Noami won a prize for her poem, “My River” in last year’s Keren Or competition. This year she won prizes in both poetry and prose.
Prose, Grades 10 - 12: Second Place
The Jackpot - Noami Zadaka
A teenage boy named Gordy lay fast asleep dreaming of the basketball game which was to occur the next day after school. He was tossing and turning at some moments even twitching his leg. A slab of drool lay smothered on the pillow occasionally getting wiped on to Gordy’s face as it left crust marks all over his cheek. At the edge of his bed folded neatly was a clean pair of socks, a Timber Wolves K.G. jersey, jeans and K- Swiss shoes. Little did Gordy know that a once harmless, forgotten apple lay hidden between the mattress and wood frame of his bed. It had been living there for weeks, each day getting blacker with age. As the sun began to rise, piercing its rays through the glass window, the green fuzz on the top of the apple could be seen more clearly, and the colony of larva which had been born that night began to nest under his bed.
Gordy lay on his back now, getting sticky drool stuck in his messy brown hair ruining his spikes from the day before. He lay there peacefully not aware that in five seconds his radio alarm would explode in a wild frenzy of Britney Spears singing “Oops I did it again.” It was one of those songs he loved as a child but grew out of when he found out he would be considered an outcast if he ever listened to it again. The five seconds had passed up and Britney Spears began singing her morning call. Gordy’s usual morning consisted of five snooze buttons. Once his fifth one was hit, his mom would run into the room and scream at him to get up. But today was different, he needed extra time to look his best for the basketball game after school. Gordy shot up from his covers, wiped some of the crust off his face with the back of his hand and hurried into the bathroom. He looked at his face and smiled. All of that crust made him look like a man with a beard. This gave him an idea, instead of using shaving cream to shave, he would just use the natural drool on his face. He pulled out his razor from the bottom drawer of the sink and began shaving the drool and some hairs off of his face. Gordy was one of the inexperienced shavers. He had started just three weeks ago and was beginning to get used to it. He had a few scab marks under his chin, but nothing serious. He finished shaving off the last bit of hair under his chin and then splashed his face with water. It began to burn like it always did, but this time it was worse. It felt like a severe sun burn scratching at his cheeks and chin. Gordy glanced at his watch, he had been spending so much time on his face that he hardly noticed that he had only five minutes left to get ready.
Gordy took one look at his hair and decided the best solution was gel. He quickly dunked his head in the shower, ran his fingers through his hair ridding himself of the drool which had found its way there. He then took his gel and squeezed a fair amount into his palm, lathering it in his hair and then forming his signature spikes. With only three minutes left, he ran to his room, and grabbed his neatly folded jeans off of his bed. They were his favorite; he wore them four times a week not minding the sweaty smell they contained towards the fourth day. The smell brought back memories of his long basketball matches, and the men’s locker rooms which he would change in after a long perspiring work out. That smell was his own. Like a dog and its territory, Gordys smell was part of him, it was the smell that the guys at school would recognize him by. Without it, he would be considered an outsider. Gordy pulled on his pants fitting them around his thighs. This time he wore a belt just to be safe. You had to have some skill to wear your pants that low, it took Gordy all of 7th grade to master walking up the middle school stairs without having them falling off. He took his Timber Wolves jersey and let it fall over his shoulders. He only had a minute left, his stomach began to rumble in pain, he had forgotten to eat breakfast which was crucial for the success of the game. Gordy suddenly took notice of an apple between his mattress and bed frame. He picked it up not minding the sticky juices that seeped out from the skin (he always liked his apples extra juicy,) and took a big bite swallowing the chunk of moldy apple with out thinking twice. The aftertaste was the worst thing he had ever experienced. The bitter taste of the apple clung to his tongue and hid between the cracks of his teeth. He began to gag, and with a sudden burp he felt a piece of mushy jelly like substance pop onto his tongue. It began to squirm around, trying to find its way back to his stomach, but Gordy quickly spit it out along with some moldy fuzz. It lay on the ground in a puddle of saliva, white and jittery. Gordy bent down on all fours examining the specimen, only to find out that the rotten apple wasn’t the only thing that slid down his throat.
With no time to waste, Gordy hurried to the bus hiding himself beneath his I pod and cap. He felt okay, he didn’t feel bad or anything. Occasionally he would burp up another larva here and there, but nothing worse than that.
