[Interior]
A locker room training facility. Two massage tables where each person sits. In between
the tables is a game of Connect Four.
___
Chandler: Are you prepared?
Rajon: I am frightened, but my body is not.
Chandler: That’s not what Coach says.
Rajon: Wait a moment…
Chandler: That’s what they all say. You play Connect Four, don’t you?
Rajon: How did you know that?
Chandler: I have seen it on blogs and sung in ballads.
Rajon: Ballads? Yes, I am quite a good Connect Four player.
Chandler: But you can’t be better than I am.
Rajon: Why do you want to play Connect Four with me?
Chandler: I have my reasons.
Rajon: That’s your privilege.
Chandler: The condition is that I may live on the Mavericks as long as I hold out
against you. If I win, you will release me from this injury. Is it agreed?
___
Chandler holds out his two fists to Rajon, who smiles at him suddenly.
Rajon points to one of his hands; it contains a black piece
___
Chandler: You drew black.
Rajon: Bruh…
Chandler: I want to talk as openly as I can, but my heart is too empty.
[Rajon doesn’t Answer]
Chandler: The emptiness is a mirror turned towards my own face. I see
myself in it, and I am filled with fear and disgust.
[Rajon doesn’t Answer]
Chandler: Through my indifference to my fellow teammate, I have isolated myself
from their company. Now I live in a world of phantoms. I am imprisoned in my
dreams and fantasies.
Rajon: And yet, you don’t want to leave Dallas. What are you waiting for?
Chandler: I want knowledge.
Rajon: You want guarantees.
Chandler: Call it whatever you like. Is it so cruelly inconceivable to grasp
a championship with the senses? Why should He hide himself in a mist of half-
spoken promises and unseen miracles.
Chandler: Why can’t I kill the Championship within me? Why does He live on in this
painful and humiliating way even though I curse Him and want to tear Him out
of my heart? Why, in spite of everything, is He a baffling reality that I can’t
shake off ? Do you hear me?
Rajon: Yes, I hear you. But I already won a title, so….
Chandler: I want knowledge, not faith, not suppositions, but knowledge. I
want The Championship to stretch out His hand towards me, reveal Himself and
speak to me.
Rajon: But He remains silent
Chandler: I call out to Him in the dark but no one seems to be there.
Rajon: Perhaps no one is there.
Chandler: Then life is an outrageous horror. No one can live in the face of
death, knowing that all is nothingness.
Rajon: Most people never reflect about either death or the futility of life. Except me,
because I already won a title.
Chandler: But one day they will have to stand at that last moment of life
and look towards the darkness.
Rajon: When that day comes…
Chandler: In our fear, we make an image, and that image we call The Championship.
Rajon: You are worrying…
Chandler: Rondo visited me this morning. We are playing Connect Four together.
This reprieve gives me the chance to arrange an urgent matter.
Rajon: What matter is that?
Chandler: My life has been a futile pursuit, a wandering, a great deal of talk
without meaning. I feel no bitterness or self-reproach because the lives of most
people are very much like this. But I will use my reprieve for one meaningful
deed.
Rajon: Is that why you are playing Connect Four with Rondo?
Chandler: He is a clever opponent, but up to now I haven’t lost a single man.
Rajon: How will you outwit Rondo in your game?
Chandler: I use a combination of the rows and columns that he hasn’t
yet discovered. In the next move I’ll shatter one of his connect threes
Rondo: I’ll remember that.
[End]
