Liar, Liar
A red dot flashed above my younger
brother’s curly, blonde head three seconds after he replied to my mothers
question of whether or not he did his homework last night. “Of course I did, Mom.”
Thinking there was just something wrong
with my contact lenses, I blinked my eyes rapidly several times. But, when I looked back at my brother, the
red dot was still there and it was getting bigger and bigger by the
second. My mom stood in front of him with
her hands on her hips and a very stern look on her face.
Suddenly, I gasped out loud and while my
mom and brother looked at me very strangely, I glanced down at my wrist and
started to rub it, trying to soothe the burning sensation I had felt. Something appeared to be on my arm. Were those…words? In a faint gray outline, the letters L, I,
and E popped up above my skin. Lie? What
was that supposed to mean?
I looked back at Clayton whose rebellious
expression was far too advanced for a boy of ten. The red dot was still flashing. Goodness, that was surely getting on my
nerves. Wait…the alert, the LIE written
on my wrist. Was Clayton lying about
doing his homework? My eyebrows shot up
and I crossed the kitchen in two, giant strides that only long legs like mine
could handle.
Grabbing his blue folder out of his also
blue backpack, I shoved several unfinished worksheets into Clayton’s crossed
arms. “Yep, you definitely did a good job
on this homework, little bro.”
Clayton tossed a dirty look my way and
Mom grabbed the sheets out of Clayton’s hands.
I sat down and mulled over my new “super power” not hearing the rest of
the conversation between Clayton and my mother.
Could I really tell if a person is lying or not? Where had this come from? How had I gotten it?
*****
Once at school, I hurried over to
where Daisy was standing beside our lockers.
She was introducing herself to a red-headed foreign exchange student who
had just come from London the day before.
“Hi, my name is Daisy Jordan.” I marched up behind her, my 5’10 frame
towering over her petite body. “And this
is my best friend, Elcie.”
The red light. My eyes widened. I said a quick hello to the new girl but then
focused on the light. The same round,
red light appeared above Daisy’s head right before she introduced me. It only got faster after she called me her
“best friend.” Daisy couldn’t be
lying. Could she?
I took a deep breath. Daisy and I had been friends for three years;
I knew I could be honest with her. But,
she obviously wasn’t being very honest with me.
I had been so excited to tell her about my new power, but now I wasn’t
so sure. What kind of person lied to
their best friend about their name? “Daisy, you came from Morge, Arizona, right?”
Daisy nodded briskly, pulling her
history book out of her locker. “Yup. It’s so funny how you always forget the
name of my old town.” Red light. LIE on my wrist again. Daisy was so
not from Morge, Arizona. It probably
wasn’t even a real place. “Ready for
history?” Daisy asked. “Remember, we
have that big test today.”
“Yep.” I grabbed my books as well
and we walked off to class.
At lunch, Daisy informed me and Madeline
about her older sister, Katie’s, basketball tryouts at the high school. Red light.
LIE on my wrist. Now that I
thought about it, I’d never actually met Katie.
I twirled my black hair with one finger and ate a bright, green apple
with my others.
Madeline lifted her foot up to her chair
to retie the laces of her brand new, gray converse. I grinned when I saw them, thinking of the bright
blue converse that would be waiting for me in a package on our porch when I got
home. “I absolutely adore your new shoes, Madeline,” Daisy complimented in a
sticky-sweet voice. Red light. LIE on my wrist again. Goodness, Madeline’s shoes were adorable; how
could Daisy not like them?
After lunch, Madeline and I headed to
study hall while Daisy raced off towards her science class. Safe in study hall, I whispered to Madeline
everything I had discovered while she pulled her short, blonde hair back into a
ponytail. At first, Madeline’s look of
shock and the way her brown eyes practically popped out of her head told me my
friend didn’t exactly believe that I had this amazing power. Even when I explained a little better,
Madeline grimaced and shook her head. “Sorry,
Elcie. That just sounds impossible.”
“But it’s not! Here, I’ll prove it to
you. Say something and I’ll tell you if
you’re lying or not.”
“Ok…my grandmother’s coming over after
school.” Red light. LIE on my wrist.
“You’re lying.”
Madeline nodded. “Yeah, I am. I guess I
believe you now. But, what do we do about Daisy?”
I blew out a long breath. “I don’t know
yet.” I felt someone watching me and as I looked to my right, a boy with curly,
brown hair whipped his head back to his work.
Daniel pushed his wide-rimmed glasses farther up onto his freckled nose
and seemed to focus really hard on his homework. Weird.
*****
“I can’t go to the Halloween party,”
Daisy admitted regretfully. I nodded
sympathetically. Wait… red light. LIE on my wrist.
I nudged Madeline’s black leather
jacket softly with my elbow. “Why can’t you go?”
