Family Short Story – The World Next Door
© Anand Vishnu Prakash, YourStoryClub.com
She is twenty. Her name is Jane. Jane is a shy type girl. She spent all her life in a village. She lived like a prisoner under her grandmother as she lost her parents in train accident. Her grandmother made her like a beautiful young woman with clean tastes. All of a sudden, her grandmother also left her in her old age. Jane is now alone with none. Her grandmother used to say that Jane’s uncle is William who is in London. She used to say that Jane is not alone. She advice Jane to go there if something unforeseen happens to her. It is now happened, So Jane came to London. She met her uncle who is not happy for the happenings. He understood in a short time that Jane is also good writer. So he said no to his lazy secretary and made Jane as his best secretary.
Jane is like a prisoner from one prison to another prison. She has a world like that of a frog in a well. There the walls are the boundaries and here the work is her boundaries. Her world is books and words in laptop. Her Uncle William understood that she is far better than his secretary, so he asked his secretary to go. Sooner she gets ready, she has to eat the little available from home and sit before her uncle to take the dictation. William is good man. He lost his wife few years back and he has no children. He thought that Jane is the daughter given by God. As Jane has experienced all the troubles and pains in her life and she did not waste time to become a good young woman with good knowledge of literature, he wants to make her a good writer.
Jane’s works are getting published. She is getting name and fame. William was happy. One day, the M.D. of a famous weekly called Jane to come and meet him if she likes to work as contract contributor to his magazine. William was happy for this offer as his earnings are very limited as a freelance journalist. He asked Jane to go and join the magazine. As Jane is a very timid girl, she felt his uncle as the big support.
William took Jane to office of the magazine. Jane is liked by the superiors in the office.
“Do you like a room in the office? “
Jane said that she likes the office and a seat in anywhere is enough.
“You will have your separate cabin. Chief editor Lucy will be your trainer. We will provide a car.”
“I don’t know driving sir” Jane said.
“Know it. For a period of six months, a driver also will be provided.”
“As you please sir” Jane said.
“It’s our pleasure to have you in our organization. You will be paid twenty five thousand now apart from other allowances. Take charge from tomorrow.”
Jane signed the joining report and explained her uncle everything she said with MD. William was happy. Jane is expert in writing village episodes. She is rich with the knowledge she got from her grandmother.
The real woes of the poor in the villages are like very small things that we cannot obtain. “I want to eat two times a day, it is my paradise if I can eat two times a day.” A old farmer says. He is unable to get few grains from his farm for the last two years.
Pain is not the absence of what we wanted, but it is the presence what we could not have. Let it be the dream of eating two times a day. It cannot be compared with a dog eating many times in a rich house in the city. The value of food is not known to many families in the cities, as they see the food as something lesser than money. Food and water are like real god in the villages and they worship these living gods there. They say to children. “Don’t waste. The food is our god.”
Jane knows that the life is full of tears mostly in the villages. She does not know much about the cities. She thinks that city is not like a village, it is different world where people are not suffering for food.
One day William called Jane to his room. That is a day she has not to go to office.
“Jane, I am very much obsessed by your writings. Strong people know how to keep the life in perfect order. Even with the tears in their eyes, they manage to say with a sweet smile that I am Ok. Take some time to see how the people in the cities also.” William said.
William was in his easy chair and Jane sat before him. There are tears in William’s eyes.
“Uncle, what is this? Why the tears are coming in your eyes?” Jane asked.
“This is the day when my wife left me forever. I gave her every day a box full of darkness. She took all those boxes with her. She did not leave even a single box for me. You came with the boxes of sweets. If my wife is now with me, these sweets will be the golden boxes of great light.”
Jane tried to console William.
“Uncle, life is not alike always.” Jane said with confidence.
“Yes honey, It is why I am putting all the money you are giving me in the account in your name. We are here in this small house. But “the world next door” is always before us. It is a big house with all comforts. I want to see you in the world next door soon. You are a sweet little girl and you must have the access to this wonderful world next door. It is our visionary world that we want to achieve.”
As William is saying this, the tears are moving in Jane’s eyes.
_THE END_
