The Run

Ladies and gentlemen, I need to introduce myself a little to you.

Ever since my child hood

I believed, at something I am good

To prove my mettle

At anything that is exceptional

I kept trying

Alas, each time I am failing

That’s totally appalling

I was a below average student throughout my schooling with lackluster grades. So, on the education credentials – less we talk, better it would be.

I thought I was good at sports: But was Kicked out of the school Gym for dropping the shot-put accidentally on my class fellow, and he had to be sent to hospital with a fractured ankle: when I tried to lift it and swing it forwards it flew backwards, not my mistake, he should not be standing there!

Then I tried my hand at paining, dreaming to become MF Hussain (and my apologies) or Picasso one day –, though it did not prove to be dangerous to anyone, I scared the hell out of everybody by showing my pictures, every one of them looked paranormal and people looked far and away from what they were looking with blank, confused, pathetic looks and my parents and teachers made me promise that I won’t draw any more.

My friend Manny was learning music and I thought I might have that talent. (See some talents are hidden, they needed to be dug out) I asked my parents to join me into that class. The teacher was a reputed, highly respected local musician and was a very patient fellow.

I was envisioning myself of making peacocks dance, flowers blossom and melting the clouds into rain with my melody, I got the rain for sure; it was actually rotten tomatoes and eggs that rained on me when I gave my first performance in my class, I also thought of melting rocks, it turned out to be pelting rocks and my patient Guru wiped tears of joy when I announced, “Music is not my forte.”

How about dance? I contemplated seriously. May be I have dancing talents, my friends tell me my nose looks like Michael Jackson’s.

But this talent I wanted to go for a trial run in front of the mirror, before performing in front of a big audience, when I tried a few moves I realized how disproportionate my limbs are to my body and moves which looked so graceful when my tutor made, looked skewed and I was in doubt if I was dancing or having spasms and some moves remotely reminding me of the orangutan’s I saw at the zoo the other day. Not daring to continue for fear of my life and my dancing partner’s, I dropped out of dancing class too.

I graduated at the bottom five percent in the class; At least I passed high school calculus and algebra though after my third trial.

Finally to my parent’s relief I got a not so exciting, not so challenging job as stationary clerk in a big office. Chris was my superior. I and Chris shared the corner room in the basement of the office. Chris took care of computers, monitors and hard disk etc. and I kept track of paper, notebooks, staplers, brooms, cleaning supplies and such.

*****

Distressed:

Why?

Why not I?

Why cannot I?

No they all say!

No, Nein, Nay, Not, Naahi, Naa

‘No’ is a word that should be sent to Siberia

Life was running smooth until this Marathon bug started eating me away since I read the news that a ninety years old woman ran and finished the race.

When we were out for lunch I just mentioned about my thoughts on marathon to Chris, he was all excited for me.

“Oh yes you can do it. I do a triathlon every spring and it is very much doable.”

“A triathlon?”

“Yes, I do more or less an Olympic Triathlon, I don’t keep track of exact distance and time though.”

“What is it? Never knew what it is exactly.”

“I swim 1.5 kilometers then I bike 40 kilometers and then I run about 10 kilometers”

“Do you do all these in a sequence, at a time?”

“Of course, without break or rest.”

“Really?”

“Oh Yes, I have been doing this since I was twelve.”

I was skeptical. “Is it even real? This fellow who looks like a short barrel of oil doing all these? No, he must is lying.”

“If you are interested you can train with me. This year I also might do Marathon if I could train. We can do it together. I am heading to meadows this Saturday. I will go run on the trails around Mt hood. You are welcome to join me.”

“I will think about it” I said and we both were back to work.

Generally the only time I run is when it is raining hard and I have no umbrella or when a bull dog is chasing me or the last piece of cake is left of the office birthday party.

Now I made up my mind for a much bigger reason: Accomplishment

Let’s enter into a liaison

Cause we have a common vision

In you the knowledge I impart

You just should do your part

Together we can prove

That there always is room to improve

Sure I am that you are teachable

If you give me all that you are able

Let’s create a miracle

Yes!

