I have written a story "The hidden treasure". Do you think it is acceptable ??
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One day, Alphonse and Gaston met each other again on the street. They used to be classmates at school. They met each other several times after graduation. The last time they met was 5 years ago.
Alphonse work as a university lecturer at a university, while Gaston works as a primary school teacher. Alphonse invited Gaston to a coffee shop to have a chat. Alphonse is very friendly, warm and calm, while Gaston seems to be stressed and unhappy.
"Hey, Gaston, how have you been ? Are you still working at the school ?"
"Yes, still the same one."
"It must be an enjoyable job, I suppose."
"No...o... it is ok, but the pay is low..."
"Low ? " Alphonse takes a good look at Gaston and continues, "I don't think it is very low. Look at your gold watch..."
"It is low, if you compare it to those of the bank managers and executives..."
"But you got to be contented with what you have... There is no point in comparing with others. You can't be happy if ..."
Gaston interrupted, "I got only one life ... I should take advantage of it and enjoy life while I'm young. I want to get as much money as possible. After I die, that's the end."
"No, I don't agree... "
"I've got to make it before I get old. I want to retire soon and then I'll buy a house, a car, and...", Gaston said with apprehension.
"Retire soon ? Aren't you putting a lot of pressure on yourself ?"
"But, otherwise, how could I enjoy life fully ? I'm not young anymore !! When I am old, there'd be not much to enjoy anymore. And I can't bring my money into the grave, it's all over after I die."
"It's nonsense..."
"And I'd like to travel around the world, Italy, Spain, Portugal..."
"But wouldn't you be very unhappy and in despair if you can't make it ?"
"Touch wood ! No, there is always a way to get rich - lottery, casino, and there are lots of other ways if you don't mind the risk..."
"They are useless... look, I got a friend who is running a tuition school and he's looking for someone to help him, he's promising a very good salary, would you be interested ?"
"Hmmmm.... that's worth trying."
"Great! I'll introduce you to him. Let's make a date, how about next Monday ?"
"OK."
"I'll meet you here next Monday at 6 pm then."
"Fine."
~ ~ ~
Next Monday arrived. Alphonse and Gaston are supposed to meet today at 6 pm.
At 5:00 pm, two robbers went into a shop and robbed an amount of money. They left with a suitcase of bank notes and got into a car they stole earlier. They are being chased by a police car. The chase has been going for half an hour until they reach Rue des Chasseurs, which is a very quiet street.
Around this time, Gaston got off work and is taking a taxi towards the coffee shop where he and Alphonse have arranged to meet today. His taxi has to go through Rue des Chasseurs.
Now the police car and the robbers' car are approaching the middle section of Rue de Chasseurs, suddenly one of the robbers shoots at the police car and kills both policemen inside the police car. The robbers get highly excited and scream for joy. Then the driving robber sees a red traffic light in front, but he is too much in haste to get away and thinks that breaking one single traffic rule would not hurt much. So he does not stop and runs through the red light. But, unfortunately, there is a car coming along the cross street (which is perpendicular to Rue des Chasseurs) into the intersection, it is unable to stop in time and hit the robbers' car. A huge crashing sound can be heard.
The coming car happens to be Gaston's taxi. Both cars are badly damaged. Everyone in both cars seems to be dead except Gaston.
He seems to be the only survivor, he was saved because he sit at the back seat and wore seatbelt.
Gaston gets out of the taxi and approaches the robbers' car slowly and cautiously. He discovers the two robbers are unconscious, and, on the back seat, there is a suitcase. He opens it and sees a lot of bank notes.
His heartbeat becomes much faster now. Out of greed, he transfers a large portion of the bank notes into his own suitcase.
At this moment, he notices the robber besides the driver regains his consciousness. The robber sees what Gaston is doing and so gets out of the car and tries to stop Gaston. They get into a fight. During the fight, Gaston finds a gun inside the robbers' car and grabs it and shoots at the robber. The robber is shot in the abdomen and falls back onto the ground unconscious. Then Gaston wipes the fingerprints on the gun and the suitcase with his handkerchief. Then Gaston runs away with the suitcase. He tries to catch a taxi but there is none around.
