The Joy of Friendship

“Best friends are the people in life that make you laugh a little louder, smile a little brighter, & live a little better.” Friends are those, who are with you in your good days, and share your happiness but a true friend is the one who is with you in the most difficult periods when you are left alone. That friend could transform the most difficult period of your life into joy. The joy of being with the best pal is unknown, you wouldn’t even realize that how light and comfortable you were in his company. This story is about the best pal Jacob and his master John.

John was a famous painter in Berlin, Germany. His paintings were sold at premium prices. His exhibitions were always full of crowd and not even a single painting used to be left unsold. When John was asked which is his masterpiece, then he used to say, it is yet to come. He never had any idea about what his masterpiece could be.

The only company John had was his dog, Jacob. Jacob was not only a dog for John, he was his family, his life. To every exhibition or events, Jacob was always there with John. They were inseparable pals. They used to take care of each other so well, that it was difficult to say that one is human and other is an animal. Whenever John was busy making his paintings, Jacob used to be around watching his master. Everything was perfect, both of them were happy with each other.

One day, John was coming back from the site after completing his painting. He worked really hard this time. He had not slept for two nights, and now he was really tired. Jacob was sitting in the front seat beside him and peeping out of the window. John was very tired and sleepy, so much that he banged his head on the steering and lost the control of the car. Unfortunately, the car crashed into the truck, and front glass pane broke and hit John on his face. Fortunately, nothing has happened to Jacob and he rushed out of the car from the window to seek help. He found help from a nearby police-officer whom he dragged to the car and showed him the condition of his master. He immediately took both of them to the hospital. John was fine as no major injury happened on his body parts, except the face. John lost him both eyes in this accident. Physically he was fine but emotionally he was shattered. Losing eyes for a painter meant he lost his career, his passion for the darkness of pain. He was very disturbed and lost the contacts from the outside world. Now, nobody cared where is the famous painter John but only Jacob. He was always there around John, worried for his master. He tried his best to comfort him but could not do anything to pacify him. He dragged him for walks, helped him in every possible way as his master could not see anymore. He never required a stick till Jacob was around. Jacob always tried to give paints and brushes to him master but every time he touches the brushes he started crying. He was immeasurably depressed, and the poor dog was struggling to see his master happy again.

Today Jacob got the paints instead of brushes. John was unaware that he gave him the bottles of paint. He opened them and touched the color and realized that every color has a different smell and touch, which could be felt but not seen. He was feeling the colors, and a spark was there in his body. He touched Jacob and thanked him. He went inside his workstation and felt all the colors. He smelled them one by one. Then he touched Jacob, he was able to link the touch of Jacob with his colors. Now he was painting something with his hands and paints. It took two months to finish his work and now he was ready with his masterpiece. He called for a press meet and gathered all his admirers to show them his masterpiece. The painting was covered and John told the audience how his dear friend made him stand once again to fight with the disability of blindness. This painting is not just a painting but a relationship between a painter with his colors which he realized only because of his friend – Jacob. His masterpiece was the painting of none other than Jacob, his dog, whom he touched, felt and painted with his finger.

John realized the real meaning of joy and satisfaction because of the company of his dear friend Jacob. The true friend is always there in both good and bad times to make us realize that there is joy in every little thing even at the toughest times of life.