Lucy the Lie Detector Read online

‘Binockaleeeeeeeeeers!’

  ‘I have an idea,’ said Lucy.

  She ran into her bedroom and went straight for the useful box. She quickly set to work taping together two empty toilet rolls. Then she decorated them with lots of yellow stars. She finished off her creation by taping a piece of string to either side of it. Then she ran back into Calvin’s bedroom.

  ‘What about these?’ she said, holding them up to her eyes. ‘They’re not as good as your binoculars, but I did make them your favourite colour, see?’

  Calvin regarded them doubtfully, his arms still firmly clamped around the bed leg. Lucy lay them down on the carpet and stepped back. After a time, Calvin let go of one hand and reached out.

  Dad and Lucy both held their breath as Calvin brought Lucy’s binoculars up to his eyes. A smile twitched at his lips.

  ‘Well, zoontje?’ said Dad.

  Calvin let go of the bed leg and jumped up. ‘Hurry, Dad! We’ll be late!’

  Dad gave Lucy a quick kiss on the forehead and they all piled into the car.

  With Calvin safely deposited at Herc’s, Dad zoomed off. ‘Fifteen minutes late,’ he said, glancing at the clock in the car. ‘Mrs Preston is not going to be happy.’

  ‘Mrs Preston?’ said Lucy, pricking up her ears.

  ‘Yes, she’s hosting the meeting today.’

  ‘But she’s Jacinta’s mum.’

  ‘That’s right,’ said Dad. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel while they waited at the lights.

  ‘But, Dad,’ cried Lucy, ‘I hate Jacinta! Can’t I stay home by myself?’

  ‘We’ve been through this before,’ said Dad. ‘You know you’re too young.’

  Lucy scowled. She wasn’t that young. After all, she could do a backwards somersault.

  The thought of spending two minutes with Jacinta, let alone two hours, made Lucy’s tummy fire up. She could feel a shout on its way. So could Dad.

  ‘Lucy,’ he cautioned, ‘we have a deal, remember?’

  Lucy pursed her lips. Every day she didn’t throw a tantrum, Dad put a smiley stamp on the calendar. Once she had ten smiley stamps in a row, she got a reward: a chocolate or a sticker. When she knew a tantrum was coming, she was supposed to count to ten or go to her room. That was all very well, but what was the point of all that when she had to play with Jacinta?

  Since Dad had his ‘I mean it’ face on, Lucy took a deep breath. ‘One,’ she said through gritted teeth. ‘Two.’

  Dad nodded.

  ‘Three,’ she continued. There was a shout inside her that still wanted to come out. ‘Four.’ Dad looked her in the eye. ‘Five,’ she said. It was still there. She couldn’t hold it in much longer. ‘Six,’ she said a little louder, pressing her fist into her mouth. ‘Seven,’ she said into the back of her hand. ‘Eight,’ she added, grabbing her bag. ‘Nine!’ she said as she unzipped it. ‘Ten!’ she bellowed, sticking her head in the bag.

  By the time they were walking up Jacinta’s driveway, all the shouts were out of her system (at least for now – some angry feelings towards Dad remained).

  ‘Now, remember what we talked about?’ said Dad, interrupting her thoughts.

  ‘Be quiet and polite and don’t pick a fight with Jacinta,’ recited Lucy. ‘Unless she starts it,’ she muttered.

  ‘Lucy.’

  ‘Alllllll riiiiiiight.’

  ‘Can you remember what else we agreed on?’

  ‘No lies,’ said Lucy. ‘I know, Dad. I promised.’

  ‘Thank you, my love.’

  They arrived at the front door and Dad rang the bell. When Mrs Preston answered, she looked to Lucy like a bigger version of Jacinta: long blonde hair and a disapproving stare. While Dad apologised for being late, Lucy glanced around the hallway. There were three African masks hanging on the white walls and a large painting off to the left. Mrs Preston followed Lucy’s gaze.

  ‘Powerful, isn’t it? As part of my job as an interior designer, I have to find paintings for people. When I saw this, I simply had to buy it for myself. What do you think?’

  ‘It certainly attracts your attention,’ said Dad, looking doubtful. Then he brightened up and added, ‘It’s a fine piece of work, Judy. Just marvellous.’

  ‘And what do you think, Lucy?’ asked Mrs Preston.

