Tuesday 29 October 2013

Nearing The End



The old man was finding it difficult.  The sun was strong and unrelenting and it made him stop and pause frequently.  His back ached, a reminder of the time things were easier working in the field.  A time he could work all day and feel nothing other than the satisfaction of taming the land to feed his family.  Those days had long gone and the arrival of his eightieth year was being etched on his mind with every jerking movement of the plough. 


Oh how he wished he didn't have to do this anymore.  Life had not been kind, his wife Betty  and child Tam had died many years before, during the year of the Spanish flu.  He was spared and the bitterness had stayed with him all those years.  "For what?” he had asked himself countless times.  “To work like a slave on the land;  to exist without a reason and  live on in despair until the Grim Reaper came to get me as well.”  



Memories now flooded his mind; the promises of  youth, a wife and children with future prosperity.  He could see them now, even fifty years later, his young son swinging on the branch of the old quince tree, his wife looking so beautiful, tending the vegetable patch she loved so dearly.  She always loved to watch things grow, his son and the plants, so the farm was a gift from heaven as far as she was concerned.  Heaven had claimed her in her twenty eighth year.  



How grand the plans had been; work hard and stay focused on the promises the future would bring.  Only one problem, it never did, never arrived.  Death and poverty had haunted him all his life.  



He sat down underneath the old blue Gum.  The sun was now pounding his head into confusion.  Sweat covered the grey pallid look on his face.  How could something so beautiful have gone so wrong?  His heart told him it was now near.  He looked up at the vivid blue cloudless sky and saw the future looking back.  A flicker of a smile appeared through the tears as he looked skyward.  "Betty my darling, oh how I have waited so long for you."  He closed his eyes for the last time.  Release had arrived.  

4 comments:

  1. Simplify life, be happy with what ever you have and stay positive. People struggling because never appreciate and happy with whatever they have. The distance for this old man is too long without happiness. Why's that?

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  2. What is happening with the old man on the end of the day? The story is sad because of he is poor but he had never happy with his life. Am I right? Just discussion.

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    Replies
    1. There is no particular meaning behind the story apart from the unexpected things that life can throw up. His life was taken away from him when he lost his family. Death in the end was a relief.

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  3. Many literatures is describing things as analogy. Your writing is very similar with many stories that author wrote it from the life experiences. It's good writing any way in term of imagination. Feeling, this story reflected the author attitude.

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