Short Story: “The Importance of Forgiveness”
by Mariam Musaj
Lena was a hardworking student. She knew her responsibilities and studied regularly. One day at school, their
teacher Mrs. Dudley announced, “Tomorrow you will
have an important test.” All the students were
upset by this because they had not studied
every night – except for Lena. All the others
liked to procrastinate and also plagiarize.
This created a problem for Lena.
The next day, Mrs. Dudley distributed
the tests. Lena was answering easily,
accurately, and without having to
make a lot of effort. Suddenly she felt
something hit the back of her neck. She
looked around, and saw a crumpled
ball of paper on the floor. She then
realized that Alexander, her classmate,
was looking at her and beckoning in
a hidden way. Now, Alexander was
known as the worst cheat in the class.
“What do you want, Alexander?” she whispered angrily, because the teacher wasn’t looking.
He gave her a devilish smile. “Your test paper. Give it to me!”
“Are you crazy? That would put me into big trouble!”
The teacher saw them whispering and came over. “What is going on?” she demanded.
Lena explained and the teacher knew she was telling the truth, because Lena got good grades but Alexander was
always lazy and plagiarizing. As a result, Alexander was punished for wanting to cheat.
Three weeks later, Alexander came to Lena to apologize. He had realized that “cheaters never prosper” and had
changed his personality. He was now studying hard every evening. When he got close to Lena’s desk, he became
afraid, because Lena looked very angry.
Alexander lowered his head. A tear fell from his eye. He sobbed, “Listen, I’m sorry, Lena. What I wanted to do was
plagiarism. I know it was wrong.”
Lena stamped her foot. She shouted, “I don’t forgive you. Alexander, go away!” She was really stubborn.
___________
Twenty years later…
A woman was walking down a sidewalk when someone suddenly pushed her from behind sideways into the flower
bed beside the road. She actually fell down. Then she heard a loud voice shout in pain. A car had hit someone… a
man. He was lying on the pavement. A dead man…
He died because of his self-sacrificing heart. He had saved the woman because the car driver was out of control and
had driven the car onto the sidewalk. The man had pushed her aside and then took the impact of the car.
The woman was shocked. She joined the group of people making a circle around his body. Suddenly one of them
yelled loudly, “I know this man. His name is Alexander!”
Everything went black for Lena as she felt very guilty. Now she could never forgive Alexander, who had become such
a good person. She felt that her life was over.
_______
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
TEACHERS
34
THE CLAPPER 2018 - 2019
Head of Department
Melanie SWETZ
Teachers
Donna JOHNSON
Geoffrey E. WARREN
Donna Evelyn NYILASI
Nalan KAPLAN
Ladislav BURKOVIC
Tanya SMILEY
Ethan ABATA