I accepted Chris as my running Guru, and he unaware of my abilities and attitude accepted me as his student not mindful of Guru Dakshina.

*****

The Rigors and sweat:

My telephone rang sharp at six. I cursed whoever that was, for disturbing me from my sound sleep and curled up under cozy comforter.

Second time it rang after two minutes. I ignored it and went back to sleep snoring.

Again it rang after one minute. I picked up the phone “Hey buddy it is Chris. You wanted to go for run?”

“What?” I had amnesia, totally forgot about my running project. My god, “Sorry Chris, I will be there in half hour.” I dragged myself out of bed.

“Let’s start with 2-3 kilometers slow run three times a week then you can go for more. You need to have good light weight running shoes.” He was taking this too serious I thought.

“OK, I will buy them tomorrow; Let me run in these today.”

We started the run and after five minutes, my lackadaisical mind was repeatedly asking me “do you really want to do this? Running like a crazy person? That too around this beautiful picturesque mountain.”

But Chris was tough. He would not budge in or let me go.

“You got to do this buddy. Come on. Let’s go”

I somehow finished two kilometers and told him to go ahead. ”I will rest for a while.”

“You tired already? You ran hardly two kilometers, this way it is going to take a very long time before you are up for the race.” Now he is slowly realizing what he got into: taking me as his trainee!

I lay on the grass and slowly drifted into sleep curled up in fetal position.

After about an hour Chris came and woke me up.

“Did you have a good sleep?”

“Oh yes.”

“Hey listen, I don’t want to scare you but there are grizzly bears around this mountain you better be watchful.”

“What? Bears? Are you serious?’

“Yes I am. You got to keep moving around here, you cannot sleep or stay still.”

“Ok. I will keep this in mind.” This Chris fellow hit straight on my week point. I am dead scared of wild animals or rather, all animals.

From then on it was either a run or a stretch: no more sitting or sleeping. I was constantly watching for the bears and other wild animals while there in the wilderness.

Days turned into weeks and months.

Slowly but steadily I developed a liking for running. My ambition, which stared as a germ became a deep rooted tree and the running has turned into my passion.

I was whacking my pullback attitude with iron swat of determination whenever it raised its ugly head.

My rigorous training was taking a toll on my body. Besides extreme exhaustion, my ankles, the calf muscles and hip joint everything below waist was in constant pain. As I moved to longer runs, I was pushing it hard on my body. Chris kept on telling me to go easy between the runs, I would not listen. I was not taking enough rest breaks and not giving time for the body to recover.

Slow and steady wins the race?

No, it was

Spirit and ready that thrust the pace

More appointments with doctors, more bills to pay but my resolve was strong. Then this thing happened. When we came closer to the Marathon date, I rolled over my ankle, and it turned out to be pretty traumatic injury,

Chris told me to reconsider. “May be you can try next year.”

“No. I would not allow my bad luck to control me. It plagued me on every turn of my life. It cannot threaten me anymore.”

“I have to do this. It is my life or death. It has to be now or never.” I bore the pain.

The rigors I take

Damn sure I want to make

Ready for whatever is at stake

With resolve that no one could shake

I ran and ran and ran. Finally I could run the whole twenty six miles that is forty two kilometers in one chunk.

Then I started to work on my running time. Grizzly bears or not I was not concerned, I was just running.

*****

You are all invited:

After we registered for the race I invited my parents from out of state to the event,

“Dad’s response was “you? Running a marathon? Hah, you got to be joking.”

“Thanks for the confidence in me dad.”

“Mom’s response was much better. Honey you don’t have to do this. We love you as you are sugar. “At least she believes that I am in the race. I felt better.

“Guys, I want you to be at the finish line, please I request you.”

I also invited some of my school friends.

They all came. I overheard them saying they want to split over the distance so that they could pick me up when I drop out, chicken out, ditch, runaway or pass out of the race. They were betting on the distance where I am going to dropout: At fifteen, twenty, thirty kilometers shy of finish line.

