"TOUGH TIMES NEVER LAST"

It was March 17, the national day of Ireland. When Shaun, an active young guy woke up in the morning. He had to struggle to wake up since he slept late the night before. His mom yelled at him, to wake him up. Calling him lazy. Shaun had a younger sister called Ann who was very fond of pets and had numerous hobbies which a typical girl could have. 

Shaun and his family lived happily in their village. They really liked that place since they had lots of relatives living close by. Who will visit them during Christmas and his house would be lit with lighting’s and each and everyone would wear new clothes to grace the occasion. Shaun’s dad Michael will organize feasts on that day and will invite all their friends and relatives. And the best part is even their pets will get new dresses. And his relatives often bring their pets too with them. And those little creatures will also get the chance to meet new friends. 

 

 

It was 10 in the morning when the whole family sat on the breakfast table. It was a tradition for them to have breakfast together on Sundays as we’ll understand during week days everyone will be busy. Where is Ann; exclaimed Clara who was Shaun’s mom. She is taking a wash; replied Shaun. Then after 10 minutes she too reached the table. When she was running down the stairs, she trampled on some oil which was spilled last night and then she came sliding towards the pet dog Jacky and finally fell down hugging Jacky. Making a loud noise.”Aaaaaaah” everyone laughed at her and then her dad asked clarification from Clara as to why the oil hasn’t been cleaned. That day the breakfast was so delicious and everyone enjoyed it so much. Even Jacky had some bones to eat which he licked nonstop. It was pasta with fried eggs which was served and everyone liked it since Clara made it with a spicy Indian recipe. Then suddenly they heard their bell ringing, Michael went towards the door and opened it. It was the postman.

 

Michael took the letter from the postman and kept it in his drawer, after finishing his meal he slowly tore its edge and started reading it. After some time people in the house noticed Michael’s face turning red. Then Clara came close to him and asked him what the letter is about; Michael replied with a frown. That it was from his company. Michael worked in a leading cosmetics factory, where they manufactured soaps, detergents and many other products. The letter said that Michael had to transfer for another branch in France. Everyone in the family had the shock of their lives when they got to know. Even jacky, the husky got to know the scenario when the happiness during breakfast changed to sadness. Even that intelligent dog started barking loud not knowing what’s going around. Then Clara asked Michael is it a must to transfer?. Hell yeah” replied Michael. And he explained them the importance of this company for them to earn a living. Even Shaun had a lot of friends there and thinking about moving to another country was a nightmare for him. Shaun went up to his dad and asked him to ask his company why they had suddenly transferred him but his dad replied that its worthless arguing with them since if ceo decides something it stays decided. Shaun is usually emotionally and physically strong. He used to motivate people who are in trouble but even he went through some depression. Then Michael came up and told everyone that it’s no point in just grieving now. Everything happens for a reason. And whatever happens life has to move on. We just cannot stay stuck in one place. And worrying doesn’t do anything, it just drains our energy.

 

After hearing these inspiring words, they were a little bit motivated. It was 5 in the evening still no tea was served, everyone was in deep sorrow. Then Michael told that they have to move within another 5 days. And slowly he told his relatives about what’s going to happen. And on the same day everyone visited them and had long conversations with ‘Sri Lankan mind relaxing tea’. And that day passed quickly and they all went to bed. 

 

 

Next day it was raining heavily with thunderstorms and lightning. Shaun was forced to go out to the supermarket to buy some stuff for his family. So he went to the garage and took the car and off he went along the busy traffic, on the way he heard a loud noise. He quickly slowed down his car and looked right side. Then he saw an awful thing, he saw a big truck collided with a car. He quickly stopped his car and went towards the incident even though it was raining hard and water was running all over his body. He saw the truck driver going away with guilt without stopping. Shaun peeped into the car and saw the man inside the car wearing decent clothes bleeding in his head. He noticed that he was unconscious. Shaun slowly asked him may I help you sir, but he didn’t reply. Shaun repeated second and third times but louder and then he poured some water on his face. And then he stopped bleeding by using a handkerchief. And all this time nobody came to help everyone ignored and went away. With great difficulty Shaun put the injured man in his car and drew swiftly to the nearby hospital. And in the accident hospital he had to face a lot of inquiries and finally that man was admitted. Shaun as a teenager was terrified and he didn’t know how to contact the injured person’s family. Then a doctor came towards Shaun who was sitting on a chair, and told him that the injury is severe and he needs to be operated. But Shaun explained him that he doesn’t know anything about that man and he was just a stranger who was lying on the road. Then suddenly an idea idea stuck Shaun’s head, then he asked permission to go towards the patients room and he went close to the patient and put his hand in his left pocket and then on the right and took something out. To his excitement it was his phone. Then again his excitement faded when he found that his phone had a password in it. 

