A Moral Dilemma!

I was almost 12 years old. I & some of my friends used to play in the neighbourhood all the afternoon after school time. One day there were not many guys available for playing. It was just me, & my two friends, Ishan & Mayuresh. Mayuresh & I were more close friends with each other than Ishan.

We couldn't decide what to play as there was not enough crowd to play the usual game of cricket. So we were just hanging around the neighbourhood.

There was a fence near the parking area of my house. Mayuresh went on the other side of the fence. He started throwing little stones at me from the other side. I, thinking it was fun, also started doing that. After some time, Mayuresh picked up his large plastic Basketball which he brought along with him and started to block all my stones with it.

He blocked every stone which came at him & he used to taunt me every time he blocked one. Being an angry little kid, it hurt my ego. How could be possibly beat me at a game of ball & stones? That's it! I said, "Block that you son of a b****!" & threw a large piece of rock, larger than my palm, at his face. (Well I didn't curse like that but still the emotions were the same)

And that asshole, couldn't block that one piece of rock coming at him with the lowest possible velocity. The rock hit his head & he started bleeding. I ran as fast as possible. Not towards him but away from him. Seeing all that blood made me scared as shit. I came home & went straight into my room. My mom asked me how come I'm home so early. I didn't say anything.

After some time some boys came to my house & told my mom everything that happened. My mom's face turned red & she started beating the living hell out of me while I was denying everything.

She dragged me to Mayuresh's house, holding nothing but my ear. He was lying on the sofa, maybe half conscious. My mom apologised a million times to his mom & made me do it too. I did but only out of fear.

After some time my mom went to check on Mayuresh. He was lying with his eyes half open. My mom asked him if it was me who hit him with that rock. I was behind my mom, with my face all red & my eyes filled with tears & guilt. I don't know how but he sensed it all. He told my mom it wasn't me who hit him. My mom & his mom both were shocked. They asked him again but he said the same thing. So they went ahead and asked who did it then. He panicked & said it was all Ishan's evil deed.

That was it. The next thing I know is Ishan came to school next day with every part of his face covered in hand prints of his mother. Mayuresh even Speculated there might be a print of broomstick on his hand.

We felt guilty after a few days as Ishan didn't talk to us. We even tried to apologise but I guess he realised it was not something to be forgotten so easily.

This is the worst thing I ever did which I couldn't forgive myself for, in my entire life. My mom still believes it was Ishan who almost fatally injured my friend.

This moment changed me in ways I didn't imagine. My perspective towards people's behaviour changed drastically. I guess it was needed to make me the person I am today!