Post by Mike Laszlo on Feb 26, 2018 5:20:58 GMT
I said I wasn’t done, and I wasn’t kidding.
The scene opens and I’m sitting on a set of steps that might look familiar, seeing as how my lovely wife just filmed her little vignette from this very place. I bask in the warmth, a baseball cap on my head, and a pair of shorts as I stand in the middle of a dirt road, buildings on both sides of me as I hold my arms outward.
So here we are...Danger Zone has arrived! Where am I?
I shrug as my hands drop to the side.
I’m opening the card against Derek Brooks. A young man with all the physical features that one would desire to make it in this business, and the wit and charisma to go far, far beyond what quite a few even dream of. The question though Derek, why haven’t you done so? What’s stopping you from ascending the ranks of the IWF and staking claim to the IWF Imperial Championship?
I throw my finger out to the side.
Are you going to blame the people? Are you going to tell me that each and every one of them has reached out, grabbed you by those massive arms, and held you back? Maybe it’s management? Maybe you haven’t been given the shots you deserve?
I shake my head.
Nope, that’s not it at all. You’ve had a few title matches, and just like every other opportunity in your life...you’ve let them all go up in smoke. So what do you do? What happens when the energetic, happy go lucky Derek Brooks can’t cut the mustard? He changes personas, he gets mean, and he interrupts...me?
I look confused, and quite frankly, I’m a little surprised. I then start sarcastically applauding my opponent.
I’ll give you your props big man. You want to make a name for yourself, and you chose to pick me of all people. Let me tell you here and now…
The jokes end and my face goes serious.
I’m not the one to make a name off of. You want to do that? Maybe Spike Kane is available since that’s how Andrew’s name got big, and Jayson Matthews as well in his losing effort. Go put on a great match with him and smile real big and perhaps you’ll go somewhere. As far as picking on me and hoping to go somewhere?
I point into the camera.
You’ve got another thing coming. I’m not one to have someone step on me to get to where they want to go...it just doesn’t sit too well deep down inside. So instead, I’m going to use you as the stepping stone. You’re going to propel me to greater goals that go far beyond your nickle brain that resides in your million dollar body.
I start walking down the street, the camera backing up with me.
It’s a long road we travel to get to the where we want to go in this business Derek. There are no shortcuts. There’s no being gifted a spot anywhere. You’re here...you work...and if you’re like me...you succeed.
Derek, know that I hold no ill will toward you. I get why you interrupted me. I understand completely why you attacked me out of anxiety and fear after you got yourself into something much bigger than you could comprehend. Hell, I wish you success in your future endeavors, but as far as the current endeavor...beating me, making a name off me? I wish you nothing but failure.
=========================================
Title: Space
Location: Los Angeles, California
Time: A Week Ago
It had been a week plus since Alexis’ mother passed away. I had tried to be there for her at every opportunity, or whenever she beckoned, but as I knew would happen, there just comes a time and place where you need to be left alone. For me, it was a hike in the desert when I was younger. For her, unfortunately, not taking any time off from work, it’s the two of us, travelling around the globe. We had gotten a slight break with the current tour in Mexico and us having a house in Los Angeles’ outer rim.
I walked over to the sliding glass door separating me from the outside world, more strictly my backyard. I looked to the side and saw Alexis sitting in a chair, her legs pulled up to her chest. Part of me wanted to rush to her side, hug her, and be there for her as I had been, but another part of me questioned it all. I reached down to the handle and slowly pulled the door open enough to stick my head out the door.
Mike Laszlo: You okay?
Slowly but surely, she turned and slowly nodded.
Alexis Caffrey: Yeah, I just need some time out here to decompress and figure things out.
I nodded.
Mike Laszlo: If you need me, just yell.
She nodded again and slowly turned her gaze back to where she was staring off. I pulled myself back in and slid the door shut, continuing to watch her in the chair, barely moving a single inch. I watched, helpless to do anything.
Watching her there reminded me of my own fights with the grim reaper. First my mother at a younger age, then my father a couple of years back. Both entirely different situations from each other, each having a different effect on the man you see on your televisions week in and week out.
I shake my head from side to side and pull myself away from the window, walking into the other room, having a seat on the couch in the family room, one of the windows only showing the top of her head causing me to only sit there and sigh as I then turn my gaze to the floor beneath me. I knew what she was going through...all too well.
My mother, a woman who fought cancer for over five years, before the days of the superceded effort to find a cure. She did things for us, my brother and myself, all while sacrificing herself, very similar to Alexis’ own mother.
Then came the death of my father. He was estranged, to say his effect was quite different from my mother’s would be an understatement. Where as I grieved her and let it sit with me for so long, my father’s deathly circumstances were more a shock by matter of how, not when.
Even my own grandfather, watching the Alzheimer's wither away the highly intelligent man he once was, was devastating indeed.
I think though, with each passing death, I don’t mean to say I got hardened to it, but the different experiences I think were able to brace me for the next. My wife didn’t have that circumstance. She didn’t have that knowledge of what exactly the grieving would feel like. She didn’t know how much the pain would affect her.
For me, as her husband, to know the pain she’s going through, to know the pit of sorrow she’s swirling in is simply devastating. It might be worse than the experience of death itself, only because at least in the situation of death, there’s nothing you can do. You’ll blame yourself and say “only if” but in the end, there’s nothing. Here, you want to help so badly that it consumes you. You want to do everything you can, but you can’t only because the person in peril knows they need that time of their own.
And deep down, I know as well.