~ ~ ~
Now Gaston gets rich suddenly. He feels his life is going a 180 degree turn and his future is brighter than ever. He felt hope is coming back to his life, and smiles are coming back to his face.
He walked for 20 minutes. He wanted to call a taxi but could found none. He felt hungry, so he entered a restaurant as soon as he found one.
He placed his suitcase on the table and ordered a dish. 2 tables behind was seated another man with a radio, he seems to be a bit drunk.
When Gaston's dish arrives, he starts to eat quickly due to hunger.
Some time later, from the radio came the sounds of news report. The news reader was reading the news of the robbery -- the robbers' car was found at Rue des Chasseurs, which is nearby. The driver was dead and the other robber survived, in spite of being shot, and was arrested.
When Gaston hears the news, he gets nervous and trembles. Now he can't enjoy his food any more, the memory of the robbers' car crash and how he shot a robber starts appearing in his mind.
The man behind turns up the volume of his radio. Gaston got annoyed and asked him to lower the volume. But the man got angry. They started to quarrel.
At this moment, an elderly man enters, he is carrying a suitcase. It is similar to Gaston's. He picks a table between Gaston's table and the man behind, and then he goes to the washroom.
The quarrel becomes more heated, and it turns into a physical fight.
Soon, the drunken man gets the upper hand and tries to strangle Gaston, but Gaston gets hold of a wine bottle and, with it, hits the drunken man, who then falls onto the ground. Gaston becomes panicky and grabbed his suitcase and runs out of the restaurant.
Once he got out of the restaurant, he runs continuously until he arrives at a dark lane. He tries to open his suitcase but, to his amazement, he cannot open it. He remembers his own suitcase was not locked. He sees a label on the suitcase saying "Jean Bosco Joe". He then realized he got the wrong suitcase on his way out of the restaurant. He has grabbed the elderly man's suitcase and his own one was left inside the restaurant.
This was what actually happened: when Gaston and the drunken man fought inside the restaurant, as result of their bodily movements, their bodies accidentally moved the tables around and eventually swapped the positions of the two tables in which the two suitcases were placed. So, what Gaston, on his way out, has grabbed, was the suitcase which belongs to the elderly man.
Gaston throws the suitcase into a garbage bin. He dares not go back into the restaurant now, so he hides somewhere to watch everybody who went out of the restaurant and checks whether he is carrying suitcase.
After 10 minutes, he saw an elderly man came out carrying his suitcase, and this man got into a car and drove off.
So Gaston called a taxi and followed the man's car. 10 minutes later, they passed by Cathedrale Notre Dame (Notre Dame Cathedral).
After another 5 minutes, his taxi was stopped by a yellow light, but the elder man's car has gone through the traffic light.
When the green light lit again, the taxi resumes the chase. Now Gaston thinks there is little chance of catching him. A moment later, Gaston can see the elderly man's car again and it is parked at the roadside about 70 meters in front. Suddenly there is a long truck running through the cross street. After it passed through, Gaston can see the elderly man's car once more and it has started running again.
So Gaston asks the driver to follow, until, after 10 minutes, the elderly man arrived at an apartment. He gets out with a suitcase and went into the apartment. He went up to level 1 and entered one of the units. Gaston now knew where he lives. He got into the apartment and went up to level one.
Gaston saw someone carrying tables, furniture and home wares into the opposite unit. He realizes a family is moving into this unit. He got an idea.
He knocked on the man's door, an elderly man opened the door -- it is the same man Gaston has been chasing after. Gaston told him he is moving in today and would like to borrow a hammer from him. The man showed a warm, friendly smile and invited him to go inside.
The unit looks very warm and pleasant, although it is not luxurious. The wallpaper is light pink in colour. On the wall is hung a Christian Cross.
On the other side of the wall are a shield and a sword. On the shield, there is a golden rampant lion. There is a bookshelf made of rosewood, on which there are a picture of the Holy Family, a picture of John Bosco and a lot of books. There is a rosewood table besides the bookshelf, on which there is a vase of flowers, two unlit candles, a lighthouse model and a sailing boat model. The sofa is classical-styled and made of dark brown leather. On the floor is a carpet which match the room perfectly.
