A White lie..
People love and appreciate the truth and thus, it never goes undiscovered. However, we undoubtedly do not always tell the truth in every occasion. Since we are human beings, we will admit lies at least once in our lives. Only the number of lies each person make will differ, while every one does lie. But there are different kinds of lies and different reasons to tell a lie. Most people tell a lie to defend themselves, to make others believe in them, and most serious of all, to harm others on purpose. On the other hand, some tell a lie to make others feel happy, satisfied, pleasant and get away from depression. It is called a “white lie” which is better to be admitted than telling the truth in some situations. One event took place some years ago…….
“Happy Birthday, My Dear Mom” as she reads from the card which comes with a bundle of red roses, Mrs.Mandella is much pleased and proud. Wiping out the tears that roll down from her eyes, her mind goes back to the last three years’ time when her only son, John, joined the army. Those images reflect in her mind, and her heart sinks when she reviews the sight of her son leaving her. She is so unhappy to be left alone again in her life for the second time. She was one being left alone by the death of her husband long time ago. Mrs.Mandella has to bring up John on her own, facing difficulties and hardships for several years. As a result, she gets a terrible heart disease after these painful years. John was here for the last time at Christmas two years ago. Since then, she‘s only receiving letters and cards, coupled with flower bouquets from him. As she misses him a lot, she wonders why he couldn’t come back even for a while. But, she tries to satisfy herself with what John says in his letters that his duties are making him quite busy to return home.
The thoughts disappear from her mind as Mr.Richard knocks on the door. He is a doctor who is taking care of her. “Birthday card from John?” as he says, Mrs.Mandella nods with a smile. He gives her some medicine as usual, and sits beside her to listen to her. Richard knows that she loves to talk about her son proudly, with tears, and he never get bored to listen to her, although he’s been hearing the same thing for countless number of times….
Trying to get some sleep, Richard thinks about what Peter, John’s friend, told him the previous day about John’s death a year ago. He finds out that it is Peter who is sending cards and letters to Mrs.Mandella. As Peter knows from John that Mrs.Mandella is having a heart disease, he sympathizes and wants her life to be continued hopefully. Thus, Peter comes and asks him to promise not to bring this news to Mrs.Mandella. Richard, however, has not given a promise yet as he thinks he needs time to think. As a doctor, he knows how bad the disease is attacking Mrs.Mandella. She seems to be feeling a bit better when she gets letters and cards, which she believes are from John. But, for the rest of the time, while she is longing for her son to be back, she is hardly in normal breathing condition, and her disease is giving her a terrible time. Richard doesn’t want her to suffer anymore, or look pale and weak. He wants her to know the truth so that she can stop longing for her son, which is the main cause of making her health worse in these two years. He thinks she will be better, but, of course, she has to suffer painfully for once when she knows the truth. After this he believes that time could cure her to become healthy as she will then have nothing to worry about. Thus, he decides to tell her the truth on the following evening…..
It was a nightmare to Mrs.Mandella as she listens to the words from Richard. She can’t believe her own ears. She feels sick and weak at the same time because her only hope has gone. She wants to cry out loud, but the tension in her heart is holding her back.
Days pass and Mrs.Mandella looks paler and weaker. She lies on her bed all the time knowing she will not survive anymore as her disease gets worse. She prefers to die. She doesn’t want to go on living with a false hope and thus, she thinks what Richard does is right although Richard can’t stop blaming himself for what he’s done.
She dies two weeks later. All the neighbors feel sorry for what they hear. But they cannot blame Richard either. Richard regrets with great sorrow as he believes he has committed a sin. He knows he won’t get away with it as it will follow him as a nightmare. He now thinks that things will be much better…if ……he lets her continue living, with some painful feelings, looking forward to her son’s return……, if he lets her believe that her son is still alive…,if he doesn’t tell Mrs.Mandella the truth……, if he tells a lie…, “a white lie”…… ……….
I Wish It Snows!
