Fiction - Page 2

Letter from Tom to Laura

Márk Kovács


My dear sister,

Laura, I’m writing to let you know I’m fine, don’t worry and don’t cry for me. Please tell mom I didn’t want to disappoint her.

Well, I left Saint Louis. “I’m a member of the Union of Merchant Seamen.” I travel a lot, I go from city to city. I live for my dreams. Now you must be saying: Tom is like our father, he left us too. Laura, you should know, I could no longer live here in this confinement, with our mother’s illusions. Our mother’s constant concern, her eternal will and her particular world about life. I didn’t have to say things. It seemed unimportant to our mother what I was doing, what I wanted to do. I could no longer live detached from the world of reality.  That night when Jim came over for dinner, I shared my plans with him. I wanted to start a new life. I didn’t want to give up on my dreams, life is so short. I was planning for a change. I wasn’t patient, I didn’t want to wait. I wanted adventures. I couldn’t stay here. I didn’t want to work in the warehouse anymore for sixty-five dollars a month.

Laura, are you happy? What does life mean to you? You just sit at home in your own world. You have no friends, no goals, no desires and no dreams, you only have confinement, fear, and the glass menagerie.

My sister, I think I’m like our father. He was called by distance, and I was called by adventures. I liked going to the cinema in the evenings. I sat in the cinema and saw the real world around us on the movie screen: ocean, desert, mountains, people, cultures, countries, adventures. I couldn’t sit in the dark room and just watch and listen. I had to go live the adventures. Laura, I finally feel alive. I am no longer a young man from the warehouse. I walk my way, I make my dreams come true. “I traveled around a great deal. The cities swept about me like dead leaves. Leaves that were brightly colored but torn away from the branches. I would have stopped, but I was pursued by something. It always came upon me unawares, taking me altogether by surprise.”

“Oh Laura, Laura, I tried to leave you behind me, but I am more faithful than I intended to be. Blow out your candles, Laura.”

I want to leave the past behind me.

Good-bye,

Your brother, Tom

Letter from Jim to Laura

Nóra Molnár


Dear Laura!

You are probably wondering why I am writing to you. Well, I think that our relationship can’t end just like this. And I owe you a thank-you.

First, I wanted to thank you for the conversation that we had. No one has listened to my problems in a long time. It felt good to tell you my thoughts, while you were really listening to me. Sometimes I feel like no one cares about me, but you did care.

I am very sorry we did not talk that much in school, because I think that we could have been good friends. I could have helped you find friends. But that’s the past and we can’t change it. In the future we can meet sometimes, but only if my wife doesn’t mind it. I know that it might sound weird that I have to ask for permission from my wife to meet a girl, but I don’t want to lose her.

Maybe we will never talk to each other or maybe we will, who knows? But I will always have that little unicorn, which is an ordinary horse by now, and whenever I look at it, I will remember you.

I hope you find a man who loves you so much and makes you believe that youare  worth so much and have a great life, which you deserve.

I am sorry that Tom left you, but I believe in you and in your mother, Amanda, and I think that you two will be fine, because you are strong women.

And last, but not least, a piece of advice; stop underestimating yourself. I know that I already mentioned it to you in our last conversation, but it is important, because you are a smart and beautiful young lady who could do anything if she put herself into it. So, start believing in yourself.

Thank you for everything, Blue Roses! Have good luck for the rest of your life!

Yours faithfully,

Jim

Brian West

Hanna Abigél Algay


My name is Brian West, I´m from Los Angeles, and I’m turning 26 this year. Currently I’m attending University.

Last year, in May, I met my girlfriend Juliette at a Starbucks café when I stopped by for a quick study session. She was sitting at the table next to me, and in my study break I caught her glancing at me. I remember wondering how someone could be this beautiful and how such a pretty soul could look at someone like me. After completing my task, I packed up my things and left, and the next day I returned at the same time, hoping that she would be there. My hopes were realized, and after a week of talking, we finally started dating and now have been officially together for almost a year now.

I haven’t written in my journal for a long time. Today is my 32nd birthday, and my dear Juliette is currently six months pregnant with our twin boys, and we are looking forward to being parents. I want to propose to her after she gives birth, and I already planned everything.