  Lucy couldn’t stop staring at the brown blob in the centre, surrounded by a field of green. ‘It looks like a cow did a p–’

  ‘That’s enough, Lucy,’ said Dad, giving her a stern look.

  Lucy huffed. She was only telling the truth, and hadn’t Dad just given her a lecture about that very thing?

  Mrs Preston looked peeved. ‘Yes, well, I wouldn’t expect a little girl to understand art.’

  ‘I do understand art,’ said Lucy. ‘I’m good at it. My teacher says so. Hey, I could do a painting for you! You don’t have any kids’ stuff on the walls. I’m specially good at camels.’

  Dad gave her another look.

  ‘What?’ she asked. Dad was always giving her looks but she never knew why.

  ‘How about I show you up to Jacinta’s room?’ said Mrs Preston curtly.

  Lucy shrugged. She might as well get it over with.

  Chapter Twelve

  Mrs Preston led Lucy up the stairs. She pointed at a door with a unicorn plaque. ‘Jacinta’s in there. I’m sure you two will have a nice time together.’

  Mrs Preston knocked on the door twice. There was a gasp from inside the room, followed by the sound of someone rushing about.

  ‘Jacinta?’ Mrs Preston pushed on the handle and went in. Her daughter spun around.

  ‘Hi, Mum,’ she said, sitting down abruptly on the lid of her laundry basket. ‘I didn’t hear you.’ She turned to Lucy and gave her a fake smile. ‘Oh, you’re here.’

  Lucy returned Jacinta’s fake smile.

  ‘Goodness me,’ said Mrs Preston, ‘what a state your room’s in!’

  There was a nightie hanging over the back of a chair and a pile of fairy books stacked on the floor next to the bed. As far as Lucy could tell, nothing else was out of place.

  ‘I’d like you to tidy up before morning tea, please, darling.’

  ‘Yes, Mum,’ said Jacinta. ‘But could Lucy and I play outside first?’ Her voice sounded urgent.

  ‘Best not,’ said Mrs Preston. ‘You don’t want to get your dress dirty.’

  Lucy looked at Jacinta’s neatly ironed, lavender-coloured dress. Then she looked down at her own orange World Cup soccer T-shirt (Holland’s colours) paired with her green and yellow shorts (Australia’s). It wouldn’t bother her at all if her outfit got dirty. In fact, the dirtier it got, the more fun she knew she’d had.

  ‘But Mum –’ began Jacinta.

  Mrs Preston held up her hand. ‘I’ll call you when it’s time for morning tea.’

  As soon as she closed the door, Jacinta set to work folding up her nightie and re-shelving her books.

  ‘You can look at my stuff,’ she said. ‘But don’t touch anything.’ She said ‘anything’ very firmly, as if she thought Lucy was a criminal who couldn’t be trusted.

  Lucy rolled her eyes. ‘Could we play with those?’ She pointed at a row of dolls lined up on Jacinta’s shelf. Each doll was sealed in a separate box and dressed in a different national costume. Lucy spotted the Dutch one right away. She had clogs on and a little white hat that turned up at the ends. ‘We could play the Olympics! All the dolls can do different sports like high jump and shot put. At the end, we can give out medals.’

  ‘No,’ said Jacinta, shaking her head. ‘They’ll get spoiled if you take them out of their boxes.’

  ‘What’s the point of having dolls if you don’t play with them?’ said Lucy.

  ‘They’re display dolls,’ said Jacinta. ‘You look at them.’

  ‘We’d be careful,’ pressed Lucy.

&
nbsp; ‘I said no,’ snapped Jacinta. ‘Mum said so. And anyway –’

  There was a strange, high-pitched sound, but it was quickly drowned out by a loud coughing fit from Jacinta. By the time she finished, the sound had stopped.

  ‘They’re special,’ she continued, as if nothing had happened. ‘Dad gives me one every time he comes back from an overseas trip.’

  ‘Your dad must go overseas a lot,’ said Lucy. She sat down on Jacinta’s bed, next to a row of stuffed toy unicorns.

  ‘He does,’ replied Jacinta. ‘Sometimes, he’s away for a whole month. He’s an important mining engineer.’

  Lucy thought of her own father and how he stayed at home and looked after her and Calvin. She suddenly wondered why he wasn’t an important mining engineer.

