The Luckiest Guy in the World by Ada Liao

The storm threw the dirt up in the air, and weaved a grayish cover over the top of the volcano. Inside the volcano, everything grew dimmer.

Carl had to shut his eyes. He slipped down to the bottom of the volcano, again. How many times had he tried to climb it, he couldn’t remember.

All he could remember was that thirty minutes earlier, when he was walking on the edge of the volcano, the sky was only a little bit gray. Now, when he and Jeff arrived at the bottom of the volcano, the storm also did.

This time he fell down the slope, he hit a rock at the bottom of the volcano, and passed out.

He then drifted into dreams. He saw Christina walking towards him. He wanted to reach out to hold her hand, but hesitated. Then someone came along and Christina walked away with him – it was Louise. “Don’t leave me, please!” Carl was begging. He fell down on both knees.

“Carl, are you okay?”

Carl slowly opened his eyes. He saw Jeff above him, holding his head. He then realized they were still inside the dormant volcano. Damn! What a loser.

“Hey Jeff…I’m ok.”

“You were whispering ‘Christina’ the whole time and you wouldn’t respond to me. It scared the hell out of me!”

“Was I?” Carl said in a low voice. Why was I still thinking of Christina? Christina was seeing Louise now, my best buddy – and the luckiest guy in the world.

“So you’re still thinking about her… I don’t understand why you don’t make a move? You let Louise get to her first.”

What was I thinking? Carl felt his heart getting heavier and his jaw getting tighter. I had no idea…… Maybe it was the thought that I might not be good enough for her. Maybe it was the fear that she won’t like me. Maybe it was the fact that I never know how to make girls happy… Now it was all over! She started dating Louise. And I got stuck here inside a dormant volcano during the storm, waiting for death. My heart already died yesterday, now it was my body’s turn.

Carl closed his eyes.

Yesterday, when Carl saw Christina walking hand-in-hand with Louise at the Campus Café, his heart stopped. He was standing there motionlessly, watching their backs without any words. While inside, his world had collapsed. His best friend with the girl of his dreams…… Why was life so fucked up?

Nobody noticed this silent death except Jeff, his other best friend. That’s when Jeff suggested going out to the dormant Volcano 100km outside the campus. It was a popular destination amongst some adventurous students. Jeff was one of them. He wanted Carl to find an outlet for the emotions and be happy again. But it seemed that fate had worked against them.

“I was being stupid… I don’t know what happen…….” Carl finally responded as if he was murmuring to himself.

Suddenly, Jeff pushed Carl to sit up, and he stood in front of Carl and began shouting: “You don’t know what happened? Let me tell you what happened! You were a coward! You didn’t go after the girl of your dreams. Just like how you never had the courage to tell your father you want to be a writer! That’s what happens when you never fight for your dreams. You lose everything and suffer! And I hate having to see you lose just like that. Now that we’re in here together, and we might never get out again. I’m telling you everything…..”

At first, Carl’s eyes became wide open, he was shocked at Jeff’s over-reaction. Then, he buried his head into his hands, as he felt the eruption of volcano inside his mind.

Carl had always wanted to be a creative writer, but chose to study Engineering only because his father said it would be a “real” career. Although he hated the idea, he didn’t say anything. Ever since he met Christina, he knew she was the one he always wanted, but again, he didn’t dare to talk to her. He secretly wrote romance poems for Christina. Over the past two years, his poems could have filled books. He also wrote love stories for her. Some were of them reading poems together and falling in love. However, he never showed them to anyone, until one day Jeff found out about it.

“You are right, and I deserved all the consequences of my cowardice. “Carl started to cry. Now he worried that Christina might get hurt. Louise was definitely not the one for her!

Louise was one of his best buddies. Together with Jeff, the three of them used to have a lot of fun. They went to the same high school, and then the same university. A year later, Christina joined their university. They met Christina at the Freshman Welcome Party. Louise took Carl and Jeff to that party, he was always more interested in those kinds of social events. Or to be exact, it was not the events he was interested in, but the girls. Louise had been dating all sorts of girls since high school, changing girlfriends in the way people would change their clothes. No, some people don’t change their clothes that often.

Louise would eventually dump her and left her heartbroken like all the other girls.

Carl felt breathless, he raised his head and said, “I regret not doing what I should have done. If I were given another chance, I would do it differently. ”

“What exactly would you do if given another chance?”

“I would show her my poems, I would tell her everything I feel for her. Even if she says No, at least I have tried and would have no regret…… I would tell my father the truth, I would go to writing courses and keep submitting my pieces until I succeeded…… Man, I have missed so many opportunities. If given another chance, I would fight for my dreams, and live the life I wanted, live without regret. Now it is all too late…….”

Jeff put his hand on Carl’s shoulder and felt him trembling.

“Carl, it’s not too late. Let’s get out of here and fix your life.”

“How will we get out of here? ” Carl looked at the slope and said, “With the storm, it would be impossible to climb up……and even if we survived, how will I tell her anything if she chose to be with my best friend? ”

“It’s all planned, Carl.”

“Planned…….What do you mean?” Carl turned to look at Jeff.

“Louise and I planned this together. We always knew about the way you felt for Christina. And we knew you wouldn’t tell her yourself. So we planned the whole thing. I showed your poems to Christina and she was thrilled and shocked. You know what? She liked you , and thought you are not interested in her the whole time. So she agreed to pretend she was dating Louise and purposely let you see them yesterday at the café. We were hoping that you would have the courage to win her back.

If you had had the courage to fight for her yesterday, we wouldn’t have needed to carry out this backup plan to take you here. Over there is a secret path that can lead us up, out of the volcano. The storm should have stopped by now according to the weather forecast. ”

As Jeff was speaking, the storm stopped, a ray of sunshine fell on the luckiest guy in the world from the top of the volcano, Carl’s face was brighter than ever.