“A Duel to the Death”
A micro memoir by Lucas Nguyen (9).
“A fight it shall be then!” I declared to my opponent as I swung my sword at him.
Up until this point, I had never lost a duel, but this time I wasn’t so confident. My opponent was a whole foot taller than me, and whilst I had one sword, he had two! How could I ever possibly win? But today was the day I proved myself to others. As the hold on my “sword” tightened, and my breathing quickened, our sticks collided with a loud thump.
For we weren’t dueling with swords; though we liked to believe we were. We were just play-fighting with sticks that we had found. Throughout my daycare, fighting with sticks was a common practice, where you would duel others for glory and pride.
Whenever I was younger and about to fight someone, I felt my blood boil. Just as my pain tolerance grew higher and higher with my age, my desire to fight, and overcome my opponents also grew. I would never admit defeat, even if I was bloodied and bruised, fighting people years older than me. This was what allowed me to build my confidence to slowly become undefeated inside the daycare throughout my age group. But this time, I was facing someone much older than me, and when we were that young, the difference felt staggering.
As we swung our swords, my hands began to hurt, as holding them became harder and harder. My opponent swung faster and harder than anyone I had ever faced before. Was today the day I would suffer my first defeat?
I ran backward creating space between me and my opponent before taking in a few deep breaths calming myself before I spoke in my out-of-breath voice,
“Before this, I’ve never lost a duel, and today won’t be any different.”
“Yeah, right,” he said.
I didn’t know if I said that to convince him or myself that I hadn’t lost yet, but as long as I was still standing, there was a glimmer of hope. As we ran through the dirt hills, grasslands, and bark, inside the park trading blows, the fight had slowly reached the climax.
“Let’s finish this,” I said.
“Why?” He snickered, “Do you want to lose that much faster?”
I knew he was just as tired as me, and these words of his were only a separate mental battle between the two of us; he knew that too, but I didn’t let it get to me. As we both stood still and panted for a moment, we knew these next few blows would decide who the winner was. Finally, once I felt enough energy in my numb legs, I charged forward, not letting him get ready. But this wasn’t the end, and he reacted, slamming his swords into my legs; but I was fine with that. By allowing him to strike me in my legs, he had left his chest wide open to which I brutally slammed my sword into causing him to topple to the ground.
Being able to muster up the courage to trade blows with my opponent despite the face I knew it would hurt an extraordinary amount, helped me grow mentally back then and now. Whenever I compare a situation that I'm hesitant to face to this moment back then I feel a little silly; if little Lucas was able to stand up to his fears and overcome this seemingly impossible obstacle, then I too should be able to defy the odds and overcome what's in front of me.
As he toppled to the ground out of pain, I knew I had won… Using my stick as a crutch, I stood up over him and helped him back up. Whilst we were enemies just a moment ago, we still both had sportsmanship. He congratulated me, and I complimented him saying that he put up a good fight and that it was close. This was the end of our duel. As I finally allowed myself a moment of rest after this intense fight, I looked into the pure blue sky, and let out a relieved sigh.