The Sad One

• Cameron Flaherty, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2022

Mike was an ordinary dad with an ordinary family. The only bad part was, they were poor. They could never afford food and were always hungry. Mike had to go out leaving his son Joshua and his wife Mary behind. He applied for a job and got declined.

Mike’s family was so hungry that he decided to shove a loaf of bread down his trousers followed by a small container of ham. He rushed out of the shop and ran home to feed his family. When he got home he gave the bread and ham to his wife. "Where and how did you get that?" Mary questioned. "From market, down the street," Mike said. His wife knew they didn't have the money to buy it and as she was about to tell him to take it back, the Police came to their door.

The Police took Mike away and sent him to a big city where he had to work as a convict and build buildings and people’s houses. He had to dig areas for pools and capture dangerous animals for the wild zoo exhibit. He lived in a rat filled room. He missed his family.

The city was filled with posh, rich people, smoking cigars and giving the convicts dirty stares like the no goods they think they are. Mike was scared, just a small man in a giant city. He wasn't used to it.

It had been 3 years now and for such a little crime. Mike did not have a long sentence like some of the criminals who had murdered someone. Soon he was released and knew the first thing he would do was find a job, then he would get an apartment and tell his family to come to the city.

He found a very boring job as a person who screwed the caps onto orange juice bottles. He rented a run-down apartment and then bought a ten pack of stamps and a singular envelope. He wrote a letter to his family to tell them to come to his city and they could live as a family again. He put some money in the envelope and sent it off.

One month later Mike saw the postman and ran outside in joy. He couldn't wait to hear from his family but instead he got a depressing letter. It was from the Police. He found out his family had been murdered by a young criminal who just needed food like his family had. Mike cried for weeks on end.

After a while Mike decided to move on and ended up having a good life. He may have been sad but fortunately he still had a picture of him with his family which he hung up on his wall. Mike lived a simple life and eventually he got paid retirement by the Government. He joined the retirement club where he could play croquet with his friends all day and he was happy. Soon after he died a painful death.