Story Contest 2016 #1 Results » Highly Commended Story - Alphabet

“Alphabet” by Nivedha Vinodh Babu, is the Highly Commended story in the sub-junior category of the first biannual Short Story Contest 2016.

Alphabet

One fine Sunday morning Sara was playing with her toys in the living room. To her surprise, suddenly her jigsaw alphabetic puzzle started talking. Alphabet ‘N’ murmured, “Sara is not playing with us nowadays. Come on, let’s make small groups and play together.”

Letter ‘I’ was stubborn, and said, “Sorry... I am not interested. See, if somebody wants to represent themselves, they have to use me ‘I’. I have my own space and value even if I am alone. So I am special and a super character. I don’t want to be in your group.”

The other letters of the alphabet became a bit sad, but they started making small groups and playing. ‘O’ came and put her hand on shoulders of ‘N’ to form ON. Then they started playing see saw. ‘A’ came and shook hands with ‘T’ and made AT. They planned to play badminton.

Seeing all this, Sara got interested in the alphabet Jigsaw puzzle. She came and helped the letters to make bigger word groups, and arranged them as cat, doll, dog, good, pat, pen, bag and so on. Then they all started playing hopscotch.

While playing, Sara just noticed that ‘I’ was upset. Sara asked him, “Are you bored? Do you need my help?”

“Yes, I feel lonely and can't play with the other letters as well because I have teased them. Can you play with me Sara? Only me?” enquired ‘I’.

Sara said, “I am ready to play, but what can we play without the other letters?. I think it is difficult to play without the support of others and our game will be dull. You are not stable and don‘t have any meaning without other letters.”

‘I’ realized his mistake and searched for a friend. Sara asked ‘T’ whether she could help ‘I’. ‘T’ unwillingly joined ‘I’ and became IT. Then they went to have an ice cream.

Slowly they became good friends. Sara introduced ‘I’ to many other letters.

‘I’ enjoyed making friends and forming many small and big words like in, ink, inside, igloo etc.

Sara was happy to see all the letters of the alphabet join together to form different word groups. Thus, they started making new words and enjoying their friendship by playing new games and helping each other. Sara also understood the how friendship can make life happy and wonderful.