A Lie for a Lie by Emilie Richards

sisters and I have always called our mother Junie, and none of us can remember why—“this self-esteem thing is a common problem among the mothers of school-age children and the wives of ministers. I know I’m darned good at the first and passing fair at the second—when I remember not to say everything I’m thinking. I’m pretty good at flipping houses, although the housing slump means we aren’t making much money doing it. And I seem to have a talent for finding murderers.”
    Of course, I nearly died a couple of times practicing that particular skill. So that’s not great for my self-esteem, but I didn’t go into that. “I guess I just need something else. And right now the Idyll is it.”
    “I’m looking for another assistant.”
    I closed my eyes. “Come on, in a month this place would be history. Remember the costume I made for Deena’s third Halloween?” Deena’s Cinderella ball gown, my first real sewing project as an adult, had turned out so badly that Ed and I had smeared ashes on her cheeks and told everybody she was Cinderella before her fairy godmother showed up. We’d made certain no photos survived.
    “It was certainly one of a kind,” Junie said.
    “I don’t need a job. Lucy and I will get back to flipping. Right now I just need to prove I’m a nice, normal person who’s also intelligent, efficient, and able to stay out of trouble. And speaking of that . . .”
    I launched into a description of last night’s party, which had ended—no surprise—with Grady singing “Remember Me in April,” the hit song which had brought him back into the limelight last year, and the one which some people say fanned the embers of his career back to flame.
    “When he’s singing, he seems like the nicest guy in the world. When he’s talking to somebody important, he does, too. But Grady Barber’s got it in for all the little guys in the world. I shudder to think what the next round of the Idyll will be like.”
    “The movie where he got his start. What’s it called?”
    “Wayfarers of the Ark.” I could see this wasn’t familiar to Junie, who’d never been much for movies. I explained. “It’s the story of Noah’s ark, only it’s about the members of Noah’s family, how they feel about getting in a boat with all those animals just because Noah tells them to, how they feel about leaving friends and family behind, knowing they’ll drown. Grady played Idan, Noah’s grandson. In the movie there’s a young girl he’s in love with. The two of them try desperately to find a female unicorn as a mate for Idan’s own unicorn. In the end the girl finds a female but can’t get back in time to board the ark. Idan is forced to sail without her.”
    “You say this is a children’s movie?” Junie was irate. “This is a message we want children to hear?”
    I patted her hand. “We can’t protect them from the Old Testament. It’s everywhere. Anyway, forget the story. What’s most important is that to promote the movie, the producers launched a big talent search to find fresh new talent for Idan and the girl, Dalia. It was a public relations stunt. Anyway, Grady was a senior at the high school here. The talent scouts were visiting small cities and towns, and for some reason Emerald Springs was on their route. Grady tried out, singing an original song he’d written for the audition called ‘Sailing toward a Rainbow.’ They loved him; they loved the song. The rest is history.”
    “And success turned him into a monster.”
    “I don’t know, maybe he was a monster before he got famous.”
    I was tired of thinking about Grady Barber, so I turned the conversation to the shop. We chatted about new fabric she was expecting, a class she was planning, about Teddy’s swimming lessons. Finally Miss Emma ambled out to say that several customers needed Junie’s advice. I glanced at my watch and realized I’d stayed longer than I had planned. I still had a long list to finish before Monday evening,