Then a feeling of remorse arose in his heart. He turns towards the door and prepares to leave. But then he heard a voice saying, "Are you going to give up what you need to be happy ? Give up after all these efforts ?"
Another voice told him, "There is still hope in your life. Turn back !"
However, he said to himself, "Yes, it's what I need , what I need to be happy...I can't give up after all these efforts."
He doesn't want to give up this golden opportunity.
He turns back towards the elderly man and asks, "Are you Jean Bosco Joe ?"
"Yeah, how did you know, my friend ?"
"From the landlord. Anyway, do you live alone ?"
"Oh, I'm living with my son only. My wife passed away 3 years ago. My son usually comes home at 8 every night, he won't be here so soon...here is the hammer, my friend" , he handed the hammer over to him.
When Gaston grabbed the hammer, he revealed his real intention. Raising the hammer, he threatened Jean Bosco saying , "Where is your suitcase ? Tell me or I'll kill you."
Then he tied Jean Bosco up. Although his life was under threat, Jean Bosco remained very calm, even calmer than Gaston himself.
"The suitcase is in my study room...But why are you after it ?"
Then Gaston went into the study room and found the suitcase. He was intending to open it, but suddenly he heard footsteps. The footsteps seem to be approaching Jean Bosco's unit. The sound is getting closer and closer.
Then he grabbed the suitcase and run. Suddenly he saw his friend Alphonse at the entrance. He was shocked, so was Alphonse when he saw Gaston.
"What are you doing here , Gaston ? I was waiting for you ..."
Gaston paid no attention to his words, as he was very panic at that time, then he pushed Alphonse and ran away.
Actually, Alphonse was Jean Bosco's son. Alphonse loosened his father and then went out to chase after Gaston.
Gaston ran as fast as he could. When Alphonse got out of his apartment and arrived at the street, Gaston already could not be seen.
Gaston ran for 15 minutes, until he got into a quiet park. It was not a small park, which he later discovered was much bigger than he realized.
It is a national park that he went into. He is hungry, tired and lonely, but he thought the suitcase can compensate it.
After he opened the suitcase, he is shocked when he sees what was inside -- there is nothing inside except a 2-volume book titled, "A Christian Guide to Salvation".
This was what happened : when Gaston chasing Jean Bosco's car earlier, Jean Bosco's car was parked at the roadside for some time.
He went into a charitable organization with his suitcase. He was trying to make a donation. He was going to donate some items of his, which he thought were inside the suitcase. But in reality, his suitcase has been swapped with Gaston's suitcase. After the donation, the organization gave 2 books to him as a gesture of thanksgiving for his generosity. Gaston didn't see Jean Bosco carrying the suitcase in and out of the organization because a long truck obscured it.
~ ~ ~
He was disappointed and angry. He wants to get out of the national park, but he got lost and can't find the exit. Then he falls asleep.
The next morning, he was woken up by his hunger. He feels very hungry but he still couldn't get out of the national park.
A moment later, he sees someone walking towards him from the opposite direction. That man looks rough and unfriendly. When he approaches Gaston, he takes a knife out of his pocket and tried to rob Gaston of all his money. Gaston gave him all he possessed at that moment. Gaston felt very depressed now since not only he failed to get the money , he also lost money. Now he has lost the motivation to live on, he feels there is not much hope in his life.
Suddenly, he sees the two books slipped out of his suitcase accidentally. He wants to put them back into the suitcase but suddenly becomes curious. He gets hold of the books and then starts reading them. While reading them, he has forgotten about his own hunger. The more he reads, the more he wants to continue.
Although he did not fully understand what he read, it is gradually changing his view of life. Now he feels hope is rising in his heart, a feeling he never had before. This feeling of hope, for him, is like a liberator that releases him from a mental prison. It is like a fresh breeze of spring. Now he feels remorse for his old thinking and what he has done.
Soon, he saw the sun coming out amidst the clouds and, from it, a beam of light shone on the park and formed a path of light. Not everywhere was lit up, but wherever the beam of light touched formed the shape of a path. He felt that this is not an accident, so he followed the path formed by the beam of light. Finally, he was led to the exit.
When he got out of the park, he found a church named L'église Saint-Paul (Saint Paul's Church) and went inside.
