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Diva Sharma

A Family of Illusion

My body ached as I rushed down the stairs- I hadn’t been able to catch a wink on the uncomfortable mattress. Everyone’s so-called city of dreams was certainly expensive - and being cut off from my affluent parents did not help my situation. The first days were supposed to be exciting, not stressful. I pushed my way into my new office. Suddenly I crashed into something - no, wait, someone rather than something. As I looked up to see what I had bumped into, I saw a man who was about in his mid-60s. The first thing I noticed about him was his mottled, wrinkly hands, clearly worn from decades of life. He had greasy hair along with pale skin. He gave me a peculiar smile before he walked, leaving me to wonder why the man had given me such an odd feeling.


I snapped out of my thoughts as I saw a man in the uniform of a security guard walk towards me. Someone else being here relaxed my nerves a bit. The guard chuckled lightly as he saw my face which showed my shaken up expression. “An odd one, isn’t he? He has that effect on people,” he informed me. “Let me give you free advice, if you want your days to be worry-free and quiet, stay away from that man. He has quite the reputation of being a lunatic,” he said and he walked away from me. Well, this was a rather odd start - the man hadn’t seemed like a lunatic to me.


I quickly made my way inside my office and swiftly found my cubicle. While methodically arranging my desk, I glanced up to see the man from the lobby. I didn’t want to be perceived as rude so I gave him a small uncomfortable smile. Which I guess made him happy as he replied with an even bigger smile. I melted at that - guessing from that guard’s reaction, no one was very friendly towards him. I paced towards the old man who gave me a wide grin, again. Being this close to him, I could see his crooked teeth in his mouth that looked like they would fall out any second. “Hello! I’m new here. Would you mind showing me around the office?”


He jumped up from his seat with excitement and spoke up, “Of course, kiddo! How about lunchtime?”


“Sounds great!”, I responded with fake enthusiasm. That lunch after he showed me around, we ate together. Strangely enough, it soon became a routine for him to have lunch with me. Slowly and steadily I got used to him around me- I didn’t mind it anymore. Although I didn’t miss the biased looks of our co-workers, I got used to that as well. Mr Acker loved talking about his wife and son and I loved listening to him babble about them. It warmed my heart knowing that there were families who loved each other so much. Growing up in a house where no one cared about anything but money made me believe that families couldn’t have so much love between them.


It made me indignant how our coworkers treated Mr Acker, he was a nice, friendly man who did absolutely nothing wicked and minded his own business. Of course, no matter how much he tried to be pleasant to others, it was never enough, they never stopped harassing him. He often tried to comfort me saying that they were just angsty juveniles and meant nothing awful but I wasn’t convinced. No one has the right to torment people like that.


“I want you to meet them,” he said suddenly. I looked up from my laptop at Mr Acker, confused

as to who he was referring to. “My family,” he said after looking at my baffled face. A grin

naturally formed on my face.


“Of course! How about today evening? Does that work for you?” I said with ease. He nodded eagerly and stood up.


“I’m going to go get everything ready!” I watched with a content smile as he walked away, happiness giving a slight jump in his step. Behind me, I heard a stifled chuckle and turned to see a group of our co-workers hiding their grins behind coffee cups.


“Can I help you?” I asked coldly, sick and tired of their mocking. Did they have nothing better to do? One of the workers seemed blind to my anger, instead still snickering and taking a step forward.


“Well, you see, we couldn’t help but overhear that...he…was inviting you to see his family. We just wanted to know...what family?” This seemed to be utterly hilarious to him, and I could see the others also barely containing their laughter. Confusion and an eerie sense of dread mingled in my gut. I looked at them, waiting for them to either continue or leave me alone. The man in front of me widened his eyes. “Wait, you believe him? You don’t know the truth? No wonder you still hang out with him! His family is dead - he just refuses to come to terms with it.”

Sick horror culminated in my mind, and I felt a wave of disgust as the people in front of me started to laugh.


“What is wrong with you? You’re making fun of an old man, whose family is dead? Have you no shame, no humanity? Fix your mindset, for god’s sake. Your mentality disgusts me - is it so hard to say a few kind words to a man in pain, instead of mocking him for dealing with it? Mr Acker is a far better man than any of you will ever be.” I stormed off, my rage overwhelming me.


I did not know if my words would affect them - maybe they were just these kind of people, hungry to exploit others’ pain. What I did know, however, was that a little bit of kindness to a man that was nothing but caring to me would never be the wrong decision. Those people had just proved to me that compassion in place of torment would always be right.


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