You Reap What You Sow by Ian Harijanto

"All right! Let’s head out!” Mr Tan said. I quickly ran up the bus and grabbed the window seat. Soon, my best friend Hezekiah arrived and sat next to me. Immediately, we struck up a conversation. During the journey, we talked about one subject in particular. We were discussing what our English teacher, Mrs Gan, had told us about. It was this phrase “You reap what you sow”.

I could not fully comprehend and Hezekiah was no different. I shrugged at the thought as we had arrived at the beach. When we were very near the beach, I felt the sea breeze and it made me all energetic again. Once we were at the beach, Mr Tan gave us a quick briefing of what we had to do. Mr Tan said, “You’ll have to pick up all the rubbish on the beach that you can find. No fooling around. While you’re doing that, I’ll be enjoying myself picking up seashells!”

The moment we heard that, we all chorused in complaint as Mr Tan skidded off towards the sea. I thought to myself, “Man, we have to do all the work and he gets to enjoy himself.”
I strolled over to take the garbage bag and started picking up all the rubbish that inconsiderate people left. As I picked up the endless amount of garbage, I saw something small moving in the distance. At that moment, I actually thought, “Cans can’t move around!” At that thought, I laughed heartily to myself. I ran over, ignoring all the rubbish scattered on the ground. As I moved closer, I saw that it had two pincers and it turned out to be a crab!

I watched it for a considerable amount of time and then, a nasty thought filled my mind. I instantly looked around for a wooden pole. When I finally found one, I rushed over and was jubilant to find that the crab was still there and not moving. I crept over stealthily, raised the pole and did an overhead swing. It landed perfectly on the crab shell and it created a dent on it.

It scampered back to its underground tunnels and it seemed to wince in pain. I laughed at that sight and continued picking up the rubbish. When I returned to where my friends were, I told them my story. Surprisingly, they did not believe what I had said and told me to prove it to them. I scanned the ground for holes that represented the entrance to the crabs’ underground tunnels. I soon spotted some and I stuck my hand in, trying to draw out a crab. After I had dug my hands in the sand for a considerable amount of time, I felt a sharp pang of pain and let out a loud shriek! I instantaneously pulled my hand out of the soil and what I saw shocked me.

The crab that was on my finger had a dent on its shell. It was the one that I had whacked before. Now it was my turn to wince in pain and I reckoned that it felt satisfied to have got its revenge. In the distance, I heard one of my enemies doubling over in laughter. The word spread like wildfire and soon everyone was present.

Finally, I heard my teachers’ voice ordering, “Move aside! Move aside!” When he saw me, he asked with concern, “What happened? Hurry up and get that crab off your hand!” He used a stick to probe the crab and soon, the crab was off my hand and it hurried back to its tunnel.

My finger was bandaged and as Mr Tan bandaged my finger, he forced the circumstances out of me. I was ready for the inevitable and prepared to face the music. Mr Tan glared at me with dagger eyes and started his ear-piercing speech.

After the lecture was over, Mr Tan asked me what I had learned and I told him that we should not disturb nature. I also learnt that retribution would come back and haunt us if we did wrong. There was something else I learnt which I kept to myself. Now, I could finally comprehend the phrase “You reap what you sow”. This would be a lesson that will stay etched in my mind as I had learnt it the hard way. It would help me in making my life’s decisions for years to come.