250$ is quite a lot tbh. Well, the value of money is like a spectrum. To some, it's food for an entire month and to some, it's just a seconds' worth in futures. But What's been bugging me the most is, I really don't know what I would do with the money. I DONT KNOW!
I know I know, it a contest, and the top three of the most exciting entries will win. But to make my story compelling, I can't be dishonest now though, can I?
The first thing that popped into my mind after I started writing was, I need to buy a phone. For the past couple of years, I have been leading a life devoid of portable smart devices. Not because I hate them, but in reality, I can't afford one. I had other priorities that needed to be taken care of sooner.
A fusion of the Little Red Riding Hood and Moby Dick
But when I started thinking with more effort, I couldn't find any use for a phone except for playing games. Like I have three other devices that let me stay connected to everything. And a phone doesn't really add value in that sense. But I still want to buy one.
Now, another thing I would have liked do is something beautiful for my sister if she was alive. But that too is not possible. So, there's that.
I would power up? Nah, I need money for the phone. Trade? Uhm! not sure, I'm not good at it eve a little! Donate it? Nah, I need it for myself, now more than ever. Donate a little and keep the rest? Meh, maybe...
And, that's how I went to sleep yesterday after failing at finishing this entry with a brain so sleazy that doesn't even know what to do with 22,000 BDT. Mostly cause it's now working in hyper mode trying to impress somebody and failing horribly at it.
But the next morning, I woke up with a feeling similar to that of Archimedes' screaming out eureka while running through the streets of Syracuse, naked. Only the mood though. You know, that feeling, like you robbed a bank in your dreams and sometimes try to find the money in your bed after waking up. Yeah, that.
And, out of all the places, I figured our what to do with the money while brushing my teeth.
Books!
I don't want any sympathy to be honest. And my sister too wouldn't want people feeling sorry for me. So don't be. Take it as a simple story.
Almost a decade ago, she and I had made a little list. A list in which I made her write down things she promised to buy for me.
As a child, I collected coins, stamps, and books. Like any books. Even newspapers. I got beaten by my mum so many times cause I brought travel magazines and even pamphlets back home, which are supposed to be trash. And some of these came with different things. Like once, I had found a porn magazine, and it was sticky. Of course, I didn't know what it was until I was in my twenties.
So to stop me from rounding up trash, my sister had made a list. In which she wrote down all the possible names of books I could recall and promised she would buy them for me if she ever got a job. It included comics mostly that I didn't have and was jealous cause my friends had those and wouldn't share with me. Cause I wouldn't probably give them back. And my parents thought these "not-so-educational" books are a terrible influence.
But as time went by, everything slowly changed. I wasn't such a freak show anymore, and somehow a little distance grew in between us. It's only after she died, these special memories kept crawling back in, like that special cardboard box everybody has with all the special memorabilia in it. It's only after I realized what I had lost.
So yeah, Books.
I was a little kid, so the flashy aesthetic covers and size drew me more rather than the contents. So the bigger the books were, the more I wanted to have them, like War and Peace or Mother by Maxim Gorky.
That's my ode to my sister, my little red riding hood. I know she's laughing at me from the heavens and thinking how my little brother has grown to be so big. But I know, deep inside, I'm still that little kid who likes to collect pamphlets covered with sticky things.
That's what I would do with a 1000 hive. I'd buy books. And lots of them.