[Week 1] Storytelling: The Ant and the Dove

It was half past noon in Tokyo, and Narita airport was as bustling as ever. A frantic-looking Japanese business man pushed his way through the crowds of fellow countrymen and foreign visitors blocking his way to the exit. His flight had arrived in Japan late and he had exactly fifteen minutes until the bus would arrive and take him to his workplace. The man wanted nothing more than to go home and be with his family, but a very important business meeting would take place at two that afternoon.

"Fifteen minutes until the bus arrives. Then an hour and twenty minutes on the bus. I'm not going to make it. This is bad. This is very bad." He worried to himself.

(Narita Airport: Wikimedia Commons)

Needless to say, the man was stressed. And it didn't help that he had at the bus stop just in time to see an obviously foreign woman struggling to communicate with a taxi driver. The woman seemed to speak a bit of Japanese, but the taxi driver spoke in such a quiet, mumbling voice that it was difficult for even native speakers of the language to understand him. The woman's obvious distress triggered something in the business man. He remembered the times he went abroad and had trouble communicating due to a language barrier. There was nobody there to help him then, and now he was faced with the opportunity to help someone in a way that he had so desperately needed back then.

Just as the business man made his way to the foreign woman to help her, he saw his bus pull in to the station. He was torn between the two. Should he catch the bus and ignore the woman, or help the woman and risk missing his bus? He reckoned that because the bus had just arrived, it would sit at the stop for a few minutes waiting for passengers. In the meantime, he would help the woman.

(Taxi in Tokyo: Wikimedia Commons)

It took five minutes to explain to the taxi driver where the foreign woman needed to go. By the time they were finished the bus had already pulled away and the business man cursed to himself. The woman saw him watch the bus anxiously and put her hand on his shoulder.

"You were very kind and I would like to repay you," she said. "Where are you going? I'll give you money for a taxi."

The business man explained to the foreign woman that he was on his way to a very important business meeting in the heart of Tokyo. They continued to chat and realized they were both going to the same place for the same meeting! They both climbed into the taxi and set off to the city center. The business man was glad that he stopped to help the foreign woman. Not only did he get to help someone in need, but she in turn helped him as well. That day he realized a kindness is never wasted.

Author's Note: This story is based on Aesop's story The Ant and the Dove. I wanted to personify the characters and make the situation seem more realistic (and less life threatening). I haven't had to write stories since middle school so I'm really out of practice! I'm hoping this class will help me figure out how to be more creative with my writing. 

The Ant and the Dove by Aesop (2006). Web Source: Project Gutenberg.