A Practical Joke Which Goes Wrong

“A Practical Joke Which Goes Wrong” is one of the outstanding stories of the first biannual International Short Story Contest 2018 written by Ibrahim Hamdy Haggag, Al Muntazir Boys Primary School, Tanzania.

A Practical Joke Which Goes Wrong

It was the first of April and I was in my school. Everyone was fooling around and having some fun, and many of my friends had played tricks on me as well. They also wanted to fool someone so when it was break time, I went to one of my friends whose name is Aisha. She was having some food standing by the stairs with some of her friends. I said, "Aisha there is a lizard on your shoulder", in a very shocking tone.

. She screamed and jumped abruptly but slipped down from the stairs and awkwardly fell to the last set of steps. Everyone looked shell-shocked for a few seconds at Aisha lying unconscious at the bottom of the stairs, her head was bleeding so much. I couldn't believe my eyes on realizing what had happened, children rushed towards Aisha and so did a teacher who had come there on hearing Aisha's scream. Aisha was immediately carried to the medical room. I had never imagined that my apparently harmless joke could go so wrong and result in such a mishap. The next day my dad and mom were called to the school in order to be told about the whole case. They were so angry at me when they knew what I did to my friend. I was also called to the principal’s office to explain my behavior and apologize for the terrible outcome. When I finished explaining what happened, I got two letters, one of them had suspension for thirty days and the other was a warning letter. That meant I had to miss my annual functions. I also got punishment from my parents that I wasn't allowed to play games for one week. But thankfully Aisha forgave me and I didn't get suspension.

All of these sad events made me realize that we don't have to play pranks that can go wrong and cause harm to anyone.