Award-Winning Story: Across The Lake

Two young boys were busy playing next to a sparkling blue lake. It was a beautiful rainy day and the two friends were enjoying themselves in the cool breeze.

One of them was tall in height, and rather mischievous-looking, and his name was Humaid. The other one was just a bit shorter, with sensible eyes and fair-hair, and his name was Junaid.

Humaid and Junaid were the best of friends, and they usually came out to play near the lake on rainy days like this. When rain came to their small town, every single person was found outdoors, doing their best to savour those rare moments.

On this particularly rainy day, Humaid accidentally kicked his football into the yard of an old man’s house. The old man opened the door and asked who had kicked the ball into his yard. He seemed angry, for he said, “My precious vases have been broken! Who did it? Was it you boys?”

Humaid was frightened. He ran up to the old man and lied to him, “Dear sir, we saw some naughty boys who ran away. It must have been them who kicked the ball.”

The old man frowned and muttered something sounding like ‘those boys’ and immediately shut the gate with anger.

Junaid was struck with shock. He didn’t know why his friend had lied like that. He remained silent.

The next day, Humaid challenged Junaid to cross the lake. There were some rocks between the river and Humaid dared Junaid to jump on them and cross the river all by himself. Junaid was scared and he knew that crossing the lake would be dangerous. The lake was very deep.

“No, Humaid, I will not cross the river,” disagreed Junaid.

“You are a scaredycat! You aren’t brave at all!” laughed Humaid, “How silly can you be!”

He grinned at Junaid and crossed on the stones himself to show how brave he was.

Junaid shook his head and replied, “That isn’t real bravery.”

Humaid crossed the river again and returned to Junaid’s side. He laughed at Junaid. “Of course that is real bravery!”

“No,” said Junaid, “Real bravery is speaking the truth and not being afraid to say it. You are the one who is a scaredycat, for I would never lie the way you did to the old man.”

Humaid was shocked. He understood what Junaid meant and immediately knocked on the old man’s door to tell him the truth. The old man patted him and said, “It’s good you owned up. I already knew it was you, because I had been watching you two from the window. I was wondering when you would come and tell me.”

This story teaches us that real bravery is being courageous enough to speak the truth, and not necessarily being able to cross rivers or climb mountains

Written by Khadeeja Yasser at age 12. Image also painted by Khadeeja.