• "Gather round kids." The story teller said to all of the children in the small town’s library. "This is a tale of deception and small town chaos." A small black haired boy raised his hand and the story teller pointed to him.

    He asked with his young voice, “What is deception?"

    The storyteller fixed his half moon glasses and said, "Deception, my small child, is when a seemingly good person is actually evil, but no one knows."

    The children sat down in front of the old storyteller and he started telling his story, "One seemingly nice day during a calm summer a little town in a quiet and clean valley would find out a few of its townsfolk are in on a disastrous scheme. Old lady Wilma was fixing her flower garden when she heard some of the local kids saying, 'Did you hear? Did you hear?' One of the local socialites asked, 'hear what?' A blond kid answered, 'Hear about the strange death of Mr. Validez?' The socialite shook his head and the blond headed kid continued, 'Someone snuck into his house and murdered him in his sleep.' Old lady Wilma chuckled to herself and said to no one in particular, 'Kids these days, spreading news faster than the paper.'

    "Meanwhile on the other side of town, Mrs. Validez was answering questions about where she was the night before. The police officer finished up by saying, "Thanks for your time and I'm sorry for your loss miss." He tipped his hat and left in his police car. Mrs. Validez walked back into her house crying. She looked into her living room and started to clean up the blood of her deceased husband. The police had taken him but hadn't cleaned up the mess. She cried throughout the whole cleanup process. Her dark black hair had started getting silver streaks a few weeks earlier. After she was done cleaning she said to herself, ‘I will find who killed you dear.’ She thought about it and snapped because she knew who more than likely killed him. She ran out of the house toward Old Lady Wilma’s house.”

    “When she passed Wilma’s house, Wilma asked, ‘Where are you running off to on such a nice day Jenny?’ Mrs. Validez stopped and said between her breaths, ‘I’m heading to Scarlet’s house to talk to her.’ Before old lady Wilma could say anything else she was off to Scarlet’s house.”

    One of the kids raised their hands breaking everyone out of the story. The story teller pointed to her and she asked, “Why doesn’t old lady Wilma stop her and how long does it take for someone to work on their garden?” The story teller had to think about that for a minute before he answered, “Old lady Wilma works slowly so her flowers can grow nicely. She has no business with Mrs. Validez so she doesn’t stop her.” The girl just nodded and they waited for him to continue.

    He looked at his watch and started again, “When Mrs. Validez got to Scarlet’s house and knocked on the door she heard a lot of rustling in the house. After a few moments a very tired and uneasy scarlet opened the door. She said, ‘Yes, how may I help you?’ Mrs. Validez avoided her question by asking, ‘Where were you last night after midnight?’ Scarlet answered nervously, ‘I was at the local bar with Mr. Cobbler we were celebrating his birthday.”

    Mr. Cobbler was her next door neighbor so she had to run back up the street by old lady Wilma’s house. Old lady Wilma tried to stop her but she couldn’t hear anything because there was an annoying buzzing sound in her ears from all of the running. When she got to Mr. Cobbler’s house the sun was starting to set. She banged on his door and he answered, ‘What are you doing banging on my door with such urgency.’ She answered between her breaths, ‘I…was just wanting…to ask you…Where were you last night?’ He looked a little to the left and said, ‘I was with scarlet.’ She thought about it for a minute then asked, ‘What were you doing with her?’ He said stepping out of the house and making sure to close the door behind him, ‘I was at her house and we were celebrating.’

    Mrs.Validez said, ‘Thank you’ and left for her house for her trail had gone cold. She cleaned herself up and made dinner for one, for the first time in a long time. She finished up her dinner and sat on her couch looking out of the window. She was watching for any suspicious activity.”

    The librarian came over to the group of children and said, “You guys are going to have to leave in ten minutes. The kids all snapped out of the story and started to get sad. The storyteller looked at his watch and looked at his watch and said, “I’m almost done with the story. Just give us about fifteen minutes.” The librarian just nodded and went on her way.

    He continued before any of the kids could lose interest, “She saw nothing all night but when she went to sleep she was awaken by the sound of someone knocking on her door. She looked at the clock and it said 3:15. She unbolted the door and to her surprise no one was there but a note was attached to her door. She unfolded it and it said a name and she knew the name very well. She dropped the note and immediately picked it back up and put it in her nightstand drawer. She went back to bed as if nothing had happened. The name haunted her in her dreams.”

    “When she awoke the next morning she didn’t even bother changing her clothes or making breakfast. She grabbed the note and ran over to…”

    He was cut off by the beeping of his watch. He had set it to the time they had to leave and he said to the children, “Well guys guess our time is up we need to leave the library.”

    The kids all said sadly, “ahwwww”

    He shook his head as he said, “We can’t dilly dally children.”

    They all left the library not knowing who killed Mr. Validez.

    The next week, the librarian came out to the waiting kids and said, “I’m sorry kids Mr. Healer won’t be coming to the library.” One of the parents got up and asked, “Why?” The librarian looked down and said, “He was murdered in his sleep one night this week.” The parents went quiet and one of the kids asked, “How?” The librarian looked at the parents and they seemed just as curious; she said, “He was killed exactly like Mr. Validez in his story.”