15 February 2026, Freewriters Community Daily Writing Prompt Day 3015: honest lie

Photo by the author, Deeann D. Mathews

Gladys Jubilee Trent had lived quite a bit above sea level for most of her life, on one side or another of the Blue Ridge.

Listening to her son Sgt. Vincent Trent, her daughter-in-law Melissa, and Melissa's parents Mr. Thomas and Mrs. Velma Stepforth catch her up on everything that had been going on at sea level in Lofton County, and then finding out how much her grandchildren and their friends were aware of all that was going on, caused her to shake her head.

“It's not like I ain't informed about the last 20 years, but it hits different from down here when you are immersed in it,” she said. “The problem with Lofton County really is that so many people really want to live on an honest lie.”

Sgt. Trent, being his mother's son, immediately understood, and it did not take long for the other adults to catch on. But Mrs. Jubilee Trent's nine-year-old great-nephew Vertran Stepforth also heard this.

“Please tell me a little more about that, Auntie Jubilee,” he said as he came up when the adults were gone.

“OK, so we know there is no such thing as an honest lie,” Auntie Jubilee said, “but people want to lie and still be considered honest and trustworthy.”

“Oh,” Vertran said. “But that's not how any of this works.”

“No, it isn't, and it gets really deep, really fast,” she said. “Your grandfather tells me you love Sunday School.”

“Yup,” Vertran said. “The Bible is really a interesting book to study if you are a young thousandaire media mogul – people really haven't changed much at all, and the Bible will tell you all about that in addition to letting you know what God wants for you.”

“So,” Auntie Jubilee said, “who is the only person who can just say stuff and it automatically be true?”

“God,” Vertran said. “If He says it's gonna happen, it is. May take a few thousand years, but it's gonna happen.”

“So then, when I say that people really want to live on an honest lie, I mean they are playing God, too,” Auntie Jubilee said.

“That actually makes sense because people are also trying to get stuff to happen just because they want it – like this Bayard Heights thing. Grayson keeps going on and on about this and he's right: just because you want to build something that takes ten Legos with five Legos doesn't mean you can. You can't talk your way into having those words go where the missing Legos go, and you also can't talk about 110 feet extra onto some pylons because you don't want to be bothered. So basically, people are trying to speak stuff into existence, and that's God's job, too.”

“The Lord Jesus said 'my sheep hear my voice,'” Auntie Jubilee said, “but people forget that so does Creation. He can still a stormy sea by talking to it. If He wanted to speak and hold up some Legos or lengthen some pylons, He can. But generally He doesn't, having let it be known that in His universe, there are some everyday rules we need to follow, like, counting things out properly.”

“I mean I could tell you the difference between 9 and 20 feet when I was three years old,” Vertran said. “Took me a minute to deal with the zeroes behind stuff making it bigger, but I could see that 200 was bigger than 90 a long time ago.”

“But, see, Vertran, everybody who wants to play God wants to make their own rules instead of following the ones that are already here – and this is why they are out here lying, and trying to convince folks that they are telling the truth, and doing dumb stuff to try to make their lies real, and then getting into all kinds of trouble because like you said, that's not how any of this works.”

Vertran considered this.

“I guess this is why Grandma Velma will listen to something that has gone wrong, give the solution, and then add, 'But that would be too much like right for y'all, wouldn't it?' It is kind of a rough day if anybody in the family has to hear that – even Pop-Pop is kinda scared sometimes.”

“But y'all listen, as well you should,” Auntie Jubilee said. “We ain't even gotta imagine what happens to the people who don't listen when it is God spelling things out – we see it happening live in Lofton County.”

“Yeah,” Vertran said. “I was living here in Tinyville last year when all those rogue police officers came through here and got packed up by Capt. Hamilton, Dept. O'Reilly, Capt. Lee next door, and my dad as part of the Deacons of Defense 2.0. Dad came home safe. A lot of people didn't, trying to break all the rules.”

“And Vertran,” Auntie Jubilee said, “why risk your life unless you know it is what God wants you to do?”

“Beats me,” Vertran said. “I don't even understand why my cousin Milton and his best friend George Ludlow are just figuring out that Uncle Vincent and Capt. Ludlow will ground them until they are ten years old. But at least they are figuring it out. I don't understand grown folk who don't get it.”

“Children play pretend a lot less than adults,” Auntie Jubilee said, “and as adults, sometimes we just get beside ourselves.”

“I see that,” Vertran said. “You were right. That did get real deep, real fast.”