Chapter 3: Finding the Fire

Continued from Chapter 2: The Fire Grows...


After a long summer of waiting tables, I couldn't wait to get started with school again, and at this time, I didn't know that the next big event in my life as "The Furnace" was right around the corner. Once the first week of school came, a special class was waiting for me third period: U.S. History.  It was a class that had a reputation for being difficult, taught by a professor who was very stingy on details, but who had a good relationship with most of the students because he was a pretty laid-back and had a good sense of humor. (I don't if he will be reading this, so for now, we will leave it at that.) Who was to know that in this class that school year that I would be presented with an opportunity that would allow me to find the potential that this nickname had?



It all started the very first day of this class. It was what you would see as a typical first day, where the teacher introduces his or herself and then goes around trying to learn everybody's name, or so it seemed until it came to me... When the professor addressed me, I was caught a bit off-guard because after saying my name and looking at my face, he paused and said, "So I hear they call you "The Furnace". Why is that?" (I forgot to add that he followed the school basketball team since a lot of members on the team were in his class last season, so he knew my nickname as "The Furnace". With that question, I feared he knew more about me than me about him, and especially being the first day of school, that can be more of a surprise than you asked for.) What I replied to him I do not remember. It was probably weak and unsatisfying because I myself didn't really know why I was "The Furnace" and to tell the whole story behind it would have probably made me look like a weird kid on the first day, and I didn't want any of that.





What I do remember, and what was the important moment was that that followed. From the look on his face after what I said, I could tell he wanted more information, and, with a smile on his face, I knew that what was to happen next was for him to have some fun by exploiting my weak position. The next thing he asked me was: "So, if you are a furnace, you got to have different ranges of heat, right?", indicating levels of heat with his arm in front of him. For him, it was a moment in which he awaited the next move I was to play in his game. However, for me, it was a moment for me at which my game just started. In fact, it was a moment so special, that time actually stopped! I remember receiving his words and then BAM!; everything but my mind was still. For those split seconds of paused time, my mind was processing the information, and then, as if by impulse, my body suddenly came up with a decision of how to respond, and this response was more than just the decision to seriously take on the name of "The Furnace", but also to do something about it, right there and then. This was the moment.




I replied affirmatively, and then as if possessed by ultra-strength and courage (from "The Furnace" side of course), I got up out of my seat, walked over to the chalk board, and drew a thermometer, filling it up to today's temperature of "The Furance". I don't quite remember what happened after that, but I'm sure everyone in the class was looking at me. It was something so spontaneous and bold, and I bet that if I were put in that situation again I wouldn't have happened.




Even today as I look back, I ask myself how all of that could have taken place and could have been real. It really made me question a lot of "what if's" in my life and the question of fate. What if I hadn't shown up at basketball practice early that one day and starting making those jokes? What if I had gone to a different school or been sick that day? Or what if I had acted differently in the classroom with my U.S. History professor and not gone up to the board? Again, was I fated to be "The Furnace"? 




There is the quote that says that people are known for their actions and not for their words, and I think that this moment was an action that spoke a lot about "The Furnace", and how I committed myself to taking on this identity. What happens next is where "The Furnace" starts revealing himself for real, now that he has got the fire!



To be continued...



The Furnace