A Friend in Need is A Friend Indeed

                                                    

    

     In a small village right at the edge of a heavy forest, there were two guys, Rahul and Sameer, who grew up together. You’d rarely see one without the other. Sameer was the kind of person who loved big talk. He’d always throw an arm around Rahul's shoulder and say stuff like, "We’re brothers, man. I’ve got your back no matter what."

Rahul took him at his word. Why wouldn't he? They had shared everything since they were kids.

One morning, they had to walk through the forest to get to a market in the next town. The forest had a reputation for wild animals, but as they started walking, Sameer just laughed it off. "Don't even worry about it," he said. "If anything comes at us, we handle it together."

Rahul just smiled and kept walking, feeling good about having his friend along.

A few hours in, the trees grew thick enough to block the sun, and the forest got eerie and quiet. Then, out of nowhere—a loud snap of a branch, followed by a heavy growl.

A huge brown bear stepped right onto the dirt path ahead of them, staring them down.

Before Rahul could even process what was happening, Sameer panicked. All those big promises vanished in a split second. He sprinted straight for the nearest tree, hauled himself up the trunk like a monkey, and hid up in the high leaves. He didn't even look back to see where Rahul was.

Rahul was left standing on the trail, dead in his tracks. And the worst part? He didn't know how to climb trees.

With the bear heading right for him, Rahul remembered something his granddad once told him: bears usually won't mess with something that's already dead.

He didn't have any other choice. Rahul dropped straight to the dirt, closed his eyes, and lay as flat and still as a log. He slowed his breathing down and held it, praying his chest wouldn't move.

The bear walked right up to him. Rahul could feel the heavy weight of the animal standing over him, smelling its hot breath right against his neck and ears. His lungs were burning, screaming for air, but he didn't twitch a muscle.

After a few agonizing seconds, the bear gave a low grunt, lost interest, and slowly shuffled back into the trees.

Once the woods were dead quiet again, Sameer scrambled down from his tree. He walked over to Rahul, who was sitting up in the dirt, finally catching his breath.

Sameer was clearly embarrassed, so he tried to brush it off with a nervous joke. "Man, that was crazy! But hey... I saw the bear putting its nose right against your ear. It looked like it was whispering to you. What did it say?"

Rahul brushed the dirt off his clothes, looked Sameer right in the eye, and said quietly:

"It told me to never waste my time with a friend who runs away the second things get tough."

Sameer couldn't even look him in the eye. He stood there in complete silence as Rahul turned around and walked down the path by himself.

"Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down." — Oprah Winfrey