Decades ago, in high school, he joined friends singing a song. One took him aside. “You’re hopeless. You shouldn’t even try.”
He vowed to never sing in public.
Today, in the nursing home, they encouraged him to join their singalong. He shook his head and wandered away.
“Curmudgeon,” someone said.
Alan Kemister is a retired scientist experimenting with more fictitious writing. He’s currently working on a climate change trilogy. Two books are published. Get the gory details at alankemisterauthor.wordpress.com.
Aww, so sad. One negative comment can really affect a person for a lifetime. Something like this happened to me in singing.
Thanks for the positive comment. The first line is autobiographical – something that happened to me. The rest is fiction.
Some messages remain beneath the surface, swelling as they follow us through life, until they metastasize and reappear, only to be once again misunderstood and misdiagnosed.
Thanks for the positive comment. Getting comments like this make the effort of writing these little stories worthwhile.
I appreciate the way you created a character, taking him full circle thru life. All i 50 words!
Thanks for commenting. For me, writing a story in so few words is the challenge. Occasionally, I make it work.
So sad and so true..very well expressed
Thanks. I really appreciate getting this feedback.
Awww, that got me. A good reminder to always be kind—you just never know why people behave the way they do.
As you say, one should always try to be kind. But in my case, the negative comment in the first line was important to me. I really am terrible at singing, and until then I didn’t know it.