel asked, “Want to grab a smoothie?”
Lamont was confused, “Where?” he asked.
“Oh same spot,” Dontel replied, matter-of-fact, I just said that to get an edge in the match today, rattle you.”
Lamont’s mouth fell open
"Well, it worked," Lamont answered, "And yes, I would like to go get a smoothie, but remember this. You will never win another tennis match against me or anyone else for the rest of your life, Dontel."
"Yeah, sure, whatever," Dontel brushed off the curse.
Years later, as Dontel left the tennis court on the heels of another in a never-ending string of losses stretching all the way back to that fateful day, he prayed that one day he would taste victory again. The curse could not last forever, but somehow it persisted and with each passing loss the desire for a win only grew stronger and all-consuming, a torture.