_________________________________________________________________
One day, Alphonse and Gaston met each other again on the street. They used to be classmates at school. They met each other several times after graduation. The last time they met was 5 years ago.
Alphonse work as a university lecturer at a university, while Gaston works as a primary school teacher. Alphonse invited Gaston to a coffee shop to have a chat. Alphonse is very friendly, warm and calm, while Gaston seems to be stressed and unhappy.
"Hey, Gaston, how have you been ? Are you still working at the school ?"
"Yes, still the same one."
"It must be an enjoyable job, I suppose."
"No...o... it is ok, but the pay is low..."
"Low ? " Alphonse takes a good look at Gaston and continues, "I don't think it is very low. Look at your gold watch..."
"It is low, if you compare it to those of the bank managers and executives..."
"But you got to be contented with what you have... There is no point in comparing with others. You can't be happy if ..."
Gaston interrupted, "I got only one life ... I should take advantage of it and enjoy life while I'm young. I want to get as much money as possible. After I die, that's the end."
"No, I don't agree... "
"I've got to make it before I get old. I want to retire soon and then I'll buy a house, a car, and...", Gaston said with apprehension.
"Retire soon ? Aren't you putting a lot of pressure on yourself ?"
"But, otherwise, how could I enjoy life fully ? I'm not young anymore !! When I am old, there'd be not much to enjoy anymore. And I can't bring my money into the grave, it's all over after I die."
"It's nonsense..."
"And I'd like to travel around the world, Italy, Spain, Portugal..."
"But wouldn't you be very unhappy and in despair if you can't make it ?"
"Touch wood ! No, there is always a way to get rich - lottery, casino, and there are lots of other ways if you don't mind the risk..."
"They are useless... look, I got a friend who is running a tuition school and he's looking for someone to help him, he's promising a very good salary, would you be interested ?"
"Hmmmm.... that's worth trying."
"Great! I'll introduce you to him. Let's make a date, how about next Monday ?"
"OK."
"I'll meet you here next Monday at 6 pm then."
"Fine."
~ ~ ~
Next Monday arrived. Alphonse and Gaston are supposed to meet today at 6 pm.
At 5:00 pm, two robbers went into a shop and robbed an amount of money. They left with a suitcase of bank notes and got into a car they stole earlier. They are being chased by a police car. The chase has been going for half an hour until they reach Rue des Chasseurs, which is a very quiet street.
Around this time, Gaston got off work and is taking a taxi towards the coffee shop where he and Alphonse have arranged to meet today. His taxi has to go through Rue des Chasseurs.
Now the police car and the robbers' car are approaching the middle section of Rue de Chasseurs, suddenly one of the robbers shoots at the police car and kills both policemen inside the police car. The robbers get highly excited and scream for joy. Then the driving robber sees a red traffic light in front, but he is too much in haste to get away and thinks that breaking one single traffic rule would not hurt much. So he does not stop and runs through the red light. But, unfortunately, there is a car coming along the cross street (which is perpendicular to Rue des Chasseurs) into the intersection, it is unable to stop in time and hit the robbers' car. A huge crashing sound can be heard.
The coming car happens to be Gaston's taxi. Both cars are badly damaged. Everyone in both cars seems to be dead except Gaston.
He seems to be the only survivor, he was saved because he sit at the back seat and wore seatbelt.
Gaston gets out of the taxi and approaches the robbers' car slowly and cautiously. He discovers the two robbers are unconscious, and, on the back seat, there is a suitcase. He opens it and sees a lot of bank notes.
His heartbeat becomes much faster now. Out of greed, he transfers a large portion of the bank notes into his own suitcase.
At this moment, he notices the robber besides the driver regains his consciousness. The robber sees what Gaston is doing and so gets out of the car and tries to stop Gaston. They get into a fight. During the fight, Gaston finds a gun inside the robbers' car and grabs it and shoots at the robber. The robber is shot in the abdomen and falls back onto the ground unconscious. Then Gaston wipes the fingerprints on the gun and the suitcase with his handkerchief. Then Gaston runs away with the suitcase. He tries to catch a taxi but there is none around.