Last week we moved, and while moving, I found this little journal in one of the boxes. It’s so good to read back on how I felt and what I experienced in those days. Right now I´m 45 years old and am a proud dad of two very playful boys. We love them so much, my beautiful wife and I.

I’m at the hospital; at the moment I´m 68 years old. I have always been frightened of being as ill as I am now.  I’m writing in this little book to try to calm myself down, but it’s not working. I don´t want my story to end here. I feel like I still have my whole life ahead of me, but I don´t. As I’m writing this, I feel an unbearable pain in my chest and my left arm. That’s the way I will die.

As these thoughts enter my mind I wake up in another hospital bed. I look at my hands, and they don’t have their usual wrinkles or that scar I got from cooking with my wife at that old barbecue. They look young, and so does my mother, who is cheering beside my bed.

They tell me that I, Brian West, am 15 years old and just woke up after two years of being in a coma.

An Unexpected Return

Sára Forgács


My name is Natalie Collins and I am here to share the most shocking day of my life. I am a 22-year-old girl working in a café as a college student who’s pretending to have a normal, uneventful life, but with this surprising arrival, everything turned out differently.

It started on the 20th of February. I woke up and quickly got dressed because I was already late for class. When I was running out of my apartment a letter stuck to the sole of my shoe, which I only noticed the moment I sat in the taxi. I honestly thought it would be a lucky day after I got a ride as soon as I left the building on such a busy day in New York city. The thought of reading the letter didn’t really excite me, so I put it away.

It was about two in the afternoon when I arrived at work, where I bumped into my friend Cassie, who asked why I was late from school. I only said that I had got home a few minutes before midnight the previous day, although the real reason I was away stayed secret.  After she left, a man pushed me, and I hit my head on the ground. I thought it was an accident, but he just stood over me and said I should read the letter, then disappeared. I ran up to my bag and opened the letter. It said: ˝I’m back to finish what we started!˝

I was horrified; the worst was that I knew who wrote it. I searched for my mother in the evening, but the previous day I had been told I would lose everything if I turned her in, so I was just standing speechless waiting for her to talk instead. I found the courage after ten minutes and told about my day. She wasn’t even surprised, which showed that she obviously knew about him. I was furious about the fact that they were planning to break the law again. I couldn’t believe how she could still be so madly in love with a thief, thus I lied so I could get away and immediately went to the police station and reported them for a robbery.

I was lying on the bed, trying to sleep, when I heard a voice calling me. My pulse was so high and I was so dizzy from the painkiller for my head that I didn’t move. The man from the café stepped into my room. He said I would get what I deserved, then punched me in the face, and the last thing I remembered was sitting in a cell with my mother for robbery.  It was my dad.

My Dream

Zaránd Lánczi


I had always dreamed of owning a vintage car. My obsession with classic cars had been inspired by my grandfather, who used to tell me stories about his 1969 Dodge Charger. When I found a dusty, forgotten garage at the end of an empty country road, I knew my dream was about to come true.

The garage was open, and there wasn’t anything around it. But inside the garage was a beautiful old Chevrolet El Camino. I took it home and spent months restoring it to make it look like new. It was a good activity, and I spent hours and days working on this project.

Finally, the day came when I finished the car. The carbureted 6.5l V8 engine sounded so good, it was elegant and savage at the same time.

The next week something unexpected happened. A local car enthusiast club organized a vintage car show in the nearby town, and as I turned the corner, the entire town was about to watch the car meet, and I was so proud. The crowd cheered as I entered the show, and I got an award, a trophy for the best restoration. My dream had come true, and I had found a new community of car enthusiasts.

As I was walking through the car show, staring at other classic beauties, a gentleman came up to me. He was the owner of a classic car restoration shop and offered me a job as a restoration specialist. I accepted the offer with a big smile on my face, and my hobby quickly turned into a full-time career.

From that day forward, I spent my days restoring and tuning classic cars, just as I had always dreamed.

The Story of a Bird

Donát Balogh


Once upon a time there was a young and happy bird who lived with his family. He loved flying. The first time he tried to fly he was scared, but time passed and he learned how to fly. He felt free.

