White Lies

In the Truth Village, hidden in the depths of Somertos, with its intertwined trees and singing crickets, its villagers are rewarded with a rich harvest every day, and never-ending prosperity. The children live safely in its sacred grounds, boisterously playing near the crystal clear lake, the source of their nourishment. The adults and elderly live in harmony, settling around the bonfire, exchanging stories in tranquility, never exaggerated nor underplayed.

Because all the villagers know the price they have to pay in order to stay in this safe haven. Nothing comes for free, as they say.

If they dare to spill a lie from their lips in these sacred grounds, they are one step closer to getting shunned to this life of peace.

Nevertheless, despite the perfection this place seeks, there is always a bad apple bound to sprout.

“Be careful of The Swindler of the Leaves,” a man warns his children as they pass by the most crooked hut in the village, wrapped up in vines as if trapping a beast behind its cage. “If you get close, you will surely be banished from this land, and be led to a life of darkness.”

The children shiver at their father’s warning. They can’t help but feel the swindler’s eyes watching them as the leaves sway ominously in their direction. 

“The trees always hear you and they never lie.” The villagers would always remind each other of this rule. “When the leaves do not sway with the wind, that is because they know that someone is disrupting the gospel truth of the village. They are the guardian eyes that protect us.”

And the leaves are always swaying against nature’s bidding in this spot at the village. For the Swindler of the Leaves always lies.

“Do you know what the Swindler of the Leaves looks like, father?” One of the children asks.

“No one knows.” His father answers truthfully. “Some say he comes out at night, revealing his beastly form with sharp fangs. Others say we should not worry, as he has spilled enough lies that the land has punished him to wither away in this hut, for he is too feeble to feel the rich soil below our feet. But everyone knows one thing for certain. Listen to the leaves. They will tell you if he is lurking nearby.”

The children scurry away from the hut in fear, believing the words that their father speaks. After all, there is no room for doubt in the Truth Village. They leave the hut isolated in its usual darkness once more.

When night falls, everyone heads back to their huts, without a worry for the harvest that awaits them tomorrow.

But one of the children cannot sleep. Iniko is his name. The Swindler of the Leaves frightens him. He stares at the trees swaying peacefully outside the window of his hut. Yet, he cannot help but wonder if the swindler is nearby. If he will forsaken them all.

When the sun rises, welcoming a new day, the harvest ripens anew. The people are jolly, taking what they can in their woven baskets.

However, Iniko watches two villagers bicker from across the cornfield. 

“My wife has fallen ill and is bearing a child!” One of them yells, wagging his finger annoyingly to his opponent. “I must have more of the harvest today!”

“I have five children to feed, mind you! Just get your own fair share!”

“They can fill their stomachs another day! An illness must be taken seriously!”

“My children can become ill because of you tomorrow! Because of your selfishness!”

“If one child goes, that leaves more for the growth of mine!”

Arguments do not befall the town often because of their infinite amount of crops, but it is not unheard of. There is no filter to their words, as it spills crassly from their tongues. The truth is not always pure to the ears, after all.

“Go and play by the lake, young ones.” His father tells Iniko and his siblings, exasperation laced in his tone. 

They do as they’re told and squeal in excitement as they race towards the lake. They pick up stones scattered nearby and begin skipping it on the crystalline waters.

Iniko wanders away in search of more stones while his siblings play.

His eyes remain on the soil below his feet as he picks up stones one by one, keeping them in a free hand.

But keeping your head down makes you ignorant. Exposed to danger.

“Hello.” 

Iniko glances up from the stones on his hand and meets eyes with a boy. The boy’s onyx eyes beam at him with a sort of mischief that Iniko cannot decipher. His hair reaches just above his shoulders. If the boy didn’t speak, he would have thought Nini snuck up on him.

“Hello.” Iniko tilts his head.

The boy puts his hands behind his back. “What are you doing?”

“I’m finding stones to skip with my siblings.” Iniko answers.