~ ~ ~
Now Gaston gets rich suddenly. He feels his life is going a 180 degree turn and his future is brighter than ever. He felt hope is coming back to his life, and smiles are coming back to his face.
He walked for 20 minutes. He wanted to call a taxi but could found none. He felt hungry, so he entered a restaurant as soon as he found one.
He placed his suitcase on the table and ordered a dish. 2 tables behind was seated another man with a radio, he seems to be a bit drunk.
When Gaston's dish arrives, he starts to eat quickly due to hunger.
Some time later, from the radio came the sounds of news report. The news reader was reading the news of the robbery -- the robbers' car was found at Rue des Chasseurs, which is nearby. The driver was dead and the other robber survived, in spite of being shot, and was arrested.
When Gaston hears the news, he gets nervous and trembles. Now he can't enjoy his food any more, the memory of the robbers' car crash and how he shot a robber starts appearing in his mind.
The man behind turns up the volume of his radio. Gaston got annoyed and asked him to lower the volume. But the man got angry. They started to quarrel.
At this moment, an elderly man enters, he is carrying a suitcase. It is similar to Gaston's. He picks a table between Gaston's table and the man behind, and then he goes to the washroom.
The quarrel becomes more heated, and it turns into a physical fight.
Soon, the drunken man gets the upper hand and tries to strangle Gaston, but Gaston gets hold of a wine bottle and, with it, hits the drunken man, who then falls onto the ground. Gaston becomes panicky and grabbed his suitcase and runs out of the restaurant.
Once he got out of the restaurant, he runs continuously until he arrives at a dark lane. He tries to open his suitcase but, to his amazement, he cannot open it. He remembers his own suitcase was not locked. He sees a label on the suitcase saying "Jean Bosco Joe". He then realized he got the wrong suitcase on his way out of the restaurant. He has grabbed the elderly man's suitcase and his own one was left inside the restaurant.
This was what actually happened: when Gaston and the drunken man fought inside the restaurant, as result of their bodily movements, their bodies accidentally moved the tables around and eventually swapped the positions of the two tables in which the two suitcases were placed. So, what Gaston, on his way out, has grabbed, was the suitcase which belongs to the elderly man.
Gaston throws the suitcase into a garbage bin. He dares not go back into the restaurant now, so he hides somewhere to watch everybody who went out of the restaurant and checks whether he is carrying suitcase.
After 10 minutes, he saw an elderly man came out carrying his suitcase, and this man got into a car and drove off.
So Gaston called a taxi and followed the man's car. 10 minutes later, they passed by Cathedrale Notre Dame (Notre Dame Cathedral).
After another 5 minutes, his taxi was stopped by a yellow light, but the elder man's car has gone through the traffic light.
When the green light lit again, the taxi resumes the chase. Now Gaston thinks there is little chance of catching him. A moment later, Gaston can see the elderly man's car again and it is parked at the roadside about 70 meters in front. Suddenly there is a long truck running through the cross street. After it passed through, Gaston can see the elderly man's car once more and it has started running again.
So Gaston asks the driver to follow, until, after 10 minutes, the elderly man arrived at an apartment. He gets out with a suitcase and went into the apartment. He went up to level 1 and entered one of the units. Gaston now knew where he lives. He got into the apartment and went up to level one.
Gaston saw someone carrying tables, furniture and home wares into the opposite unit. He realizes a family is moving into this unit. He got an idea.
He knocked on the man's door, an elderly man opened the door -- it is the same man Gaston has been chasing after. Gaston told him he is moving in today and would like to borrow a hammer from him. The man showed a warm, friendly smile and invited him to go inside.
The unit looks very warm and pleasant, although it is not luxurious. The wallpaper is light pink in colour. On the wall is hung a Christian Cross.
On the other side of the wall are a shield and a sword. On the shield, there is a golden rampant lion. There is a bookshelf made of rosewood, on which there are a picture of the Holy Family, a picture of John Bosco and a lot of books. There is a rosewood table besides the bookshelf, on which there is a vase of flowers, two unlit candles, a lighthouse model and a sailing boat model. The sofa is classical-styled and made of dark brown leather. On the floor is a carpet which match the room perfectly.
