.. we din’t soak any more !

It is 6:30 in the morning and it is still a little dark outside. It had rained through the night.I am still in bed, I did not sleep too well. The thing is that  am nervous, this is the most important day in the 16 years of my life . It is ‘the day’, the day I need to win, I need to play my best game so as to impress the talent scout who is coming to watch us play our semifinal football match. All I ever wanted to be is a footballer and play for India , and my coach says I am good. I am the full back for my team.

I can see that my little brother is asleep. We had a huge fight yesterday night and I had tackled him , my parents came in a broke the fight and asked us to go to bed. I love the little rugrat but he needs to learn respect. There  is nothing I can do now , I will not sleep, let me wake up and catch the sunrise atleast. Suddenly I remember my favorite T-shirt, mom said she will have it cleaned and ready by today. You see I do not play with out my Tshirt, it is my lucky charm , I just love it, we have not lost a match whenever I have played in it. It is like our team mascot , everyone swears by it. It is yellow in color and it has a picture of Messi , my dad bought it for me when he was on one of his business trips . I go to the utility area and check if it is dry, but no it is not there , I look in my cupboard , but no , I look everywhere I dont see it , Where is it? Now I am in cold sweat , nerves are really getting to me , I run out to the garden. I see it , it is in my mom’s rose patch , lying on the ground . Rain has made it muddy , it is barely recognizable , Messi’s face is in the mud. “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa… ”

I hate my little brother , literally hate him. I will kill him , he knew that I had a match and that is my lucky charm , he just wanted to hurt me . But this , this was below the belt . I am so angry , angry enough to pull him out of bed and hit him. As usual a scuffle ensued and my parents came running inside when they heard all the shouting. It was not pretty the scene that followed , as usual since I am the older one , I was to be more ‘responsible’ . I really have not understood what that meant, what I usually hear is that I am the one to let it go. O I hate it. I suddenly realise that we are going to lose , my dreams of playing for India are hopeless I am not going to play without my T-shirt. I cry , cry for all the injustice , I cry that I have a little insensitive brother whom I have to share a room with though there are 2 more rooms in the house where he can sleep. He just exists to make my life hell. I hate my life , its over.

My mom tried to pacify me, she said she’ll try to get it clean. But I dint believe her , the T-shirt needed to soak and we did not have enough time for the match . My little brother was watching me , he was happy I am sure of it. After sometime he tried taking to me and saying sorry . But I dint bother to look up. My whole life was ruined because of him . All of a sudden he left the room. The match was at 10 and it was already 8. And how did it matter I was not going. I cried myself to sleep.

At 9:15  my mom came in , she was holding my T shirt , it was clean ! I could not believe it , I just could not believe it. My mom told me to get dressed , we were leaving . The ground was 10 minutes from my house. She asked me to hurry up. I was so shocked that I forgot to ask her how she managed to get it so clean. In the car I asked her how she managed the miracle, she told me that my brother had run to the supermarket near by and got the new ‘Surf Excel Matic’ she told me that he had seen the ad on TV and he thought that it could help. He was right, all those vibrating molecules took the mud right out. There was no soaking required ! Then my brother took the T shirt out of the washing machine and dried it out using mom’s hair drier. 🙂

We won! I did not get through to the Indian team as I was a little too young , but the scout was so impressed with me that he told me that he will come back next year. I love my life 🙂 . I love my lucky T shirt. My parents are so proud. I went straight to my little brother and hugged him , he drives me insane but hey , he is family. I love ‘Surf Excel Matic’  it was the real hero today !

This story is a contest entry to Surf Excel – Soak No More! . Please post your comments and vote here.