A Lesson Learnt
St Margaret’s Co-educational English Secondary and Primary School, Shradha Cheung, Fiction:
Group 2
H
e sat there. He sat there for so long he couldn’t keep track of time anymore. He was
once a man with great power and wealth. He was very well known and was regularly
on the cover of Forbes-The 100 Richest People. Edward Williams was his name. It
usually was said with great respect. Usually. Occasionally it would be said with sorrow.
Although he was a man of many talents, he was rather arrogant, penny-pinching and greedy. He
never helped anyone; he only cared about himself and his money. Just a short while ago he had
everything: money, cars, mansions, a trophy wife. Now he had nothing, nothing at all. He was
surrounded by sand, miles and miles of sand. The only living things he could see were the camels
walking past. The only other things around him were not alive, just a couple twigs and stones
here and there. He looked left and right and cried for help, but no one replied. At this point, the
hot sun was beating down on his neck. It was midday. He yearned for a drink of water, even just a
sip. He looked all around him. Not a single drop in sight. He decided he needed to get up and start
searching if he wanted to survive. He dragged himself to his feet and started walking. For him,
this was quite a challenge. He was severely dehydrated. In the distance he saw a cactus and he
tried to walk a bit faster. He knew cacti were full of water. He pierced the cactus with a medium-
sized, sharp stone nearby. Litres and litres of water spilled out. It was an oasis in disguise. He
thirstily cupped his hands, scooped some water and drank it. He had never been so thankful for
the simplest of things that many poor people don’t have. He was about to put the stone down; until
he saw something scratched in small letters on the back.
“Well done, well done, you have finished your first quest. Complete all the quests and you will
see that everything is not always what it seem. You are in the Gobi Desert, and you will be until
you learn a lesson.”
-G
‘G?’ wondered Edward “Who could ‘G’ be? What ‘quest’ am I on?”
Nightfall came and soon the temperature fell. Edward watched the sun set and the moon rise.
He started freezing once the moon had fully risen. Who knew it would get this cold in a desert.
All he had was a plain old shirt and a pair of drab pants. He had no warning that he would be
teleported to an endless desert. No time to even get a jacket off his hanger. Oh how he wished
he had his jacket. He started walking again as he thought his ‘quest’ might require it. It felt like
hours for him, but in actuality it was only a couple of minutes.
Edward saw a pelt, a camel’s pelt. ‘Oh thank God!’ he exclaimed. Edward draped the pelt over
him and wore it as a shawl. Warmth quickly spread through his body. He was about to walk away
but he saw another stone next to where the camel’s pelt was. Edward picked up the stone and read
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