Penitence – Family Short Story with Moral Lesson
Short Story of Family with a Moral Lesson – Penitence
Photo credit: lorettaflame from morguefile.com
I was a complete workaholic. Nothing mattered as much as my work did. Or so I thought. I had a family just to show everyone that I was human-not because I wanted them. I never cared about them. Or so I thought.
It was raining cats and dogs for the past few days. But I still went for work. On the third day, it started raining really hard. But I still got ready for work. But my son, Roy was determined not to go to school. His school was working that day, but he didn’t want to go. Raining seemed too good an excuse. But not for me. I compelled him, and he finally agreed. He went to school. And after a minute, I went to work.
The road was pretty much flooded with rainwater, and it was really hard to drive. But I kept going, caring little about the rain. At the signal, I noticed there weren’t any other vehicles there, except for my car and a van. When the light turned green, I rushed because I was a bit late, and for some unknown reason the van rushed too. I had to cross the van in order to go my way. And I did.
It took me a moment-a very long moment-to realize what had happened. As it began to dawn on me, I heard police sirens coming from far off. My car was on the road, with no damage whatsoever, and I was unbroken too. With a glance I knew what had happened. I rushed, the van rushed. But the van driver saw me and tried to stop but could not.
We were driving on an hairpin, and the van was now nowhere to be seen. It had probably fallen. The sirens were fast approaching. I started my car and drove to my office with surprisingly no guilt at all.
I drove and drove. A sudden noise interrupted my thoughts. My phone was ringing and it was my wife. I responded. She had called me to ask me if I wanted lunch to be brought to office, since she had forgotten to pack it. I told her I didn’t, and I told her what had happened. She was furious at me, of course, and asked me to go back and see what had happened to the van. But I just cut the line and drove and drove, until another call interrupted me. It was from my wife.
I walked over to the front door of the hospital, and as I did, I saw a van. A damaged van. I stared at it, not letting myself to believe it was me who…..
“You killed him”. I looked down to see my wife staring at me, with those hard but beautiful brown eyes of hers. I was spellbound. She looked so beautiful right then, and it was hard to believe I hadn’t noticed it before.
“You killed him.” she said again, with poison in her voice that made me shudder. Those beautiful eyes held water in them. They were staring at me with contempt.
Yes, I killed our son, but it wasn’t intentionally. I’m sorry. We can have another one, if you want. Roy was just 6 years old.
I wanted to tell her those lines, but I knew I shouldn’t and I kept mum. Tears were falling…one by one by one. It rolled and rolled and rolled. First to her cheek, then her neck……
I let go of such thoughts. She hates you!, I said to myself.
I didn’t know then, how true I was.
The village I live in, is one of most wonderful village I’ve ever laid my eyes on. The meadow, the pond, the vegetation…
Nothing belongs to me, sadly. I just own a small shed and a few clothes. Somehow, I know I’ve been born to be this. To be poor. I have a work of course, but it is seasonal, and I like it. Working with nature seems much better than working with technology. The only thing I don’t have is a family. Now that I want one, I regret those days when I still had a family but didn’t want them.
Practically, I have everything a man with such heavy sins as mine, could ever hope for.
I still have a life.
__END__
A discovery by the author-
One thing I found out by writing this short story is—it’s really hard to write from the point of view of a big guy for a fourteen year old girl!
