Write a story entitled ‘An end to loneliness’

AN END TO LONELINESS

Frederick felt that it was lonely to be an orphan. This was not because people were not kind or did not care. In fact everyone seemed extra kind to him than when his parents were alive. But somehow Fred did not think they were sincere. He was a rich young man, of 21 years, and had inherited everything that his parents had earned throughout their lives. Then one day an air crash had taken them away from him. He had a lot of servants in his house and a host of uncles and aunts who hung about him. But he knew one thing; none of them really cared. The servants merely served him and his relatives hung about him because he was generous.

Then one day something unusual happened. Frederick was walking along a lonely road when he saw a family having an argument. It was a family of a father, a mother and two teenage boys and a teenage girl. He stopped to see what was going on. No sooner had he stopped when the father of the family started to tell him what the quarrel was about. It seemed that the girl, the eldest daughter, was refusing to go to school. Since Frederick looked like an educated man, the father felt that she would listen to him. He urged Fred to explain to her how important education was. Having nothing better to do, Frederick decided to help.

“You really should listen to your father and go to school,” he said with pretended sternness.

The girl gave him a sad look and said, ”No, sir, I will not go to school anymore. My family is poor and my father has just lost his job, as a gardener, because of ill-health. I want to work and support my family. I want my brothers to study. We hardly have enough money to feed ourselves, so how can I continue to study.”

Fred felt a jolt in his heart. He had never met any poor people. He had been brought up to believe that poople were poor because they were lazy and dishonest. He was surprised to hear that here was a family of poor people whose members were willing to sacrifice themselves for cach other. He did the only thing he could.

“Sir,” he said softly “I want you to adopt me as

Your son.

The father looked surprised, ” We are poor people son, but you can come and live with us. We will share whatever we have.”

“No, sir,” said Fred, “You are not poor anymore. Come and live with me, I will take care of you. I am very rich, but I have no parents. I have no one in the world to love me, like the way you love each other.”

“We will only go with you if you give us some work to do,” said the lady of the house with dignity.

Fred looked at her, “It is not going to be easy being my mother, I am a rich, spoilt young man. That will be your job,” he said with a smile.

After much persuasion the father agreed and the family went to live with Fred. But try as he might, Fred could not persuade them to live with him without working. They dismissed all the servants and did all the work themselves.

Fred had finally found a family; his loneliness ended.