One day the bird was flying when a big storm came, so he hid in someone’s backyard. The bird was exhausted and scared, so he closed his eyes and fell asleep. He woke up. He didn’t know where he was. He looked around. He was in a house in a cage. He must have been captured while he was sleeping. The cage was so small that he couldn’t even fly. He was really sad. Months, years passed.

The bird grew sadder and sadder. He missed his family, but most of all flying. The dad of the family felt sorry for the bird and decided to let him out. As he opened the door, the bird opened his wings and flew out the window.

Story of My Life

Sándor Szakács


It was Christmas Eve. I’d just gotten home from work. People find it strange that I’m working even on holidays. They are always asking the same questions: “Don’t you want to spend time with your family?”; “Don’t you have anything to do other than work?” It seems as if they don’t understand what I’m striving to accomplish.

I sat down on the sofa and opened my emails. Nothing out of the ordinary. Except for two: a letter from my superior and a letter from my dad. I stopped for a moment and then opened the letter from my superior. At first I didn’t think anything of it, as most of the time he sends general stuff that doesn’t have anything to do with me. However, as soon as I started reading it, I knew this was something else. It was a job offer, a promotion of some kind in South America. I couldn’t believe it. I’ve been wanting to make an impact for so long, and I finally have a chance to do so as a journalist.

I felt like my prayers finally found an ear. I’ve given up everything just to open the eyes of the people and help them see what our world has come to.

I was ready to pack my things, then I remembered there was still a letter to read. As I mentioned earlier, I gave up many things for my career, and one of the many was my family. It’s not that I don’t love them, I do. I just simply had my eyes on nothing but my goal. I sacrificed everything that could have served as a distraction: I moved quite far away from home; even so I managed to visit them 4 or 5 times a year, which wouldn’t be possible with this new job opportunity.

In short, my dad told me about his illness and the uncertainty surrounding it.He wanted me to spend more time with him as long as I could.

After I read it, I felt something I hadn’t felt in a while: doubt. Doubting whether it really was the best decision for me just to leave for several years, accomplishing my dream, but risking never to see my father again.

I was thinking about it the whole night and couldn’t sleep so I went for a walk, hoping to get an answer from the fresh air.

An Easier Way?

Laura Móra


Reed Hay is a nineteen-year-old boy who got accepted into college. He plays professional basketball and is really good at it; he is talented and hardworking. He is not just exceptional on the court, he also has a beautiful loving soul, his friends and family are the most important to him, and he will do anything for them.

He is used to being the best player on the court, and when he first met his new team, he had to accept this was not the case anymore. The court was full of Reed Hays, all determined, gifted people. Reed always had a special connection with all of his coaches, they were all happy and felt lucky that Reed was playing in their team, but now it wasn’t like that. The coach wasn’t impressed by any of his highschool wins. Reed was determined to show him what he could do, but it wasn’t as easy as it sounds. They already had a hectic schedule, they trained from 7 to 11 a.m., and they did not rest much during the day either. He decided to train more, so now he got up in the morning at 5 for this purpose. In the gym he had a talk with his coach; he told him he would do anything to show him that he deserves to be chosen for the team that will compete in the next game, and that he would train twice as hard as the others. The first time, the coach smiled at him and said he couldn’t wait to see what he could achieve.  The days passed, and it was finally the day when they announced the team. Reed’s name was not mentioned, and he was devastated, he didn’t know what to do, he wanted to quit. After talking to his friend who suggested meditating, he gave it a try. His mind calmed down and now he could really think about what to do. He had an important choice to make: either stay here or go to another university where they would be happy that he was there and his ego would be boosted. At the other university it would be so much easier, the training would be shorter and he could do it effortlessly, which might be the dream for most people, but not for Reed Hay.

He decided and it was a big decision, but not the most important one. The important decision is what he makes every single day, that he wakes at 5 am to train, that he gives his maximum effort to everything he is doing, every single hour he makes the decision to be great, and that is why he is the best basketball player in the world. Not because he didn’t transfer to other universities, but because he makes every single moment count.

