GOSSIP

In a very quiet suburb, there was an old couple who lived in a small house surrounded by a cozy garden. Mr and Mrs Still. They live quietly too inside the house. Never make any noisy and crowded sound. They lived their life peacefully. They were very gentle and friendly to all people at their neighborhood. They never conducted any bad behavior. They were always good to everyone.

Until one day, there came a young lady who stayed next door. Her name is Ms Chatty. She looked very cheerful and talkative. She liked to talk and chat.

Upon her arrival, there were a little bit changes in the street she lived. It became more cheerful because of the high volume of music all day. Every morning, Ms Chatty had already sat on the bench near Mr and Mrs Still’s garden, made telephone calls to her friends and chat for hours. Told them about everything happened in that place.

She also liked to stop by at her neighbors, just to say hello and have a little chit chat here and there. Soon, she was quite well-known in that neighborhood.

One day, the Stills planned to cut down a very old big tree in their garden, since the dry leaves of the tree caused a lot of mess, and the twigs created a noisy sound in a windy season. So, they discussed about their plan.

“Darling, tomorrow we must work our plan. We can’t wait any longer. It’s very annoying. Mr. Woody will help us to execute the big body. We must cut it little by little until he got collapse. ”

“Ok. You make it bald first, and then I will do the rest”

“We should get rid of those bugs first.”

“We must prepare the axe, chopper, saw and all tools.

While they were talking about the tree cutting, Ms Chatty happened to overhear. However since the volume of the music inside is very loud, she can not grasp the whole conversation clearly. She was very shocked indeed. She hurriedly went to Mr Nosy’s house. She told him in trembling voice, “You would never believe me if you did not hear it directly. Mr and Mrs Still were not as good and gentle as their appearances. They were very sadistic. They said that they would execute Mr Woody because that bald and big body was an annoying bug. They want to cut him until collapse. They have prepared all the weapons.

Mr Nosy was also shocked. He directly drove his car to Mr Shabby’s store and told him about what he had just heard from Ms Chatty.

“Hi Mr Shabby, you know what. There would be a very brutal execution in our district. The Stills was not as still as we assumed. They would cut the annoying and big bald Mr Woody into pieces and prepared some bugs to get rid the collapsed body.”

“Is it true? Wow…let me tell my friend”

Then the story was told from one house to another house with various versions.

And the following day, everyone in that suburb was standing near the Still’s house and waiting for the execution.

When Mr Woody came to the Stills, all people whispered to one another. “Poor Mr Woody, he will end his life in the hand of a brutal and cruel old couple”.

When Mr and Mrs Still looked at the crowd, they were amazed and wondered.

They asked them why they stood outside the house. Then Mr Shabby asked Mr Still why he wanted to get rid of Mr Woody and give the body to the bugs.

Mr Still was very shocked and almost choked hearing the news. Then he explained to all people the real story.

And Ms Chatty as the first one, who spread out the wrong news, was suddenly disappeared. And not long after that incident, she moved out from the suburb.

The people at the suburb were back to the normal life again. The quiet and peaceful life.

We can learn from the story, that we must not spread the news or stories if we don’t know it very much. And we even add some “flavor” to the story to make it more “juicy”. The real story will be very different to the spread one. The effect of the spread rumor sometimes would hurt many people.

That is why we must be very careful in our talking.