CORONA: The Game Changer

By Mizhab Panamkavil Shaji

Join the journey of Joe, a boy who is illegitimate and adopted, as he tries hard to find his mom in this big universe. Follow him in his journey of finding his mom. He is striving hard to live in this world of mysterious people with different personalities and backgrounds. Will he survive? Follow him on his journey and find out what happens to him.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Nov 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9789948831822

Mizhab Panamkavil Shaji

He was a person who started reading from fourth class. We had no idea that he would write a book and we always used to tell him to do something productive rather than wasting his time in video games. He got the chance to write the book in this period of lockdown during exam time. When he used to write we scolded him because he wrote the book without even studying for the exams and we never expected him to write a full book. From a small age itself we thought that he would become a writer but we had no idea he would write a full book.

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About the Author

He was a person who started reading from fourth class. We had no idea that he would write a book and we always used to tell him to do something productive rather than wasting his time in video games. He got the chance to write the book in this period of lockdown during exam time. When he used to write we scolded him because he wrote the book without even studying for the exams and we never expected him to write a full book. From a small age itself we thought that he would become a writer but we had no idea he would write a full book.

Copyright Information ©

Mizhab Panamkavil Shaji 2021

The right of Mizhab Panamkavil Shaji to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with Federal Law No. (7) of UAE, Year 2002, Concerning Copyrights and Neighboring Rights.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to legal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

The age group that matches the content of the books has been classified according to the age classification system issued by the National Media Council.

ISBN – 9789948831839 – (Paperback)

ISBN – 9789948831822 – (E-Book)

Application Number: MC-10-01-9936273

Age Classification: E

First Published 2021

AUSTIN MACAULEY PUBLISHERS FZE

Sharjah Publishing City

P.O Box [519201]

Sharjah, UAE

www.austinmacauley.ae

[phone]

Acknowledgement

First of all, I would like to thank my father and mother because they have always been by my side when I was writing this book and they had always supported me and when I did not have any content for my book they had always supported me by giving me a hint for my book and whenever I felt down they helped so that I could continue. Secondly, to my brother who helped me with the illustrations for the book and he was a very good support. Finally to the publishing team as they had always been by my side and told me what to do in certain situations as I was a new person to this writing field. They had taught and guided me on what to do. Furthermore I will continue with this book writing and will always try hard to deliver you the content that you are much awaiting of.

[Preface]

This story takes place in the USA in the state of New York where a typical high school twelfth grader lives with his parent but unlike any high schooler this boy’s life has a very unique story.

Part 1

Chapter 1

[An Unbearable Life]

Joe was in grade 6 in the US state of New York but unlike any student he was very different. He could not bear the pressure applied on him by the teachers. Joe was a top student in the last five years and the teachers were all impressed by how a student could perform this much. He was an outstanding stage speaker since grade one but he was a top of his class in the last five years outperforming all the people in his way. People never dared to compete with him neither in sports nor in the academic level, he was continuously dominating for the past five years, but not this year. His confidence had fallen from a very high cliff of success. Neither could he perform in academics, nor sports. He was a totally devastated young man but his teachers could never understand this, they always forced him with more work pressure even though the result of his devastation could be seen clearly in his marks and finally he could not take this situation anymore and he said he wouldn’t do this anymore. Until one day, he told this to his mom, who was the closest person to him so she understood her son’s feelings but when she told the principal he gave her a very irrelevant answer. She said she noticed what a changed student Joe was and that he used to be top of his class and now he is a big chunk of an item completely filled with molecules of failure. His mom was astonished to receive such a negative answer from the principal who continued, In other words, your son is clearly dumb.

The mother burst into tears as she heard these remarks from the principal, the same principal who had motivated her son, provided inspiration for him. His mother however said to the respectable principal, I am not supposed to be saying this to you but I do have trust and confidence in my son, she continued crying, I have confidence in my son that he will return back to normal. I have trust in him that he will exceed his past self.

the principal replied, We will see about that.

The mother left the office devastated but with a tiny hope that her son would return to normal and deliver more than his former self. But, as soon as she reached the footsteps of the house she regained more hope and said to herself if she wanted to bring her son back to normal she and her husband should first should feel hope inside them.

But, waiting on the doorstep of the house was Joe. As soon as he saw his mum he ran to her and asked her, What did the principal say?

