It was a dark and cold night when Johnny, a 10-year-old boy, was sleeping and abruptly woke up. He told his parent that he had a nightmare. His mother calmed him down and made him sleep again.

Johnny was scared of clowns and he believed that they lived in woods and come out at night. His friends always teased him about it. Johnny was fed up of being a funny character among them.

One day, Johnny’s father sat with him and consoled him, “There is no such thing as a scary clown; it is just your imagination. In fact, clowns make you laugh and show you magic tricks.”

Johnny was comforted with his father’s words and decided to change his image and finish all the fright he had of clowns.

So one evening, he went to his friend Jackson’s house and told him that he was no more scared of clowns because clowns were funny characters. On hearing this, Jackson laughed out loud and challenged him to go in the woods at night alone and come out from the other side and if he was successful in doing so, they won’t ever mock him again. Johnny accepted the challenge.

Johnny knew that Jackson was a naughty and arrogant child and would try his best to stop him from winning the challenge. Just as Johnny thought, Jackson along with his other friends, decided to scare Johnny during the challenge. They bought a scary costume and other things to scare him.

A place to meet up was decided, thus began the challenge. When Johnny entered the forest, Jackson and his friends also sneaked in among the trees. Johnny had started the challenge and now there was no turning back. As he came in the middle of the forest, he saw glowing red eyes from behind the trees. He became frightened and thought of going back, but he remembered his dad said, “Such things are just your imagination.”

So he proceeded further in the woods.

Jackson had put on the scary costume and walked at a distance and whistled. Johnny was really scared now, his heart thumped and he started running and then what happened next was something no one had ever expected.

Johnny was about to come out of the woods from the other side when he bumped into someone and both of them fell on the ground. There was a little cry from the other person, the sound felt familiar to Johnny, he saw a scary masked person laying on the ground and slowly getting up. What had happened was that when Johnny started running hysterically and in no straight direction, Jackson came out to scare him, resulting in their collision.

Johnny pulled the costume off and saw Jackson sheepishly smiling at him. It was time for their other friends to come out from behind the trees as there was nothing left to cover now. This discovery made Johnny so furious. Without saying a word, he got up and left the scene.

Johnny proved his bravery and resilience. His courage made him become successful in going into the forest at night. However, his friends showed that they can go to any length to discourage him.

The next day, all his friends, including Jackson, showed up at his house and apologised in front of his parents. Johnny didn’t talk and remained silent.

Thus, his parents had to intervene and sort out the matter between friends. They made the boys give their friendship a fresh start with new and better rules.

Published in Dawn, Young World, April 27th, 2019