  ‘He rings me up from all these interesting places,’ continued Jacinta. ‘Like Chile or South Africa.’

  Lucy wondered why her dad didn’t ring her up from Chile or South Africa. There was that one time he rang her from the shops to remind her to stack the dishwasher, but it was hardly the same thing.

  ‘Dad’s promised to take me overseas with him,’ said Jacinta. ‘Maybe to Japan or Malaysia.’

  ‘I’ve been overseas,’ said Lucy.

  ‘Oh?’ sniffed Jacinta.

  ‘Last year. My family went to Kangaroo Island.’

  Jacinta burst out laughing. ‘That’s not overseas!’

  ‘It is too!’ said Lucy indignantly. ‘Our car went on the ferry and we went over the sea. Over – seas.’

  Jacinta shook her head. ‘It’s part of Australia. It doesn’t count.’

  Anger rumbled in Lucy’s tummy. ‘It does too!’

  Jacinta shook her head. ‘No, it doesn’t. You can’t say you’ve been overseas. If you do, you’re a liar.’

  Liar.

  Lie.

  Lying.

  Lucy was tired of hearing these words. It was all anyone ever talked about these days.

  ‘Don’t call me a liar,’ she said, her cheeks flushing.

  ‘But you are one,’ said Jacinta.

  Lucy clenched her fists. Something was building up inside her. ‘I am not a liar,’ she said through gritted teeth.

  ‘L-I-A-R,’ chanted Jacinta. ‘What does it spell? Liar!’

  Lucy’s tummy churned. She wanted to make the windows shake and Jacinta’s dolls fall off the shelves.

  ‘L-I-A –’

  ‘Right, that’s it!’ cried Lucy. She leapt up, grabbed one of the boxes and pulled out a doll wearing Brazilian national dress. ‘I’ll rip off its head unless you take that back!’

  ‘Stop!’ cried Jacinta. ‘Please, Lucy, don’t.’

  ‘I won’t stop,’ said Lucy, holding the doll above her head.

  ‘Please,’ said Jacinta, her voice wobbling. ‘That’s the first one Dad ever gave me.’

  Lucy tightened her grip around the toy’s neck. She really wanted to rip its head off but she couldn’t help remembering she’d promised to behave herself. There was something else too. For some strange reason, Lucy didn’t completely and utterly want to hurt Jacinta.

  ‘Please give her to me,’ Jacinta pleaded, a tear sliding down her cheek.

  Lucy lowered her arms, although she still held the doll tightly. ‘All right. I’ll give it back but only if you admit I went overseas.’

  ‘Okay, okay,’ said Jacinta. ‘You went over the sea.’

  Lucy stared her down.

  ‘Overseas. I meant overseas.’ Jacinta held out her hand for the doll.

  ‘There’s one more thing,’ said Lucy, clutching it to her chest. ‘You have to show me what’s inside the laundry basket.’

  Jacinta gasped. ‘What do you mean? Nothing’s inside the laundry basket.’

  ‘Well, if nothing’s inside it,’ said Lucy, ‘then why’s it making a noise?’

  Chapter Thirteen

  The two girls leant over the laundry basket. The lid was open. Inside was a guinea pig.

  ‘You won’t tell Mum, will you?’ Jacinta’s face was as pale as one of her dolls’.

  Lucy reached out to stroke the guinea pig’s reddish-brown coat. It was the same colour as her toy camel, Nathan, except it had white patches on its face and paws, and a silver bow tied around its neck.

  ‘What’s its name?’ asked Lucy.

  ‘I call her Miss P. Her proper name is Miss Priscilla Portia Primrose Petunia Preston.’

  Poor guinea pig, thought Lucy. If she had a guinea pig, she’d call it Lightning or Flash or possibly Claw.

  Miss P. twitched her nose as if she could smell something wonderful baking in the oven. Jacinta picked her up and Miss P. nuzzled against her top.

  ‘Why were you hiding her from me?’ asked Lucy.

  ‘I wasn’t hiding her from you,’ said Jacinta. ‘I was hiding her from –’ She paused, taking a good, long look at Lucy. ‘Do you swear you won’t tell?’

  Lucy nodded. ‘I swear.’

  Jacinta went to the door and checked to see no one was outside.

