Outstanding Stories » You Get What You Give

“You Get What You Give” is one of the outstanding stories (senior) of the second biannual International Short Story Contest 2018 written by Vishal Verma, Jiva Public School, India.

You Get What You Give

It was a calm, beautiful and pleasant evening of year 1945.Everyone and everything was putting up well until a havoc shattered everything down in dust.

David Arthur, a man of 40, owned a bomb manufacturing lab in Germany. Having a freak mindset towards creations had fetched him great success. He had a great feeling of imperial nationalism and loved his countrymen. Under the rule of Adolf Hitler, Arthur was ordered to manufacture weapons and missiles for him and was ill paid for his endeavors and high deserving skills. He was the only sole manufacturer of bombs who could build weapons of mass destruction in those days but he never questioned Hitler regarding an increase in his salary.

Arthur loved his job and constantly supplied weapons to the army of Hitler but he soon grew bankrupt as he didn’t have enough financial resources and couldn’t manage to build bomb any further. Upon asking for some financial help from Hitler, he got beaten up for discontinuing the supply of weapons. His family members were his only reason why he was breathing and he could do anything for them but due to the circumstances, Arthur had to sell whatever jewelry and valuables he had in his house to meet the regular demand of weapons.

Soon he grew a beggar and his family members had to starve on roads. By the time his feeling of nationalism also faded away. By God’s grace an Englishmen approached him with an offer to work for him and in return he will pay whatever amount Arthur wished to charge.

After quite a few weeks, he got many such offers and Arthur became a self-sufficient yet a greedy person. Apart from bomb manufacturing he built many resources for him, which used to fetch him a lot of money. All those were illegal activities. He gained many enemies and became target of many a people but no one was ever able to harm him yet he felt unsafe.

In fear of his enemies, he started bombing them and also killing several innocents in the process. Arthur also wished to take revenge from Hitler for the consequences he faced and soon he started interrupting the welfare activities which Hitler did to improvise the life of its countrymen. Arthur couldn’t digest the growing popularity of Hitler and he used to send his servants to gun down the people wherever they accumulated in a large volume. He thought that he would ruin the image of Hitler but he ended up ruining himself.

From starting off as a small lab owner to becoming a sole demon for a nation, Arthur covered a long way and at that point he started to feel like a god and whosoever disobey him, lost his life. Instead of a god he turned up to be a demon but still his love for his family was constant.

He was working on a secret project to build a huge missile that would bring the rule and life of Adolf Hitler to an end.

He appointed many workers for his evil purpose and made huge capital investments. He was just waiting for an opportunity to implement his plan. Arthur lost his mind and he was unable to things in the bigger picture. All he wanted was revenge.

Soon he got this chance too, Hitler was to organize a charity program for his countrymen followed by Army rallies and displays of high tech armaments and of course, masses would also join them. Arthur saw it as an opportunity to erase the name of Hitler from the history of mankind with all his resources.

Hitler, unaware of the extreme level plan of Arthur, was making necessary arrangements to prevent minor gun attacks which Arthur used as a medium to interrupt. Arthur actually made a huge missile which could destroy an area of about 10 km sq. that could automatically find its target and hit the exact point. The missile has a remote controller which Arthur handed over to one of his mates as he himself had to attend his marriage anniversary which his wife had planned that evening delightfully on which the missile was supposed to be launched.

Just when Arthur was about to cut the cake with his wife, a person approached him and he got to know that Hitler has postponed his plan to organize the charity program due to adverse weather conditions. Arthur lost his temper, threw away the knife and ran helter- shelter towards the lab where his mate saw him coming and shouting his name aloud in aggression, he thought that Arthur would scold him for not launching the missile as per the exact time and he quickened up his steps and launched the missile. Arthur then tried to arrange for the reinstallation of the missile as it was still under control and visible on the radar. Arthur was wet in sweat, Goosebumps appeared and fear could clearly be seen on his face.

While making changes to the system, a technical issue led the missile to crash near to his lab and house. His wife following him, also reached his lab. In front of their eyes there appeared strong flashes of light, one after another. It startled them, holding the hand of his wife for the last time, Arthur knew in himself that everything came to an end. As they standing, the roof and the walls collapsed. In great sorrow, Arthur tore his hair. He was angry with himself in that desperate situation. The dust rushed from all sides. At that dying moment Arthur could hear a terrible sound. It appeared as if devil himself was ringing the knell for his funeral.

The moral of the story is that, Karma treat everyone equally, jealousy doesn’t fetch anything to anyone. It also proves an old saying “if you make traps for others, you yourself will stuck in it one day”. So, be generous to everyone.