*****

And the grand finale:

Before start, Chris and I agreed that we will stay close in the race.

“Hey Matt, come whatever may, don’t give up. I will watch you. Just remember you are finishing It.” and we high fived.

The day was crisp and cool in the beginning and was getting warmer by minutes. The sharp sun was almost blinding. I kept on grabbing cups of water from volunteers, drinking and pouring over my head on the route to keep myself hydrated as I run, my feet were sore, my injured ankle was killing me, I was panting like a dog but I kept running.

I was running steady, defying my Nay Sayers, Non-believers and my own ghosts. Ghost of inferiority, ghost of nervousness, ghost of failures. “I am going to be a marathon finisher” It kept me running the entire distance.

I am at the final few yards to the finish line. I felt light in head,

Hurray! Sweet success in my vicinity

Dancing over the grave of mediocrity

I see fireworks going off in the sky,

Thousand violins play

Beethoven and Mozart on the fly,

Everything around me smells sweet,

Golly what a treat

I steadied my ears to hear the organizers announcing “here is our runner 155 Mr. Mathew McCarthy finishing the Hillsboro Marathon. Congratulations–” I turned towards Chris with a widest smile.

I didn’t see him by my side, I stopped and looked back, he was much behind: I saw his unsteady steps, not even run, then it was a fall, he was clutching his heart and I saw he was sweating profusely and then he passed out. A sudden cardiac arrest.

I started running back to him, I hear people chanting my name, and probably they did not see Chris.

“No, no, no don’t stop, run, run finish the run” and rhythmic clapping.

I hear mom shouting at the top of her lungs “Mathew run my boy, finish it, do it for god’s sake do it!”

I reached Chris and sat by him.

“One two three four–” Counting thirty chest compression and one rescue breath, I started CPR.

I did not hear any sound any more than

“One two three four–” Counting chest compression, and one breath.

I repeated again and again and again.

Then paramedics came.

They resuscitated him with cardiac defibrillator, attached oxygen supply tube and put on drips and covered him in a blanket and took him away on a stretcher to the ambulance. Inside, I sat by him rubbing his hand.

They took him to ICU and I stood outside numb.

After 20 minutes the doc came out and said he is out of danger. “He suffered a massive heart attack. He was lucky to have you by his side when this happened.”

I thanked him and the god and left.

“Ouch my sore feet and legs hurt like hell when I walk.”

Run? “May be it is not meant to be.”

*****

The end? It is the star (t):

Is that it?

How could I end it?

No, not yet!

Shouldn’t the tree bear the fruit?

Monday when I was back in office, something was changed. My coworkers seemed very pleasant and some even nodded at me and seemed to acknowledge my existential occurrence.

When I went to my desk I saw two messages on answering machine.

The first one said “Hi this is a call for Mr. Mathew McCarthy runner number 155 in this Sunday’s race. I am David from Hillsboro Marathon. We got a call from Mayor’s office asking about your contact info and I gave this number. Hope I am correct; I got this number from your registration form. We hope your friend is doing better. Have a good day.”

The second message said,

“Hi this is Rose Saville from Hillsboro mayor’s office. We got this number from the race organizers. The mayor is extremely happy with you for saving the life of a fellow runner and he wants to present you the ‘Citizen of the city’ medal in a special ceremony on 15th of this month. And you are also invited to the evening Dinner at the mayors’ residence. Official invitation will be mailed to you. Have a great day”

Then the boss came. I only saw him on the day of my interview two years ago. He came, congratulated me, shook hands with me and handed me the newspaper. In the corner of the second page there was my photo with caption “The Marathon Runner of 2014”. And a small paragraph of the incident that occurred in the race.

__END__

retrived from : http://yourstoryclub.com/short-stories-friendship/funny-short-story-friendship-run/

Love exits

Reach for the stars had always urged Aaliya to work. She never wanted to be dependent on anyone for anything. Though she was not very happy with her life but her ambition to reach for the stars was never of flying high in the sky as she feared of falling down but it was just an ambition to get a secured and happy life.

