H O L O G R A M

Number game

62-67

Lions won. Josh’s team won the championship. His teammates cried and hugged each other. Even Coach Alfred was jumping all around, slamming his fist victoriously in the air. Confetti rained over them. The crowd cheered and hooted. It was a tough fight but all the hard work had paid off.

Josh quietly slipped out of the crowd. He bumped aimlessly into everyone who was rushing in the court to celebrate with his team. His legs were numb, not because of playing, but because he was afraid.

His brain was giving him a danger signal. He will be hurt today that he might not fix himself.

He got back in the locker room and he grabbed his duffel bag. He was trembling again. He wasn’t like this before but he can’t even control it. He slowly unzipped it and found his found.

He picked it up and opened it.

He pressed the icon for his messenger and found a message.

Ellen Rosales

It was brief and fucking earth-shattering.

A picture of his Hanna and clad in a hospital gown. She was sitting on her hospital bed and a white sheet was draped on, she was obviously reading when they took the photo. She managed to look to the camera and she smiled so sweetly. Just like in every photo she sent him.

She was basked in sunlight as if heaven poured out to her. She was absolutely beautiful.

The photo captioned as:

Hanna is in peace now. She died loving you. Thank you, Josh.

It also followed a separate message about the details about the funeral but he couldn’t keep his eyes off of the words.

She died loving you.

His tears fell on his phone. The world became a blur. He just stood in the middle of the locker wishing he was not here. He was wishing he could turn back time and just went to her. He was such failure. He hated himself because he felt he didn’t do much for Hanna.

He was lost.

Grief swallowed him alive as he found himself going out of the room. His feet wanted to run away from here and find its way to Hanna.

As soon as Josh opened the locker room’s door, horde of reporters bombarded him with congratulations, questions and flashes of camera.

Josh just stood quietly in the middle of the crowd as they battered him with the noise. One sport reporter from one of the local tabloid, tapped his shoulder then asked,

“Jun Salcedo from the local tabloid news, you’ve done amazing far more than any of us expected. Congrats! Do you have an inspiration?”

He was holding out a recorded to Josh when suddenly Josh broke down. The whole crowd stilled. The cameras stopped flashing, the questions ceased and even the fans stopped cheering.

Josh Mendoza cried so hard that people got terrified. Nobody moved. They didn’t expect him to behave like this after a victory. He looked so young than he truly was like a lost young child.

His hands were on his side and his face down with obvious tears falling, enough that it dripped unto his shoes.

Jun Salcedo was moved away and felt a mix of shock and concern for the young basketball player.

Suddenly, Coach Alfred and his teammates arrived. Coach Alfred immediately gathered Josh in his arm and moved him away from the concerned and curious reporters. His teammates apologized to the reporters and advised them that a conference will be given shortly.

Before leaving, Jun yelled out cockily,

“Do you mind telling us what happened here?”

Coach Alfred stopped and glared back at him,

“His girlfriend just died today. Give the boy a chance to grieve.”