The Broken Promise Written by Najeer (4A5 2002)

One Sunday morning, John's mother went into his room to sweep the floor. While sweeping, she saw a soccer ball. Just then, memories of her dead son came to her. It had all started one day after her son's tenth birthday. He had wanted to play soccer in the park. All this while, his mother had prevented him from playing there as she was afraid that he would fall into the storm drain beside the park. Now that he had grown up and had shown himself to be a careful and responsible boy, she had agreed. Before leaving, he had promised his mother that he would not enter the storm drain. John and his friends had met at the park and had started playing. As the game was proceeding, the boys started to kick the ball haphazardly in their excitement. All of a sudden, John gave a hard kick and the ball landed at the edge of the drain. John and his friends went to collect the ball. After collecting the ball, one of his friends decided to explore the drain. He climbed down the staircase at the side of the drain and started walking down the bed of the canal. The other boys, including John, followed behind him, chatting happily as they started out on their "new adventure". After walking for some distance, they were attracted by a shining object. All them ran towards it. To their horror, it turned out to be a corpse. It looked very gruesome but next to it lay some stacks of notes which attracted the boys. Just then, a huge torrent of water rushed down the canal, roaring deafeningly. In a matter of minutes, the boys had all been swept swiftly into the river. Later that evening, there was a knock at John's door. It was the police. They informed John's mother that her son's body had been found in the river, as were those of two of his friends. They gave her the ball which had been recovered from her son's hands. Now, on seeing the ball again, John's mother started weeping.