‘A lie had major consequences’ by Shameer Abdullah

My family and I managed to buy a small house in Zimbabwe. Ethiopia was in huge crisis. The whites had taken over us ,and the richer ones joined with the whites. My father worked in a tyre factory and made enough money for the house rent. Thus it was up to me and my brother to find food for the family.

The people of Ethiopia craved ‘Lala-Hadzubi’. They would even give their lives for him. They worshipped him. There was a very famous rumour that deep down in the Jasop forest is a temple guarded with mosquitoes but not just any mosquitors , in fact they were poisonous mosquitoes. If you managed to somehow find the temple and even one mosquito , the elderly of the city would die and in this case it was Lala-Hadzubi. They also said that if you entered the temple the elderly would die. My brother and I were sent to find food for the family. I could feel my heart beating in my throat.

“Do I have to go?” I exclaimed.

“Yes!”, my brother said angrily.

The buzzing of flies and the rustling of leaves welcomed us into the forest. My brother and I started to quest. After a food walk for about five minutes something ran right across us. It was fast as a cheetah. We ran after it but we lost it. I didn’t see it properly but it looked like a wild tapir to me.

It was now or never. It was getting dark and we had find food. I sighted the tapir. I took an aim and took a shot. My brother was not surprised after we missed another possible dinner.

“Go get the bow!”, said my brother in anger.

I started searching for the bow. We had a bow with five arrows each. It was ample as we could use it again. After a good three minutes, I managed to find the bow. But when I returned I failed to find brother, Brody.

“Brody! Where are you?”, I screamed.

No reply. I started looking for him. After a while, I saw something…. It was my brothers dead body but to find the hidden temple of Jasop forest. It was all true it was guarded by mosquitoes.

“Let’s go back,” I said.

But my brother would not listen. As we slithered towards the temple we were attacked. I swing my bow and we made a run for it. When we reached our village the locals were running around saying,” Hadzubi is dead, Hadzubi is dead.”

My brother went down on his knees and put his arms around me. I was scared to death.

He said, “Did you kill a mosquito?”

“No!” , I said in confusion.

The locals were running here and there. The village was in crisis. As we headed towards the house…. We were covered with a black cloth on our head. We were held and being taken to the hanging place. I could hear the crowd saying,” Kill them! Boil them in hot oil! Feed them to the lions! Chop their faces off! ” They removed our cloth and bright light struck in our faces. My brother looked at me and said you should have told me the truth.I did unintentionally kill a mosquito. This was it. We were about to be hanged.

But just then… I heard a really loud noise of a gun because of the bright light I could not see anything. We pulled of the stage and I was riding a horse with my brother. I ran the horse as fast as I could. Even though I never rode a horse before. We stopped at a place far far away from the village. We were in a shock. It felt as if god gave us another chance. I looked at my brother’s innocent face a and wondered how I was still alive?

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‘Sometimes lies can have serious consequences’ by Farah Saboohi

“I’m fine.”, I said as I swallowed my guilt. I didn’t like lying, but to not make my best friend worry about me was more important then. The truth is, I wasn’t fine. I was an emotional wreck that sucked away other people’s happiness with my misery. I was toxic. Meredith, my best friend, was, and still is, the most caring, and down to earth person I have ever crossed paths with. It still confuses me as to why she puts up with me, because the fact is, I don’t deserve all the unconditional love and support she blesses me with.

 

“Are you sure? I can stay for a while longer if you want me to.”

She said in her soothing voice. But I lied again. The words “I’m fine” just poured out of my mouth because I had said it enough times for it to become an instinct. She then gave me a big, warm hug, sighed with relief and left, closing the door behind her. As I walked across the lounge to my room, I lost it. Tears streamed down my cheeks and my eyes swoll up. I was breaking down. I was glad she left because I couldn’t have her worry about me anymore. I felt like a burden, and with me around, Meredith could never display her happiness, she just put it aside and worried about me.

 

I didn’t know what was happening to me. I could feel my lungs not getting enough air and the chills i felt down my spine now burned. I was losing control over my limbs and now my reddening, puffy eyes couldn’t stay open for much longer. I knew exactly what I had to do – pull out my inhaler from my back pocket and take a few dozes of prescribed medicine that was right next to me.

“I’m fine.” I lied again, but this time to myself, and threw my inhaler against the wall. Slowly, I watched as my vision blacked out and I lost consciousness.

 

I remember waking up, hours later, to see Meredith crying and panicked than I would’ve ever imagined her being. I could see the disappointment in her eyes when they met with mine. She wasn’t worried this time, she was downright angry. She told me that she’d never felt more betrayed, because I lied to her, and that even though I thought that I was only hurting myself by being so foolish, I actually pained her more. “God knows you would’ve been dead if I hadn’t come to check up on you.” Her saying that, did something to me. I felt those words pierce my chest – if that makes sense. But as angry as she was, she was just as forgiving and bemt down to give me a hug.