By – Boat Boat 27th Sept 08
The afternoon was so hot. I was in my study room, which I named it “a little white chamber of books”, doing GMAT, the exam that I was required to take it to continue my masters’ degree. GMAT, which is known as a challenging ground for most graduates around the world was also giving me a headache. I guess it’s enjoying driving me crazy with its not-too-long, seemingly-easy but indeed-tricky questions and its tests of logical reasoning skills which all sound illogical to me. You might guess what would happen to me, studying this hard and boring thing in this hot summer noon. Yes, I fell asleep, right on my desk with my thick Barron’s exercise book under my head. Before completely falling asleep, I was blaming myself for the incredibly hot weather and wishing it to snow in the middle of the summer though I know it sounded impossible. Then without knowing myself how and when, I fell asleep, deeply, despite of those bothering thoughts of GMAT and the climbing summer heat. I didn’t know how long I’ve been asleep when voice of my sister yelling from the other room woke me up. I couldn’t clearly hear what she was yelling. I could catch up only some few words like “Mom.., come and see…”something. I got up from my desk and joined my mom and my sister in the other room to know what’s going on. When I entered the room, I saw her pointing out of the window and showing my mom something out of the window, with her face looking happy and astonished. When she saw me reaching near her, she yelled at to me with her joyful voice that “Come and see! You won’t believe it! Come! Look! “. And her hands grabbing mine and bringing me towards the window. I think I was only half awake at that time because I didn’t get her words fully. I replied “What? What are you talking about? What’s….?”, there I stopped because something gleamy out of the window caught my eyes. It was so wonderful and surprising that it took my breath away for a minute or two. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing at the very moment. Then I realize what was in front of my eyes and only then, I could understand my little sister’s words and what she was trying to say earlier. And what I was looking at through the window was the scene of it’s snowing outside in the middle of the summer. The roads, the trees, the car park in front of our yard, the fence, the roof tops of the houses opposite to ours, all are covered with snow. It was really snowing out there. I could even see the children from the neighbors were out of their homes already, all in little fluffy and colorful hats and gloves. All the kids seem so enjoying and happy to have an unexpected snow in this time of the year. I didn’t know how long I’ve been standing by the window, staring at the amazing view unbelievably and being deep in the thought because by the time I drew myself back from my thoughts, I realized I was the only one left in the room. My sister was already on her way down the stairs to join the kids out in the snow. I followed her down the stairs, out of the entrance and at that instant, I could feel the cold, soft breeze coming towards me. The touch and felt of the snow underneath, the smell brought by the cold breeze and the little snow drops that kept on falling beautifully on me was so wonderful that it brought me freshness and coolness at every single second. Then I returned back to my little chamber of books to continue studying. Now, the GMAT didn’t seem like a hateful thing to me anymore. I felt like I enjoy studying it more than ever because of the freshness had driven away all my boredom and tiredness. I was so glad that the summer heat had gone though I could still hardly understand how this happened. Without tempting further to know how this happened, I grinned to myself at the thought of having snows out there and continued my studying. I could hear kids out in the snow shouting, screaming, throwing snowballs at each other and enjoying the glee of having snow in the summer. I might be too deeply being concentrated in my studying that I didn’t notice the sounds of the kids screaming and playing faded away. A moment after I found myself in sole quietness, I felt someone touching and shaking my shoulder. I turned back and saw my mom standing behind me, trying to wake me up. I also found my Baron’s book still under my arms and made me realize that I was just awake from a sleep. My mom told me that I might fall asleep while studying. Suddenly, I remember something and I got out of my desk to look out of the window of my little chamber. From the window, I could only see the scene of a hot summer noon with trees with dark brown leaves underneath. There was no such thing as snow. I grinned to myself at the thought of my dream. It was just a dream that it snows in the middle of the summer. What a strange dream. Although it was just a strange dream, it certainly brought some coolness and freshness to me, how I couldn’t explain in words, but with my feelings. Then I decided to myself that I would keep the joy of my dream in my heart but I would keep on wishing that it snows in the middle of a hot summer noon.
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