Friday, October 18, 2019

Week 9 Story: Don't Lie to Me

After another long day at work, Jack and Ken decided to go out for drinks. They asked around the office, and Julie, who Ken was interested in, wanted to go as well. This was fine, but Ken did not know that Jack was also interested.

Later, at the bar, Ken and Jack both were chatting with Julie when Jack asked Ken about his new sports car, knowing he drove a Prius. Ken was very confused, but thought Jack was simply being a wingman. Ken went on and on about how expensive it was and how much he loved driving it. Julie was very interested in cars, and kept asking Ken questions about his new car, until he didn't even know the answers. Jack, on the other hand, kept telling the truth about his car, and Julie didn't seem to mind. It was at this point that Ken became flustered and decided to make up another lie, this time about the work he did for charity. The more he talked, the more suspicious Julie got, as Jack continued to seem like a normal guy and Ken seemed to have it all, even though they worked the same job. This continued for a few hours, until some more of Ken's friends walked in.

Ken's friends from college, who did not know what was going on, started poking fun at Ken for his car as they usually did. Ken tried to play it off.

"Oh yeah, the Prius is what I use for longer distances, because it's better for the environment," Ken said.

However, his friends saw right through him, and asked him to show them his sports car. Julie agreed, and wanted Ken to show her his charity as well. At this point, Ken did not know what to do, as he had led himself down a rabbit-hole of lies, and was completely stuck. The next day, Ken showed up to work, and Julie and her friends just laughed.

Author's Note: This story was based on the famous Tar-Baby story from the Brer Rabbit unit. Although it is not exactly the same, the idea that the Brer Rabbit gets stuck in the Tar-Baby. However, in my version, it is not a physical Tar-Baby, but rather a trap of lies. Ken begins to lie more and more and eventually gets stuck. I decided to change the representation of the Tar-Baby so that it could fit in a more modern sense.



Story source: Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings by Joel Chandler Harris (1881).

2 comments:

  1. Hello!

    This was quite the interesting story, and I feel bad for Ken, even though he did it to himself. This goes to show you the importance of telling the truth!

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  2. Hi Rohan! I really love the idea of taking the literal Tar-Baby from the Brer Rabbit unit and turning it into a metaphorical trap. The way you changed it to be more modern was really interesting. The only thing I was wondering was why Jack wanted to sabotage Ken like this. Was it because he knew Ken liked Julie, and he wanted Julie to like him instead? That wasn't very clear to me. Strong writing overall though!!

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