Highly Commended Story - The Gadget Story

“The Gadget Story” by Ali Ahmed Sheikh, Beaconhouse School System, Pakistan, is the Highly Commended story in the sub-junior category of the second biannual Short Story Contest 2020.

Ali Ahmed Sheikh lives with his mother, father and his little sister in Karachi, Pakistan. He is almost eight years old and is a class III student at Beaconhouse. He likes reading books especially Harry Potter. He also likes to write stories especially science fiction. His favorite sport is cricket and wants to be a cricketer when he grows up. In school he likes the subject Science very much, as he likes doing science experiments.

The Gadget Story

It was already 11:00 pm, Ali was still up and playing online games with his friends, his mother came in his room and shouted:

“Are you still awake? I told you to sleep before 10:00 pm, because you have to wake up early for school, now stop your games and sleep now otherwise I will call your Father.”

“But Mama, all my friends are also online, let me finish this game and I promise, I will sleep immediately”. Ali, pleaded with his Mother.

However, his mother was having none of it, she pulled the plug of his computer and ordered him to go to bed immediately. Disappointed Ali went to bed, however in his mind he was only thinking about the game he was playing with his friends, but soon he was sleeping soundly.

Ali, was an eight year old, living with his parents and one young sister in Karachi, he was in class three, although he was a brilliant student, however recently he starting playing too much computer games, which started hampering his studies as well.

In the morning, he was woken up by a strange sound, it was definitely not his mother, Ali was still sleepy and he could hardly open his eyes, but the strange sound keep repeating itself. It was very annoying because the sound keep on increasing.

Finally Ali, decided to wake up and see what is going on, when he opened his eyes, all he could see was his alarm clock, but the strange thing was it speaking like a robot and it had face and arms and legs just like robots.

Wake up Ali, it’s already 7 O’clock, you will be late for school, the robot alarm clock keep repeating. Until Ali got out of the bed, then the alarm clock automatically stopped and went back to its place.

Ali was quite puzzled, although he was in his room, however everything looks different, then suddenly the door of his room opened and entered a big robot and said:

“Good Morning Ali, hope you had a good sleep, I am your new guardian and from now, I will take care of all your needs.”

But where is my Family? Shouted Ali.

Upon hearing this, his computer, electronic tablet, all his remote controlled toys started laughing and all said at once; “Ali we are your Family, since you like us so much we made you come to the machine world, we will now take care of you”

Ali was scarred, although he liked all his electronic gadgets, however he still loved his family more, Ali started to worry and cry loudly, suddenly he heard his mother calling him from a distance and then he felt someone shaking him and his room all the live gadgets started vanishing and when he again opened up his eyes he saw his own mother trying to wake him up for school.

When he saw his mother, he hugged her and said sorry for last night,

What happened to you Ali, why you were shouting in your sleep?

I saw a very bad dream Mama, I saw all my gadgets were alive and saying that they are my family because you like your gadgets so much. I cannot live without my real family then you woke me up said Ali.

I guess you have learned a lesson Ali, said his Mother.

Ali: Yes, a very important lesson indeed and they all lived happily ever after.