In Gordy’s first class he was greeted by his friends patting him on the back and talking to him about the basketball game which was on TV the other evening. They talked about that for a while, until class had come into session. He sat down in his usual seat which was in the back corner of the room. He could see everyone from there. Even Elizabeth James, the hottest girl in school. He had spent three years to try and get her to notice him; he tried everything from glancing at her to “accidentally” brushing against her shoulder as he was walking through school. He even joined the basketball team. He was crazy for her, but knew he was no match against the buff football players. Looking over at her he noticed the brown shirt she was wearing, it was tight around her small waist and showed some skin at her shoulders. He observed how she moved her head in a way, making sure that each strand of her straight golden blond hair moved along with it. Sometimes she would look back at the Jocks to see if they noticed her, and each time she did, her hair would fly in that direction gently landing on her bare, sun tanned shoulders. She did the same thing again turning back to the front of the classroom almost as if she meant for it to happen. Occasionally she would play with it, pushing it around if there was too much on one side, and sometimes would run her hands through the front part of her hair bringing her long bangs to the back of her head. He loved watching her, it was like watching a poker game, observing the other players, learning their hands, and then when the right moment would come, he would strike down his pair in the hopes of winning some money. And that’s exactly what Gordy was going to do with Elizabeth; he was going to observe her, learn about her from afar, and when the right moment came he would finally say something to her that he hadn’t been able to get out of his mouth for three whole years, “Hi.”
The school day had finally come to an end, the game was to start in an hour. Gordy ran to the men’s locker room put on his Nikes and basketball uniform, and hurried into the gym to warm up. Parents and students began to enter the gym seating themselves in the stands. Gordy looked around to see if his friends had arrived but instead found himself shocked to see Elizabeth sitting in the front row of the stands with a group of her friends. They were laughing and talking about things as they all moved their hair in the same way Elizabeth would. He felt a hard slap on his back as his coach urged him to stop dreaming and keep practicing. He glanced over at Elizabeth before making a three pointer making sure that her eyes were on the court so that she would notice him. He had to show her how good he was, he had to be the best.
After a few minutes the game had come to a start. Gordy was running up and down the court never slowing down, keeping in mind that Elizabeth might be watching him. He made a few shots and watched each time as Elizabeth would jump up from her seat clapping and hugging her friends. He smiled at her and noticed for just one second that she actually smiled back. His face turned all red, but he knew he had to keep going. Time was running out, both teams were tied and the team was relying on Gordy to make the winning shot. This was what he had been dreaming of every night for the past two weeks, except instead of making the shot he was constantly missing it. He was not going to let that happen this time. Elizabeth was at the game. He had to make it, for Elizabeth.
There were only five seconds left on the clock; time was ticking fast. He heard the crowd yell in slow motion, “five!” A teammate of Gordy’s passed him the ball. It almost slipped through his sweaty grasp. “Four!” Gordy sprinted towards the hoop, this time feeling the rotten apple in his stomach begin to stir…why had his stomach decided to interfere with the game now?! “Three!” he knew he couldn’t hold it down but looking at the crowd he noticed Elizabeth waving her slim arms in the air cheering him on, so he kept on going, dodging a few players on the way. “Two!” he slowly bent his knees and released the ball. One of the players from the other team jumped in the air trying to stop the ball with his long hands but missed by an inch. “One!” A perfect swish.
All of Gordy’s team members ran to the court, picking him up and violently patting his back. But all that Gordy could think about was getting rid of the apple chunk in his stomach. He quickly ran from the court and began to head towards the nearest men’s bathroom, but on his way he met the one person he had been hoping he would meet, but not at that very moment. It was Elizabeth. She looked at him and smiled showing the brightest teeth he had ever witnessed. The first word she had ever said to him popped out of her mouth. “Hi.” All he had to say was “hi” back, just that one word, and he would have done what he had been wishing to do for years. He opened his mouth to say “hi” but just as he did, he felt his body violently jerk forward. He began to gag, hearing squeals from the girls around him. He needed something to hold onto and in desperation he grabbed hold of Elizabeth’s shoulders vomiting all over her brown shirt. She screamed as all of this was happening, white larva decorated her shirt mixed with vomit and saliva. It got all over her hands and strands of her beautiful blond hair. Tears streamed down from her face as she aggressively pulled away from his grasp and ran from the crowd with her friends chasing after her. Gordy couldn’t believe the girl of his dreams was actually running away from him. He held his stomach, as his friends handed him a bottle of water. He drank the cool liquid, regaining his strength. He had lost the jackpot.