Once upon a time, there was a boy named Abyan, who was 13 years old. Abyan used to play with his friends a lot whenever he was free. He liked to play badminton, cricket, football and table tennis.

One day, Abyan requested his mother to let him go with his friends to play as he had completed his homework. His mother gave him permission to play in his apartment’s compound with his friends.

While playing, his friends Rayaan and Hamza called Abyan and showed him the spot they had found for sitting. There were some tires and many sand bags lying there. They asked Abyan to sit with them. Abyan was about to sit on them, but suddenly his eyes caught something at a distance. It was a matchbox, probably dropped mistakenly by someone.

He was amazed to find a matchbox and quickly picked it up. Abyan was not permitted to use a matchbox or light a fire at home, so he was curious to use it. Abyan took out the matchbox and was about to light it when suddenly the guard of the apartment saw him and asked him to put the matchbox away. Abyan agreed and put the matchbox back on the ground where he had found it and went back to play with his friends.

Abyan could not get the matchbox out of his mind, so after a while, he again came back near the matchbox. This time he didn’t see the guard anywhere, so he took out a matchstick from the box and lit it without thinking of the consequences.

By this time, his friends had joined him to see what he was doing. Abyan showed them the lit matchstick. Luckily, because of the air, the lit up matchstick extinguished. Abyan then took out another matchstick, lit it up and showed his friends. They moved away because Abyan was pretending to throw the burning matchsticks at them and they were scared.

Hamza managed to come near Abyan and tried snatching the matchbox from him. Abyan refused to give it to him and ran away and hid behind a car. When he realised no one was coming towards him, Abyan again lit a matchstick. When it was more than half burnt, his fingers started to feel the heat and so he dropped it and lit another one.

Abyan was so excited to see a matchstick light up with the sweep of a hand that he kept on burning matchsticks one after another, and throwing them away without even looking at where they were landing.

After a few minutes, he experienced a weird smell. Abyan looked around and realised that it was coming from the car he was hiding behind. As he moved away in panic, he saw flames coming from under the car!

He screamed, “The car is burning!” as he ran away. All his friends ran along with him and hid. When the guards heard the noise, they rushed to see what the matter was and saw the car was on fire. The management of the apartment brought some fire extinguishers they had in the building and managed to stop it from spreading further. But the car’s fire took a long time to extinguish.

When the car owner came and saw his car burning, he was furious. He asked the children how it happened and everyone pointed towards Abyan . His parents were also called to the building’s office along with other elders and they all saw how Abyan was playing carelessly with the matchbox in the recording of the CCTV camera.

Abyan was very scared and started to cry, because he had unknowingly done so much harm. The car’s owner scolded Abyan and made his parents feel guilty for their son’s careless act. Abyan was even scolded harshly by his father and got a punishment that he could not play with anyone of his friends or even step in the compound of the apartment for six months. His reputation was destroyed as he had done such a wrong thing.

His father had to pay the car’s owner for all his loss. Abyan felt very sorry for his act as he realised his mistake, and he promise to himself not to do anything he had been forbidden to do.

My dear readers, don’t let a temporary moment of pleasure lure you into a decision that could leave you with a lifetime of pain and regret. Think before you act!

Published in Dawn, Young World, July 23rd, 2022