I would have done whatever I needed to do.
 |
| Image: All Rights Reserved |
| New York : Hyperion Books for Children |
| 2008 |
“Holly piloted the shuttle as though she were angry with it, slamming the mining craft round bends until its air brakes screamed and its readout needless shot into the red. She wore a flight helmet hardwired directly into the shuttle’s cameras, so a wraparound view of the shuttle was available to her at all times; she could even choose a remote beamed to the shuttle from the tunnel’s various cameras. This particular stretch of tunnel has little traffic and so the motion sensitive lights would pop on barely five miles before the shuttle entered a stretch.
Holly tried hard to enjoy the experience of flying and forget everything else. Being a pilot for the LEP was what she had dreamed of since childhood. As she cut yet another corner with a millimetre to spare, and felt the shuttle strain to its limits in her hands, the tension drained from her body as though absorbed by the craft. Artemis lied to me and blackmailed me, but he did it for his mother. A good reason. Who’s to say that I would not have done the same thing myself? If I could have saved my mother, I would have done whatever I needed to do, including manipulate my friends. And so she could understand what Artemis had done-even though she felt it was unnecessary-but that did not mean she could forgive him just yet.
And how could she forget it? It felt as though she had completely misjudged their friendship.
That won’t happen again.
One thing Holly was certain of: the most she and Artemis could ever have now was what they’d always had-grudging respect. Holly patched into the passenger-seat bubble-cam on the shuttle ceiling and was gratified to see Artemis clutching the armrest on his seat. Perhaps it was the camera feed or perhaps his face was actually green.
You blew it, Mud Boy, thought Holly, and then, I hope it’s your face and not the feed.
Extract from the book Artemis fowl and the Time Paradox
By Eoin Colfer
All Rights Reserved.
New York : Hyperion Books for Children, 2008.
Call Number: J English COL
Extract contributed by Eugene Sim, Maris Stella High School
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Would you forgive a friend if he lied or manipulated you?
August 8th, 2011 at 1:25 pm
I will give him/her a second chance. If he/she misuses it I will be angry and I will never forgive him/her.
August 31st, 2011 at 11:43 pm
I could forgive lying, but not manipulation. Lying could have been because the person did not want to hurt me, but manipulation indicated that he/she knew what he/she was doing, and deliberately used it to help himself/herself. And if someone knew that it was hurting you but continued doing it, then I do not think the person is a good and worthy friend.
Yet if I really had a long history with that friend, I would forgive the person. But of course, if he/she blew it again, then it probably showed that he/she was not a good person.
August 19th, 2012 at 11:56 am
I would if he had done it to save another. The value of a human life far outweighs the feeling of betrayal. Betrayal is something you can recover from, death is not.
August 20th, 2012 at 1:37 am
I would be able to forgive my friend if he lied or manipulated me. I believe that behind every action a person takes, there is an underlying reason. If that person is truly my friend, and he feels that whatever he is trying to achieve is important enough to lie to me and manipulate me, so much so that it can overcome the bonds of our friendship, then I would think that he truly has a need for it, and I would let that one incident slide.
However, even if I am able to forgive, I will not forget. It’s one thing to know that you have been manipulated; it’s another to let yourself continue being manipulated. Should my friend try to lie to me or manipulate me again without letting me understand his circumstances, I definitely should not be able to forgive him a second time.