Week 14 Story: The Golden Necklace

Gold Necklace. Source: PxHere.

Once upon a time, there were two girls, Linda and Louise, who were the best of friends. They grew up in the same streets, went to the same school, and did literally everything together until Linda moved away for college one day. Before Linda moved away, she gave Louise a golden necklace as a token of their friendship and told her to keep it safe until she come backs the next summer. Louise promised to take great care of the necklace. She kept necklace safe by wearing it around her neck; however, one day, the necklace broke and fell off her neck without her noticing it. Louise did not notice this until a few days later, but when she did, she did not bother to tell her best friend, Linda.

The next summer rolls around...

Linda knocked on Louise's door and said, "Bestie, I am back for the summer!"

Louise came running to the door as soon as she heard Linda's voice. 

"I am coming, Linda! I will be right there," Louise said as she reached for the door to open it. "I cannot believe that you are finally back. Oh, how I have missed you, my dear friend."

After catching up and telling each other about their freshman year of college, Linda brought up the golden necklace.

"Since I am back now, did you keep my necklace safe for me?" Linda asked.

Sweating profusely, Louise nervously said, "Yes! I...I have it. I just don't r...r...remember where I put it in my room... Can you give me some time to find it? Please?"

Linda looked confused as to why Louise did not know where the necklace was, but she said, "Yes, you can have some time. Please find it ASAP because it was gifted to me from my parents."

After hearing Linda's response, this caused Louise to panic because she did not want confront Linda about what really happened. Louise said goodbye to Linda and promptly "looked" for the necklace. Obviously, Louise could not find the necklace and had no idea about what to do at this point because she did not want to hurt Linda by the truth.

A few days past and Louise still could not get herself to confront Linda. Linda knew what was up and decided to play along with her game. She took her opportunity when Louise asked her to babysit her corgi while her family and her goes on week long trip.

Right before Louise came back from her trip, Linda hid the corgi in her moms room. After doing so, she went over to Louise's house to welcome her back from the trip. Louise noticed her corgi was not with Linda and began to worry.

"Linda, where is my dog?" Louise asked in a very concerned voice.

"I have it! I just don't remember where I put your dog in my room. Can you give me some time to find it? Please?" Linda said sarcastically. At that point in time, Louise knew what Linda doing and began to feel down. "I just wished you were honest with me instead of hanging me dry. Are we not supposed to be honest with each other?" Linda said sadly.

"You are right. I apologize for actions. I wore your necklace around my neck and it broke off without me noticing. I am so sorry for that," Louise said genuinely.

After Louise apologized, Linda forgave her and they became the best of friends again. Louise realized that honesty was the best policy and has not lied since then.

Author's Note: 

For those who did not read The Dishonest Friend, the story was written about two friends. One of the two friends went on a journey and asked his friend to take care of his plough. Little did he know his friend sold the plough immediately when he left. After the man came back from his journey, he asked his friend for his plough back, but the friend lied to him and said a very big rat came by and ate it up. The man knew the friend was being dishonest and decided to get him back by hiding his son in a house and telling his friend a hawk swooped down and carried him away. His friend did not believe this, so they brought this case to the judge. The judge listened to their story and asked "Who ever heard of a hawk carrying off a boy?" After that, the man asked "And who ever heard, my lord, of a rat eating a plough?" Since then, the friend saw that honest was the best policy.

In my story, I decided to modernize the story in a way because the original story seemed like it was set in an old time period; I chose to set mine during today's time. I also changed the characters to be females as well and gave them the names Linda and Louise. Also, I got straight to the point in my story instead of going to a third party to point out that Louise was being dishonest. 

Bibliography: The Dishonest Friend from The Giant Crab, and Other Tales from Old India by W. H. D. Rouse with illustrations by W. Robinson.