She’ll get through this...and I’ll be there to help...when she needs me.
The scene opens and I’m sitting on a set of steps that might look familiar, seeing as how my lovely wife just filmed her little vignette from this very place. I bask in the warmth, a baseball cap on my head, and a pair of shorts as I stand in the middle of a dirt road, buildings on both sides of me as I hold my arms outward.
So here we are...Danger Zone has arrived! Where am I?
I shrug as my hands drop to the side.
I’m opening the card against Derek Brooks. A young man with all the physical features that one would desire to make it in this business, and the wit and charisma to go far, far beyond what quite a few even dream of. The question though Derek, why haven’t you done so? What’s stopping you from ascending the ranks of the IWF and staking claim to the IWF Imperial Championship?
I throw my finger out to the side.
Are you going to blame the people? Are you going to tell me that each and every one of them has reached out, grabbed you by those massive arms, and held you back? Maybe it’s management? Maybe you haven’t been given the shots you deserve?
I shake my head.
Nope, that’s not it at all. You’ve had a few title matches, and just like every other opportunity in your life...you’ve let them all go up in smoke. So what do you do? What happens when the energetic, happy go lucky Derek Brooks can’t cut the mustard? He changes personas, he gets mean, and he interrupts...me?
I look confused, and quite frankly, I’m a little surprised. I then start sarcastically applauding my opponent.
I’ll give you your props big man. You want to make a name for yourself, and you chose to pick me of all people. Let me tell you here and now…
The jokes end and my face goes serious.
I’m not the one to make a name off of. You want to do that? Maybe Spike Kane is available since that’s how Andrew’s name got big, and Jayson Matthews as well in his losing effort. Go put on a great match with him and smile real big and perhaps you’ll go somewhere. As far as picking on me and hoping to go somewhere?
I point into the camera.
You’ve got another thing coming. I’m not one to have someone step on me to get to where they want to go...it just doesn’t sit too well deep down inside. So instead, I’m going to use you as the stepping stone. You’re going to propel me to greater goals that go far beyond your nickle brain that resides in your million dollar body.
I start walking down the street, the camera backing up with me.
It’s a long road we travel to get to the where we want to go in this business Derek. There are no shortcuts. There’s no being gifted a spot anywhere. You’re here...you work...and if you’re like me...you succeed.
Derek, know that I hold no ill will toward you. I get why you interrupted me. I understand completely why you attacked me out of anxiety and fear after you got yourself into something much bigger than you could comprehend. Hell, I wish you success in your future endeavors, but as far as the current endeavor...beating me, making a name off me? I wish you nothing but failure.
=========================================
Title: Space
Location: Los Angeles, California
Time: A Week Ago
It had been a week plus since Alexis’ mother passed away. I had tried to be there for her at every opportunity, or whenever she beckoned, but as I knew would happen, there just comes a time and place where you need to be left alone. For me, it was a hike in the desert when I was younger. For her, unfortunately, not taking any time off from work, it’s the two of us, travelling around the globe. We had gotten a slight break with the current tour in Mexico and us having a house in Los Angeles’ outer rim.
I walked over to the sliding glass door separating me from the outside world, more strictly my backyard. I looked to the side and saw Alexis sitting in a chair, her legs pulled up to her chest. Part of me wanted to rush to her side, hug her, and be there for her as I had been, but another part of me questioned it all. I reached down to the handle and slowly pulled the door open enough to stick my head out the door.
Mike Laszlo: You okay?
Slowly but surely, she turned and slowly nodded.
Alexis Caffrey: Yeah, I just need some time out here to decompress and figure things out.
I nodded.
Mike Laszlo: If you need me, just yell.
She nodded again and slowly turned her gaze back to where she was staring off. I pulled myself back in and slid the door shut, continuing to watch her in the chair, barely moving a single inch. I watched, helpless to do anything.
Watching her there reminded me of my own fights with the grim reaper. First my mother at a younger age, then my father a couple of years back. Both entirely different situations from each other, each having a different effect on the man you see on your televisions week in and week out.
I shake my head from side to side and pull myself away from the window, walking into the other room, having a seat on the couch in the family room, one of the windows only showing the top of her head causing me to only sit there and sigh as I then turn my gaze to the floor beneath me. I knew what she was going through...all too well.
My mother, a woman who fought cancer for over five years, before the days of the superceded effort to find a cure. She did things for us, my brother and myself, all while sacrificing herself, very similar to Alexis’ own mother.
Then came the death of my father. He was estranged, to say his effect was quite different from my mother’s would be an understatement. Where as I grieved her and let it sit with me for so long, my father’s deathly circumstances were more a shock by matter of how, not when.
Even my own grandfather, watching the Alzheimer's wither away the highly intelligent man he once was, was devastating indeed.
I think though, with each passing death, I don’t mean to say I got hardened to it, but the different experiences I think were able to brace me for the next. My wife didn’t have that circumstance. She didn’t have that knowledge of what exactly the grieving would feel like. She didn’t know how much the pain would affect her.
For me, as her husband, to know the pain she’s going through, to know the pit of sorrow she’s swirling in is simply devastating. It might be worse than the experience of death itself, only because at least in the situation of death, there’s nothing you can do. You’ll blame yourself and say “only if” but in the end, there’s nothing. Here, you want to help so badly that it consumes you. You want to do everything you can, but you can’t only because the person in peril knows they need that time of their own.
And deep down, I know as well.
She’ll get through this...and I’ll be there to help...when she needs me.
Well howdy there pardner.