Ted is a short story writer and he always has a hard time on how to end his stories. He then decided to ask the opinions of his wife and children as they were all taking breakfast.  

“Guys, I have a story which is almost finished.  But I don’t quite know how to end it.  Tell me, when you read stories, would you like it to have a happy ending or a sad ending?”

“Oh, Dad, please make it happy,” Melissa, his 15 year old daughter pleaded.

“Don’t listen to her, Dad.  Make the ending a sad one,” June, his 17-year-old son advised.

“I know why you want it to be sad because you are a freak and a sadist.  You want to see people suffer and become miserable.  Like you always make my life miserable everyday,” lashed out Melissa on his brother.

“Oh yeah, and I want you to know that I enjoyed every minute of it,” came the sarcastic reply of June to her sister.

“You two, stopped it right this minute.  I am looking for solutions here not another problem, okay.  Now, Melissa, why do you want a happy ending?” Ted asked.

“I like happy endings because I want to feel good and happy after I read a story.  I want to have a positive outlook in life.  I don’t mind if it starts sad as long as it ends happily.  This will make readers to realize that no matter how bad life may be, there is still hope.  There’s nothing like a story that gives hope,” Melissa explained.

“That’s a lot of bu.., I mean nonsense.  Yeah, you like to give hope, false hope, that’s what you are giving, if you ask me,” June interrupted.

“That is because you are so negative, you freak,” Melissa said.

“Melissa, stop calling your brother freak.  And June, wait for your turn.  Don’t interrupt your sister,” warned their mother, Dory.

“Okay, let us now hear what June has to say on why he likes sad ending,” Ted announced.

“Don’t get me wrong.  I really have nothing against happy ending.  But for crying out loud, if every story will be happy ending, then there will be no more element of surprise.  What I am trying to say is, readers also deserve stories that deal more on the realities of life, that sometimes bad things really do happen, and we must know how to deal with them when they do happen.  People also will become more cautious on how they live their life because they don’t want to land on the same sad fate of the characters in the stories,” June said seriously.