Then after thinking for some time, he opened that phone and took its sim card and out and put into his phone and then he took his home number and called. He told them everything that had happened in the morning, and he also insisted them not to worry since everything is under control and doctor told that he can easily be cured with a small operation. The rain started to stop and the sun came out and suddenly it became a bright summer day. After about 30 minutes he saw a lot of people rushing into the hospital from the main door. It was that person’s family, the receptionist pointed at Shaun and told them everything he did. Then they came towards Shaun hugged and thanked him. Still it’s not over’ shouted Shaun.. He asked them to meet the doctor and make arrangements for the operation. Then after two hours time the operation was completed and that man was cured alright as the doctor told the operation was successful. 

In that family Shaun noticed a girl who was looking at him and staring for some time. He taught that the girl was cute. After few minutes to his amazement that girl too came up to him and thanked him for the wonderful job he did. Then Shaun asked her name. I am karrin replied the girl and with a smile Shaun told about himself. And the time came for Shaun to say goodbye and leave the hospital. 

 

 

Mean while Clara was scared since his son didn’t return from the supermarket. It has been five hours since he left and she was waiting for the vegetables to cook for lunch. She called Shaun many times and every time his phone was switched off. 

At half past five she heard a knock on the door. Yes it was Shaun; she had mixed feelings when she saw him, anger and happiness. She asked him why you were late and why didn’t you pick up the phone. Shaun explained everything to her smoothly and Clara also understood and felt pity. Then she had no time to cook for lunch so they planned to order pizza and the whole family enjoyed the delicious pizza that day. 

Shaun was lying on his couch and he was scrolling through face book and as saw he got a new friend request. In few seconds he was over over excited because it was from that pretty girl he saw in the hospital “karrin”. He quickly accepted the request and in no time they were having a great conversation. 

Shaun and karrin had similar interests and they were much funnier to each other. The next day the planned to meet at the beach and they kept on talking for ages about random and useless things. Shaun knew that karrin liked him and he too liked her but both of them were shy to open up. It was six in the evening, the sun was about to set and the sea had bigger waves passing with loud noises. It’s a perfect time to think about life, said shaun. Then shaun wanted to say her about him going to go abroad and living, as he told this shaun noticed karrin’s expressions changing. She became really sad and time came for them to go home. 

Suddenly it was only one day left for them to pack their bags, also Michael sold his car and his house. It was an emotional moment for them since they were living all of their lives there and thinking that they don’t know when they will come back hurt them so much. 

 

 

Then came February first the day they are going to leave home and go to France. Shaun was a little excited to go to France since he knew that place is nice and will have kind and loving people around. Shaun missed karrin so much. It was his first love he thought and it was only two days and he had to leave her. Tears started rolling from his eyes when he thought about this. And then a message popped up in his phone, it was from karrin saying “have a safe flight”. Then the time came for them to head towards the airport even Jacky was travelling with them with a special ticket for animals. 

They got into the plane one by one. Ann was travelling for the first time so she was a bit scared; the plane was humongous with lots of passengers. They got tasty meals and most of them slept after the lights went off. 

 

 

Then they landed in Paris. Shaun was astonished to see the sight of tall buildings and pretty roads. It was better than expected he murmured. It was night when they stopped at a restaurant for dinner. Then they noticed that their dog Jacky was sick. It became a concern for them. As soon as they reached their new house, they did treatments for Jacky. Jacky seemed to be recovering from his cold as the night progressed. 

 

Next day Michael went to his new factory in Paris. Which was massive with great infrastructure and facilities. At first he had an interview with the ceo and undoubtedly he got selected and he was appointed as a general manager for his qualifications. Behind the scenes it became obvious that the other staffs in that company didn’t like Michael to be the manager, since everyone was competing to achieve that post. One of the staffs whispered how a stranger from another country can become the manager of our company. Everyone was impressed about his talents. He could do multi-tasking too when it came to stress-managing and tough decision making. Michael really enjoyed the day and he went home and shared with his family 

About the good news about his promotions and his salary which was very high. Soon after few days they moved to a new house near Eiffel tower, which was close to his company. Moreover Michael had to consider about Shaun’s higher studies at university and Anns at high school. 

 

 

 

Then came Shaun’s first day in the university. He was a bit nervous to go since everyone spoke French and only few people knew English. Even though the lessons were thought in English. At first he didn’t have friends at all. He hated going to classes but he didn’t give up. He approached his classmates and somehow tried to make friends. After about a week or so he had few friends who would understand English. 