Aaliya was a big city girl. She had always wanted to be independent, to be rich and not depend on anyone for anything ever. Her deepest fear was that if she loved someone very deeply then she would not be able to able to move on in life even when she would get an opportunity.

So, she never let her feelings matter even to her own self. She always preferred work over sleep, partying over making love and flirting over serious relationships. But she never played with anyone’s feelings. She was a friendly-busy-free-girl.

She loved her mom and dad. But their relationship was not much like of a husband & wife. She never ever saw their love for each other, but as if each of two linked to one another just for the sake of the bond that had tied them “MARRIAGE”.

In her world, Aaliya had been always very close to her mother, she was always in a great desire to make her mother strong at heart. She was not afraid of anything but yes, of course! She was afraid of GHOSTS!

One day at her office party , she met with a boy and had friendly chats , enjoyed the party together and became friends.

Richard , as his name was kept contact with Aaliya while Aaliya had already started liking him. For the first time, Aaliya had liked someone in her life and his appearance made a mark on her, in her heart.

As their friendship got deeper.., she did not even realise when did she actually started trusting him more than herself..

He proposed Aaliya one day and she agreed. but he always kept his attitude on, as if he was special & Aaliya would have to worship God for getting him. He became very arrogant , and his rudeness increased with time..

Aaliya however did not mind it, though deep at heart she was always unhappy for such a rude attitude of his. He did not ever showed Aaliya any love. LOVE what we mean as LOVE-LIFE….etc.

It was as if Aaliya was nothing more than his girlfriend, a way to get pleasure & spent leisure time, no deep feelings for her.

He quarrelled over with her for petty matter to cover over for his own mistakes like asking her to come for a date and not coming himself but blame Aaliya that he left because she was late.

Aaliya felt as if the smoothness of her life lost. She was pulled by chains of deep trust & feelings she had then. For him & as if she could neither love him or ignore him. His attitude hurt her heart. He kept his mobile phone off for few days, ignored her whenever he liked and suddenly, one day he would sent her message telling sorry.

Many times this happened Aaliya by now had realised that he did not loved her, he actually never loved her but it was his lust for her.

He even had told her that if she did not meet her every day, he would forget her face as Aaliya could not meet him because of pressure for work.

Aaliya finally decided to move on from this pathetic relationship. It must have to be let over.

She lost her mobile phone one day while returning from office and it was all over. She was upset, unhappy but relieved to loose her mobile.

She then decided never to love anyone ever. But all these had made her inside worse. She felt as if life was smiling at her, making fun of her to be failing with the only stupid guy in the entire world. This was all that she got in her wish to reach for the stars to get a happy life. She went to a bar and she drank a lot that night. She drank till she could not no more and the bar-tender had to request her and take her to her car. But she was completely drunk.

Bar-tender called the Boss’s son and told him of the situation as he was unable to decide what to do.

He came driving his car hurriedly, saw the girl lying drunk and asleep on the bar table and fell in love with her at his first sight. He was completely in her and lost his nerves. At once he wanted her forever crazily. He took her to his home seeing her terrible condition and understood that some terrible thing must have happened with her.

He did not want to ask her all things unless she told it to him herself.

She woke up the next morning from bed and found herself in a big room wearing a white shirt over her sleeveless frock and lying in a bed in an unknown house and where an unknown maid serves her a big mug of coffee.

She gets up, though her head felt very heavy and searches for her mobile phone but it was not there nowhere on the bed. Then she remembers

She had lost it and with that memory all her past memories starts flashing back one by one.

She stares out of the window forgetting all about her-self and where she was.

Abhay, the boy comes in and again his love for her strikes him in his heart. She did not even notice him.

He comes and sits on the bed next to her and stares at her, as if, if possible he would suck out all her pains that are bothering her. She suddenly felt someone’s presence and saw him staring at her. .

She got up quickly and left his house. He later on saw a note on the table written ‘Thank You’. She did not even write her name and next morning he received a parcel and an opening it saw it was his shirt that he put on the girl last night. She did not put her name on it, as she did not wanted to be happy any more. She was afraid of her own self. Aaliya was however not normal, she was depressed and her ego, her trust all were hurt very deeply and her heart was torn.

