Story Contest 2016 #2 - Outstanding Stories » The Computer Pen

“The Computer Pen” is one of the outstanding stories of the second biannual Short Story Contest 2016 written by Aditya Jha, India.

The Computer Pen

Hi! I am Alex Anderson.

These days Grandpa is making new inventions again. Grandpa loves inventing things whenever he is free. Well, he is always free nowadays because now he has retired from his job. His latest invention took him three days. I thought it had to be a small one since he had taken so little time to invent it.

I was excited to know what the new invention was. “What have you made Grandpa?” I asked him.

“I have made a pen, Alex.”

“What? Now you started making Stationary, Grandpa?”

“Oh No you fool, let me finish. This a computer pen,” said Grandpa.

“What’s a computer pen, Grandpa? How does it work?”

“You can see some buttons on the pen,” Grandpa said, point to the pen.

“Yeah! Grandpa, how do they work?”

“Alex, these are some Font buttons like cursive and other fonts.”

“But why is it called computer pen, Grandpa?”

“Let me see. Alex, when you type on the computer it doesn’t matter how fast you write but the handwriting is neat. And if you write really fast normally the handwriting would be not neat.

”Oh! So it types everything really fast with neat handwriting Grandpa?”

“You are right! Absolutely right, Alex!”

“So it means it can write answers in the exam easily because it’s a Computer Pen, right?”

“Yes, you are right, Alex! However, I will never give it to you. God has given you a good brain.”

“Grandpa, please!”

“No! Alex No means No.”

Alex was very disappointed. He decided to steal the pen. The next day, he had an exam in the school. As he took the pen to the school, he became worried about using the pen to write the exam. ‘There is no fun scoring good marks if I use the pen. I will not use the pen and will write answers on my own,’ he said to himself.

After school, Alex went to his Grandpa and said, “Sorry, Grandpa. I stole your computer pen. But there is no fun scoring good marks by cheating, so I didn’t use the computer pen Grandpa. Please take it back Grandpa,” said Alex.

“Now I am not angry with you Alex because you have realized your mistake,” Grandpa said with a smile.

On the results day, the teacher announced the marks each student had scored in English. Alex scored 80% marks! He had got the second position in the class! Alex was very happy. He ran home to tell the good news to his grandparents.

“Grandpa I scored 80% in exams and I didn’t even use my computer pen,” he screamed with happiness.

“Great, I am really happy with you Alex,” said Grandpa. “If you had used your computer pen, you would have got 100%. But this 80% is more valuable than that 100%.”