Days passed and Shaun slowly learnt French and made new friends from France too. At first senior students used to mock at him calling him fat and Irish but he didn’t react to that. Instead it motivated him to go to gym and work on his body. Shaun worked really hard in the university and he became one of the toppers in his class. Seeing his progress many guys in his class became jealous of him. He slowly won the heart of all the teachers and became one of the studios students around that time. 

Ann also joined a school and she too quickly became used to her new school. And Jacky too made new friends with neighbors. One day Jacky saw a dog on the opposite side and he tried to jump over the fence and his leg got stuck in an iron rod and he was badly wounded and was taken to a doctor. They all lived happily and got adapted to the new place. 

 

 

 

It was Saturday the most awaited weekend. They planned to visit Eiffel tower, they were so excited to go there. On seeing the building everyone was mesmerized and took lots of pictures. They even climbed to the top of that building; the view from the top was fabulous. As it was the night time they could see magnificent lightings down. It was a beautiful sight for them; they all had a happy moment and the memory would definitely be on top of their memorable moments. 

And it was half past seven when they decided to go home. They were coming down the lift, on the way Shaun saw someone interesting; a man was wearing a mask and going toward the washroom. He became suspicious about him. Then the lift stopped in the first floor as they opened the lift and came towards a shopping mall the emergency alarm went on and police surrounded that area in few minutes. They alerted everyone saying that a robbery has been taking place. Someone has informed the police about this and the police asked in a loud voice that nobody should leave the place and everyone will undergo investigations. 

Everyone there was panicking and then Shaun went up to a policeman and told him that he saw a man wearing a mask on the fourth floor. Then they quickly rushed to that particular place, the police searched everywhere but no signs of robbers. Then they heard a woman screaming slowly they followed the noise and went inside a room and there they saw few robbers wearing masks and to their disappointment they saw that one thief keeping a knife on the throat of a woman. He asked everyone to go out otherwise he will kill the woman. That woman seemed to be alone with her husband had gone to work. 

Even the policeman got puzzled.shaun had his heart in his mouth, trembling with fear. The police obeyed the thief and went back then the thief jumped out of the window pulling the woman away. On seeing this the policemen ran towards them but managed to catch only one robber, and after some investigations they found out that some jewelry were missing and at last the police comforted everyone and went away. 

 

It was Monday again; Michael being very rich went in his BMW to work. Michael had a really good heart he helped a lot of poor people and he gave a lot of money for orphanages and elders homes. He had so much dedication towards his goals and his work. He never went late to work, everyday he was energetic and willing to face everything that life throws at him. 

One day he had a meeting with his ceo. The ceo told him that he will be away on a trip for one week. So he handed over all the important documents to Michael and asked him to be fully in charge of his company. It was a big responsibility given to him indeed, but Michael took it gracefully. Two days passed and Michael worked really hard managing everything. Some days he couldn’t even sleep properly, he would drink a lot of coffee to keep him awake. 

One day few of the staffs in the company had a long discussion, they were talking about Michael and his progress in the company. They hated the fact that Michael became the manager; they also hated how close Michael and ceo became and how much ceo trusted Michael. So they made a plot an evil one. One of the wicked man went to the canteen lady gave her some money and asked her when will they give coffee to the manager. On the exact time he went to the canteen, after the managers coffee was made. That staff slowly added sleeping drug inside it and the coffee was delivered to Michael and he fell asleep at once. Then those staffs entered the mangers room, opened his drawer and took all the documents and went away. Michael was snoring away, knowing nothing which is being happening. Then those staffs came outside and burnt those documents, not keeping single evidence.  

The next day the CEO came and Michael addressed him. And the ceo told that he is proud about the progress of his cosmetics factory in his absence. Then they had a nice conversation of everything that happened. Michael got increment in his salary too. Then the ceo asked Michael for documents that he gave him. So Michael quickly opened the drawer and he was shocked, he found that the documents were missing. His heart started to beat faster. He searched for it everywhere, his home, friends place but couldn’t find it. He completely got broken down not knowing what to do. On hearing this ceo got really angry and told his that the company’s future lies in those documents. And scolded him for being careless and he got sacked from that company. 

It was Sunday and Shaun was going on a trip with his friends. It was a bright day and everyone was excited to go and for most of them it was also their dream. Because they are going to go sky diving. Shaun was really scared the night before. When he was sleeping he could figure out jumping out of an airplane and he couldn’t understand why he would do it. He feared so much that he couldn’t even eat breakfast that day. But when he went on the train he saw his friends were excited and everyone was eager as if their parents were soldiers. Then they travelled for about three hours and their destination came.  

