In the doorway,
I explain my lie
and Mum listens,
her face blank,
as if her emotions
are still loading.
“I don’t deserve this,” she says.
Her voice and face break.
Nostrils flare, lips twitch, eyes well up.
“I don’t deserve to be lied to.
Not by you.
I’m on your side, Malachi.
I was ready to go to war for you.”
“I know,” I say. “I’m sorry.”
I wait but Mum doesn’t respond.
“Do you forgive me?” I ask,
fearful and uncertain
of what Mum thinks of me.
She doesn’t answer
with words. She flings
her arms around me.
Squeezes me tight.
Wednesday: The Truth Will Set You Free—Before School
Matt laughs to himself
as he approaches me before school
at the gates of our weekday prison.
“There’s the boy who almost cried wolf!”
I shake my head at him.
We walk through the gates and out of earshot
of our prison-guard teachers
