I recently had the pleasure of reading a selection of this short story as a part of a “celebration of the arts” at Bay College. My Tale of Another Job: A Duskland Tale was included in a collection of visual and literary art that the school publishes annually. I realize the formatting on this site for my stories isn’t exactly great, so I’m uploading The Tale of Another Job as a .pdf for your convenience. Feel free to download and share the story, but I will remind you that The Tale of Another Job, Duskland, and all other related materials are my creative properties, so give credit where credit is due.
You can download the .pdf with this link: The Tale of Another Job
The Tale of Another Job is a modern retelling of the biblical tale of Job with a drastically different outcome. It’s also a very personal story. When I wrote it, I paralleled a lot of events from my life with the life of my protagonist, Job–although I made the life of Job grander than my own. The losses and struggles I’ve endured throughout the past couple years brought to mind the biblical tale of Job: a man who lost everything and yet still kept his faith in God. It’s a powerful tale and one that reminded me daily that, “Gee, I guess I don’t have it so bad.”
I began pondering how my story might have turned out if I didn’t have the tale of Job or my faith. If I were a different man than I am and didn’t have the things I had to pull me up from where I had fallen. This isn’t to say that I faced all of my struggles with an unwavering resolve and my faith was never shaken, but I like to think that I came out on top and was still, at least to some degree, responsible.
The thoughts about how my story might have turned out compared to how it did stayed on my mind and I eventually decided to write this Tale of Another Job when I had to author a short story for a writing class. I’m very proud of the outcome.
It’s not an expansive or exciting tale in any way. It’s plodding and subtle. But it’s also an intricate tale filled with metaphors and meaning if you take the time to closely examine all the subtle details. I encourage you to do just that.