Daisy’s moment of hesitation and the
way she played with the fringe on her red dress gave me all the information I
needed to know. “Um... My parents want
us to have some time together as a family before Steven leaves for college next
weekend.” Ha. Total lie. The red light was blinking really fast now
and I almost burst out laughing. Daisy was going to be at the school tonight whether
or not she dressed up in a costume.
I was texting Madeline like crazy that
afternoon and even though dressing up in costume totally wasn’t her thing, she
agreed to come tonight just to help me figure out what Daisy was up to. I slipped on my pink, 1950’s sock dance skirt
and batted away a string caught on the little poodle’s eye.
After my mom dropped me off, I met
Madeline in the parking lot. She was
dressed in a leather jacket and combat boots, basically the same attire she
usually wore. “Who are you supposed to
be? Yourself?”
Madeline laughs. “No, I’m Katniss
from The Hunger Games.”
“Right.”
“At least I put some effort into it!
My mom’s old army boots are above and beyond for me.”
The gymnasium was packed. The sixth grade girls were dressed in sparkly
pink costumes while the older middle schoolers, like us, were dressed more
sophisticated or scary. Most of the boys
didn’t put much thought into their costumes and just wore sports jerseys of
their favorite players and tennis shoes.
Madeline ushered me over to where the
rest of our small eighth grade class stood talking- fifteen boys and eight
girls since Daisy wasn’t there. But when
I came back to our group after getting a snack, my quick mathematic brain only
counted fourteen boys.
I turned around just in time to see a
freckled face boy slowly inch out of the gym.
Daniel. Where was he going? My mind flashed back to study hall when
Daniel had been watching me and Madeline talk about Daisy lying. It could be nothing, but I was
suspicious. I grabbed Madeline’s tanned
arm and pulled her to the door, explaining along the way. We saw a flash of blue as the short boy
disappeared around the corner and headed towards the front office and resource
room.
To go into the resource room, you had to
go through the front office of the school first. Daniel went straight into the resource room,
but Madeline and I crouched down in a corner of the bright green office so we
wouldn’t be spotted. I felt Madeline
poke me and when I turned, she pointed at her phone. She had 911 on speed dial. I nodded my approval, and then we turned our
attention back to whatever was going on in the resource room. We couldn’t see anything, but we heard everything.
“Well, Caleb. It only took you three
minutes to get out here!” Said a voice that sounded a lot like Daisy’s. I looked at Madeline. Caleb?
“Geez Kendra, I tried my best. Those
annoying little middle schoolers were watching my every move. It seems like Elcie
has eyes like a hawk,” replied Daniel or Caleb.
Whoever he was.
“Whatever. Let’s get to work. We still
have lots of codes left to find. It’s going to be hard next year since we’re
supposed to move up to high school with the rest of the eighth graders. Maybe we can both get really bad grades and
have to be held back a year or two.”
There was some quiet for a minute.
Madeline kept drumming her fingers on the tile floor making a really
loud noise and I had to quiet her twice.
It was when Daisy said, “I can’t wait to
rob banks with these codes. We’re going to become rich,” that I motioned to
Madeline to go farther down the hall and call the police. This was getting serious.
*****
“Thank you, Elcie and Madeline.
We’ve been tryin’ to catch these criminals for a while now.” Officer Taylor informed
the girls. Three officers had come when
Madeline had called and told them we caught two kids stealing bank codes from
our school. Two were handcuffing the liars
and Officer Taylor was talking to Madeline and I in between walkie-talkie
conversations.
“No problem,” Madeline and I said in
unison and then smiled, amused.
“Caleb and Kendra Fisher are 17-year
olds working for a secretive criminal agency. Your middle school holds the codes for 50,033 banks in Georgia. The
high school holds the rest. With these codes, Caleb and Kendra’s criminal
agency would have been able to break into banks and steal more money than you
could imagine. Thanks to your recording, Elcie, we have enough proof to keep
them in jail for a very long time.”
Madeline’s eyebrows shot up. “Wow.”
“Can I ask you a quick question,
Officer Taylor?” I requested. I proceeded at his nod, “Have you ever heard of a
human lie detector?”
The officer shrugged his shoulders.
“Nope.”
As the policemen escorted the Fisher
siblings out of the building, I tossed Kendra a smile of victory. She gave me a dirty look back and screeched a
threat as she was led to the police car.
“You’ll pay for this some day, Elcie!”
Red light. LIE on my wrist. “It never helps the situation to lie,” I advised,
giving her a sweet smile and a high five to Madeline.
*****
When I woke up the next morning, my
lie detecting skills were gone. I guess
that was only a one time thing.
THE
END
You will never get away with
lying. Maybe you can hide it for a few years like Kendra and Caleb in
this story, but you will get caught. Even if your parents or
friends never find out, God knows every lie you tell, and you’ll be judged for
them someday. There’s this word called integrity.
Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is
watching. People will respect you for
having integrity and for not lying. You
will get applause in Heaven one day if you always have integrity and
honesty.
Proverbs 12:22 “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight.”
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