Check out the new story. Sebastian and Mila might be complaining now, but that is nothing compared to what is about to happen to them.
Stop Complaining
Complaining can be contagious as a cough. It keeps you hostage and hides you away from all the good things in life. We all complain about something or other. In fact, I am sick and tired of people complaining all the time. What a waste of time. I mean, why don’t they just stop being complainers? Saying things like, “I don’t like that,” or, “It’s too cold,” or even, “They are stupid.” Wait, now I’m complaining. See what I mean? Once you start, it’s hard to stop. Feel like complaining about something? You might think differently after you read this.
Sebastian and Mila Scarbord were brother and sister. For the most part, they were nice to each other. Mila was the older one and felt it was her duty to tell Sebastian what to do. At times, he became fed up with Mila bossing him around and whined about it.
Unfortunately, their parents liked to complain at the dinner table. They complained about work, traffic, government, neighbors, and cleaning. To Sebastian and Mila it seemed that the world was full of problems and everyone in it was incompetent. Even though they thought the complaining was boring adult stuff, they still picked up this bad habit.
They started to complain about school, dinner, each other, their toys, everything. Even worse, they criticized each other.
“Moooommm,” Mila would whine, “Sebastian isn’t brushing his teeth long enough.”
“Daaaddd,” Sebastian would moan, “Mila isn’t letting me watch her show.”
It went on and on.
As they were walking home from school and complaining about their friends, an important looking man standing next to a limousine waved them over. They should have known better than to talk to a stranger. However, the man had a very nice suit on and an even nicer smile. They approached him and stopped on the grass next to the curb.
The man spoke, “Please allow me to introduce myself. I am Mr. Ofren, owner of FuturoTechLabs. I overheard you two talking about the difficulties you face in your lives and have an offer to make to you.”
The two children took a step forward and turned their heads to listen.
Mr. Ofren continued, “How would you like to quit school right now and work for me? You would make millions of dollars. All you would have to do is come up with fun ideas for kids.”
This immediately hooked Sebastian. He nodded his head and the word “Yes” jumped from his mouth.
Mila was not so sure and asked, “How do we know you are not lying? This sounds too good to be true.”
Mr. Ofren pulled out two black business cards with silver writing on them and handed one each to the kids. He told them, “These are my business cards. The website is on the back if you want to check it out. My email and phone are on the front. Take a few days to think about it and get in touch with me if you are interested.” He gave them each nod, entered the limo, and closed the door.
A second later, the back limo window rolled down and the man said, “One more thing, you cannot tell anybody. I do not make this kind of offer to just anyone. It is only for special kids like you. If you tell anyone, I am afraid the offer will no longer be available.”
The window quickly rolled back up and the limo drove off before either of the kids could say anything. For a few seconds they stood still in silence.
Mila broke the quiet and said, “Well, what do you think?”
“I don’t know,” said Sebastian. “It sounds like it could be cool. It has to be better than going to school and doing homework.”
“Yeah,” said Mila. “The guy seemed to be legitimate. Let’s check it out on the internet tonight, just to make sure.”
“Ok,” agreed Sebastian.
After dinner, they both went up to Mila’s room to check out FuturoTechLabs and Mr. Ofren. They quickly made it to the FuturoTechLabs website. It had a picture of a futuristic building glimmering in silver on the front page, which looked very professional.
“Hey, check this out!” exclaimed Mila. She opened a page showing all the products that they made. “Look, they make drones, rockets, rollercoasters and some kind of drug that makes you smarter.”
Sebastian’s eyes opened wider as he scanned the images and words. He noticed a page he wanted to see and said, “Open the ‘Working at FuturoTechLabs page. Let’s see what it is like to work there.”
Mila clicked on the link and a page of smiling people in suits popped up. The page read:
Interested in a career at FuturoTechLabs? We have great benefits. Everyone gets his or her own office, state of the art computer, and a personal smart phone. In addition, all food and drinks are free for employees and prepared by our own private chef.
We have parties each week, movie days, video games and sports. If you like to have fun, make friends and be creative, apply using the link below.
“Wow,” exclaimed Sebastian. “That place looks awesome!”
