Short Story: The life-changing envelope

Photo by VD Photography on Unsplash

The envelope lay unopened on the table, though everyone in the room knew what it contained. Laila, her parents, Shireen and Cyrille, and her brother, Marc, sat at the dining table staring at the unopened envelope. The letter was small - the size of a postcard. It was flat, as it contained only one sheet of paper. Everyone knew what it must hold. The envelope had Laila’s first and last name on it: Laila Sovinder. She knew, as everybody else at this table, that it was from the college she applied for. It was the only mail she expected. As small as the envelope was, no one in the room anticipated an acceptance. However, it was a family thing to stand next to each other in support in everyone’s individual life-changing moments. This WAS such a life-changing moment for Laila - or actually should be with a college approval. Laila could have been the first member of her family going to college. She could have broken the long family’s history of a working class and start the line of academics. Besides, making them proud was her way of giving back, of proving that their love and care all those years had mattered, paid off. However, now Laila sat at this table with her family, staring with tension at this envelope. She did not dare to open it. She feared to confirm the disappointment of rejection. She wished she had been the one getting the mail that morning out of the mailbox. So, she could have fished out this letter and avoid this weird situation now. Instead her mother had gotten the mail and excitedly called everyone to sit at the family table. Shireen, her mother, looked at her demandingly. “I don’t need to open it. We all know what it says.”, Laila reacted sharply to her look. Quietness. Not one word came out of the mouth of her parents nor her brother. Instead, her mom maintained that demanding look at her while her dad and her brother kept staring at the letter on the table. Laila sighed. In a fast and annoyed move she rose her hand. She felt her heart beating heavily in her chest. She bent over to reach for the envelope. Her heart beat faster causing pressure on her stomach and making her feel sick. Her hands were shaking. Tears welled up in her eyes as she feared the coming disappointment. She opened it by sliding her right thumb rapidly through the envelope’s paper. She pulled out the one sheet of paper, unfolded it in a haste to disguise her shaking hands. She looked at it. Her eyes were moving from left to right while reading silently what it said. Her hands holding the letter fell down into her lap. She looked at her family in disbelief, her body shaking from the fear that remained. “It is a receipt of my application which they are processing now.”, Laila said in a calm and astonished way.