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Short story 3: Waiting for the ELEVATOR doors to open...
“You were born for this Amir”. That is what everyone had been telling me since my father died. Or, they had been telling me that my whole life, but it wasn’t until recently that they really started to mean it. It has been exactly three months since he passed away. Three months since he lost the battle to cancer. Three months since I became Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi. Today is my first day as Deputy Supreme Commander of the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces. I am supposed to the enter the elevator that will take me up to my office. I have 11 advisors waiting for me as well as His Highness the President of the United Arab Emirates. And all I want to do is turn around and run away. Throughout my whole life, other people has been making every decision for me. I guess those are the strings that come attached to the fact of being born into a royal family. Politics and military interests has been forced upon me for as long as I can remember. I joined the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst when I was 18 and completed a fundamental armor, flying, parachutist and tactical planes course. I never expressed upon anybody how I really felt about military service and what I thought about the future I - unwillingly - was shaping for myself. It just isn’t that easy to be honest in my situation. And now I believe it is too late. Today I am 26 years old. I have three wives and seven children. And here comes the big caveat: I am gay. And I have been since I was 13 years old and fell in love with my classmate Zayed. He is now the King of Morocco, so we see each other from time to time - in political contexts of course. Zayed has two wives and about six children I think. Until recently Zayed was the only one who knew the truth about me and he has been a good keeper of secrets. But about three months ago I told one other person as well. My father. A few weeks before he died I went to visit him in the royal hospital. Ever since he got sick he had been admitted to the hospital - in his own wing of course. The wing was placed in the Western part of the hospital. This was important for my father because then he could lay in bed watching the sun go down over the desert. I sat down next to his bed and held his hand. He looked at me and said: “Amir. I am so proud of the man you are becoming. It is your duty to continue my tasks and responsibilities and take care of our nation. I believe I have done my job in raising you, because you have turned into the perfect son, husband, and heir.” I knew that was not true because of my so-called preferences and the fact that I had been lying to everyone for over a decade now. So, I told him… How did he take it? Instead of explaining what happened in the following weeks let me just say this: That was the last sentence he spoke to me. And now, three months later I am standing here waiting for the elevator doors to open… Dreading the time they do.
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Short story 2: Waiting for the RED HOUSE doors to open...
“Helen, don’t go in there!” said Angela.
“It looks super creepy. Let’s just go back to the house” said Tiffany nervously.
“I am not going in there. This looks way too much like a house I’ve seen in a horror movie” said Rachel.
“I really think this is a bad idea. What if the owners are home? I don’t want to go to jail for breaking and entering” whispered Margaret.
“Come on girls. You are always so boring. Let’s just take a look. The doors are open” said Helen. She leaned forward to get a closer look.
Six hours earlier five girls hopped on the bus and journeyed to a lake house. The house belonged to Helen’s parents, but no one had been up there for years due to their messy divorce in 2014. But now Helen had invited her four best girlfriends up there to spend the weekend. She had always been the decision maker of the group and the other always followed her. The girls had been friends since middle school and the group dynamics hadn’t changed since then. As said, Helen had always been the alpha and the one who lead the way. She had been the first one to get a boyfriend and first one to start drinking. Tiffany, Angela, Margaret, and Rachel always went along with Helens’ ideas. It had been like that since before they could remember, and none of them really had the courage to change it. On the bus, Helen had been entertaining the girls with a story about how the lake house was haunted and that was the real reason why it hadn’t been used for years. All the girls had been laughing at the story, telling Helen that she was full of crap, and after being on the bus for three hours, the girls arrived at the lake house. The girls had only been there for four hours when Helen got bored and decided to go on an adventure. She said she would just go out and look around and come back within 30 minutes. She had been gone for an hour when the girls started to worry.
“What if she has been kidnapped or killed?” said Rachel with worry in her voice.
“Relax. I’m sure she just met some neighbours or something like that” said Angela to try and calm the girls down.
Margaret got up from the couch and looked out the large panorama window facing the lake.
“It is beginning to get dark out there. Maybe we should go out and look for her” she said.
Ten minutes later when Helen still hadn’t returned the girls decided to go out and search for her. It had gotten dark outside so they found some flashlights in the house and brought them along. The forest was dark and quiet. The only sounds they heard was an owl howling and an occasional breeze in the tree tops.
“I don’t think that Helen ran into a neighbour. Honestly, we have been walking for 10 minutes and I haven’t seen one other house” Angela said whilst looking around.
* branch snapping *
Suddenly, the sound of a branch snapping made all the girls freeze. They looked at each other with scared faces and then held up their flashlights to find out where the sound came from.
“Hello? Is anyone there?” Margaret shouted.
“Boooo!!!” screamed Helen as she jumped out from behind a tree.
“Aaargh” screamed the girls whilst covering their eyes with their hands.
“Hahaha. I totally got you guys” laughed Helen as she walked towards the girls.
“Omg Helen! That was so not funny” said Angela whilst breathing heavily.
“Do you know you worried we have been? And then you just joke with us?” said Tiffany with anger in her voice.
“Relax girls, it was just for fun! Come I have to show you something!” said Helen exited. All the girls held hands as they walked with Helen towards a red, shining light.
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Short story 1: Waiting for the TUBE doors to open...
“Running away seemed like a good idea at home… But now that I am here, I am not sure about it. Should I or shouldn’t I? How mad will mom be? And dad… I am sure he will dock my allowance by several dollars. Maybe even take it away completely. And ground me… Or, that is if he even cares that much. My parents rarely care about anything I do. No matter if I get an A in school or score three goals in my soccer match, their attitude is always “Well, what else is new?”. Their interest in me is very different from their interest in Lisa. Lisa only has to put her shoes on the right feet and my parents are impressed. I know she was their first child and all that, but come on. I am only 13 months younger than her! I can’t help the fact that I was born later. But in my parents eyes I can… So this is the reason for my sitting here. I wanna be free and now I am. I have never taken the tube alone before, but one time has to be the first, right? And Sloane Square station is the closest station to our house. I have walked here several times with mom and dad, so it wasn’t hard to find my way here. With me I have my backpack and the essentials: The coins from my piggybank and a tuna sandwich if I get hungry. And then my Oyster card so I can get on the tube. I didn’t really plan how long I would be gone for. At least as long as it takes to make my mom and dad worried. How long do you think it will be?” Ariana looks at the homeless man next to her and awaits an answer. He stares back and then looks down at himself. His clothes are dirty and worn out. He has holes in his shoes and no socks on underneath. He has long gray hair and barely any teeth left. He has a cigarette in his mouth and a beer bottle in his hand. Next to his left side lies his dog. It looks starved and old. The dog is lying on a sleeping bag, a holy towel and some clothes. To his other side is a large bag filled with empty bottles and cans. He sighs and turns towards Ariana. “Go home little girl. If you think you have a tough life, take a look at me. Would you call this being free? You are lucky to have a family that cares about you and…” A beeping noise makes him stop talking and turn his head towards the rails. Ariana looks the same way. The noise comes from the tube that has now appeared on the station. The homeless man turns to Ariana again and says: “You have been sitting here waiting for the tube doors to open for 34 minutes. Now that they have - Are you going to enter?”
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For every door that's shut another one is open...
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