Half Way Honest

"Yale, there is someone at the door for you," my mom yelled. Ben was standing at the door waiting as I approached. Ben was my best friend and next-door neighbor. "All the neighbors are going to the skate park. Aren't you coming?" Ben asked with a hint of confusion.

I thought back to when I had asked my mom earlier. "Once you finish your homework you can go. We don't want a repeat of what happened last time do we?" My mom had been referring to an incident that had happened a week prior. My teacher Mrs. Cole had called her to voice concern about my stack of uncompleted homework and my lack of concentration in the classroom. This caused my mom to go on a rampage, taking away all my toys, and grounding me for two whole days!

I looked at Ben with a disappointed look. "Not until I finish all of my homework..." Ben looked defeated, and then suddenly he smiled. "I have a plan. Only do your math homework, then when your mother asks if you completed all your homework you can tell her yes because you have finished all your -math- homework." He said this with an emphasis on the word math. Ben's idea would surely work, but I was still unsure. I did not want to spend another grounded day.

Ben’s eyes were piercing as he waited for me to make a decision. So I agreed and told him that I would meet him at the skate park soon. I ran to my room and completed the math homework almost effortlessly. It had always been my favorite subject. Then I went downstairs to tell my mother.

"I have finished my homework, Mom," I said nervously. My mother had always trusted my honesty. I had never lied to her in my life. "You finished ALL of your homework?" she replied skeptically, "Yes, I have finished all of my homework," mumbling the next part under my breath for no one to hear, "all of my math homework." Pleased with my obedience my mom dismissed me to go to the skate park. As I grabbed my bike I began to feel ashamed for my actions, but I soon forgot these feelings when I saw all of my friends.

When I arrived everyone was so happy to see me and we all spent hours skating on our bikes, skateboards, and scooters. When it was finally time to go home I was drained. I walked in the door and straight to my room. My mom was sitting on my bed waiting for me. I knew I had been caught. Suddenly I felt ashamed again. My mother was holding my homework folder in her hands. "You lied," she said calmly. "I didn't technically lie. I did complete all of my math homework. You didn't specify which homework." My mother had a disappointed look in her eyes when she looked at me and said, “Telling part of the truth is not being truthful, Yale.” I was grounded for two weeks after that day, no more skate park, no more video games, and oh so much homework. I had also lost all the trust my mother had in me. If only I told the truth.

Author's Note: I used story 154: “Drona hears word of Ashwatthama's Death” as a source of inspiration for my story. In story 154 the Pandavas devise a plan to trick Drona into giving up during the war so they could kill him. This plan was to tell him that his son, Ashwatthama, had died. It was decided that Yudhishthira would tell Drona the news because he had always been the most honest.

To keep their plan truthful for Yudhishthira, they named an elephant after Ashwatthama and Bhima killed it. I used this concept with Yale and his mother, by making the homework the half truthful news. I kept the stories very similar by making my story contain a plan that contained half-truthful information in order to receive something that was desired. In my story I changed the characters to a son and his mother. I also changed the setting to a more modern day and removed the war from the story line. I tried to add a moral to this story by adding a punishment for Yale at the end, which is similar to the punishment of revenge that Ashwatthama will seek against the Pandavas. I also explained that telling half the truth is very similar to lying to add more to the lesson and moral this story tells.

Bibliography: Laura Gibbs, Tiny Tales from the Mahabharata

Image Info: Lying Woman: Pixy.org