A Chance To Change A Day - A Story
musing #13
Hey readers!
Thank you for reading all of my posts till now.
In this post, I present a very enriching story, written by me. One can take a lot of learnings from this story.
It is titled “A Chance To Change A Day”
A Chance To Change A Day
It was the worst day of her life. Nora, a 21-year-old woman, was devastated. That day, she lost her 7-year-old cat, Ginger, and felt guilty because she felt it died as a result of her actions. Had she not taken it for a walk, had she not left it near the footpath to get some medicine, had she not returned quickly, it would not have been run over by a car and would still be alive.
She had to go to work despite her agonizing loss. She worked in a publishing company because she enjoyed reading. She was also interested in swimming and was quite good at it, but had given it up due to her parents' disapproval. She went to her office, her face filled with grief, and absent-mindedly did her chores. As if the loss wasn’t enough, she was fired from the firm for shredding a new manuscript instead of an old one. Now, she couldn’t hold it anymore.
She went to her school’s library where she had discovered her love for literature. Once inside, she cried herself to sleep. When she opened her eyes in the evening, Nora found herself at the same spot. As she was preparing to leave, her eyes caught something unusual. It was a book, glowing in the dark. She moved forward, to the shelf where it was kept, and opened it.
It was titled “A CHANCE TO CHANGE A DAY”. She was astonished at reading this. Perhaps this was her chance to change the events of the day and free herself of those regrets. She turned the page and saw the words "TODAY, I..." written in capital letters at the top. Just as she touched the page, more words appeared magically. To her surprise, everything written on the page corresponded with her day’s events. She began turning the pages, and as she read, she concluded that this book was similar to her life. It was based on her life. Every occurrence of each day was written in this peculiar book.
For a moment, she thought she was dreaming so she pinched herself. But it was no dream. At the end of the book, she found a pencil and an eraser tied to the page and took them apart. She went back to the first page and swiftly erased the part where she had lost Ginger and instead wrote that she had a wonderful day with it. Suddenly everything around her began to shake and she couldn’t see her surroundings as they were blurred. She felt as if she were being stretched in every direction and then, she found herself up in the air, rotating.
When she opened her eyes, she was at her home. “So this was all a dream like I thought” she spoke aloud. Feeling depressed, she got up from her bed and was stunned when she heard an unmistakably familiar voice, the voice of her cat, Ginger. She kept it close to her all day, never letting it go out of her sight. Thanking God for bestowing this magnificent opportunity to go back in time, she went to sleep. The next morning, she woke up and looked around for Ginger but, it was nowhere to be found. Nora was in distress. She sat on the floor crying when her hand touched something furry. Under the bed, lay her cat ginger’s lifeless body.
She felt as if someone had stabbed her in the heart. God had given her happiness only to snatch it away, exacerbating her pain. But, despite all the pain, there was also a glimmer of relief. It was so because Ginger was meant to die all along, not because of Nora. But still, she didn’t feel her pain subsiding. Then, there came a piercing sound and darkness that enveloped the entire room. She was brought back to the library. This time, she decided to erase the section which stated that she had lost her job and instead wrote that she had been promoted. Once again, everything shook and became a blur. Once again, she felt as if she was being stretched while she spun in the air.
This time, she found herself in her new cabin, surrounded by people who were congratulating her on her promotion. Feeling a bit better, she went home. When she arrived at the office the next morning, she noticed that there were firemen everywhere. The office building had been destroyed by the fire. It felt as if the whole world was against her. As if everyone wanted her to be miserable. She cried and kept crying when she heard the deafening sound again was transported back to the library.
It was at this point that she realized that her decision to join the firm—choosing literature as a career—had gotten her into this mess. She turned the pages of the book to the point where she gave up swimming and instead wrote that she had won a gold medal in it. And then she was there, in the Olympics, with a gold medal hanging on her chest. She thought that this would be the life wherein she’d get real happiness.
When she exited the hall, she was greeted by some interviewers. They were asking her a variety of questions, but one, in particular, shook her to her core. "Ma'am, did losing both of your parents become a source of motivation for you?" someone inquired. Had she misheard, she didn’t know. When she was in her car, she googled up her name and learned about her parents. Her father had suffered from a heart attack when she nearly died in a competition. Her mother, upon losing her husband, also had a heart attack and died on the spot.
This way, because she chose swimming against her parents’ will, she lost both of them. There was no extent to the pain she was experiencing. At this moment, she heard the high-pitched sound again and was deported to the library.
This time, she resolved not to make any further changes because she realized that everything happened for a reason. She also felt she had squandered a lot of time regretting her actions. She recognized that everything had happened for a reason. She also realized that to be truly happy, she needed to reconcile with herself. She needed to let go of her regrets. She'd learned her lesson, and she wasn't going to waste any more time dwelling on regrets. Instead, she'd try to be happy by cherishing everything she had. She burned the book and threw it in the trash, then went home relieved.
That’s it for this post. I hope you liked it!
A story full of twists and turns. Loved it!