UNTIL NEXT DAY

Petra Hadžidaova
Aug 11
2 min read

It was an especially sluggish afternoon for Victor. Scratch that; did I say afternoon? It was more like a month. Victor was feeling uncharacteristically unmotivated. It was high summer, with temperatures rising to 33 degrees Celsius. Not the hottest summer, mind you. Yet Victor could not motivate himself. He even slacked off with his baseball practice. Sadly, his team got eliminated early, and so Victor was free.

He spent most of the days binge-watching shows he could have lived without when he wasn’t simply staring into nothingness.

This particular week, when Shabbath rolled around, he felt like forgoing even socializing. But his parents had other plans. There he was zoning in and out, only hearing a select few words of the priest. Until a story he began to tell. And stories, Victor was always fond of.

This one was about a farmer who received a bountiful harvest. He was thinking to himself how he would build a bigger barn and live off the grain he would store inside.

‘Wait!’ This sounds familiar. Yes, the priest was speaking of the foolish farmer from the bible. Victor was going to doze off once more, but something kept his attention. It felt as though the priest was talking directly to him. He left the church that day, puzzled and a little disturbed.

Brushing it all off, he continued with things as they were. The end of summer was approaching, and with it, baseball practice. This year, they were starting with some early practice games.

Victor did not even pick up the baseball until practices officially began. But all seemed fine until he hit a wall in his second practice game. His stamina was lacking. In the fourth inning his form began to break, and his fastballs were going all over the place.

Sitting in the dugout contemplating his uncharacteristically poor performance, his thoughts wandered to the sermon and the priest's words. The realization came slowly, but eventually hit him suddenly; he behaved just like that farmer.

A lesson was learned that day. One Victor took to heart, as he still managed to secure position number one. Nothing is a guarantee that it will be there the next day.

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