A SHORT STORY: The Unkind Old Man...

My entry into the Hello Hello Group Activity - 12

There was a grumpy old man, who lived in a city very much like yours...

He was very, very grumpy and treated children very unkindly. He would forever stand at his gate and yell at the children who played nearby. “Stop that noisy game,” he would screech! “You children are very noisy and are quite a disturbance,” he would add. Every day he was grumpy, and every day he would complain. It was so bad that children disliked him and often pranked him. On one occasion the kids, glued his gate so that he could not use his it. This of cause angered the old man more and he simply ramped up his unkindness. An instance of this was, if a ball landed in his yard, he would confiscate it... and that was the end of the ball. He would cut it up with delight for all to see.

SOURCE: Flikr

One day the children were having fun and unusually, noticed the old man was not at his gate. It was even stranger when the game got louder and he didn’t shout from his upstairs window or throw them with one of his old broken shoes. This was very strange indeed. They even started to manufacture a few unlikely stories, Hahaha! One of these was that he had capture a child during the night; and that he was too busy torturing the child to be disturbed by their games. This story captured the imagination of the bravest among the kids; who volunteered to save the "captured"child.

So, after a long kid meeting two of the naughtiest and bravest boys decided to venture in to the old man’s plot to do an investigation. They dared not go in at the front gate; instead they snuck in through a small hole in the fence at the side of the house which had no window. They hid behind trees and shrubs as they made their way to a small lounge window. They peaked in through a small opening in the curtains. They observed the old man lying motionless on the Lounge floor. The boys ran to tell the others. One of the smart ones soon called the emergency services.

Within a short while emergency services arrived at the scene. All the children gathered outside to witness the event. Emergency services had to breakdown the old man’s door in order to gain access. No doubt re-enacted with great vigour by the children who witnessed it. Very soon, they stabilised their patient, loaded him into the ambulance and sped from the scene with flashing red lights and screeching siren.

When the old man awakened - he found himself in hospital; here the doctor explained that he had suffered a slight heart attack and other anxiety disorders. You should really not work yourself up that much the doctor explained. “How did I get here?” the man asked the doctor. The doctor explained how the children had found him and called the emergency services. The old man realised that through their naughty intent they had actually saved his life.

When the old man arrived home, he never bothered the children again. Their act of kindness had saved his life, and now he decided to be kind to them.