A Man and A Seagull

Short Fable Story: A Man and A Seagull

A man in brown coat found himself, lying on the beach. He coughed again and again. Sometimes, he vomited salty sea water as he had drank it.

Sun warmed his wet body. He felt that his head was heavy as if there was much water in it. Then, he sat under a coconut tree, controlled his breath, and gazed beautiful formation of flying seagulls at the sky.

“I’m lucky. I’m still alive,” said the man in the brown coat.

Suddenly, a seagull left the formation and came to him.

“Are you okay?” asked the seagull in front of him.

“Yeah, I’m still alive,” answered the man.

“I saw you struggling to swim ashore last night. I’m curious why they threw you into the sea,” said the seagull.

The man took a deep breath and exhaled.

Then, he said, “Don’t you know that life is hard? Don’t you know that big city and the world of business are wilder than jungle? We, human beings, sometimes do something bad to win the competition. Sometimes, we eliminate each others, including friends, to get top position.”

“It’s ridiculous for me. We, seagulls, can fly high together in harmony. We keep the right distance to move. We respect each others and grow together. Why do human think that to reach high position he should step on the other’s dead bodies?” said seagull.

“You just don’t understand. Business is a war. That’s human way,” said the man.

“You can see our way to take high position,” said seagull.

Then, seagull fled and joined his friends who were flying together in beautiful formation.

The man sat under the coconut tree and watched the flying seagulls at the sky. He admired the harmonious formation of flying seagull.

“You are right. We can fly high in harmony and life will be beautiful,” said the man.

The End

It is one of fable collection by YW Purnomosidhi.