THE MOMENT
"You're new," Meredith smiled down at Wyatt. He was a scrawny pre-teen doing his best to hide behind the matron while pretending he wasn't. "Wanna see the ocean too?" she asked. All at once, Meredith was everything he'd heard from the other kids. His eyes went wide and he nodded eagerly.
"Please, Ms. Meredith," he said. His excitement gave him the courage to take a step away from the matron. Meredith grinned and waved him forward to join the rest of the orphans.
"C'mon then, move those legs," she said. Then, Meredith waved at the matron as she turned to head out the door. "See you around, sister," she said.
"You'll have them back before bed?" she asked out of habit.
"Always have...," Meredith said as Wyatt was the last one out of the orphanage. As he walked by her, Wyatt saw a curious quiver in her voice.
When people were honest, Wyatt felt normal. But, the moment a lie came out of someone's mouth their words appeared to Wyatt as red text. The words floated upward towards the sky because they had no weight. Unfortunately, being an orphan gave him plenty of opportunities to study lies. Even at 11, he could kind of gauge how much was changed by how fast the words rose. Those with some basis in reality were the slowest.
Meredith's answer did something different. The words, 'Always have' came out of her mouth in black. Instead of floating away, they hovered in place until they dissipated. Wyatt knew what that meant, he'd seen it often too. It wasn't a lie, exactly; but, more of a misdirected truth. She never answered the matron's question.
Wyatt instantly felt nervous about her misdirection, but he couldn't say anything based on a feeling. Meredith had been showing up at the orphanage since before any of them were born. She always came with a large donation and a took the kids out on her ship. If it was the first time she asked to take the kids out, Wyatt's nerves might have had more leverage. He decided the best thing to do was to ask about the tales that he was sure were lies.
It was only Wyatt's fourth week at the orphanage; but, it seemed like all the kids had an amazing tale to tell about Meredith. He arrived the day after the last trip and everyone wanted to talk about their latest adventure. Once all those stories were well worn, the other kids realized Wyatt hadn't heard about any of the older outings. Every day for a month, Wyatt heard a new story about Meredith, and it was time to see how much she liked to lie.
"Is it true you've seen a unicorn?" Wyatt asked. A chorus of giggles ran through the children as they walked out of town.
"Go on, tell him!" one of the kids shouted. Meredith nodded.
"It's true," she said. She gave him a curt nod and a flat answer; but, she was telling the truth.
"Whoooa..," Wyatt was surprised. He went for the most obvious lie he could think of. She had dozens of other feats; but a lot of them could be interpreted in different ways. It was one thing to survive a storm and suggest you won a fight with it; it was another to outright admit to seeing something that didn't exist. He was stunned for the rest of the walk to the pier, and onto her ship.
"Alright you lot, get us underway while I get Wyatt caught up," Meredith ordered.
"Aye, aye!" a dozen kids saluted and spread out on the ship. Wyatt wasn't surprised about that. The kids had been telling him for a month, truthfully, that she lets them crew the ship when they go out. They'd always been truthful with their tales; but, that didn't mean that Meredith was truthful with hers. They'd been lucky so far, it seemed like every time they went it was a perfect day for it. Gentle winds and a smooth sea meant that the kids didn't have much trouble.
"So, Wyatt...," Meredith smiled at him again as she sat down behind her desk. He sat in front of her with his hands in his lap. "...I want to make this as easy for you as possible," she said. That was the first time Wyatt had heard those words without the red text appearing.
"You're not in trouble, and you're not in danger," she said honestly. Then, she sighed. "I think that about covers it. I'm not sure how it works exactly, but your power should tell you whether I'm lying or not. Do you have any questions?" After asking, Meredith leaned back in her chair to show him that there was no rush.
"You know?? How do you know??" Wyatt asked. He had to admit, she did put him at ease enough to open up.
"That's a big answer...," Meredith chuckled. But, she wasn't lying. "Put it this way. I can see what someone is. And, I can see that you have a super power that somehow lets you pick out honesty; but I don't know how it works to you."
"Wow,.." Wyatt was stunned again. She wasn't lying, and she wasn't misdirecting.
"You built a ship from dirt and rocks?" Wyatt asked. It was honestly the most boring of the tales. In every re-telling he heard, they never mentioned whether the ship actually floated. He expected Meredith to drag the story out as entertaining as possible and end with; 'but, she never floated.' He needed something a little bit more normal to help him process everything.
"Well, that one's cheating a little bit," Meredith giggled. She held her hand out and she was suddenly holding a clump of dark, moist dirt. It was there when she flipped her hand over, but she wasn't holding it the second before. Then, she turned her hand over and let the soil fall out of her hand and onto the desk; but, it continued to pour out far more than her tiny hand could have held.
Soon, she had a small mound of soil on her desk and Wyatt leaned forward in shock when he spotted a small green sprout peek out of it. He thought he couldn't be any more surprised; but, he almost fainted at Meredith's next, truthful words.
"It's not really all that impressive when you consider that I'm the spirit of the Earth."