Story Contest 2016 #1 - Outstanding Stories » Emily

“Emily” is one of the outstanding stories of the first biannual Short Story Contest 2016 written by Ankita Das, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Emily

It was a bright and sunny weekend morning of 2008.

“Mom! Can I please have my pocket money for March?” asked Emily.

“Sure, just give me one second,” said mom, “Here are your five dollars.”

Emily, who was all of 7 years old, ran into in her room, picked up her piggybank and in went the five dollars. She checked her list and asked her mom if she could open her piggybank.

“Sure,” said mom. When Emily opened her piggybank...All the money was on the floor!

She picked them up and started counting, 5, 10, 15, …she kept going on and on and finally finished at 155 dollars! Mom heard the racket, and asked, “So does that mean you saved all your pocket money?”

“I saved it for the poor, not for me,” said Emily.

“Emily, you could at least keep 10 dollars for yourself,” said mom.

“No Mom, I don’t want to keep any, not even half of it. I want to donate it to the people who are poor,” said Emily. Mom gave in to her wishes, and said, “It is your pocket money. You get to decide to invest or save for the poor.”

Days and months went by, but Emily didn’t change her mind. During all those years Emily grew up, she continued her habit of saving.

It was 2014 April 3rd. Emily woke up, and ran upstairs.

“Good Morning Emily, you better get ready for school or you’re going to miss the bus!” Mom said. Before getting ready, Emily quickly peeked into her piggybank. “How much money do you have?” asked mom.

“I have 995 dollars altogether,” said Emily.

“Ok, get ready, you have a long day ahead of you,” said mom.

After two days of school, it was a weekend, which meant 5 hours at the library with Ezra and Sharpe. Emily had encouraged her other friends also to be part of this cause and had called Akira, Ella, Abby and Zoey as well to come over to the library. They discussed a course of action, regarding their common cause, which was to care for the needy and the poor.

The next day Emily and her friends went to a charity and donated some clothes and items they had collected from various communities in the neighborhood. They had been doing the collection for years, and had collected quite a number of items.

Moreover, with the money she saved, Emily began establishing food banks that would feed the needy.

Her habit of saving for the poor continues even now.....