Running Late

Ilona Králik


It was December. Not long ago, Julie had got into the university of her dreams, and now the first semester has almost already ended. She only had two days left before her Latin exam. The subject she was most scared of. Julie was in law school; she actually enjoyed every part of it except the Latin. That is the reason she did not go to her original, actual exam the day before. She got so scared in the morning she could not get out of bed. Thankfully it was possible to take an exam with the other group of students.

Julie was scared she would fail her exam. She always passed every subject with high scores. Even thinking about failing made her feel strange. After thinking and crying for hours she told herself that she would do it. It wasn’t as though she had any other choices if she wished to achieve her life goal. Julie spent the next two days in her room reading her Latin books. Her parents started to get worried about her; she did not want to leave her room, not even for half an hour. Her mother brought her some food, since she did not want to eat at the dinner table with her parents and younger brother, Alex. After her mother almost forced Julie to eat something she put down the book and ate a sandwich. While eating, she told her how scared she was of losing her scholarship. Julie was clever and was like best friends with her mother, who told her everything. She knew that they would not be able to afford a school like that without the scholarship.

The day of the exam arrived. Julie woke up at 6:30 a.m. The exam started at 9, which meant that she had to arrive at 8:30. To be there on time she would have to take the 7:50 bus. She and her family lived in a small town near the city. Everyone enjoyed living there. It was quiet, everybody was nice and friendly with each other, and it was only a 25-minute bus ride from the city center. The only problem was that there was only one bus leaving every hour.

Julie locked the doors because she was the last one leaving the house, then started heading towards the bus stop, since it was already almost 7:40. She was listening to music, trying to distract herself. She was almost at the bus stop when she saw something moving, a small brown puppy. The dog had shiny fur and looked healthy and well taken care of. It was pretty obvious it had an owner. The fact that it had got lost and had no idea where it was, was also completely certain. Julie was neutral when it came to animals. I would not say she did not like them, but she never really cared about them either. She felt sorry for the puppy, but she kept walking; it was already 7:45. The little dog barked after her. Julie looked back and saw that one of dog’s legs was really bloody. The puppy looked at her with its big eyes. Julie did not know what to do; her parents were at work and her brother was on his way to school. She had to be at the bus stop in a couple minutes. She walked away and got to the end of the street. She kept looking back at the puppy, which did not take its eyes off of her. Julie turned around and ran back to the dog and took it home. When her mother arrived home, they went to the vet with the puppy. After a small surgery, it was healthy and happy again. It turned out its owner had died, and that is why it had run away; there was no one taking care of it. Julie and her family adopted the dog and named it Roxy.

In the end everything turned out okay. Julie did not lose her scholarship, and she will have to take the exam in the next exam season. She also found her best friend that day, Roxy.

On a Rainy Night Like That

Helka Ondok


A man was standing in the middle of the street, in pouring rain. He had his eyes closed as if he were waiting for something. Then just as he took a deep breath, the blinding lights of a car appeared.

Evan Smith was a lucky man. He had a loving family, he had his dream job, he had a lot of friends and he also had the love of his life.

But one fatal accident took away his wife, and with her, his love for life also disappeared. Every morning he put on a fake smile, went to work, ate, slept and repeated.

His family and friends tried to bring him out of this depression, and day by day, his mood became slightly better. He started to go out again, laugh again, enjoy life again. Until each night came, when he was alone with his thoughts and feelings. The man he was during the day was just a facade for the broken man who came out during the night.

On a rainy night like that, he was in a really bad place. He was afraid that if he stayed alone, he would do something that he might regret, so he put on his clothes and started out the door. His parents’ house came to mind, which was only a ten-minute walk away from his home.

As he was walking, memories of his late wife appeared, all the dancing in the rain, the cozy nights watching films, the laughter in the kitchen while making cookies. The rain, which was pouring down on him, slowly started to mix with his tears.

Just when he started to cross the street, he had to stop. He closed his eyes, as if that would help against the overwhelming feelings. He heard a roar of the motor of a car, and he took a breath.

He had a big decision to make: move or stay.

Sometimes the decision which is the best for you is the hardest. But sometimes we make the decision which is easier. Sometimes this decision can destroy others, but in moments like this, we don’t think about that.

So he stayed still.