After That Day

I kept a close eye on Alicia's streaming antics.

I found out that in three days, she planned to have Tony take on monstrous waves, some as high as buildings. Tony was just a kid, barely taller than a surfboard!

When the day came, my parents and I were glued to the stream, faces all tense. They believed my worries, not a shred of doubt–nothing like Jeff!

My eyes started to water. If only I had listened to them and not married Jeff out of pity!

Then, from my phone, the broadcast began. Alicia and her entourage had made it to the beach.

Tony clutched his oversized surfboard and sprinted into the ocean. The waves knocked him around as expected, but he popped back up in no time, not a hint of a cough.

I rushed to my daughter's room to check on her. She was still lost in slumber, and I let out a sigh of relief.

However, in a heartbeat, she started crying and coughing up water, her face turning ghostly white. My parents and I jumped into action, giving her CPR. Still, she seemed stuck in a perpetual drowning spell.

I did not notice things until I saw the live stream that Tony kept tumbling into the waves, standing up repeatedly, until he finally rode them like a champ. The kid was tiny, but after countless wipeouts, he nailed it.

Everyone was calling him a wonder kid, grit and guts in spades, and not even the deep sea could knock him down.

Why? How did Alicia pull it off?

Hearing my daughter's pained screams, I was racked with guilt.

In desperation, my parents and I drained our savings to buy control over Tony's challenges. I did it anonymously through a friend's account, shelling out 1.5 million dollars. Alicia's eyes lit up at the sight of the cash, and Tony's next challenges were safe ones, like sorting out a mountain of green beans. My little girl could finally heal, the fear fading away.

I never saw it coming, though.

Alicia took the money and still decided to send Tony through the Saharain Desert a week later. I was livid, ready to give her a piece of my mind, but she simply blocked me, leaving me shouting into the void.

"Just 1.5 million dollars, and that's enough to fund ten whole ventures! But these days, everyone's yawning at the same old stunts. Someone's even shelled out 7.5 million to watch Tony hoof it across the desert!"

Some level-headed folks tried to talk sense into her. "The kid is too young, and the desert is too vast. Even if he were bulletproof, he'd be worn out!"

However, Alicia just shrugged it off with a nonchalant wave of her hand. "Don't fret over it. Just make sure you've got your tips ready. You're in for a show watching my boy, the braveheart, conquer the sands!"

I was hit by a wave of despair.

What was I to do? If Tony set foot in that desert, my daughter was bound to die all over again!

Tears streamed down my face as I looked at my daughter in bed, swathed in bandages. She reached out with her tiny hand, trying to console me, "Mommy, don't cry. It's my fault for always getting sick..."

"No!" I cut her off, my voice thick with emotion, my eyes shining with resolve.

I could not go through another lifetime only to lose her to some mysterious fate! I managed to persuade my parents, sold our city home, and moved the family out to the country.

With 750 thousand dollars in hand, I went back to Alicia.

[This money won't be enough to call off the challenge,] she warned.

I quickly typed back, [There's no need to cancel it. I just want a front-row seat to this miracle. Let him bring along a phone with a stand for a live, first-person broadcast!]

It was like taking candy from a baby. Alicia agreed on the spot.

The day of the challenge, I was glued to my phone, watching Tony's every step through the desert.

The heat was so intense, it felt like it was radiating right through the screen. Alicia and her crew, comfy in their air-conditioned car, were still flushed from the blazing sun.

However, Tony? He did not even seem to break a sweat.

"Mommy, I'm so hot, it hurts!" Laura whimpered.

The air conditioner was cranked to its lowest setting, but Laura's cheeks were still a fiery red, her skin scorched from the sun.

At last, my eyes landed on Tony's feet in the camera lens.

I finally understood Alicia's trick, how she had shifted Tony's agony and illness onto Laura.