In our teen years a lot of us provide cover stories for friends intent on getting away with something. It's usually no big deal. So when his friend, Preston, asks Max, narrator of Paula Stokes' Liars, Inc., to make it look like he's on a camping trip to meet up with a girl he's met on line, he has no clue that this decision is going to turn life as he knows into hell on earth.
Actually the boys and their friend Parvati are quite comfortable with falsehood. They've created a lucrative little business at school, Liars Inc. They'll call kids in sick, forge parental signatures on all kinds of documents, ensure good test scores, and provide other services for the right amount of money.
Preston has assured Max that he will be back in time for school. When he isn't home Sunday Max thinks nothing of it. Monday he gets a call from Preston's frantic mother who says Preston never came home. And in no time at all he's in an interrogation room being questioned by FBI agents.
"Apparently when the kid of a senator goes missing they bring in the top dogs."
When Max sticks with the alibi, fearful that the truth about Liars, Inc will surface the agents come up with a lot of inconvenient questions.
"Too much had happened too quickly. I was still waiting for Preston to roll up in his car and tell me a big funny story about his adventures in Vegas. I hadn't completely wrapped my brain around the possibility that something bad had happened to him, let alone the possibility that someone else had hurt him and was setting me up to take the fall."
It certainly looks that way. Pretty soon Max is desperately fleeing the FBI, racking up felony charges that come to include arson and murder, and finding out that he and his friends are not the only liars in town.
On a personal note, I finally got a ride to the redemption center to cash in the bags of cans and bottles that had been taking up so much space in my trailer and shed. $56 worth. Now I could finally reach the summer clothes stashed in my shed. I spent much of yesterday pulling my summer clothes out, washing them and hanging them out to dry, and storing my winter clothes. Not exciting but definitely progress. It looks like Maine is in for yet another rainy weekend. I have no plans.
A great big shout out goes out to you. I hope that you have a fun and safe weekend.
Jules Hathaway
Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone
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