AtoZChallenge2016

Quandary #AtoZChallenge Day 17

“And there we go ” She filed her story for the day feeling extremely ecstatic.

It was her third scoop in one week . Which meant one more opportunity to see her name in the byline . Also one more opportunity to rub her incredible talent in the faces of supposed veterans who were reporting petty car thefts or traffic violations in the name of crime.

She’ll wait for 2 more scoops and next week she’d walk into the editor’s cabin to ask for her own column.

She was in a rush. She had to win every possible investigative journalism award this year and she’d get that corner office with an entire wall to flaunt them.

Talent & fierce ambition was not to be hidden behind closed doors .  Flaunting is how she liked to live it . Except for one thing . Something that she had to keep a secret and not let out.

Quandary.png

For an investigative journalist , this needed every cell in her brain to work in tandem.To cover her tracks and keep her alibies ready or whatever that needs to be done.

She waved her goodbyes at office and stepped out for her clandestine meeting. Over the next half an hour of driving she analyzed the situation from every possible angle , wearing every possible hat that there was. She was still making a list of pros and cons in her head as she stepped in the small cabin for her meeting.

Little did she know her quandary would just get more complicated by the time she’d step out.

She was smart enough to spot the symptoms when they first appeared . The dizziness, loss of appetite , weak spells . But she ignored them with a stern ‘This can’t happen to me!’ , until one day while on a field assignment , she almost passed out . That’s when she had to finally come face to face with the truth.

That was 3 months back and now she was here to discuss what next. Could she keep her secret under wraps for some more time or was time really running out.

The meeting shattered all her hopes. This would ruin everything. All the hard work that she had put in , all the trophy filled wall in the corner office dreams she was harboring.

She looked at her reports again. Re reading the medical jargon like she could find a clue, a loophole and turn the argument around.

But she couldn’t. She had 3 more months. She won’t be able to bust crime and save the world in this condition. She had to start her chemo from tomorrow and a long painful lonely journey was about to start. But that wasn’t the problem.

Cancer was  eating up her dreams and for the first time she was losing a fight against life.

 

Everyday Women

Join me on my journey of #EveryDayWomen tales, in this 26 part short story series all through April. To read the other stories you can visit me at the AtoZChallenge page here . To know more about AtoZChallenge , you may want to read my very first post here and my Theme reveal post here. If you liked what I wrote or didn’t , do leave me a note , a remark , a critique or even an idea for my next story ! Hope to see you again tomorrow

 

 

15 thoughts on “Quandary #AtoZChallenge Day 17

  1. OMG! That was a totally unexpected twist.
    What a quandary! I hope no one in the real life face it.
    What a fantastic take on a rather tricky letter – Q.

      1. I think you should just follow your heart. I love reading variety and I have lived all you’ve written so far. Micro-fiction included.
        Just keep writing girl ?

  2. Scary! And sad too 🙁
    Cancer does shatter too many dreams: The ones which we have, the ones which our parents have for us, the dreams we have for our dependents.
    I do hope medicine finds a completely foolproof medicine to cure it. There have been a few breakthroughs, but it’s applicable only for the initial stages (at least to my knowledge). Till then, we’re stuck in sinking sand, when it comes to cancer 🙁

    1. Hey Mithila.. I know it was a very strong subject.. infact when I started writing I had a different end in mind.. I changed it .. somehow I wanted to cover the aspect of life that over powers the idea of death. She was so full of life right .. even though she knew she was dying..I wanted to bring that out.. did I?

    1. Thanks Reema.. I am looking for some feedback and ideas.. if possible do share them.. I know its a little too much to ask .. but taking my chance

  3. This is so unfair. When she was well on her way to embark on such a fabulous journey, she was out making her career, grabbing opportunities as they came, feeding her ambitions and working very hard for her dreams, they all had to come shattering down. This is so unfair.

    1. Ramya, am happy that you felt invested in the story .. it was Fiction but am sure this is quite real for a lot of young people just starting with their lives .. who’ve not yet reached their full potential..

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