She took two weeks holiday from work and decided to enjoy with old days for a few days.

She called all of them at her place for lunch and then at evening went to the club.

She told the bar tender ‘sorry’ for the last night, giving him a thousand rupees note but the bar tender hadn’t minded for anything so did not take the money. As they were all partying and drinking. Abhay by coincidence passed by the bar so decided to tell the bar tender to inform him whenever the girl comes for next time. As he entered he saw the girl, dressed in red drape dress.

She was looking cute and was enjoying with a smile on her face, still her smile wasn’t reaching her eyes. He decided to speak with the girl, but suddenly the sound of gun-shot and came from nowhere.

People were running randomly everywhere and one of the gun-shot pierced Aaliya’s leg..! She fell down and fainted at once!

Abhay ran to her like mad! Took her and immediately went out of the bar through the underground secret opening known and used only by people in-charge of the bar only for emergency purpose and took her to hospital.

After three hours of operation doctor came out told him, she was fine but her leg was very weak because the bone was injured by the gun-shot. He took care of her and fed her, stayed awake for two nights for her.

Next day……. it was morning, Aaliya got up and tried to get out and walk, there was no one in the room but her leg was still very weak to hold her weight, she was about to fall when Abhay from nowhere caught her. He had went out to buy flowers for her, however he caught Aaliya and took her to bed, told her not to give pressure on leg.

Aaliya told ‘Thank You’ for caring and that she would return all the money that he was spending on her as soon as she gets well!

He grabbed her by arms and told her ‘I Love you, i don’t want anything but you! Please accept me as your Life Partner!!!’

Aaliya kept quiet but tears trickled down from her eyes. He became nervous! He knew something very worse must have happened but couldn’t be as to see tears in her eyes.

She told all her past to him and told him to leave her alone. So, he left. Then, by and by her leg was well and she was able to walk. She resumed work and returned all the money to the Abhay’s address with a ‘Thank You’ note , but this time, with her name and address .

Abhay took his mother to Aaliya’s home to request her to marry him as he couldn’t stop loving her. Aaliya then decided to spend few days with him before she decides to marry. They spent two months together.

Aaliya realised that life has given her a second chance as Abhay loved him deeply. So, she agreed to marry him. They both got married and lived together happily ever after.

__END__

Retrived from:http://yourstoryclub.com/short-stories-love/short-story-love-exits/

Story about friendship

Two friends

Once two friends argued, and one of them slapped another. This man felt a pain, but telling nothing and wrote on the sand:
— Today my best friend slapped me.
They continued walking and found an oasis, in which wellspring decided to swim. The one who was slapped, started to sink, but his friend saved him.
When he regained consciousness, wrote on the stone: "Today my best friend saved my life."
Another friend, who slapped and saved his friend’s life, of asked him:
- When I hurt you, you wrote on the sand and now you are writing on the stone. Why?
His friend said:
- When someone hurts us, we should write it on the sand, so that the wind could erase it. But when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it on the stone, so that the wind could not erase it.


Retrieved from : http://inspirationalstories.eu/inspirational_stories/inspirational-stories-about-friendship-and-love.php

The little house on the left

Crying, scratching, and faint screams is all Mr. and Mrs. Smith could hear. It was only about two weeks after the Smith family bought the new home in the beautiful suburbs of New Orleans. 
“It is the perfect home for the family. Don't ya think honey?” exclaimed Wayne.
“Of course I do. It’s absolutely beautiful, and , of course, it has enough room for everyone and a pool. Couldn't ask for much better than this”, said Mrs. Smith, obviously thrilled with excitement. Both of them were wishing they could still say this. Now the house was exactly the opposite of what they thought. Strange things, noises, and even cries were happening in the house. 
“We have got to get out of here,” Mrs. Smith said.
“Honey, I think everything will be okay. It’s just probably a spirit; it’s no big deal,” Mr. Smith said confidently.

