Stories For The Child Within

It was a night of celebrations, the new year night. The street was filled with people, songs, and visual displays. All eager to step into the new year of desires and hopes. Suddenly a disturbing siren sound of an ambulance engulfed the street.

There had been an accident. A young lady and a small child are seen heavily injured inside the ambulance. The ambulance driver is doing his best to take them to the city hospital as soon as possible.

They reached the hospital and are admitted for emergency procedures. Hospital authorities tried to find out and contact someone who is a close relative or friend of the injured mother and child. The condition of the woman is very critical.

Next, we are shown a man sitting in his own office building at midnight on the very same new year night. He sips the drink and looks at the distant outside celebrations through the glass window of his office.

He receives a phone call. The glass drops down from his hands and breaks as he heard the shocking news. He was the husband of the lady and father of the child who had just met with the accident. He rushes to the hospital in his car. He was Peter.

Peter is a rich businessman mainly dealing with exporting quality hospital equipment all over the world. His relationship with his wife was not so smooth. He could not enjoy his family life, due to the pressure of keeping up the profits of his company. He wanted to keep up with his business which was initially started by his father. Now it was up to him to take care of the family business and make it more profitable and maintain its honor.

This all was a major upset for his wife who wanted him to give more importance to herself and the child than for the business. They have frequent quarrels over this. As things got worse between them, his wife decided that enough was enough. It was this very morning when his wife forced him to take them with him and go for outing and possibly visit her parents. But he refused, got angry and left to office. She called him and expressed her anger and threatened that she would kill herself or leave him forever. He cut the call and stopped attending her calls.

She waited till night, but he did not come. He stayed in the office drinking and smoking after the office hours. It was at this time, she decided to take her child and leave for her parent’s home. She took the car and drove off. But only to be met with this accident.

Peter sat there with eyes filled with tears while praying for his wife and child. But the bad news was about to reach his ears. His wife had passed away.

According to the doctor, the child’s condition is still not stabilized but there is hope that the child will actually survive this.

Some months had passed by…

Now here we have a writer in the very city where Peter lives. He is seen drinking alcohol and shouting foul words at the four walls of his room and cursing some people. Suddenly he started spitting blood. His name was Padmaraj.

//now we go back to his (Padmaraj) life before this day

He was a school teacher living in a village with his mother. He was also a novel writer. He enjoyed writing more than the teaching profession. But he was not yet a successful writer. His main source of income was through the teaching profession. His family also had some farming which had almost perished as they were no one to take care of as of now.

Padmaraj had been declining marriage proposals and wanted to first make his writing career boom. Even though it was not working out as easy as he wished. Later due to pressure from his mother he opted to get married to a girl not so far away from their house. And to his surprise, with marriage, his writing career started accelerating. One of his recent publications became a big hit and received enough audience. With recent success in his writing works, he started to get more writing offers. He wanted more time to concentrate on writings. And he found it extremely difficult to manage his teaching profession along with writing. Since his primary interest was writing, one day he resigned from his teaching profession, without giving any clue regarding it to his wife or mother.

But it was then things started getting messy for him. Just as with the sudden peak in his writing career, there was also a sudden decline with recent publishings becoming a flop. This created lot of fear in his newly married wife and their family. They started to get concerned about his career. Parents of his wife could not just allow him to carry on like this without making a new choice and a quick career change. They were actually concerned about their daughter’s future.

Pressure started to squeeze Padmaraj from all directions. He was offered a job in a gulf country by a friend of his wife’s father. But he refused to take the job offer. He wanted to continue the writing, but now he has to take care of his wife also.

Despite the recent failures, he kept looking for offers and works. He got some small writing jobs, but things kept getting worse. His stubbornness to refuse advice from his wife or her parents lead to separation from his wife. The parents of his wife got angry and forced their daughter to go for divorce. While all this was happening, his mother was just being a silent witness to everything. Padmaraj and his wife got separated.

Finally, it was just Padmaraj and his mother alone again. They decided to leave the village to a city in favor of the possibility of getting more writing offers and connections.

