Luana Wu (9) | STAFF REPORTER
“I don’t know what happened,” I said again.
“Are you sure? You didn’t see a man wearing all black and carrying a gun?”
“I’m sure. I wasn’t even paying attention to where he was spotted.” The words felt wrong. They felt wrong because it was a lie. A dirty lie to save my uncle.
“We just want to know if you saw the man or not,” the officer said.
“I told you: I didn’t see anyone wearing all black and looking suspicious!” My gut twisted at that. Lying to the police… it didn’t look good for me.
He sighed. “Please calm down, miss. We’re just asking.”
“Yes, you asked. I said that I saw no one. I would have told you if I’d seen the man.”
“Okay, okay. Sorry about all the questions, but that man is a wanted criminal that we’ve been hunting for nearly a decade. We’re desperately trying to find him.” The officer sighed again. “If you did not see anyone then, I guess we’ll be on our way.”
I nodded, smiling at him. Liar, liar, liar went through my head, and I hated it. “I’ll contact you if I do see the man,” I told him. “Perhaps you can ask someone else if they’ve seen him?”
“Well, you were the only one in this area. I doubt that anyone else would have noticed him,” the officer replied. “Thank you, though. I appreciate your help.”
I flashed him another one of my fake smiles. “Of course. Anytime. Have a good day.”
He nodded at me then strolled away. Once he was out of my sight, I breathed a sigh of relief. This wasn’t the first time that I’d lied to the police. My uncle had messed up before, but this time it was bad. Some drunkard had come up to him, and my uncle had gotten into a pretty messy fight with the man. Unfortunately, some lady had seen it and called the police. From there, my uncle and I had run as far as we could from the area. By the time the police managed to find our location, my uncle was long gone and I was left to be interviewed by the police, just to decrease the suspicion.
The only good thing was that the police had no idea what my uncle looked like. Anytime they saw him, he was either already gone or he had his face covered. As I strolled along the street, I couldn’t help but think about why I was helping him. Yes, he was the only family I had left. His actions, however, were questionable. My uncle was a thief, a criminal, and possibly a murderer. He hadn’t really given me a reason for his actions, just that it was necessary in order to survive.
As soon as I got back to our apartment, the first thing out of my mouth was, “What happened back there?”
My uncle looked up to where he was sitting at the table. Compared to earlier, he was wearing a black hoodie and grey sweatpants. He said smoothly, “You know what happened. Some drunk guy came up to us and he was in the way of our mission.”
“You could have done it more discreetly. Less loud. You almost got caught. These missions of yours aren’t going to succeed if you keep on making mistakes.” I crossed my arms and stared him down.
“Missions of mine?” he scoffed. “You helped. You agreed.”
This mission today was probably one of the riskier ones that we’d done. Lord Rikan was one of the wealthier and more influential people in the city. My uncle had wanted to break into his house and steal some of his things. We had chosen a day that the lord wasn’t home and attempted to steal from him without getting caught or spotted. I was to remain a lookout while he stole.
“It’s just that I feel horrible about lying to the police. It’s only gonna be a matter of time before they start suspecting me. You know, it’s not the first time.”
“You had different disguises. They’ll never know,” my uncle replied.
“Someday they will,” I said. “I’m thinking that maybe I’m done helping you.”
“It’s too late for that, you know,” my uncle, a wicked glint entering his eyes. “Even if you tell the police about my identity, they’ll become suspicious and then you’ll end up in the cell next to mine.”
I scowled. Deep down, I knew he was right. They would be suspicious of how I knew of his identity. I might be forced to lie, which I didn’t want to do. I sighed and turned away. Then I heard my uncle say, “It’s already too late to turn back. You’ve been helping me for a long time. You’re not as innocent as you think you are.”