Mrs. Smith continued with these feelings for about two weeks. The Cries, scratching, and screaming was all she could think about. She would be at work and hear them, be at home and hear them, and even be with her mom and still hear them. Something terrible is going to happen, is all Mrs. Smith could think about. She wondered how she was going to keep her family safe in a situation like this, feeling very hopeless. 

Mr. Smith, on the other hand, was completely the opposite. He felt as if it was his house and nothing could stop him. He was the man of the house so of course he had to protect the family. That's exactly what he would do. Smith was not afraid of anything. He was going to do whatever it took to keep his family safe. Little did he know, nothing he was going to do could keep them safe from what was in that house. 

It was the typical Tuesday afternoon. The Smith family was sitting in their house, each and every one of them doing their own thing. Mrs. Smith was doing laundry, Mr. Smith watching television, Kacey playing on her computer, and Joshua in his room playing with Legos. Everything seemed to be going fine downstairs, but upstairs was a different story. Kacey was sitting in her room alone. The door crept open a little. Goosebumps began to creep up her legs from the draft through the door. 
“Joshua, stop messing with me,” she yelled.
No answer. She did not think anything of it and kept listening to her music and playing on her computer. Bang. The door flew open. Kacey sat there in utter despair, Not knowing what to do. She tried to scream. Nothing came out. Chills began to rise. Arm hair began to creep up and her lips began to shudder. She laid there, not moving a limb, scared to get up, and wondering what would happen. Her chills began to go away and she acted as if nothing had happened. A few hours later the Smith family all sat around the dinner table. 
“How was your guys’ day?” questioned mom.
“It was fine,” said dad.
“Mom, I had the best day. We played outside and played with Legos. I had a ton of fun,” Joshua happily said.
“Fine,” mumbled Kacey.
Kacey was afraid to say anything. What if she said something? Would things begin to get worse, she wondered. So, she sat there, keeping to herself as the family continued to talk about their day. That night she went to bed, completely scared. She sat there listening to music, staring at the ceiling, and wondering what really happened. On a typical night Kacey would fall asleep right away. However, tonight that was completely different. Kacey couldn't help but to lay awake and constantly move her eyes around the room. She was scared, but now she was more curious than ever. What was that? What had happened? Will there ever be answers? she thought. 

Kacey had no idea that her parents knew about all these weird things happening. They all kept that secret away from each other. Mom and dad tried keeping it away from the kids, just so they weren't afraid. Little did they know things were happening to Kacey. A few days go by and Kacey was still having these encounters. She had no idea what to do. So she went to her parents that night and told them about everything that had happened. They were utterly shocked, not at the fact that it was happening, but that it was happening to her now. They began to see things, things out of the ordinary. No longer would they just experience this presence of the unknown, they were coming into contact with it. Night times began to get scarier; Kacey would see shadows walking across the halls, hear ghostly cries and even a baby’s scream. She had had enough of this and had to do something. 

The family began to look up the house and land history. They soon pulled up something very unusual. The land the house was on used to be an old slave quarters. Thousands of people were killed on this land where their house now sat. The family had no idea where to begin. Little did they know that Joshua was soon becoming a target. 

Kids are the most susceptible to the presences of the unknown. Little did he know these ghosts were demons. They began trying to kill him in his dreams, get into his inner soul, and mostly kill his family. The demon finally got what he wanted: into little Joshua’s soul. Next thing the family knew, he was coming after them, turning into something they never want to see again. He began chasing the family around the house, trying to kill everyone. Although, it was not truly Joshua. 
Hours went by; the family had to hide from Joshua. The signals on the phone dropped, and nobody was able to call emergency. Everything was falling apart. Doors were being knocked open, shelves flying everywhere, and the demon completely destroyed the house.
Finally, things began to quiet down, and mom fell asleep. However, the next thing she knew, she woke up to her son just a few inches away with a knife in his hand saying, “This will be the last time I see you. Have fun rotting in hell.

By katlyn thomas  from lake st louis mo, United States retrived from :http://www.storystar.com/php/read_story.php?story_id=7894