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Doodsberig vanuit die Leë Stoel


Die stoel is nou leeg.
 
•1•
The chair sits empty now.
 

Dit het alles begin toe Mario en Mike hegte vriende geword het en al hul vrye tyd saam deurgebring het. Hulle het pret gehad. Beter pret as skoolwerk. Maaltye, voorberei deur Mike se ma, hoe smaaklik ook al, is vinnig geëet wat net 'n seun met ander dinge op sy hart kon wys. Mike het daarvan gehou om op te spring, hoog te spring en te hardloop en elke uitdaging in sy klein wêreld te oorkom.
 
•2•
It all began when Mario and Mike became close friends, spending all their free time together. They had fun. Better fun than schoolwork. Meals, prepared by Mike’s mother, however tasty, were eaten with speed that only a boy with other things on his mind could display. Mike loved to leap, jump and run evading and overcoming every challenge in his small world.
 

As daar 'n Olimpiese byeenkoms vir gespierde duime en 'n vinnige oog was, sou Mike die Goud geneem het, maar om na hom te kyk, sou niemand hom as 'n Olimpiese atleet misgis nie.
 
•3•
Had there been an Olympic event for muscular thumbs and a quick eye Mike would have taken the Gold, though to look at him no one would mistake him for an Olympian.
 

In latere jare sou sommige hom as 'n meesterstrateeg prys, ander het hom minder komplimentêre name genoem. Mario was maar net 'n herinnering. Spioenasie en oorlog het sy tol begin eis, aangevuur deur voedsel wat op die vlug geneem is en versterk deur suiker en kafeïenbelaaide energiedranke. Volgens Mike het hy 'n opwindende lewe gelei, hoewel baie nie so gedink het nie. Party was verbaas dat hy die vader van vyf kinders was. Hoe het hy tyd daarvoor gehad? Hy het nie. Intellektueel het hy geweet dat hy moes. Die aandag aan hulle het op sy beste tersiêr geword, maar net 'n kantlyn. Sy opwindende lewe was oorweldigend. Sy verdienste, soos dit was, is bestee aan ekstra toerusting wat hy nodig het om te wen, om die vyand te klop. Hy was goed daarin - baie goed. Ander het sy kundigheid erken, hoewel hulle hom nooit van aangesig tot aangesig ontmoet het nie.
 
•4•
In later years some would praise him as a master strategist, others called him by less complimentary names. Mario was but a memory. Espionage and war started to take its toll, fueled by food taken on the run and boosted by sugar and caffeine-laden energy drinks. To Mike, he lived an exciting life, though many were not of the same mind. Some were amazed that he fathered five children. How did he have time? He didn’t. Intellectually he knew he should. Attention to them became tertiary at best, just a sideline. His exciting life was all consuming. His earnings, such as they were, were spent on extra equipment that he needed to win, to beat the enemy. He was good at it – very good. Others acknowledged his expertise though they’d never met him face-to-face.
 

Toe sy vrou sy uitputting opgemerk het, het sy haar karige spaargeldjies uitgehaal en vir hom 'n gemakstoel gekoop, een waarin hy kon ontspan - selfs 'n uiltjie knip. Dit was 'n opoffering. Sy het gedink dat die gebaar sou bydra om haar mislukkende huwelik te red. Dae het hom uitgeput gevind, amper nie in staat om sy oë oop te hou nie, om nie te praat van die dinge doen wat gedoen moes word nie. Hy het op die moeilike manier uitgevind, om by die werk te slaap is rede om afgedank te word.
 
•5•
Seeing his exhaustion Mike’s wife dug into her meager savings and bought him a comfy chair, one in which he could relax - nap even. It was a sacrifice. She thought the gesture would go to saving her failing marriage. Days found him exhausted, hardly able to keep his eyes open, let alone get those things done that had to be done. He found out the hard way, sleeping on the job is a firing offence.
 

Alhoewel Mike baie dae uitgeput was, was die nagte nog erger. Hy was dankbaar vir die gemakstoel. Dit het spoedig sy enigste ontvlugting van sy wêreld van AK47's en granate geword - alhoewel dit tydelik was. Dan was daar ook die skuldeisers wat so gereeld gebel het dat Mike die telefoon van die muur af gepluk het en dit sonder seremonie op die leë vloer van sy jongste kind se lank reeds ontruimde slaapkamer neergegooi het. Eensaam. Hul bruidslaapkamer was nou net sy slaapkamer - eensaam, die lakens ongewas en grys. Geen elektrisiteit nie. Geen internet nie. Geen vrou nie. Geen kinders wat op sy knie wil sit nie. Hy het die spel gespeel en sy wêreld verloor, alles verloor vir die virtuele wêreld.
 
•6•
While the days found Mike exhausted, the nights were even worse. He was thankful for the chair. It soon became his only retreat from his world of AK47s and grenades – temporary though it was. Then there were the creditors who called so often that Mike ripped the phone from the wall and dumped it unceremoniously on the empty floor of his youngest child’s long since vacated bedroom. Lonely. Their bridal bedroom was now only his bedroom – lonely, the sheets unwashed and gray. No electricity. No Internet. No wife. No children seeking to sit on his knee. He’d played the game and lost his world, lost everything to the virtual world.
 

Mike het tot die einde geglo dat hy 'n opwindende lewe gehad het, hoewel baie anders gedink het. Hulle het die vernietiging en die ironie gesien. Hy kon nie.
 
•7•
Mike believed to the end that he’d had an exciting life, though many thought differently. They saw the destruction and the irony. He could not.
 

Hy is in die stoel gevind. Dit is nou leeg.
 
•8•
He was found in the chair. It is empty now.