The mother lied. Your principal was very supportive and said that you are a brilliant student and will overcome this. You are not like any other student and are capable of handling tough situations.

Joe was happy to hear this message from his mum. That night, Joe’s mum and dad discussed the irrelevant answer given by the ever motivating principal of their son. The father said, There’s only one thing that we can do now, we have to keep him motivated for the upcoming days. If we drop the news and let it somehow get into his hands he won’t be able to handle it. If he hears about it he will not only try not to climb back to his former self but also start hating his principal who has a special spot in his heart as his motivator and inspirator.

The mother agreed and they both promised neither of them would ever break this remark to Joe. The next upcoming days were really hard for Joe. As if problems in school were not unbearable enough,there was one more problem that Joe had to face; the new student Anthony. Anthony was a very bright student just like Joe. Some people [ the teachers ] compared Anthony to Joe’s former self, but Joe consequently tried to beat Anthony, but no matter whatever he did, he could not beat him in studies nor in sports. But one day he dared to challenge Anthony in front of his friends. Joe said, Anthony I challenge to beat you in studies or sports.

Anthony replied, We will see about that. Smirked. everybody in the whole middle school section was talking about the challenge given by Joe to Anthony, even the teachers, but majority of the people were on Anthony’s side since they all knew Anthony was much more brighter than Joe. On Joe’s side was a very small minority of students, and even the people who stood on Joe’s side were not sure if they had made the correct choice. But Joe believed that he could defeat Anthony. That day, the first period was science. Everybody was guessing Anthony would dominate and crush Joe, but to everyone’s surprise that science period was a pretty big deal for him because during the whole period he did not allow Anthony to speak nor let him ask any questions. After the period Joe went straight to Anthony and said, I said I would show you and here you are. You’ve been defeated, but Anthony didn’t want to be humiliated in front of his friends so he said to Joe

That was good Joe, but you will pay for what you did. That day’s break period was one of the worst moments of Joe’s life. He was in the washroom when Anthony and his goons came in and started bullying and cornering Joe. He burst into tears and ran outside. As he couldn’t take it, the rest of the day he didn’t speak to anyone. Knowing that no one would support him he was silent and did not dare to speak up to Anthony or launch any type of complaint against him. He was so scared of Anthony that he did not speak about Anthony to his mom or dad.

Chapter 2

[Two Stories]

As if Anthony and his goons bullying Joe was not enough, the next week as he reached the school, all the teachers around him started acting in a rather strange manner. As soon as he reached the hallway of the school the teachers he saw one by one started acting sympathetic towards him. Joe guessed someone had told the teachers about how Anthony had bullied him. He guessed that this was the end for Joe and in some way Joe was right, because that day he was going to be bullied,but not by Anthony and his goons, but by his former friends instead. One by one, in each period, jealousy was shown by all his friends, but the biggest hit was still to come, because that day on break everyone came to Joe and started bashing him. He couldn’t stand up to the students as they were the majority in numbers. All he could do was cry and cry out loud so that they could know that he was weak, but despite the crying his friends did not budge. They kept on beating him until they had received the satisfaction they wanted. At last, they all got their revenge and stopped. He was a wreck. That’s when he noticed he was bruised and was also bleeding. He did not weep as he ran out of the school and sat in the nearest sidewalk and started sobbing and asked god in a light voice Why god? Why me? Then, with a mighty rage, he shouted into the open blue sky, Why god? Why me? It’s always me. Why god? He burst out to even more tears because he couldn’t get any reply, then he heard a familiar voice from behind him. It was his friend, Jacob.

He said to Joe, God has just given you what he has written as the destiny for you.

Joe turned back and asked, What do you mean Jacob?

Jacob said, "I will tell you Joe. You thought that you had the best parents, the best motivator (his principal) and you also thought that you had the best friends and overall top level in academics and sports. You had the best life. But Joe, when one person enjoys his life, others don’t like it. Their hearts are just filled with hatred and jealousy. Now I will tell what actually happened. Your mother has lied to you. She has told you that your principal would support you, buthe doesn’t. In fact during that time, our principal, AKA your motivator, called you dumb. However, your mom didn’t cry upon hearing such a disgraceful word from the principal.

