Lying For Beginners

Lying for Beginners
Lily doesn’t lie often, so she’s not that good at it. Her teacher says she’s got eyes in the back of her head. Lily hopes she can’t see inside brains too. Her cheeks feel hot, and she’s scared to look at Mrs Price. But she knows it’s not always best to tell the truth. Sometimes it makes things worse. So when Mrs Price makes her stay behind at playtime, and asks her quietly how she got those bruises on her arm, she’s ready with her big, fat, lie.

The truth would take longer than a playtime to tell, anyway. Yesterday was a Training Day. That means the teachers come to school, but the children don’t. Usually, Lily loves these days, because Mummy thinks of fun things to do. This time, though, Daddy said they’d need to be especially quiet, because Mummy wasn’t feeling well.

Mummy hasn’t been feeling well since The Bad Thing happened. First, there was going to be a new baby, then there was no baby after all, and Mummy was in hospital for days and days. Since then, she’s stayed in her pyjamas all day. When they come home from school she sometimes looks as them as though, for a moment, she’s not sure who they are.

Lily didn’t mind being quiet. She sat on her bed and cut pictures out of her old comics to make a collage. She was being a big help to Mummy by keeping an eye on Olivia, who was playing with her dolls. Dominic was being quiet in his room too. Mummy was lying on the sofa and she hadn’t eaten the toast Daddy had made before he went to work. On the television people were arguing. The man who was in charge shouted at them.

She cut her pictures out carefully and put the bits in the bin. Olivia had taken the clothes off her dolls and now she was bored. Lily gave her one of her colouring books and some crayons. Olivia started to colour in a scribbly way, even though she’s old enough to stay in the lines. After about two minutes she said she was finished and Lily said the picture was lovely, even though it wasn’t. That kind of lie’s allowed. But now Olivia was bored again.

Lily could hear that the shouty programme had finished and a man was making a cake. She wished she could do some baking now, but she knew it wasn’t safe without a grown up. She started to read Olivia a story. But Olivia wanted to turn the pages by herself. She was too rough and bent some of the pages. Lily got out her bead box. She let Olivia string some beads.

This kept Olivia busy for a while, but Lily had to watch in case she put a bead somewhere she shouldn’t. Once, she got a piece of Lego stuck up her nose and had to go to hospital. You can’t take your eyes off her for a minute.

Lily said they’d go and see what Dominic was doing. They went across the landing into his room without knocking, which usually makes him mad, but this time he didn’t bother. He was lying on his bed drawing a picture. Lily noticed that he’d left the top off one of his felt tips and there were green pen marks on his duvet. She thought that if they turned it over, no-one would notice.

Dominic has a lot of stuff. He collects things – comics, Star Wars Figures he keeps lined up on the windowsill, lots of stuff to do with Egyptians, which he’s really into, and things to do with Romans, which he was into before Egyptians. Olivia started going round and touching things. Without saying anything Dominic passed Lily a sheet of paper and she started on her own picture. It’s always like that with Dominic – they don’t need to do a lot of talking.

They drew until Olivia said she was hungry. She said it over and over again. Lily looked at Dominic’s Star Wars Clock. It was past lunchtime. She tiptoed downstairs. On the television a row of ladies were sitting behind a long desk, talking and laughing. Mummy was staring at them.

She could make a sandwich. That wasn’t really cooking, because there was nothing hot or dangerous. Not if she didn’t use a sharp knife. They did instructions for sandwiches in school. First, butter the bread. Then, place the ham and cheese on one of the slices of bread. Place another slice of bread on top, buttered side down. Ask a grown up to cut the sandwich in two. She couldn’t do the last one, and the butter knife wouldn’t work, so she just left the sandwiches big. She’d tell Olivia they were giant’s sandwiches.

Then she remembered that Mummy hadn’t had anything to eat. She made another sandwich. Mummy would need a drink too. Lily looked at the kettle. She knew you just had to fill it with water, plug it in and press the button. She imagined how pleased Mummy would be. So pleased that she’d forget to be cross that Lily had used the kettle.

While Lily waited for the kettle to boil she put teabags in the pot. She found Mummy’s mug, the one with ‘World’s Best Mum’ on it. The kettle clicked. She knew that the next bit was dangerous. She climbed on a chair so she could reach better. The kettle was so heavy that her hands shook as she lifted it. She put everything on a tray and set off.

She very nearly gave Mummy a lovely surprise. It wasn’t Ben’s fault – he’s a dog. So Lily didn’t blame him when he wandered across the path she was treading so carefully. In fact, she didn’t even see him, she was too busy making sure that nothing spilled.

The crash, and Ben’s yelp, brought Dominic running downstairs to see what had happened. But Mummy was already there, as though she’d suddenly come back to life. She grabbed Lily’s arms, pinning them to her sides, and shook her as she screamed into her face. She said Lily was a stupid, stupid little girl and she must never ever do such a dangerous thing again. Lily’s teeth chattered as Mummy shook her backwards and forwards. Her head felt as though it might come loose and roll onto the carpet, where the hot tea was steaming. The spilled milk would make the carpet smell, thought Lily. Mummy’s fingers were digging into her arms. Her rage went on and on, until it stopped being about the tea, and everything that had ever gone wrong somehow became Lily’s fault. Lily didn’t know she was crying until there was a salty taste on her lips.

Dominic shouted to Mummy that she was hurting Lily. It went quiet and Mummy stared at her hands as though she didn’t know who they belonged to. Dominic opened her fingers, like a teacher does on the first day of school when someone won’t let go of their Mum. Mummy kept saying she was sorry, but Lily wasn’t sure who she was saying it to. A man on the television told a lady that an ugly vase was worth a lot of money.

Even Daddy doesn’t know this story. Lily’s told Dominic what to say if anyone asks. She feels bad, but she has to do it. She takes a deep breath and tells Mrs Price that they were playing a silly wrestling game and Dominic was too rough. Dominic doesn’t even like wrestling. Mrs Price looks hard at Lily, then smiles and tells her to go out to play.

All day long, Lily worries that something else bad will happen because of her lie. She worries and worries and, at home time, she thinks that maybe it has, because she can’t see her grown up cousin, Lisa, who’s meant to be collecting them. Then Mrs Price points at the bench. It’s not Lisa, it’s Mummy. And she’s not got her pyjamas on. She’s wearing jeans, and Lily’s favourite top. She’s brushed her hair and put some lipstick on. When she sees Lily she holds out her arms. Lily runs, and when she gets there she drops her lunchbox and Mummy lifts her up and swings her round and round. Lily knows she’s got the best mum in the world. And that’s no word of a lie.