Story Contest 2017 #2 - Outstanding Stories (Senior) » Live and Work

“Live and Work” is one of the outstanding stories of the second biannual International Short Story Contest 2017 written by M.Pavithra, India.

Live and Work

Father was a hardworking man who delivered bread for a living. He lived with his wife and three children. He spent all his evenings after work attending classes hoping to improve his knowledge so that he could one day find a better paid job. Except for Sundays, they hardly ate a meal together. He worked and studied very hard because he wanted to provide his family the best he could.

Whenever the family complained that he was not spending enough time with them, he reasoned that he was doing all this for them. But he often yearned to spend more time with his family.

The day came when the examination results were announced. To his joy, the father passed the examination and with distinctions too! Soon after, he was offered a good job as a supervisor which paid handsomely.

Like a dream come true, father could now afford to provide his family with life’s little luxuries like good clothing, fine food and a vacation.

However, the family still did not get to see the father for most of the week. He continued to work hard, hoping to get promoted to the position of a manager. In fact, to make himself a worthy candidate for the promotion, he enrolled for another course in the Open University.

Again, whenever the family complained that he was not spending enough time with them, he reasoned that he was doing all this for them. But he often wanted to spend more time with his family.

Finally his hard work paid off and he was promoted. Jubilantly, he decided to hire a maid to relieve his wife from her domestic tasks. He also felt that their three rooms flat was no longer big enough, it would be nice for his family to be able to enjoy the facilities and comfort of a condominium. Having experienced the rewards of his hard work many times before, father resolved to farther his studies and work at being promoted again .The family still did not see much of him.

As expected, his hard work paid off again and he bought a beautiful condominium overlooking the coast of Singapore. On the first Sunday evening at their new home, father declared to his family that he decided not to take any more courses or pursue any more promotions. From then on he was going to devote more time to his family.

MORAL: Hard work will be always rewarded try, try, try try, again until you success.