Why on Earth would there be a game show that nobody can win? Isn’t that illegal? There has to be some law about that. So, after dialing the number, I heard several tones, all with a different pitch. It made no sense why that would be, but it was probably just my phone. Hey, it was a rainy day, but, you know how that works. After waiting for what just seems like almost forever, I hear a friendly voice on the phone, to my surprise.
“Hello, and welcome to our game show!” a man said, who unusually was excited. “If you would like to listen in English, please hold on the phone. Para Espanol, oprima cero.”
I didn’t speak Spanish, so I just waited on the phone. A nice tone, a simple one too, was playing as I was being transferred to a menu.
“Hello! To audition for the show, press one. To be part of the audience, press two. For other inquiries, please press three,” that same man said. I went ahead and pressed the two button on my phone.
This just seemed unusual. I was expecting something bizarre, something unbelievable, but, no, this was just a regular phone call. After waiting for about a minute, I hear a woman’s voice on the phone.
“Hello?” the woman asked, with a little bit of impoliteness.
“Hi. I want to audition for the show. My name is Justin - Justin Wells. When, where, and how can I audition?” I asked.
“Well, it depends,” replied the lady, “if you want to do it online, you can do it online. If you want to do it over the phone, you can do it right now. If you want to go in person, which would be the best way to audition, you can come and check it out for yourself.”
“I think I will do the audition in person,” I said. “It seems like the best way.”
“Alright, well, according to where you are calling from, which is East Dover in New Jersey, if I’m correct?” the woman asked.
“Yep, that’s where I am calling from, and live,” I said, jokingly.
“Okay, well, you can go on Tuesday at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, would that be alright?” the woman asked. “It is a forty minute drive, so, if you want to do it over the phone or online, you can just-”
“No,” I said interrupting her. “I want to go in person.”
“Alright then!” she exclaimed. “Be there on Tuesday!”
“Yep,” I said, with less enthusiasm than I had expected. I had hung up.
Finally, I had finished the call. But I just wanted to know what the place would be like. Every time I was going somewhere that I haven’t before, I always imagine what the place would be like. Would it be elegant, would it be large, almost every single question possible. See, I am just amazingly curious about everything, so, this was crazy. But now I’m positive that I’m going, as if this was mandatory, however, it really was just something optional. I took a deep breath, and then a nap. I was anxious, but it wasn’t horrible. In fact, I was kind of relaxed.
People can’t really describe someone’s dreams, but, I guess I can. When I was dreaming, I thought about actually being on the show after the audition.
“Hello, and welcome to our new game show! We don’t really have a name for it, so, let’s improvise! Let’s call this game show, Super Quiz Game! Yeah, I know it’s generic, but, let’s just go with it,” a short and old man said, as the show was beginning. “Now, should we meet our first contestant?”
“Yeah!” the audience screamed, so happy that they were going to be on primetime television, something that I wouldn’t really be happy about, but in this case, I was charismatic.
“Alright, well, let’s get out our first contestant. He lives in Dover, New Jersey, he’s a film and video editor, please welcome, Justin Wells!”
At first, the audience was silent. You could hear a pin drop. But after a few seconds, the audience was roaring in excitement, as if I was a celebrity or something. But I am just a regular guy, with a regular job, or as most people would say, an interesting job. I walked down almost what seemed like a runway, to the two chairs around a touchscreen table.
“Like it?” the host asked. “This is state-of-the-art technology. We want to present you with the most divine experience while playing this game.”
“I love this!” I said.
“Well, that’s good, because now we are going to play!”
The lights dimmed after changing to a shade of blue. The background music was ambient, and I thought that this was an amazing show.
“Now, let me just give you a quick explanation of what will be happening. My name is Mark Fields. You have to answer 13 questions in order to win one million dollars. Seems easy, right?” Mark paused for a moment. “But no, each question gets a little harder in difficulty, but nobody has even made it past the ninth question. We don’t want everyone to walk home with nothing, so after reaching the fourth question, which is worth 25 thousand dollars, and the ninth question, which is worth 100 thousand dollars, you get to keep that. So, the most anyone has ever walked out of here with is a hundred thousand dollars. It’s good, and this is a good game to play.”
I started to grow tired, but then I looked around. I had no idea that this place was huge, even though I had no idea where on Earth I was. But when you are dreaming, you can really just be anywhere. Anyways, this place had hundreds of people in the audience. This place was amazing, with nice lighting and seats that made it seem like someone’s home. They were like couches, not chairs.
“I just want to play, Mark,” I said, a little rudely.
“Well, you sure look like it!” Mark said. “Let’s get to the first question, worth a thousand dollars. Who was the third president of the United States? Was it George Washington, Barack Obama, John Adams, or Thomas Jefferson?”
I hadn’t studied my presidents at all. I only know Barack Obama, which is weird. But then again, this is a dream.
“Uhh...George Washington?” I said, with a little bit of that Help me… tone.
“No, I’m so sorry,” Mark said, looking as if he was going to die of laughter. “The correct answer is Thomas Jefferson - he was the third president.”
I was so embarrassed. How could this happen to me? I was so confident about this, and now I just let it all go.
“You’ll be going home with nothing today, and, that’s alright. Winning isn’t everything,” Mark said. The lights came back on, and a short tune played. I walked back to the runway, really sad. This was horrible.
“Justin,” Mark said. “Justin!”
“Me?” I asked.
“Justin. Justin. Justin!”
All of a sudden, I woke up. It was Timmy, waking me up. He was the one shouting my name.
“Hey,” I said. “Wait a minute, how did you get in?”
“Oh, well, your door was open! So I just came in,” Timmy replied.
“My bad. I should have closed it,” I said.
I never told Timmy about my dream, and I shouldn’t. He would give me an hour long lecture about confidence and all those things that I really don’t care about. Then he would call someone over the phone and then all three of us would talk about for at least another hour, but then in the end, I would order a pizza and everyone would come over, after making Timmy clean the entire house, and every time he complains I would tell him that “that’s what friends are for.”
My dream was just something that I shouldn't have worried about, and that was fine with me.