Padmaraj looked for a fresh start and hoped that things would sooner work out in favor of him. He had to start taking low paid writing offers from newer publication companies. He kept concentrating on his work which is also his passion. As time passed, things started getting more stabler for Padmaraj. Though it was nowhere near to any big success or fame, it was just enough to maintain his writing profession and living.

But as things were getting better in his professional life, the health of his mother began to get worse. She suffered from constant breathing problems. She had never been used to the rush and pollution of city life. She had only lived in her village so far in her life and never had to leave the village until now for being with her son. She consumed only healthy food prepared on their own farm while living in the village.

Padmaraj took her to a good hospital. She was diagnosed with pneumonia and her lungs were severely affected. She needed to be rested and given proper medical care. The doctor talked honestly to Padamaraj regarding the chances of his mother’s survival. He was scared he might lose his mother too. And within a few days, her immunity declined heavily, and finally, she left her earthly existence. Padmaraj was dead broken with this incident. He wanted her mother to see him being a successful writer. But she finally surrendered to death.

He started to experience severe loneliness and meaninglessness in his life. He lost all hope. He began consuming alcohol as the only way to escape the pain of his current existence. It did not take much time for him to be transformed into an alcoholic. His writings started to become mediocre as he got into a severe addiction. He felt like a failure. He could not help himself out anymore. There was no one for him to share his pain or talk to. He continued living in the city. He was scared to go back to his village and face the people there, which included his ex-wife and her family members. He was scared to go back to his village as a loser.

And now we reach that night of heavy drinking.

He was cursing people, blaming his ex-wife, her parents, shouting foul words at the walls, making noises. And then he coughed and suddenly spat blood.He was scared and decided to go to the hospital and get it checked on the next day.

It was the same hospital to which he previously admitted his mother sometime before. It was that same doctor this time also. The doctor recognized Padmaraj. And proceeded for the medical checkups.At the hospital, Padmaraj noticed a young boy with his plastered legs walking with the support of his father. It was Peter and his child. The child survived the accident with injuries to his leg and head.

It had been now some months after the accident in which Peter lost his wife.

Now it is time for the doctor to check the child’s plastered leg and get the plaster removed and see if the child could walk better now. Meanwhile, Padmaraj was waiting for the test results. Padmaraj inquired to his doctor about that boy. And the doctor told him about the accident and the death of the boy’s mother.

Peter’s company had been providing medical equipment for this hospital also. Peter had changed a lot after the death of his wife. The staff in his company took good care of the company (even though Peter had always been very rude to them in the past) while Peter could not deal with the company matters for some time as he had to take care of his child.

The child has some trauma issues to deal with which arose from the accident and death of his mother.

Peter softened and became more kind towards the staff in his company and his overall approach to people became nicer. He was less of a stressed businessman but more of a better considerate human being now. The plasters were removed off the child’s leg. He was getting better physically.

But the child was still mentally dull and scared. The child continued having issues with getting sleep at night. Memories of the accident and the loss of his mother kept haunting the child. It was difficult for the little boy to let go of it. Peter took his child to a psychotherapist and therapy sessions were started.

The therapist asked the boy about his mother to understand how their relationship was. Even though the relationship between Peter and her (the child’s mother) was bad, the mother used to take good care of the child. As therapy proceeded, the therapist realized a joyful activity that the child enjoyed while living with his mother. She uses to make and read interesting bedtime stories for her child in a very passionate way that the child loved the experience so much. It was also one of the things she loved which were making stories and reading it out to her child.

She had to sacrifice a lot of her personal interests after marriage and birth of the child. But she was continuing her passion for crafting stories by writing for her son.

The therapist suggested to Peter that they should consider giving the child back again this bedtime story experience as it was given to him by his mother. Peter listened to the therapist and in his drive back to the house with his child, he felt that he should have been a better husband for his wife. He felt guilt in not trying to understand her while she was alive.

He decided not to be a failing father to his child and took responsibility for bringing his child back to normal life. He was doing all his best now.

