Flames of Jealousy

It was the fall of 2003 at the Huston Huffman Fitness Center on the campus of the University of Oklahoma. A junior student at the university, John Johnson, had spent all three of his school years working at the fitness center. He loved working with the new incoming freshman that would make the short walk from the nearby towers to work on their fitness goals and meet new friends with similar interests. In fact, he taught a weightlifting class tailor-made for new freshmen at OU. He was highly experienced and, by any measure, the best employee that the university had to offer. He was dutiful, punctual, happy, and eager to learn. He struck up a friendship with the manager of the fitness center, Mr. Adams, over the previous years. They became very good friends. They spent their weekends together at OU football games and grilling at each other’s houses.

John was a health and exercise science major at the university. It was always his dream to run a fitness center. He loved training people to meet their fitness goals, and he loved being a part of the University of Oklahoma community. It was no stretch to say that his friend and manager held his dream job. This undoubtedly led to jealousy. John was frequently daydreaming and plotting up ways to get the job from his friend. John was an overly ambitious young man who was extremely impulsive. He did not always use his best judgment. Suddenly, at least in his mind, the opportunity to get his dream job presented itself.

“Are we meeting up this weekend?” Mr. Adams asked John.

“Absolutely,” John replied. “Be at my house at six for the game. We will grill some of the best burgers you will ever taste.”

John was beginning to put his plan in place.

“I will grill some burgers to the best of my ability. They will be the most delicious burgers in Norman. Mr. Adams knows I am an excellent cook. Then, I will trick him,” John thought to himself.

Mr. Adams arrived and the deliciously sweet aroma of burgers that filled the air drew him inside.

“Man, I cannot wait to try this,” Mr. Adams said as he sunk his teeth into a burger. “Mmmmm, this is absolutely delicious. Tell me how you make such delightful burgers. Nothing I try seems to work.”

“The secret is all in the crispy crust,” John replied. “You want to char the outside while leaving the middle of the burger juicy. My trick is to splash a little bit of gasoline on the grill during cooking. This flames the grill up and blackens the outside.”

Mr. Adams was in disbelief. This sounded dangerous.

“Here, I will show you,” John said.

John took a gasoline container that he had already filled with a little bit of burger grease rather than gasoline. He dumped the grease on the grill and there was indeed a small flame up that charred the cooking burgers.

“Wow,” Mr. Adams remarked. "I cannot wait to try this."

The next day, Mr. Adams tried to recreate the exact recipe that his friend John showed him. He bought the best quality meat, seasoned it lightly, and placed it on the grill. After a couple minutes, he grabbed his gasoline container. Without hesitation, he dumped some gasoline on the grill. The entire grilling area immediately burst into flames. The flames completely engulfed Mr. Adams. His wife found him and tried her best to put the fire out, but Mr. Adams suffered severe burns that would never allow a total recovery. She immediately called an ambulance and then the police to report the trick that John played on her unsuspecting husband. She knew from the start that this method sounded too dangerous. She was always highly suspicious of John's overly ambitious personality. Everyone could see that John wanted Mr. Adam's job, everyone except for Mr. Adams. The university removed John from his position. He would never be the manager of a fitness center as was his dream.

Author’s Note:

I based my story on the tale of Why the Bat Flies at Night. This story discusses the tale of a bat and a rat who are friends. However, the friendship was not perfect. The bat was extremely jealous of the rat. The bat had a recipe for a delicious soup. The rat loved the soup, so the rat asked how it was made. The bat convinced the rat that he boils himself in the water to give it a better taste. This sounded unbelievable. To gain credibility, he demonstrated by jumping in warm water. The rat went home to try this. He had a pot of boiling water made and jumped in only to burn to death. His wife found him dead and was irate. The king ordered the bat to become a prisoner. People tried to catch him all day, so the bat had to change his habits. It is said that this is why the bat only comes out at night now.

I thought this would be a fun story to retell with different characters in an OU setting. I told a story of two men who are friends but one is secretly jealous. Mr. Adams is the rat in my story and John is the bat who tricks him out of jealousy. The story unfolds is a very similar fashion, but the characters are more modern and can be related to more than animals. Jealousy is a feeling more associated with humans than animals, so I thought it would be great to use human characters for my story. I also tried to tie in OU as much as possible to continue that theme for my portfolio. Just as the bat had to change his habits and fly only at night, John had to change his habits and future plans as he will never be the manager of a fitness center due to his bad deeds of jealousy.

Bibliography: Why the Bat Flies at Night by Elphinstone Dayrell in the Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria