Beep!! Beep!! Beep!!
“What? What’s that sound ringing in my head?”
Hiro mumbled in a soft voice.
“Is it the chime of the bells of the heaven?”
He mumbled while trying to figure out the identity of the sound.
At first it sounded like the chimes of bells but as he continued to listen further, the sound started to become rather annoying.
“Argh!! Stop it already!!”
Hiro woke up to the sounds of the alarm clock. In a state of sleep deprivation he found himself in a room which seemed like it belonged to a child.
“Am I not dead yet?”
He mumbled in disbelief while looking at his surrounding.
Everything around him was rather familiar and strange at the same time. Infront of him, the wall was decorated by posters of iconic football players. Portraits of Pel, Maraona, Iniesa, Javi, Honna, Jhinji kagawa, Kurosaki Miura were among the posters. But what stood out the most among those posters was the two posters which were bigger than the rest.
The two posters were pasted side by side. Each of them flaunting their balon d’Or, one was the picture of Christian Romero in Real Madrid’s jersey while the other was the picture of Andreas Messi in Barcelona’s jersey.
“Even when I want to die, I can’t stop thinking of football huh?”
While looking at the poster infront of him, he mumbled while revealing a gentle smile.
“Whatever!! I’m sure it must be a dream. It must be a flashback of the past. Yeah it must be a flashback that I’m witnessing before I leave this world.”
Reassuring himself that he was just having flashbacks of the past, he closed his eyes, awaiting for his consciousness to fade away.
He kept his eyes closed and patiently waited for his consciousness to fade away.
Tick!! Tick!! Tick!!
The clock continued to tick, but his consciousness wasn’t fading. Infact it didn’t seem like it would fade any time sooner.
“Huh? What’s happening? Why is my consciousness not fading away??”
He mumbled with a slight irritation.
“I’m sure that I died. So why is my consciousness still not fading away?”
Just like Hiro had mentioned. He indeed had already died. He died after committing suicide.
At the age of 27 when his last hope of becoming a professional football player was shattered by the jealousy of some rowdy teenagers, he had committed suicide by walking infront of the moving truck.
Hiro who used to love football more than anything else from his early childhood was considered a genius of football. From an early age he showed great interest in football. And to back his interest, he was exceptionally gifted as well.
His father a football enthusiast, used to have lots of items related to football in their home. He collected every world cup ball, various jerseys and posters of great footballers.
Even his interest in football started when his father was playing with him. At the age of one, his father playfully tossed a football towards him. Even though he couldn’t kick the ball because he hadn’t learnt to walk yet. He headed the ball with his head while walking on his four legs.
That act shocked his father and made him smile. He jokingy said that he would be the greatest footballer in the planet. And he continued to toss the ball towards him and everytime he tossed the ball towards him he would head the ball towards his father.
Seeing him only heading the ball, his father started to teach him how to kick the ball. Lost in his enthusiasm, his father forgot that his son was still a kid who hadn’t learnt to walk yet.
However he would still try to kick the ball with his feet. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t kick the ball.
And as he grew older, his interest in football only deepened. Wherever he went he carried his football. Even a stray bottle that was left stranded on the road looked like a football from his perspective.
He would kick the bottle with acute precision into the garbage bin, while imaging himself taking a freekick for the country at the world cup.
Witnessing his enthusiasm, his father assumed that he would grow up to be a great footballer one day. And he sure did live up to his expectations until something bad happened to him.
His father being a football enthusiast himself, provided him with everything he needed to train himself. However everytime his father would take him to buy a new jersey or boot, his mother would scold them both.
Afterall they belonged to a middle class family. And lower middle class family to be more precise. The money his parents earnt were barely enough to cover the rent and groceries.
So football was a luxury to them. However his father would still save some money by skipping his meals and transportation fee to fulfill his wishes. The collection of football antiques he held dear was something his father was proud of and had collected during his younger days, before his birth.
His father used to have enough money to fulfill his hobby before his birth. But after his birth, everything changed in the family. The expenses shot up and the situation got even more tight.
But his father never blamed him, instead he gave up on his hobby of collecting football items. He gave up on his hobby of watching football on the stadium. Infact he even gave up on watching football in television. Instead he started to work longer hours and often worked overtime.
However he would still make time for him and teach him how to play football. His father himself used to be a footballer. Although he never made it to pro because of his lack of talent. Still he gave his all and tried to make it pro with all his might.
Unlike his father, Hiro showed great potential from his early days. Even when playing with the kids his age in elementary school, he used to easily dribble pass every player on the field.
Whenever he played, there used to be crowds of spectators to cheer him. His ball awareness, his skill, his pace, his handling, his passing, his dribbling, his first touch, everything was top notch. Watching him play was similar to that of watching a god play football.
And because of that exact same reason he used to be called by various nickname in his early years. Some of those nicknames included ‘alien, spiderman, genius’ and most prominently he was referred to as the ‘little god’.
But all of that changed when he tore his ligaments during his middle school tournament. The injury was a serious one, which could most probably never heal. The doctor warned him that he could never play football again, when he tore his ligament at the age of 13.
Devastated by the news, he wept like a kid. He felt as if the sky had fallen upon him when the doctor mentioned he could never play football again.
His parents begged the doctor to come up with some kind of solutions to let him continue playing football. The doctor giving in to their tears, suggested a surgery.
However the success rate of that surgery was less than 10 percent and the surgery costed hella a lot. It was more than they could afford. Even if they saved for more than 2 or 3 years, they wouldn’t still be able to afford the cost of the surgery.
But despite that they took several loans from several bank. And even when that wasn’t enough they took loans from vicious loan sharks to cover the expense for the surgery, just to keep his dream alive.
After collecting enough money for surgery, he went a surgery to heal his legs. The operation lasted for more than 6 hours. But still the surgery was a failure.
They couldn’t cure him completely. However they cured him enough to let him continue to play football. After that surgery, he underwent several rehabilitation therapy to heal his legs.
Finally after a whole year of rehabilitation, he could finally play football once again. ．
However after that injury, he could never be the same again. Although his spacial awareness and creativity was still top notch. His body couldn’t move, the way he wanted it to move.
It felt as if he had lost meaning to his life. The same crowds of spectators who used to bombard the sidelines and praise him for his plays, booed him and deemed him as a failure after his terrible performances.
As the time passed the crowds disssipated. Less and less people came to watch him play. As much bad as he felt, he also felt relieved upon the decrease in the number of crowds. Less crowds meant lesser criticism.
He knew that it wasn’t the right type of mindset to make it to pro. But he still couldn’t help himself. Afterall their harsh criticism pierced his heart like a sharp knife and distracted him.
The same teammates who used to sing his praise turned against him after he lost his abilities. They started to ignore him and taunt him.
Although he paid no attention towards their taunts, he couldn’t completely ignore it either. While enduring harsh criticism from everyone, he relentlessly trained himself, while keeping his dreams of making pro alive.