Meanwhile, the test results of Padmaraj had arrived. And he is diagnosed with a severe liver issue. The doctor told this could be from his drinking habits and told him that unless he brings about a serious lifestyle change along with the treatment and medicines, his life is under risk. The doctor had to honestly speak the truth of his liver condition and it’s seriousness. He went through the initial treatment procedures and was sent back home in few weeks and come back for the next checkup while the doctor reminded him to completely stop drinking alcohol, smoking, junk foods and also encouraged him to do exercise and to get rid of any stress-inducing things in his life immediately.

Padmaraj was at the same time shocked and sad about his condition.

Death was looking at his face anyway. He knew he still got chances of getting back his health and life if he followed the lifestyle advice from the doctor.

Or he could slip away into the addictions that had been ruling his life and lose his life. He could not anymore just keep drinking and escape and ignore the fact that he will be inviting death sooner that way.

But it was difficult for Padmaraj to not slip back into his old habits while living in this city, being alone, with no meaning and joy to find in his life. He is unable to even force him to write. It was time for him to visit the doctor for a checkup.

This time they had an honest personal conversation and Padmaraj told all about his current situation, how he reached this city from the village, his divorce, etc. The doctor realized it is dangerous for him to stay in this city and though it was better for him to go back to his village, perhaps focus on farming. So at least he gets to eat good food and something to look forward to as he had lost the drive to write as of now.

But Padmaraj was reluctant to go back to his village, even though deep in his heart, it was what he wanted. He knew it will be good for him and it had been in his mind for a while about going back but the thoughts of being seen by others as a failure, might have to face his ex-wife family who also lives in that village, etc forced him to live in denial in this city hopelessly.

The doctor gave him the necessary emotional support and encouraged him to start a new life, focus on farming and good habits, and just focus on getting back his liver condition reversed for good and to set aside all other worries. He can come for checkups weekly to the doctor. And he also liked the doctor as he was the only support he got now.

So Padmaraj decides to pack up the city life and go back to his village.

Meanwhile, Peter is trying his best to make his son heal the trauma and sleeping issues. Even though he bought storybooks and tried to read it our for his son, it was nowhere near to experience the child had while she used to write and readout stories specially crafted for her son.

While Peter had to converse with the doctor who treated Padmaraj, regarding the supply of the medical equipment and also regarding the physical health of his child, he mentioned about the mental issues his son was going through and sleep problems and regarding therapist’s advice to craft and read good stories to help the child.

Padmaraj had reached his village and is finding the initial difficulties facing the people around. He even happened to see his ex-wife on the walk towards his home and it triggered a lot of trouble within him. He first met a friend who runs an oil mill and sold some of the coconuts from his farm space. He had a conversation with the friend and also with his friend’s mother. She was one of the good friends of Padmaraj’s mother. They did not humiliate him by asking difficult questions. The friend’s mother just remembered her childhood life and friendship with Padmaraj’s mother and talked about it all to Padmaraj. He sat there silently and listened with a bit of sadness in his face. He did not talk about his health condition but just told them that he would like to live here again and not go back to the city. They listened to him and assured him all the support for his decision. He felt a bit relieved being with them and went shopping for daily life utensils and to buy some farming stuff.

His ex-wife had already married a new person and he works in a gulf country while she is staying with her parents now in the same village. Her house is not so far away from Padmaraj’s house. And it is often possible that he might get to see her. It was difficult for him to come back as someone who had even lost his writing career, for which he was even ready to get separated from his wife.

At one night, Padmaraj felt very disturbed, he thought he would not be able to have a good life again. He was filled with thoughts of ending his life or going out to the bar and have some relief. He also wanted to keep up the promise he gave to the doctor regarding not drinking alcohol again. He wanted to talk with someone. He thought of calling the doctor but then could not. Instead, he locked the door and went out for a walk.

During the walk, he received a call. It was a random number. He answered the call. The call went as ….

Stranger: Is this Padmaraj?

Padmaraj: Ayy, yes I am. Who is this?

Stranger: Good. Is it a good time to talk?

Padmaraj: Yeah, I guess, Who are you? Where do you get my number from?

Stranger: Okay, you know Mr. James, the doctor in the city hospital?