  ‘Guinea pigs get lonely,’ she said in a low voice, scratching Miss P. between the ears. Miss P. shivered all over as if it was the best feeling in the world. ‘You’re supposed to have at least two so they have a friend to play with. Dad gave me Miss P. but when I asked for another one, Mum said no.’ Jacinta sighed. ‘I bring her in here to keep me – I mean her – company.’

  ‘But why were you hiding her?’

  ‘Mum doesn’t like pets in the house,’ replied Jacinta. ‘The last time I had Miss P. in my room, I got in big trouble.’

  Jacinta in trouble? Lucy tried not to smile.

  ‘She said that if she caught Miss P. in here again, I’d have to give her up.’

  ‘Give her up?’ Lucy gasped.

  ‘For adoption or something.’

  Lucy couldn’t imagine her parents ever doing anything so mean. Not even when she brought the chooks into bed that one time. As she watched Jacinta stroking Miss P., something stirred inside her. She felt ... sorry for Jacinta. ‘Is it okay if I have a hold?’ she asked. ‘Please.’

  ‘I suppose so,’ said Jacinta. ‘But be careful.

  She’s not used to strangers.’ She handed her over gently.

  ‘Hello, Miss P.’ Lucy lifted her up and rubbed her fur against her cheek. The guinea pig tried to wriggle out of her hands. Lucy wished Miss P. would love her the way she obviously loved Jacinta.

  ‘Let her climb on you,’ said Jacinta.

  Since she’d had such success talking to the camel at the beach, Lucy figured she could probably talk to Miss P. as well. ‘Don’t be afraid. I’m your friend.’ She placed her on her lap, and this time, Miss P. didn’t try to escape. She padded up her right arm and onto the back of her neck, her feet tickling Lucy’s skin. There, Lucy thought. I can talk to animals.

  When Miss P. toddled back down her left arm,

  Lucy picked her up and cuddled her close. She would never tell Mrs Preston about this guinea pig.

  ‘She needs to go back in her cage now,’ said Jacinta, ‘in case Mum comes to check that I’ve cleaned my room.’

  ‘How are you going to get her outside without anyone seeing?’

  Jacinta looked stricken. ‘I hadn’t thought about it.’

  Lucy paused for a moment. ‘I have an idea.’

  ‘Are you sure this will work?’ said Jacinta.

  ‘Of course it will work,’ said Lucy. She steered the doll’s pram towards the top of the stairs while Jacinta leant over and straightened the blanket.

  ‘You won’t have to stay in there for long, Miss P.,’ Jacinta whispered.

  Lucy imagined she was on a secret mission, taking an important treasure to the queen – a lost crown, maybe, or a stone with magical powers. The queen would be at a special meeting place, only she’d be in disguis
e and –

  ‘Better hurry,’ said Jacinta.

  Lucy sighed crossly. Clearly, Jacinta was not the sort of person you could take on a secret mission.

  The voices of the grown-ups floated up from the lounge room. They were talking about selling chocolate bars to raise money for the school. Mum won’t be pleased, thought Lucy. Her parents had made a pact to lose the weight they’d put on over Christmas.

  Lucy pushed the pram over the first step. It jolted a little but Miss P. stayed hidden and quiet. She went over the second step and then the third. By the time they reached the bottom of the stairs, the grown-ups had become quite loud, laughing at something Lucy’s dad had said.

  The double doors that led into the lounge room were up ahead. Unfortunately, they were open. Lucy figured it would take about four steps to get past them.

  ‘Ready?’ she whispered, her heart hammering in her chest.

  Jacinta nodded, too petrified to speak.

  ‘Then let’s go.’

  The girls strode past the doors, pram first. Lucy risked a peek. No one was looking their way. They hurried to the end of the hallway. The grown-ups were still laughing.

  ‘We did it!’ said Lucy.

  They gave each other a high five then remembered they didn’t like one another and stepped apart.

  ‘Come on,’ said Jacinta, opening the door to the kitchen. ‘That was close.’

  ‘What was close?’ asked Mrs Preston, standing behind her.

  Chapter Fourteen

  ‘Well?’ said Mrs Preston. ‘What was close?’

  ‘I, um, you see ...’ spluttered Jacinta.

  ‘I almost knocked over a vase,’ said Lucy, standing in front of the pram to block Mrs Preston’s view. ‘That’s all.’

  Mrs Preston frowned. ‘Try to be more careful, girls. The house is not a playground.’