An Unlucky day for Ben

“An Unlucky day for Ben” is one of the outstanding stories of the first biannual International Short Story Contest 2018 written by Alessandro Farrugia, St. Clare College – Primary B, Malta.

An Unlucky day for Ben

It was the day Ben was dreading for weeks…..he would have liked to stop time and remain enjoying his summer holidays, having a whale of a time every day! Back to school meant he had to spend a lot of his free time studying for exams and doing his homework, NO! Why would anyone look forward to that?!

Exactly at 6:30am the loud, irritating noise for his alarm clock went off. Ben decided to try and cheer up, but as soon as he got out of bed he confirmed that it was going to be a terrible day. His feet landed on some Lego bricks that his brother had left scattered around on the bedroom floor the day before!

He made an effort not to think about the pain that he was feeling at the sole of his feet whilst putting on his uniform that his mother has meticulously prepared on his dresser, surely at a weird time very early that same morning. Once ready, he went downstairs for his breakfast. His mother realized that his socks didn’t match, so he had to go upstairs again to change his socks.

Sometime later, whilst Ben was having his breakfast, his little brother spilled milk all over the kitchen table and on Ben’s uniform. Ben started to panic as he didn’t want to be late for his first day of school. Mother was quick to save the day by providing him with yet another fully steamed, well pressed uniform! It took her only a few minutes to change his clothes and make Ben look like he’s out of a magazine! Finally he was on his way to school.

In a blink of an eye it started raining cats and dogs and by the time he arrived at school, he was dripping wet. Even his copybooks were all soaked. He had forgotten to take his umbrella with him. Ben felt down in the dumps. After meeting his new teacher, drying his clothes and playing with his friends, he started feeling a bit better. The day at school passed by as fast as lightning and soon it was time to go back home. As soon as he opened the front door he smelled a nasty smell of fish, which was his least favorite dish. Ben didn’t like fish at all but he was aware that Mum cooked it for him as it was healthy and he was very hungry, so he ate it all. Later, when he finished his homework, he watched television for a while. That serene moment didn’t last long as his little brother found his copybook and scribbled all over his homework. Ben felt devastated, he couldn’t possibly think of what the teacher would tell him the next day if he presented his homework all scribbled with every shade of green and red. He had no other choice but to do it all over again.

Ben had football training that evening; the only two hours he was looking forward to that day. He loved football and wouldn’t miss training for anything. As he arrived at the pitch,he was greeted by his friends and started showing off his skills when the coach blew the whistle to start the game. After twenty minutes of playing, a player from the opponent team kicked the ball so hard that it hit Ben straight in the face and left him in agonizing pain on the cold green turf. He felt dizzy and his nose bled. Ben had to stop playing and his mother was called to pick him up from the football ground. From all the misfortunes that he had that day, this was the worst one! At home, mother put ice packs on his bruise and called the doctor to come and check on him. He wasn’t suffering from anything serious, and the doctor prescribed some pain killers and told him to keep on putting ice packs on the bruise.

During dinner, when all the family were sitting down at the table talking about their events during that day, Ben was the one most looking forward for the day to come to an end. In bed, he thought about all that had happened to him and he was pleased that there will soon be another day setting on the horizon as he drifted off to sleep and dreamt about the beach and all the fun he had during his holidays! He knew that tomorrow would be a new better day.