Padmaraj: Yes I do.

Stranger: I got your number from him. He is a good friend of mine. He mentioned that you are a writer.

Padmaraj: Oh, yes, I was a writer.

Stranger: I am Peter. I was just wondering if you could write bedtime stories for my child as a job assignment for which I could pay you…..

Padmaraj: Wait wait, bedtime stories? what?

Stranger aka Peter: Yes, it would be a great help if you write good children short stories daily. My intention is to read them out for my young son….

Padmaraj: Well, I am a bit busy now.

Peter: It’s okay, just let me know when you are free. Give me a message, I will call back tomorrow or anytime you prefer.

Padamaraj: Okay.

Padmaraj cuts the call and goes back to his house. He sat in his room thinking about what should he do with this writing assignment. He was reluctant at first, but knowing that it was the doctor who connected Peter to him, he did not want to deny the work.

Padmaraj messages Peter his email id and asked him to contact via email the next day.

Padmaraj tried to contact the doctor. But he was unavailable as he was out of station for some medical team meetings.

Padmaraj half-heartedly agreed to the assignment. He once again started writing. Every day Padmaraj has to email the writings before night so that Peter can go through the story and understand it and read it out for his son at night. Peter was not so satisfied with the stories as it was not much of a digestible and enjoyable for a young boy.

Peter mailed him to consider making the stories a bit light-hearted in a way his son can enjoy it. Padmaraj also knew that his writings were not that good, as he was not able to fully get involved in the making process.

Padmaraj decided to discontinue the writing job. He called the doctor and said that he is not able to concentrate on writing bedtime stories as requested by Peter.

Doctor: Padmaraj, I am not forcing you to do this. I thought it will be helpful for you also to focus on a writing job and without much pressure. If it is difficult you can forget about it.

Padmaraj: Hmm.

Doctor: By the way, you had already seen that child in my hospital. You even asked me about the child. Do you remember?

Padmaraj: Yes, Is it that child?

Doctor: Yes it is Peter’s son, the very child that lost his mother in a car accident. It was Peter who told me about his child’s psychological battles and the importance of these bedtime stories as a way to heal the child as suggested by the therapist.

Padmaraj: I am sorry doctor, I did not know. I don’t if I can help the child with my writings. But I will give my best to help the child.

Doctor: Very Good Padmaraj. Please continue the work and make sure it helps both you and the child. See you next time for checkup visit. Bye.

Padmaraj immediately mailed Peter and told him to just ignore the previous stories and from now on he will try his best to create stories that will help Peter’s son.

Now suddenly there was a purpose behind his writings. He felt like being useful for someone else through his passion. He decided to take this assignment seriously. The new energy of purposefulness filled his life. He decided to sleep early and wake up early so he could utilize his favorite sacred morning hours for writing. He woke up before sunrise and remembered his own childhood. He tried to bring forward that little child in him. He asked his own inner child, what thinks terrified him. What did he(inner child) want badly from his parents? What kind of words he wanted to hear during such and such experience in his childhood. Why certain experience killed his confidence and thought how could that inner child in him be healed and rise in confidence. He started to craft stories in that manner. The writing became a therapeutic activity for Padmaraj.

The love and care in the writings affected the child (Peter’s son) also positively. Stories started to have a positive impact on the child as well as Padmaraj. Peter let Padamaraj knew the progress of his child and that child was being happier now and getting good sleep. The therapist advised Peter to keep continue these bedtime stories for his child as it was certainly being helpful for the child.

Padmaraj started to have a strong emotional attachment with that child.

The writings progressed, Padmaraj’s health also started getting better. He became okay with facing the people around him. He pushed himself to meet the children of his neighbors, engage and play with them and to observe and learn more about them so that it will be helpful for him in crafting stories and to maintain a good mood.

He is happy with his new niche which was to write stories that could bring joy to children and heal his inner child.

Life continues….story ends here.

END.

If you have any little ideas and you like me to create a full story/fiction on that idea and have it published here for free, please do mention those in the comments. I will be happy to consider your ideas and convert them into stories.