The Bowling Showdown
Once upon a time, there were five brothers, all alike in stature and skill—skill at bowling. These five brothers were renowned for their strikes, but no bowler was as accurate as Arjuna, who could thread the ball into the one-three pocket and guarantee a strike whenever he stepped up to the lane. Arjuna was so good that, after a while, his fame spread so that everyone in the land thought he was unbeatable.
One day, when the five brothers were displaying their skill on the lanes against their cousins—all one hundred of them—a mystery challenger approached, claiming that his skill throwing and spinning a bowling ball exceeded that of Arjuna. This man's name was Karna, and upon his challenge, Arjuna agreed to go frame for frame against this mystery man.
The two bowlers battled furiously, each of their bowling balls hooking into strike after strike. While Arjuna threw to hit the normal strike pocket for a right-hander, between the 1 and 3 pins, Karna threw into the Brooklyn pocket, the 1-2 pocket, and still the pins all fell each time he hooked his ball down the lane. Karna was able to match Arjuna strike for strike, equalling Arjuna exactly, never exceeding him but never falling below his level. (Though, in fairness, it is impossible to exceed a strike in each frame.) Sometimes, the spinning bowling ball wold teeter on the edge of the gutter as it sped down the lane, but each time an inhuman force seemed to grip the ball at the last second and whip it into the pins with unrivaled ferocity, sending the pins ricocheting into each other, every pin lying on its side after the expert's throw.
The night wore on, and after a while, neither man prevailed, so they retired, vowing to match skill again at a later time.
A long time later, years and years after their first meeting, Arjuna and Karna met in the World Championships of Bowling. This time, Karna intended to win, and he sacrificed his honor as a bowler to do so. Secretly, Karna made the boards in front of the lane very slippery. When Arjuna commenced his four-step approach to the lane, he bent down to deliver his deadly accurate hook throw and instead of rifling the ball down the lane, Arjuna sprawled onto the floor and left his ball rolling down the gutter.
How Arjuna likely looks when he wipes out. Source.
Karna shouted in triumph, but when it was his turn to bowl, Arjuna took decisive action. Since Karna had sacrificed all right to his honor and to Arjuna treating him honorably, during Karna's approach Arjuna threw his unerring hook into two new pins—Karna's legs. The ball shattered the bones in Karna's legs, and Arjuna loomed above him, a sixteen-pound ball (the heaviest available) in his hands. And Arjuna for the last time threw a bowling ball with divine accuracy, ending Karna's career of attempted usurpation and insidious treachery.
Arjuna completed the game with a perfect 270 (considering the opening gutter-ball) and easily won the tournament, restoring the world to balance with his unquestioned dominance on the bowling lanes.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is a retelling of the conflict between Arjuna and Karna in the Mahabharata and in Wilson's "The Five Tall Sons of Pandu." I thought their dynamic was interesting in both works, and in "The Five Tall Sons of Pandu" Arjuna is considered the greatest warrior among the brothers, despite that not being made explicitly clear in Narayan's Mahabharata. The final battle between Karna and Arjuna, with the invocation of a warrior's honor and code on the battlefield, was interesting to me, considering the ramifications of manhood and survival battling against each other under the surface of the physical conflict. I liked giving a modern twist to the story. Though it is quite farcical, both in circumstance and in delivery, this story is based on some truth, since I really like bowling and know how to do it moderately well. I took a class in high school called 'Lifetime Sports' so we got to bowl every day, and I got all of the "technical" terminology for the story from that class. I really enjoyed writing this story, since I don't get to go bowling very often here in Norman. It's not as meta as my previous stories, but hopefully it's fun still!
Bibliography:
Narayan, R. K. The Mahabharata.
Wilson, Richard. "The Five Tall Sons of Pandu." Source.