Quarrel

“I did not expect this from you.” Bernard said.

“What are you talking about?” Carter asked.

“Are we friends or not?”

“Why not, we are friends. There is no doubt.”

“We both are writers or not?”

“Why not, we both are writers.”

“I did not expect this from you.”

“What are you talking about?”

Bernard looked at Carter with disgust. Carter was trying to know the reason for this disgust.

“Do you remember the plot of the story of ‘Dispute’ I told you?”

“Yes, I remember. What is the dispute now?”

“The dispute is my story and I have asked you for your opinion, right?”

“I know, that is your story and I told you that the plot is good, I also told you to write this story for the spring story competition.”

Bernard looked at Carter with the same disgust feeling.

“Then, why did you copy this and wrote a story with the same plot?”

Now Carter was at shock. He knows that he did not write a story that Bernard is telling.

“What are you saying? I did not write any story with this plot. You have a wrong notion about this.”

Bernard looked him with more disgust. He knew that Carter stole his idea and wrote the story which has appeared in CLOUD weekly.

“I know you started lying also.” Bernard said.

“I don’t lie Bernard. You are in wrong notion.”  Carter said

“No not at all. Your story with the name ‘Dispute’ has been published in this week in CLOUD.” Bernard said.

As Carter was wondering while Bernard opened the page of the published story and showed it to Carter.
Carter saw the story published with the name Dispute and writer was Bill Carter.

Carter smiled and looked at Bernard with a smile.

“Did you read the story? Title may be same, but content may be different.” Carter said.

“I am not a fool, I read the story and the content is just the same, my story’s content.” Bernard said with anger in his tone.

“Then I am sorry to say that this story is not written by me.” Carter said.

“How can you deny that this story is not written by you?” Bernard asked.

“You are a fool. Look at the name of the writer.”

“Yes Bill Carter.”

“You know I am not Bill Carter. I am Bull Carter.” Carter said.

Bernard was silent when Carter said this.

“Then who will be this Bill Carter?”

“I don’t know. But I know one thing.”

“What is that?”

“Writers can have same ideas. He put it in writing first before you, so he is benefited.”

“I too sent the story to CLOUD. What will happen now?”

“I don’t know.”

“My story is just with the same plot. But the ending in my story was different.” Bernard said.

Next week, Bernard’s story was published with the same title. Some readers commented on Bill Carter’s story as the best one. The weekly published writer’s photo and address of Bill Carter along with the letters of some readers who liked the story.

After two weeks, readers wrote that Bernard’s story is a copy of Bill Carter’s story and Publishers are not careful in publishing such copy stories.

Bernard was unhappy for this awkward situation. Carter wrote a letter to the publishers that Bernard had this plot three months back and his story is sent to the magazine a month back when Bill Carter’s story is not published. Moreover, he is thousands of miles away from Bernard.

This letter is also published.

After two week, English translation of ‘Dispute’ French story by Corbin was published in CLOUD weekly. This story is just like the other two stories published in CLOUD.

The editor’s not at the end is like this:

“Some stories may look like alike. Nobody copied other’s ideas. But people may think alike. We cannot see every sentence of two or more stories alike. Let us see and enjoy each writer’s feelings as separate petals of the same beautiful flower.”

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