In My Way 2026

Tom, The Intelligent Child

Tom, The Intelligent Child
Bodhisattwa Parekh



Little Tom came running and whispered to me, “They’re back.”

"Again!"

"Again."

I stumbled. What should I do now? I remained clueless.

Tom is a child of eight years. I don't have any blood relation with him. But nowadays he is my only relative at this moment.

When I began my first job in an orphanage. I saw a lovely boy of one year old. My parents died unfortunately. So I lived alone for the last two years.

I appealed to the kind-hearted father to adopt Tom.

He became an adopted son. He is growing well under the supervision of a sister. She takes care of Tom as her own child.

The intelligent child told me, "Think later." He stopped for a moment. "We have to go to the safety zone."

"Where is our safety zone?"

"Now run to Woods quickly, before they appear. Then you will get many thinking times."

We ran away to the woods, not too far away from our house.

*********

Three years passed away from that incident. Now Tom is in a good boarding school. That was a missionary school.

I came back to that home, where we escaped.

I saw that the house became haunted in only three years. They destroyed all the furniture! Even the interior decorations were destroyed brutally.

We remain safe due to the intelligence of Tom. Those brutal people never left them alive.

"Thank you, God, for giving me an intelligent child like Tom."

Words: 242
Prompt ▶︎

Write a story that includes the line: “They’re back.”