Habib's Redemption Race

I can't believe I'm finally here. After all this time, after all the training, the endless hard work and all the humiliated losses, I am finally here. At the biggest arena in the region, with thousands of fans roaring at me.

It's hard to believe that it was not so long ago that I was nothing but a nobody. My family wasn't poor, by any means. We were fairly well off, and made a decent living through farming. But there was no way to make enough money to ever be able to afford an education for my hobby.

I had always loved sports. As a kid, I watched any game being broadcasted on TV and read about any sport on the internet. I especially loved soccer, but found myself unable to play it as a boy because of my size. My family could have afforded to send me to school, where I could have learned to play soccer properly, but we needed every penny we could get our hands on just to survive day to day. So instead of going to school and studying like everyone else, I went out into the field every day after lunch and followed along the game on TV with a ball between my feet and tried kicking it into the air like I've seen on TV.

I did this everyday until one day when one of my kicks got higher than usual and hit a tree branch above me in such a way that it fell down right next to me and hit me in the head before rolling away onto the ground. It didn't hurt much since it was only a small branch, but when I reached up and touched where it had hit me, my fingers came away sticky with blood. The blood was still flowing freely from what looked like a small cut on my temple when one of my older sisters saw me and rushed over with a first aid kit she had bought to clean up any cuts or scrapes we got while working in the fields. She took one look at me and called for help from my mother who came running over with her own first aid kit and asked what happened? When she saw the cut on my temple she gasped loudly as if someone had just told her that I was dead!

As soon as she saw me though she rushed over to inspect my injury in more detail saying "Oh no! Did you fall? Was there an accident?"

"No," I said shaking my head "I was just trying kick the ball into the air like they do on TV..."

My mother looked at me with an odd expression on her face before looking down at where her oldest daughter was cleaning out my wound with disinfectant and said "He's been watching too many soccer games on TV again." After saying this she looked back down at me again with even more concern than before before saying "You see how dangerous that is? You could have really hurt yourself playing around like that." Then without another word she turned around and walked away leaving me staring after her confusedly as she disappeared into our house where I could hear her tell my father "Shameful! Those kinds of games are simply shameful!"

My father didn't seem as upset as my mother had been though because he just shrugged his shoulders before announcing loudly "Well we should probably cut down that branch now then shouldn't we?" And then walked away himself towards where our tools were kept near our largest tree. When he returned he brought not only his axe but also some rope saying "That's right! You take care of yourself now while your mother takes care of your injury okay? You don't need say anything while we're chopping down that branch okay? Just watch quietly like you always do." And so despite how much his words confused me I decided not to say anything back because he didn't seem angry so I simply sat there quietly holding the bandage tightly against the cut while he chopped down the tree branch which had hit me until it fell off at least 6 feet from where it had originally been lodged in the trunk causing him to mutter angrily for a moment before he tied some rope around it and hoisted it over his shoulder before carrying it away from our house as far as he could before walking back towards us again already carrying his axe once more in his other hand telling everyone present including myself loudly "Alright! Let's get back to work!"

After he left though everyone else continued acting strangely around me afterwards as if they were afraid of offending someone important if they were caught speaking too loud or looking directly at anyone present including myself who suddenly felt very different than everyone else around him like maybe he wasn't supposed to be here anymore or something like that. Even when their strange behavior started making him think maybe they thought he was crazy or something like that no one seemed willing or able to explain why exactly they were treating him this way or why they weren't talking loud anymore or smiling anymore either even though they used to smile all the time before whatever happened earlier happened so eventually he decided that if they weren't going to tell him what was wrong then maybe he would figure out whatever was going on by himself which meant figuring out why exactly his sister had rushed over when she saw him bleeding earlier today only now everyone seemed afraid whenever they looked at him even though everyone used to talk normally whenever they saw each other before whatever happened earlier today happened so maybe now instead of figuring things out by himself perhaps he would have better luck asking someone who wasn't acting strangely around him anymore instead which meant asking his sister who seemed perfectly normal when she stopped crying long enough for him to ask what happened earlier today during lunch break when she came running over so quickly thinking someone had died...