Then a feeling of remorse arose in his heart. He turns towards the door and prepares to leave. But then he heard a voice saying, "Are you going to give up what you need to be happy ? Give up after all these efforts ?"
Another voice told him, "There is still hope in your life. Turn back !"
However, he said to himself, "Yes, it's what I need , what I need to be happy...I can't give up after all these efforts."
He doesn't want to give up this golden opportunity.
He turns back towards the elderly man and asks, "Are you Jean Bosco Joe ?"
"Yeah, how did you know, my friend ?"
"From the landlord. Anyway, do you live alone ?"
"Oh, I'm living with my son only. My wife passed away 3 years ago. My son usually comes home at 8 every night, he won't be here so soon...here is the hammer, my friend" , he handed the hammer over to him.
When Gaston grabbed the hammer, he revealed his real intention. Raising the hammer, he threatened Jean Bosco saying , "Where is your suitcase ? Tell me or I'll kill you."
Then he tied Jean Bosco up. Although his life was under threat, Jean Bosco remained very calm, even calmer than Gaston himself.
"The suitcase is in my study room...But why are you after it ?"
Then Gaston went into the study room and found the suitcase. He was intending to open it, but suddenly he heard footsteps. The footsteps seem to be approaching Jean Bosco's unit. The sound is getting closer and closer.
Then he grabbed the suitcase and run. Suddenly he saw his friend Alphonse at the entrance. He was shocked, so was Alphonse when he saw Gaston.
"What are you doing here , Gaston ? I was waiting for you ..."
Gaston paid no attention to his words, as he was very panic at that time, then he pushed Alphonse and ran away.
Actually, Alphonse was Jean Bosco's son. Alphonse loosened his father and then went out to chase after Gaston.
Gaston ran as fast as he could. When Alphonse got out of his apartment and arrived at the street, Gaston already could not be seen.
Gaston ran for 15 minutes, until he got into a quiet park. It was not a small park, which he later discovered was much bigger than he realized.
It is a national park that he went into. He is hungry, tired and lonely, but he thought the suitcase can compensate it.
After he opened the suitcase, he is shocked when he sees what was inside -- there is nothing inside except a 2-volume book titled, "A Christian Guide to Salvation".
This was what happened : when Gaston chasing Jean Bosco's car earlier, Jean Bosco's car was parked at the roadside for some time.
He went into a charitable organization with his suitcase. He was trying to make a donation. He was going to donate some items of his, which he thought were inside the suitcase. But in reality, his suitcase has been swapped with Gaston's suitcase. After the donation, the organization gave 2 books to him as a gesture of thanksgiving for his generosity. Gaston didn't see Jean Bosco carrying the suitcase in and out of the organization because a long truck obscured it.
~ ~ ~
He was disappointed and angry. He wants to get out of the national park, but he got lost and can't find the exit. Then he falls asleep.
The next morning, he was woken up by his hunger. He feels very hungry but he still couldn't get out of the national park.
A moment later, he sees someone walking towards him from the opposite direction. That man looks rough and unfriendly. When he approaches Gaston, he takes a knife out of his pocket and tried to rob Gaston of all his money. Gaston gave him all he possessed at that moment. Gaston felt very depressed now since not only he failed to get the money , he also lost money. Now he has lost the motivation to live on, he feels there is not much hope in his life.
Suddenly, he sees the two books slipped out of his suitcase accidentally. He wants to put them back into the suitcase but suddenly becomes curious. He gets hold of the books and then starts reading them. While reading them, he has forgotten about his own hunger. The more he reads, the more he wants to continue.
Although he did not fully understand what he read, it is gradually changing his view of life. Now he feels hope is rising in his heart, a feeling he never had before. This feeling of hope, for him, is like a liberator that releases him from a mental prison. It is like a fresh breeze of spring. Now he feels remorse for his old thinking and what he has done.
Soon, he saw the sun coming out amidst the clouds and, from it, a beam of light shone on the park and formed a path of light. Not everywhere was lit up, but wherever the beam of light touched formed the shape of a path. He felt that this is not an accident, so he followed the path formed by the beam of light. Finally, he was led to the exit.
When he got out of the park, he found a church named L'église Saint-Paul (Saint Paul's Church) and went inside.
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