summary of 'ONE OF THESE DAYS'

'One of these Days' is a short story written by the famous Colombian writer GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ. It tells the story of a famous dentist who was so much devoted to his work to the extent he wakes up early at 6 every morning to go to his dental clinic at to start his work. On one of these days while he was working in his clinic the Mayor of his county arrived early in the morning as he was suffering from so much pain in his lower wisdom tooth.

He asked to see the dentist but the dentist at first refused to meet him as he was busy working with some false teeth for one of his patients. The Mayor was so much in pain that he asked again to see the dentist, the dentist finally agreed to see him. The Mayor looked terrible; one side of his face was swollen and in pain and the other side looked natural. He managed to shave on side of his face, but the other side remained unshaven.

The man was suffering from a dreadful pain; he wanted very much to be relieved from his pain. The dentist inspected his tooth and he discovered that there was an abscess in his tooth which was the cause of all this pain. He told the Mayor that he would pull out his tooth but without anesthesia, the Mayor agreed because he wanted to get rid of the tooth that was causing him so much pain and making him look terrible.

During the surgical dental operation, the Mayor underwent so much torture and physical pain but he showed much courage and psychological power in enduring this operation. The dentist finally removed his lower wisdom tooth with success. He asked the dentist to send him later the bill; the dentist asked him if he would send it to his home or to the town, the Mayor replied that they are both the same thing.

The writer was more or less making fun of the social conditions of his society at that time. He wanted to show the reader that the money owned by his town coming from taxes or the income of the county's economies are in the pockets of the MAYOR.

Summary of 'TONE'

'Tone' is a short story written by a short story writer called 'YZ Chin' it speaks about a young girls whose name is sandy and she a deaf young girl, whose deafness was the result of a car crash. Sandy always hearing aids on her ears. Whenever she is introduced to any person by her friends, she shows her hearing aids as a sign of her inablilty to hear well.

One day she was invited to a party, where she was introduced to a young man whose name was Colin They became friends and both of them grew very much interested in one another. A strong love relationship grew between the two of them that lasted for a long time.

They share a lot of happy moments together, they went to different parties and social occasions and they enjoyed each other company a lot until one day Colin started to get bored of her deafness and he started to make fun of the fact that she always depends on reading people's lips and not finding any problem of going to concerts and enjoying loud music.

On his birthday, she booked two tickets for a concert party to which they went and had a great time. Being a fan of a famous writer, he invited her on her birthday to go and attend a signing party for her favorite writer Emily Barnes. She enjoyed very much seeing her well known writer and she returned home feeling quite satisfied.

One day, they had arranged to have dinner in a nice restaurant when he preferred going to a private show party movie to going out with her. Sandy felt too humiliated because he did not like to go out with her and he preferred seeing his friend's movie who was the director of the film. They decided to break up with each other and she felt that she did not regret it as he turned out to be a truly selfish person.

  

Summary of 'THE STAR'

'The Star' is a short story written by an American short story writer named Esther Claes. It tells the story of a famous American singer who has won many musical awards as well as the Grammys awards.

She wakes up one day and she finds that the whole world has turned upside down and that America is on the edge of being attacked by unknown country and she is on her way of being completely destroyed.

The star's parents try to draw her attention all through about the upcoming war and the fact that they might lose everything including their house, their money, water, electricity and even the natural resources of life.

The writer describes throughout the short story the unhealthy atmosphere of the house and the state of fear and terror of the parents who are afraid of what tomorrow would bring to them. The father feels that they would gradually lose water and electricity would soon go out which actually happened. Still 'The Star' has never been pessimistic regarding the future of her country. She believes in the fact that her country can never ever suffer from such a terrible state nor can her country suffer from the awful consequences of war.    

Therefore, the story ends with the optimistic perspective of 'The Star' towards tomorrow believing that tomorrow is going to be a better day for her country, herself, and her family despite the fact that her parents get very sick by the end of the story and the reader assumes that the father was dying. Nevertheless, 'The Star' has hope in the future.

summary of the first short story: 'THE CARD'

'The Card' is a short story written by the American short-story writer James Ross. It speaks about the feeling of a young boy who is born in a family that consists of his mum and dad and his sister Laura. On his tenth birthday, he received a birthday card from his father who disappeared later from the house and abandoned his own family.

The young boy's name was Mickey; he could barely remember his father, the only thing that he remembered was the birthday card which his father had given him and which he deeply cherished. He always kept reading the card from time to time trying to figure out something about his father's character from the lines which his father had written to him on his birthday card.

Occasionally, he kept asking his sister Laura and his mum about his father whom he really missed a lot. He went on asking them several times about how his father was like and how he looked like and why he had left them and deserted his own family without saying a word.

The reason for his father's disappearance is never known to the reader. The reader is left to guess for the cause of his disappearance. Mickey had always asked his mother too about his father but she had never given him a satisfactory answer to all of his questions and he had never received a convincing reply to all his inquiries about his father from any member of his family.

His mother had fallen for a drug addict with whom she had a complete a full relationship and whose presence in the house was always unwelcomed by both Laura and Mickey. This relationship had come to an end after the man was arrested by the police who had received a phone call from Mickey upon the discovery of a packet of cocaine hidden under the stairs of their house. Mickey was so much relieved after the man was arrested and he sincerely and deeply wished that his father would come back home.