 

The most impactful thing about the entire incident was that I learnt that by lying, not only did I almost reach my deathbed, but I hurt the person that mattered the most to me, and if that isn’t the worst thing you can do to someone, I don’t know what is. Also, I learnt that lying to yourself can have very detrimental consequences.

‘Sometimes lies can have serious consequences. Describe a time when a lie had a major consequence for you’ by Zoraiz Syed

“Lies are the new truth,” my friend told me. I was telling him about how I had lied on my resume for a job and had stated that I was an ‘experienced computer engineer.’ Now I had got a call for an interview and did not know what to do. My interview was in an hour so I had called up a friend to give me some advice. I learned a valuable lesson from this: never take advice from your friends! My friend told me to play it cool and just keep lying if I wanted the job. Being a recent university graduate, I was in a tough situation at the time and was in desperate need of a job. So I set out for my interview, which would later lead to a frenzy of lies.

“Take a seat,” the interviewer ordered. I sat down and tried to control my shivering. The interviewer first asked my name, age and all the basics. I did not lie there. She then asked about my previous occupations. I lied there. Further, she asked my experience and where I learned my computing skills from. I lied there too. I must have been a pretty good liar because at the end of the interview, the interviewer seemed pretty impressed. She said she would check up with my previous bosses and then contact me. I was fine by this because, well, I had lied!

By the time I reached home, I summarized what I had said in my interview. According to me, I was a software engineer who had had schooling from MIT. I finished at the top of my class and was immediately recruited by NASA to design a software for one of their space missions. After I got ‘bored’ at NASA, I joined the UN and became a software engineer for them. When my contract with the UN finished, I started working for a private Chinese firm by the name of ‘Apple’ which was owned by a Pakistani millionaire. Now I was looking to explore new options.

Since I had lied about my jobs, I had lied about the contact information too! Therefore, all day long I was receiving calls, asking to talk to the Director of missions at NASA or the head of the UN’s software department and even the CEO of Apple. The day passed with me singing praises about myself and before it was over I had got the call from my interviewer, telling me that I started my new job the following day.

Early morning the next day, I was suited and booted to start my first real job and fourth fantasy job. But when I got to the office, it was a totally different scenario.

I saw all the office management standing outside, including the interviewer. At first, I thought they were all standing there to welcome me. But when I saw the police around, I knew something was wrong. A series of events followed which virtually destroyed my life. First, two cops approached me and handcuffed me. They said I was ‘under arrest for fraud.’ Then my interviewer came up to me and slapped me right across the cheek. It turns out that she was friends with the director of NASA, the head of the UN and even the CEO of Apple. She knew I was lying from the start and just wanted to see how it went.

Now, I am spending twenty years in jail for being an excellent liar. After this incident I never lied again. But then again, I am a known liar….

‘Sometimes lies can have serious consequences’ by Sara Hashmi

Eight years ago, at the age of just twelve, I witnessed the most inhumane and cruel act that anyone could think of. And to this day, I feel as if moving mountains would be easier than carrying the burden I bestowed upon myself.

  I remember it all so clearly, the screams, the cries for help, the blood stain on the carpet. What I remember most vividly is standing still, watching my sister’s rapist torture her, killing whatever was alive and good inside her, and leaving her emotionless and bare on the carpet in our lounge.

  I watched as he pulled up his zipper and quietly walked out the front door, as if whatever had just happened was nothing new for him. I realised that he was unaware of the fact that I had just witnessed his cruelty. And then it hit me – I could have helped her.

  Calling my parents was not an option as they were out of town. But what about the police, or a neighbor, or any of the other relatives we had? I felt a knot in the pit of my stomach. It was as if the sky had fallen over my head. I could not think straight. My heart beat so fast and loud, I could feel it in my throat. I was sure that if my poor sister had been in her senses, surely, she would have been able to hear it.

  The rest of the evening was quiet. Tension filled every corner of the house. My conscience screamed at me, mocking me for being a coward. I was as much a criminal as that man had been. By sunset, my sister had cleaned up the mess and locked herself up in her room.

  A few days later, after my parents had returned, they noticed that things were different. And how wouldn’t they be? Even a blind person could see the changes.

  So after supper, which my sister had refused to eat with us, my mother and father sat down with me in the same room that my sister had lost her innocence in. They told me they were worried. They asked me if something had happened that they should know about. My conscience smirked at me, folding its arms, as I said, “No, nothing happened.”

  Saying those three words was the biggest mistake of my life. Because two days later, my sister’s funeral was held in the exact same room where the event had taken place. And it was where we had found the suicide note,  written explicitly, without mercy. And things have never been the same, ever since. There was no denying the fact that I was, in a way, my sister’s murderer.