Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you are going to get

By: Sethuki

Once upon a time, there was a family of busy people that never had time for one another. The
mother, Laura, was a software developer so she was cooped up in her room. A room filled with
more than ten state-of-the-art computers, and other doohickeys lying all over the place, but Laura
believe that everything was right where she could find anything and that it wasn’t a mess. The
father, John, was a wealthily busy businessman, who went out to work at his “majestically fine
lair”, which is what John called his office. John would often go on work trips and sometimes stay
abroad for a few days, or even months. John was a very proud, head held high, obnoxiously rude
person, there were rumours that he fired his assistant for coughing at an important meeting! But
he was rarely missed at home, to one’s surprise, the rest of the family might not even realize his
absence!
The busy couple had one kid that had grown up with no human love, care or safety. Adrian, a
thirteen-year-old boy, grew up with his eyes glued to his gaming setup. Adrian had requested his
school for online teaching sessions, without the knowledge of his parents, nonetheless, the
parents wouldn’t have noticed Adrian locked in his room, without going to school. Growing up,
Adrian was an energetically annoying child, he used to make awful messes, cut his dad’s work
papers and more. Once he was a very naughty boy, he had cut one of dad’s very important plans
for a new project, which was a one-of-a-kind plan; only printed once and on the same day he
broke mom’s newest computer she had bought with her savings by smashing it with his tool kit.
Adrian got into so much trouble and got a good timely scolding lecture; it might have been the
only time his parents noticed the boy! The family was very separated and never bonded at all!
They have all their meals in their rooms, most of the time, staring at a heartless screen!

On one dreadful rainy evening, John came home with swollen red eyes and an upside-down
smile. He knocked on his wife’s door but as usual, Laura ignored it, but John busted open the
door and went in, but Laura took no notice and continued with her programming. John had had
enough of the ignorance, that he shouted, “Oh, Laura, my company is getting sued! Soon, we
will have to sell our house and move somewhere! The company suing us will be wiping the last
cent we have!”. As John had expected, this captured Laura’s attention. “What? What do you
mean? What do you mean you are getting sued? How?” she asked breathlessly worried. “Well,
we may or may not have copied a few products from the other company, also infringed their
trademark and ignored their polite requests, so they decided to sue us and they have every legal
right to do so!” John timidly replied in shame of his actions.

“Oh lord, what do we do now? I have a few online purchases that I ordered, how am I ever going
to pay for that?”, Laura asked selfishly. “Oh, never mind that! Who cares about your purchases?
Where are we going to live if we have to sell this house? And, I won’t be able to get a decent job
for the rest of my life with ‘got sued’ on my resume!” John exclaimed urgently. The two headed
to the living room, which wasn’t ever used, but today was urgently different. The two knew that
it was only fair, to let Adrian know about the crisis. Adrian was battling an international
tournament so it took a lot of persuasion and a final tug, to pull the plug out. But, when Adrian
was informed, he turned blue. “Well, son, we might have to move to Texas or Arizona, because
the tax rates are lower and we might have to sell all your and mom’s gajamatics to buy a decent
house, and to make a living for a while, till we find some jobs,” John affectionately and gently
filled his son in.
Adrian knew that this meant that he would no longer be a gamer; his entire gaming career would
be ruined, he wouldn’t have anything to play on or even if he did, Arizona and Texas had
traditional ways, so most connections and fellow gamers wouldn’t be open or welcome to him!
They soon made plans to move out of their house, John made a few calls and got them a fairly
decent, two-bedroom house in the state of Texas. After a week of packing, the U-Haul pulled
up to their front lawn; the family had to sell many of their belongings to afford their new house.

John started their car, the only possession they had as the rival company wasn’t as heartless to
take everything from a family with a child; too many a car would have meant no hope but the
family’s car would have had a higher worth than one’s life savings! The road trip of nearly four
hours was an awkwardly enjoyable one. The family finally started talking to one another and
caught up with each one’s hobbies and do-about. Sure, the conversations were awkward at first
but they would have died of boredom if they stayed silent for too long because they didn’t have
any devices to stare blankly about. The ride was a first for the family as they had never talked to
one another than any regular questions and salutations, but they all were surprised at how
interesting their lives are, other than money-earning robotic machines!

Their new house was very different from their old mansion. It was painted a lovely crème yellow
shade and the interior was all wooden giving the house a luxuriously intricate manner. The house
was only one story but very cosy. Adrian wanted to support his parents, knowing the deep hole
they were stuck in, he didn’t want to be the reason they are dug deeper, so he was rather
understanding of the smaller house and didn’t complain when his room was smaller and basic.
The minute they were settled in, John and Laura pulled out their phones on the kitchen counter
and started searching for any job vacancies, but given John’s unpleasant record of getting sued,
he wasn’t being accepted for any interviews. Texas was a very ‘traditional’ state, where there
were more agricultural job opportunities than any software opportunities, so Laura was found
with bare vacancies.

The family still had a few savings from selling their belongings and used those to live for a
while. Meanwhile, the family bonded as they have never bonded before. John and Adrian went
on father-son fishing trips to a nearby lake, and Laura made new friends who taught her many
countryside traditions and how to cook, so the family had delicious home-cooked meals all the
time. Even though they weren’t rich now, they were having a better time than they would have
ever had if they hadn’t got sued.

One day Laura made some strawberry jam and once the boys tried it, they were in love with it
and would beg her to make more. It was right then that Adrian suggested his mom make her
strawberry jam a business. The couple took it as a joke at first but as they had no luck with
finding jobs, they decided to give it a try, they had nothing more to lose so Laura made twenty
jam jars and the boys went around and distributed them in their neighbourhood. Like John and
Adrian, everyone fell in love with the jam and called for more. The family decided to make the
jam more professional by calling it “Naturally Special” with the slogan “Riches to Rags but from
Silence to Love”. They sold one jar for 4 dollars and money was pouring in, before they realized
it, word had gotten around and soon food companies and many other companies contacted them
to nationalize and globalize their brand.

Soon, the family had enough money to send Adrian to a decent school and moved to a better
house in the same neighbourhood. But one thing was different now; even though they had more
money than they ever had, they didn’t go back to their separate old selves but instead grew even
closer. One day, the family was on the veranda having their daily evening talk, reflecting on how
much of a roller-coaster their lives had been, Laura said, “Life is like a box of chocolates, you
never know what you are going to get!”