They were 7 in number they all went inside the airplane one by one, the airplane took off and everyone was sitting close to each other. The plane flew high, the light changed from red to orange and then to green. The plane stopped in the air in high altitude, then a person went forward and opened the door and in that moment everyone realized they were had never been in an airplane with a door open. Everyone was asked to stay in a line from door, Shaun stayed behind. So the time came for the first person to jump. They counted one two and they pushed him on two knowing that people grab on three. Then Shaun had to jump, after jumping he found that it’s so exciting and it was bliss and he realized he shouldn’t have been scared at all. Everyone enjoyed skydiving and then they went to their next mission that is to go to a forest and make bbq. 

 

 

As planned they reached one of the biggest forests in the city of Paris. And they settled there. Shaun and his friend went in search if some woods for bbq then they saw a wild boar coming towards them Shaun screamed and both of them ran for their lives. It was so scary that both of them ran in different directions. And the wild boar came in the direction where Shaun was running. Shaun ran as fast as he could and reached a hill top and he kept going further and further and suddenly he fell down from the hill. Shaun’s friend went and told everything that happened and only the next day they were able to find him. He was seen lying on the ground, unconscious. Immediately he was taken to a hospital and it was told by the doctor that Shaun has broken his leg and he has to use a wheelchair. It was another shock for his family. And Shaun got another shock when he got to know about what happened to his dad. 

It was morning and Jacky was running around the field happily, as he was so excited he went further and further away from his house to a deserted area. There when he was running he fell into a big hole, tried so hard to come up but he couldn’t. he barked so hard until he became thirsty. Since it was a deserted place nobody came to help him. As the night progressed the sand slowly has gone inside that hole and the hole got closed and sadly Jacky died. Meanwhile his family didn’t know, they searched him everywhere and remained disappointed. 

 

Things got harder and harder for them, Michael and Clara didn’t know what to do. They were horrified about their children future; it has been only two months since they moved to France and so much happened against them. They had no relatives to share their sorrow with except a few friends. 

That day Clara was cooking in the kitchen and suddenly a high wind blew as she was cooking something on the stove, oil spilled on the stove and there was a torn wire going to the gas cylinder. Abruptly Clara screamed and in few seconds Michael came and saw fire in the kitchen, he quickly poured some water and stopped it. In the end Clara’s hand got burnt. 

 

It was a hectic time for ann since she had to face her exams in a week which was very important. She found difficult to concentrate on her studies due to the tragedy which happened to her family. 

The whole family was sitting together, they were so rich a week ago but now they are the poorest in the town. Everyone was so sad, their house became and less cheerful without jacky,they missed him a little too much. 

Michael was a very strong person, he didn’t want his family to suffer, he has a strong will power. One day he told his family that he is going to sell their big house and buy a small cottage. And that he is going to make a company for the money which will be left. At first it seemed to be a silly idea for everyone, since it seemed to be impossible to start a new business with such small budget without having any staffs.  

As days passed Michael used his marketing tricks to catch his customers and he worked tirelessly in making good products for cheap prizes. Suddenly he earned lots of customers and his company became one of the leading in Paris. He earned a lot of respect from public. 

 

 

Shaun went to pursue his higher studies in the university despite of his broken leg. He participated in all the events and extracurricular activities, being disabled didn’t stop him from achieving greatness. He kept his progress in studies. 

And it came the day ann. had to take her exams, and her whole family was surprised to see her results because despite all the difficulties they went through she has got great results. She became an inspiration to everyone around her. And made everyone to believe that you can win at any position in life if you don’t give up 

As time passed Clara also got cured with her burn. And they bought a new dog and named him Jacky. One day Shaun was going around his university grounds and he saw something which made him mesmerized; he saw his crush karrin from Ireland. He ran towards her and asked how you are here? She replied that she asked her parents to make her join this university after she found that Shaun was studying there. Shaun couldn’t have asked for anything better. Karrin was bit worried about Shaun’s leg but she accepted shaun for who he was. She was madly in love with him and his broken leg didn’t matter. 

 

At last their life became back to normal,infact they were better than before. Their children started to speak French and they also made lot of friends. Their story became a motivation to everyone back in Ireland, everybody understood that with hard work you can achieve anything in life, no matter how hard the life gets, how much lemons life gives you. If you fight back the universe will help you to become whoever you want to be. And then at last Shaun and his family lived in French culture happily for the rest of their lives. 

 

Moral: no matter what happens you can choose who you want to be. ‘Hard times don’t last but tough people do’