Emma was a sweet girl who lived in the city of lights, Paris. Life was always a happy and joyful experience for her. But what will happen when Emma tastes the bitterness of failure. Will she give up her hopes and dreams or will she discard the failure and move on? Read on to find out

“Emma, get up! Get up!, Get up!” Emma opened her eyes and saw blonde and jet black haired boys peering down at her.” Five more minutes……. “She groaned, pulling the teal duvet over her head, heart set on not waking up anytime soon. “ But, Emma! We’re leaving for the airport in 10 minutes! Mama and Papa are already putting your bags in the car” said Hugo and Louise, her 12 and 5 year-old brothers, as they yanked the duvet from Emma’s grasp.

“WHAT! 10 MINUTES, I HAVEN’T PICKED OUT AN OUTFIT YET!” she screamed and shoved Hugo and Louise through the trapdoor and rushed to the bathroom to take a shower.  There was a bar of green soap by the shelf above the shower; she slipped as she reached it, her head hitting the glass pane.

After a few more minutes of slipping and sliding, Emma finally finished taking a shower and headed to the already prepped toothbrush perched on the lip of the sink. She picked it up and brushed her teeth while picking out an outfit. She frantically started searching for a pair of shoes for the outfit, while quickly brushing through her jet black tresses, putting them in their usual pigtails.

Emma quickly prodded down the stairs, reaching the car to see her family seated in the car with sly grins plastered on their faces.

“We knew you wouldn’t set your alarm” Emma looked at Louise and Hugo in confusion.” You still had 25 minutes” said Hugo, smirking.

She was definitely not getting them any London souvenirs.

---Time skip---

 “Emma, do you have everything with you? Passport, Ticket, Money, Night kit?” asked Marinette in a stern but worried tone.

“Don’t worry Mama, I have everything with me”, replied Emma with a fake smile. She hugged her family tightly, not wanting to leave but did, somewhat unwillingly. Emma pressed down on the handle of the cart until it entered ‘Alexander’s International Airport’.

The airport was very crowded. People hustled and bustled with their carts and suitcases. Children ran around the area, weaving through the crowd with frantic parents following them.

Emma stopped pushing the cart and looked up at the digital board that displayed all the flights for that day. She rushed to the check in counter, concluding it would be better to get this done and over with.

After checking in her luggage and getting through the sea of travelers, she sat down on one of the metal chairs in the lounge area. She grabbed a book from her bag titled ‘The Adventures of a Red Bug and a Pussy Cat’ written by Gabriel Agreste, her grandfather, not noticing a stranger sit by her. She flipped open the first page of the book, suddenly remembering the time she had first written a book.

 There had been a competition held in her school. They had to write a 50 page book to a topic of their choice. Of course, Emma was overwhelmed at the idea of getting to finally write a book. She was very excited as it had been her dream to be a writer. She worked day and night for the book, submitting it on the due date. But, when the results came out, she was terribly disappointed; she wasn’t even there on the first 20 winners. From then on, she was disheartened and never tried to go after writing. But her parents insisted that she now go to London to pursue her writing career. She loathed the idea but reluctantly agreed, not wanting to disappoint them.

“It’s our choice whether we want to be a marble or a bouncy ball” said someone out of the blue, effectively startling Emma out of her thoughts.

She looked around to see who had said this, spotting an old man with a walking, sitting beside her.

“I’m sorry, what?” said Emma confused. Instead of answering her question, the man fished out a small navy blue bag from his pocket. He opened up the bag and took out a marble and a bouncy ball and dropped the marble on the floor, as expected it fell on the floor and rolled away under one of the metal chairs. Then the old man handed Emma a bouncy ball, motioning her to repeat his action. She watched as the bouncy ball bounced from the floor and landed right back into her hands. She looked at the man questioningly.

“It’s our choice whether we want to be a marble or a bouncy ball “the man said, reciting the same words.

“What do you mean?” asked Emma bewildered. Instead of settling her queries, he asked “Did you have an aim in life which was never fulfilled?”

She was slightly taken aback by the question but nodded slowly, looking down, suddenly finding great interest in her Black Chelsea Boots, wanting to avoid the topic.

“What was your aim then?” he asked a small smile gracing his lips. She didn’t know why she was telling this to a stranger but answered anyways.

“I always wanted to be a writer like my grandfather, once was” she answered, her mood dimming slightly. The man looked at her sympathetically

“Once ,I was like you too , you know” he said, surprising her. ‘What would he know about writing’ she mused. But little did she know that he was a retired writing professor from Hamilton College.

“When you looked at the marble fall “ he started “ you saw how it just fell down and rolled away from its previous point, while the bouncy ball dropped to the floor but, came back to its previous point without fail”  Emma didn’t understand what he was trying to make out, but nodded, curious. “ The same goes for life. When we have failures in life, we shouldn’t represent the marble and roll away from our goal, but we should be like the bouncy ball and in the midst of failure bounce back up to fulfill our goals no matter how many times we fail” he said, Emma was dumbfounded but those words struck her  hard. She had never heard such wise words in her whole life and a weird sense of determination formed inside of her.

Just then, the loud speaker sounded. “Attention, passengers. This is the boarding announcement for flight 89B from France to England. We request passengers to proceed to Gate 12 on the West Wing, to begin boarding at this time. Please have your boarding pass and identification ready. The gate will be open for thirty minutes for the passenger to board. Thank you very much and have a great day.

The old man stood up,” I guess that’s my cue to leave” he said, but not before turning around and saying” Never abstain from following your hopes and dreams, good luck” and he turned around, disappearing into the crowd

“Goodbye and Thank you so much…” Emma said quietly, she suddenly spotted the old man’s small navy blue bag. “Wait! “She yelled, frantically scanning the crowd to find the old man, but couldn’t find the man and slumped in defeat.

“After that… I never saw him again” she wrote, finishing the last sentence of her book

Even after 4 years, Emma Agreste never forgot the wise words of that old mystery man. She still held on that navy blue bag the man had left .It wouldn’t have been possible for Emma to be the greater writer she is today; neither would many people be inspired by her book, if it weren’t for that old man’s wise words.