From his castle, Darrell beckoned to the boy below. “What do you want?” shouted the boy. Darrell signalled him to come up and play with him. The boy stared at him for a second. Then he ran away, scared. Darrell sighed and went inside. Children of his age avoided him. His dad had strictly forbidden him from socializing with kids below his station.
Every night his father came home in a drunken stupor. His mother looked very pale. There was a huge chaos in his home one day. The lawyer was present and his father was screaming at everybody. Darrell could only hear the word, ‘debt’, which was repeated by everybody. The evening, Darrell and his family left the castle. They went to a small house and his father was never the same again.
Darrell was playing by himself when a boy approached him. “Do you still want to play?” asked the boy. Darrell turned to look at his dad. His father smiled weakly and waved Darrell to go and play.
Written for Alastair’s Photo Fiction
Silver linings…
Yes, a small comfort..but it means a lot to Darrell. Thank you for reading, Mike:)
At least the father no longer believes he is above everybody else. Great story!
Thank you, Gabriella
You packed quite a bit in this short piece. We are happy with the ending, but are left curious souls wanting to know the whys and wherefores. But sometimes there are no justifications for behaviour that isn’t becoming no matter what ‘station’ in life you may be.
Thanks for your visit.
Hi Jules, You are right, but to explain all that would far exceed the word limit(It already has:)) but some people do still have the ‘higher station’ attitude though. Thank you very much:)
The problem when you think you are above everybody is that when the world crashes, you have a long way to fall. Darrell was lucky inasmuch as he didn’t think he was above anyone so there were hands to catch him as his family fell.
A fantastic story
so very true. And Darrell’s father had the long fall and the worst disappointment..but thankfully his attitude has undergone a change Thank you very much for the comment
Sometimes it takes something drastic to change the outlook. 🙂
yes, indeed it does
Excellent story and creation of perception from the boys pov. There is a lovely poignancy about the change in the father I sense he felt somewhat humbled by his circumstance.
Yes, he is more down-to-earth now. thank you so much for the read and the kind comment:)
To journey into Life, one needs to wear shoes. To wear shoes, one needs to bend down to tie laces or clip buckles – bend down.
Yes, definitely:) Thank you very much
Very sad. What kind of debt does Darrell’s father got into?
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Think he got into debt because of his excessive drinking and not attending to his business. since it is supposed to be a short story, didn’t get into details on that:) Thank you for reading, Yoshiko:)
Welcome, Padmini, and thank you answering my question. It is also good to have short story so that people will wonder and ask question 🙂
wish he had learned the lesson before fall!
so true..Thank you, Sharmishtha
The only time you should look down on a person is when you are helping them get up- Jessie Jackson. Glad Darrel’s Dad got to learn the lesson. Great story!
Yes, thankfully, Darrell is a lot different from his dad. Thank you, Patricia:)
Nice that the Dad had a change in opinion about Darrell playing — but what a dramatic change in his living to get to that change in opinion!
Yes, the fate might probably be kind to him in future if he gives up his bad habits..Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts
Too bad it had to come to that for the dad to change his point of view. And – glad Darrell has someone to play with.
True, Darrell got his eish at last. But, you have to give way something to get something..therefore, the title..Thanks for reading