Stay tuned to our new posts and updates! Click to join us on WhatsApp L&C-Whatsapp & Telegram telegram Channel
L&C-Silhouette Subscribe
The L&C-Silhouette Basket
L&C-Silhouette Basket
A hand-picked basket of cherries from the world of most talked about books and popular posts on creative literature, reviews and interviews, movies and music, critiques and retrospectives ...
to enjoy, ponder, wonder & relish!
 
Support LnC-Silhouette. Great reading for everyone, supported by readers. SUPPORT

The Monster In My Life: A Short Story

June 10, 2014 | By

It was purely my secret. Not even my mother knew of this monster’s existence in my life.

Monster

I had a secret monster in my life

That day was a red letter day in my life. I was to represent my school in a prestigious elocution competition where many distinguished guests from all walks of life (and some of them international celebrities) were to judge us. It was an event that would make even the most seasoned participant quaver and I was the most nervous of all. For I had a secret monster in my life.

It had come to me quite innocently after my baby brother was born. I knew when it was going to reveal itself and would run off and hide so no one would associate me with it. You get the picture, right? So it was purely my secret. Not even my mother knew of this monster’s existence in my life. All they knew is that I had become unpredictable and withdrawn but since I was doing well in school, no one suspected a thing…at least not until this day of the competition.

I had got chosen by default. You know, the kind of thing that happens when the chosen candidate comes down with mumps, or something like that, and the next best steps in line.

I had surfed the Net for ways to evade the monster and was about to apply the techniques suggested when I heard my mother yelling at me to vacate the bathroom immediately.

Apparently the entire family was going to come and witness the spectacle. My nervousness had started building up. What if…it turned up? I had no time to think as one thing led to the other and it was finally my turn to get on the stage and speak.

There were several teachers and students from my school, come specially to cheer me. I started off well. Mentally I patted myself on my back as I felt I had done a good job when suddenly a shadow darting across the floor left me cold. The familiar feeling started creeping up my throat as the monster made its presence felt. I thought of leaving the stage. I felt I had left my school down. Just then my gaze fell on my mother sitting in the audience.

She was listening rapt with attention. I reasoned that if she could understand what the monster was making out of me, it was worth completing the speech. And I did just that. After the speech there was a pin drop silence. I had exceeded the time limit by a minute but the bell didn’t go off. As I made my way down the stage utterly deflated with the untimely appearance of the monster, I was astounded to hear the audience break into a thunderous applause.

I did not win the top most honor that day but I did make it to the newspaper headlines. What more could one ask for? The headline read “Closet stammerer comes into the open”. I had finally exorcised my monster. I refused to be ashamed of my stammer.

Jaya is a voracious reader and an amateur writer. She loves baking and cooking and hopes to become a successful author someday.
All Posts of Jaya Makkimane

Hope you enjoyed reading...

... we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading and supporting our creative, informative and analytical posts than ever before. And yes, we are firmly set on the path we chose when we started... our twin magazines Learning and Creativity and Silhouette Magazine (LnC-Silhouette) will be accessible to all, across the world.

We are editorially independent, not funded, supported or influenced by investors or agencies. We try to keep our content easily readable in an undisturbed interface, not swamped by advertisements and pop-ups. Our mission is to provide a platform you can call your own creative outlet and everyone from renowned authors and critics to budding bloggers, artists, teen writers and kids love to build their own space here and share with the world.

When readers like you contribute, big or small, it goes directly into funding our initiative. Your support helps us to keep striving towards making our content better. And yes, we need to build on this year after year. Support LnC-Silhouette with a little amount - and it only takes a minute. Thank you

Support LnC-Silhouette

Creative Writing

Got a poem, story, musing or painting you would like to share with the world? Send your creative writings and expressions to editor@learningandcreativity.com

Learning and Creativity publishes articles, stories, poems, reviews, and other literary works, artworks, photographs and other publishable material contributed by writers, artists and photographers as a friendly gesture. The opinions shared by the writers, artists and photographers are their personal opinion and does not reflect the opinion of Learning and Creativity- emagazine. Images used in the posts (not including those from Learning and Creativity's own photo archives) have been procured from the contributors themselves, public forums, social networking sites, publicity releases, free photo sites such as Pixabay, Pexels, Morguefile, etc and Wikimedia Creative Commons. Please inform us if any of the images used here are copyrighted, we will pull those images down.

2 thoughts on “The Monster In My Life: A Short Story

  • Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Today’s Motivation

    <div class=at-above-post addthis_tool data-url=https://learningandcreativity.com/loyal-efficient-work-bears-fruit-jawaharlal-nehru/></div>Sincere and competent effort put in a good cause will always be, however delayed, acknowledged and the effort will always bring successful results. <!-- AddThis Advanced Settings above via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings below via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons above via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons below via filter on get_the_excerpt --><div class=at-below-post addthis_tool data-url=https://learningandcreativity.com/loyal-efficient-work-bears-fruit-jawaharlal-nehru/></div><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt -->
    Sincere and competent effort put in a good cause will always be, however delayed, acknowledged and the effort will always bring successful results.