Joe interrupted by saying That’s because she wanted to show support for me. She’s strong, she will not cry bythose words.

Jacob replied, That’s what you would think. Your mother just said, ‘Yes, whatever negativity magic you’re doing on him is working effectively so I request you please continue giving him that negativity.’ Joe was astonished so he asked his friend where he got this information from.

Jacob replied, I was eavesdropping on your mum’s and our principal’s conversation. They even gave me 1000$, saying that I shouldn’t break this news to anyone. t=The thing is, I myself was jealous of you, that’s why I wanted you to suffer. So I told all the others knowing that they would bully you. As soon as the news reached them, they thought they would not get a better chance to bully you because they noticed that even if they attack you, your parents wouldn’t help you either because they were against you. So they bullied you hard, but Joe, I had no idea they would bully you this badly. I didn’t know they would corner you like this. So when I saw you run out, I followed so I could tell you the truth and tellyou sorry.

Joe said, No don’t say sorry, because it all started from my mum. So today I am going to know why she did this. Joe wiped all the tears and took his backpack and walked straight home.

Jacob called out Good luck! Joe didn’t turn back. All he did was continue walking as he was determined to ask his mum for the truth. That evening he reached home from school and went straight to his room and sat there and tried to convince himself that he would not cry in front of his mum. That night’s dinner was going to be the most unpleasant for his parents, since he was about to ask them why they had done this sort of a thing. So as Joe’s mum bought him the fresh bowl of soup, he did not accept it. Then his mother forced him to eat, but Joe stood hard with his decision and did not change it. His mum said, in an angry tone,Joe this is the last time I am going to say this to you. If you do not eat I will have to use my force to make you eat this. Joe with rage pushed the bowl and it fell, down and broke to pieces and Joe’s mum shouted to him JOE, have you gone crazy? Why did you push that fine bowl of soup down? she then reached out to slap him but Joe blocked her hand away.

Joe told his mum, Please, I did not mean to do it but I really wanted to know the truth, and when his mum and dad heard that they said, You came to know after all, anyway.

They both sat on their respective chairs and Joe started stating what he had heard from his friend Jacob that morning. While he was stating the whole incident his mum and dad were quiet like owls in a dark forest at night. So after he was done with his talk he slammed the table very hard so that he could get their attention. His mom stared at his dad and nudged at each other, they decided that it was time Joe should know. Joe’s mom began speaking. She said, It all started in the year of 2008. We both had no child ourselves because your dad and I had gone through a very hard trauma accident. When all the treatments and payments for our care that were given to us in the hospital were done, the doctor called us into his cabin and said that he wanted to have a word with us we said okay and proceeded, but the bad news were that we could not have any children.Your dad and I were very much devastated and couldn’t control our tears. The doctor also felt very sad for us. The next days after returning from the hospital were a complete nightmare. Every morning I woke up and I felt incomplete. I spent the nights and days crying. That’s when your dad said,It’s over, we need to overcome this." So after this incident we decided to go on a vacation like we used to do every year before the tragic news. So we both went to the Indian state of Kerala, much popularly known as the ‘God’s own country’. We went there for a week, but who knew that that one week would be a game changer for our lives. That’s where we found out about you, Joe.

Wait, said Joe and interrupted. Was I born in India? So his mom nodded. Joe said, No, this can’t be. But his mom interrupted because she said,

"Joe, wait, let me continue. We were actually going to the church to pray on Friday and that’s when we saw you. You were using all your might to crawl towards the father. You were just a toddler back then when I saw you. I was so happy and my heart, for the first time after that tragic incident, wanted someone so badly. As you were crawling towards the father of the church, I picked you up and that’s when you let out a loud cry and everyone looked back. Even the father and sister came from behind and took you from my palms and went outside to the orphan shelter building. I no longer cared for the prayer going inside the church I ran behind you and the sister. So after your father came outside of the church we both went to the shelter and asked the sister for assistance, and she took us to your crib, and that’s where you looked at me for the first time and smiled .That’s when your second mother came to me, the same sister who came to me and said ‘Isn’t he a charm?’ and I replied,

Yes, and then I looked at her and said, Please, sister, you have to let me take care of this child, but she replied,

I am afraid that is not possible. I questioned her and asked,

"Why, sister? Aren’t all