A house, late at night. In the lounge, two men switch off the TV and sit back on the sofa.
“I can’t watch.“
“Nor me.“
“It’s too painful.“
“Far too painful.“
“We’ll have to wait it out. We’ll know soon enough.“
“We’ll find out somehow.“
“Yes. We’ll hear about it.“
They ponder in silence.
“Do you think we’re doing the right thing?“
“What else can we do?“
“You’re right. What can we do?“
“We could turn it back on.“
“Would it help?“
“Probably not.“
“Should we pray?“
“Would that help?“
“Probably not.“
They consider this.
“They say a butterfly flapping its wings in the rainforest causes a reaction elsewhere.“
“You’re not a butterfly.“
“True.“
“What if it causes the wrong reaction?“
“How would we know?“
“You’re right. We shouldn’t try.“
They sit in silence, which is punctured by a cheer from outside.
“What news?“
“They must have scored!“
“But who?“
“One team or the other.“
“Or it was a save.“
“It could have been a save.“
“How can we tell? It is either a goal or a save and if it is either, we don’t know who for.“
“You’re right. We can’t tell.“
“One team must be on top.“
“But which one?“
“Does it matter? The other team could score or produce their own save.“
“Then they would be equal.“
“Or not.“
“You’re right. They might not be.“
“Shall we check?“
“Would that help?“
“No, it probably wouldn’t.“
“We’d know the score, but we wouldn’t know how it came about.“
“True.“
“We should wait.“
“You’re right. We should wait.“
Another cheer from outside.
“Hear that? That must be good news.“
“Or bad news.“
“It depends on who is cheering.“
“What if they are supporters of our opponents?“
“Is that likely?
“We live in a very metropolitan area.“
“True.“
“We could be losing.“
“Or winning.“
“What if we checked?“
“Now? It must be halfway through.“
“You’re right. We can’t check now. We should wait.“
They sit in silence.
“How long should we wait for?“
“Until it is ended.“
“How will we know?“
“We’ll know. It can’t be long now.“
“Unless it’s ended all equal and gone to sudden death.“
“Good point.“
“That could be a problem. We won’t know how many rounds there will be.“
“You’re right.“
“We’ll guess.“
“Guess?“
“How many penalties have gone to sudden death?“
“I don’t know.“
“Neither do I.“
“That makes it hard to guess. And even if we knew, how would we know if this was one of those?“
“We’d listen to the cheers.“
“Which cheers? It’s gone silent.“
They listen carefully.
“That’s not a good sign.“
“No.“
“But not a good sign for who? What if it is not a good sign for our opponents?“
“You’re right. This could be a good sign for us.“
“Or them.“
“True.“
They sit in silence.
“Do we need to know?“
“Know what?“
“Who won.“
“Do we need to know who won?“
“Yes.“
“I’ve not thought about it.“
“If we knew, would we be happy?“
“It depends on the result. We could be sad.“
“Maybe we don’t want to know.“
“It’s better sometimes not to know.“
“You’re right. Ignorance can be a good thing.“
“Or a bad thing. What if we’ve won?“
“We would miss out.“
“On what? A moment of happiness? It would disappear soon enough.“
“Like a butterfly in the wind.“
“Do you think it flapped?“
“The butterfly?“
“Yes. I wonder if it flapped and it made a difference.“
“We won’t know.“
A boy appears.
“Don’t tell us! We don’t want to know.“
The boy disappears.
“I don’t think we’ll know tonight.“
“But when will we know?“
“We’ll know. But probably not tonight.“
“We should go to bed.“
“Even if we won or if we lost, tomorrow it all begins again.“
“True.“
“When we wake, we start over. Why feel sad if we don’t have to? It’s best not to know.“
“You’re right.“
“Let’s go to bed. Tomorrow is a new day. And tomorrow we start afresh.“
“We could win the next one.“
“We could! We could be the greatest team in the world.“
They sit. A cheer erupts in the distance.
THE END.