It was a pleasant day during the winter holidays. After having breakfast, I took my bat and ball, and headed towards the park, which was just five minutes’ walk from our house. I knew my friends would already be there waiting for me, so I was taking quick steps.

Just when I started walking on the pedestrian track beside the park, an old frail lady stopped me and asked me to help her cat get off from the tree. She pointed towards the top branch of the tree on the side of the pedestrian track.

I saw the cat at the topmost branch, she seemed scared. I didn’t want to get into this, but then, thinking about the old lady, I decided to help her. I put my bat and ball down, and started climbing the tree slowly. When I reached on the top branch, I tried to grab the cat, but it went backwards. It took me almost 10 minutes to lure the cat and when it came near, taking the opportunity and quickly grabbed it and slowly descended from the tree while holding it. I felt happy that I could help the old lady and as I reached down, the old lady thanked me while taking the cat from my hand.

I took my bat and ball and turned towards the park gate. Then I heard the old lady calling me from behind. I turned. She smiled and said she was searching for a kind-hearted person to reward and then gave me a ring. Before I could say anything to her, she turned and quickly walked away.

I looked at the ring and smiled, it was a ‘Green Lantern’s ring’, the same one which I had seen Green Lantern wearing in his movie. Excitedly, I put it on my finger. As soon as I did that, I turned into Green Lantern!

I was taken aback. With the ring in my finger, I felt so strong and had the urge to fight the bad guys of the whole world immediately.

So, from that day onwards, I fought against crime; wherever there was a robbery, peopled called me and I reached there and held the criminals until the cops arrived. This continued for a long time, everyone praised me and I was happy with what I was doing. But then I became fed up from my routine which seemed monotonous as I could overpower anyone. I wanted change. Something different.

Then one day I captured a robber and was taking him to the cops when he offered me a large amount of money if I would leave him. At first, I didn’t consider that offer, but then I thought, ‘Why not? I should help the criminals and let them free.’

It clicked and I didn’t capture criminals anymore, instead I let them go and in return got a lot of money.

This continued for some time until it backfired. All my fans or the people who loved me once, now hated me. The police started to search for me and I started hiding. My own parents disliked me because I was helping criminals. I was upset, I didn’t know how to change the situation. I wasn’t helping the criminals now as I was just hiding in my own house.

One day, while I was alone at home, the doorbell rang, I opened it and saw the same old lady standing in front of me. She seemed angry.

The old lady asked me to return her the ring, as I was not the rightful owner of it, and it belonged to someone sincere and good-natured. I felt ashamed and gave the ring right away. The moment I took the ring off from my hand, I turned into the old me. I felt so relieved.

The old lady looked at me and said, “It’s time you should realise what you have gained and lost so far!” saying this she walked away.

My powers were taken back and I became a common civilian. I realised my mistakes and took all the money and went to the police station immediately. I accepted my wrongdoings and gave them the money. The police became impressed with my actions and didn’t put me in the prison. They just warned and let me go.

This whole incident made me realise how important it is to have a sincere heart which beats not for oneself, but for everyone.

Published in Dawn, Young World, February 6th, 2021