First Lie Wins

by Ashley Elston

Like birds of prey, they will pick, pick, pick all night until they get the answers they want.

I don’t fault them for the way they are; I envy them. I envy the ease they feel in these situations, for knowing exactly what to expect and what is expected of them. I envy the gracefulness that comes with knowing that everyone in this town has seen them at their worst and still accepts them.

That someone would hold a nail just so in a valve while the air whistled away. I mean, it’s amusing to believe one person would go to those lengths just to meet another.

There’s an old saying: The first lie wins. It’s not referring to the little white kind that tumble out with no thought; it refers to the big one. The one that changes the game. The one that is deliberate. The lie that sets the stage for everything that comes after it. And once the lie is told, it’s what most people believe to be true. The first lie has to be the strongest. The most important. The one that has to be told.

most important, no one is questioning who I am or where I came from. The first lie wins.

This is not good. This is not good. This is not good. She is not from Eden, North Carolina—I am. Her mother didn’t die from breast cancer—Mine did. Her name is not Lucca Marino—Mine is.

It’s been said that if you want a slice of time to stick out, to be crystal clear in your mind, one small difference in an otherwise normal routine is all it takes.

Like if you’re the type who has trouble remembering whether you locked your front door before leaving for vacation, you should separate it from all the other perfunctory times you’ve locked your front door. Something as simple as turning around in a circle just before you slip the key in the lock would do it. A simple movement and forever that memory will be burned into your mind. It becomes clear enough to play over and over again. You see the door, the key turning, the doorknob wobbling when you tested the lock, and there’s no guessing whether or not you did it because you know you did.

The way you walk, the way you talk, the way you move your body screams more about you than anything else ever could.

Mama always said to be successful in life you need to do three things: learn everything you can, try your hardest, and be the best at what you do.

“You sat here like you had all the time in the world when I knew that wasn’t the case. And that tells me everything I need to know.”

no assumptions…” “We only deal in facts,”

They will take I can’t tell you the date as I can’t remember it because of the tone I used instead of the truth, which is I can’t tell you the date because it would incriminate me.