The boy hums. “I have some nice stones! Do you want them?”

Iniko shrugs. “Okay.”

“But!” The boy raises one finger up. “It comes with a price.”

Iniko furrows his brows. A price? Nobody in the village ever charges a price. Not when everything is free and abundant.

“No thank you then.” Iniko looks back on the ground, resuming his work to pick up stones.

“Ah, you villagers don’t know that everything here comes with a price.” Iniko hears the distaste in the boy’s tone. “Did you hear the bickering of the farmers today? Surely, you saw that my father was in no good mood.”

He peers up again. “Your father?”

The boy crosses his arms and huffs. “The villager was too greedy and took my father’s share of the harvest today! Think about my brothers and sisters who have to starve because we don’t have enough crops to feed us until our stomachs are full!”

“That’s horrible!” Iniko gasps.

“This is what I mean by a price.” The boy explains. “I need some of your harvest to feed my poor siblings!”

Iniko frowns. “But I have siblings too. Three of them, in fact.”

“I have four.” The boy defends. “And they are much younger than me, mind you.”

He claps his hands together like a prayer. “Just for today, I beg you. I will make sure to repay the debt once the sun rises.”

Iniko sighs, finally relenting. After all, the crops will harvest again the next day.

“I will appease you this once, er…”

“Enki!”

“Enki.” 

“Thank you! Meet me back here by nightfall when everybody is back in their huts.”

Iniko nods, leaving Enki with his collected stones at hand.

When the moon is in view, Iniko makes sure not to make a noise as he collects a few crops from the stone pot at the centre of his home. He rushes back to the lake on his bare feet, hoping that there are no eyes watching him.

Iniko sits by the lake, waiting as he clutches the crops against his chest. He does not know why his heart thrums rapidly. He stares at the moon’s reflection on the lake, finding some solace as he does so.

He waits and waits, shivering at the slight breeze that touches his skin. The boy frowns, scanning around, wondering why Enki is late.

It is only when the glow of the sun rays just below the horizon starts to peek out does Enki reveal himself from the rustling of the bushes.

“Hello, Iniko!” Enki waves cheekily.

Iniko growls, snapping out of his sleepy state. “You’re late.”

Enki frowns. “I’m sorry, my friend. But my sister has fallen ill.”

Iniko’s anger fades, being replaced with concern. “What do you mean?”

“I had to take care of her, as her fever has risen. But the nights are chilly these days. We don’t have ointment, nor warm enough clothes for her.”

Enki’s eyes light up, however, when he sees the crops in Iniko’s arms. 

“You brought them!”

Iniko nods, handing the bushel of corn to him. 

“Thank you.” Enki smiles. “I will surely bring this to her.”

The wind touches Iniko, bringing a shiver down his spine once more. It is true. The nights have become chillier.

But if Iniko looked upwards, to notice the way the leaves swayed against the wind, and listened to the trees as his father warned, perhaps he would have found out the reason why.

“Do you need anything else?” Iniko asks.

Enki smiles. “I do not believe so.”

“How about clothes?” Iniko offers. “I have a younger sister as well. Perhaps I can find some clothes that can fit yours. Just until she gets better.”

“You would do that?” Enki grins. “That would be most splendid!”

And so as the days pass by, Iniko continues to meet Enki by the lake when everyone is still sleeping. He gave him his sister’s clothes that were hanging in the washing line outside his hut. But most nights, he would continue to get crops from his family pot to give to what he now calls his friend. 

But Iniko cannot help but shake away the twisted feeling in his stomach. He does not know if it’s just the growing cold weather or the shame in his chest.

“I’m afraid my family is starting to take notice with how the crops are always lesser in the morning than it is in the night before.” Iniko tells Enki one night. “I do not know why I feel this way. I have never lied to them when they asked, yet I do not utter a single word either.”

“That is because you never kept a secret before!” Enki explains. 

“A secret?” Iniko’s eyebrows raise.

Enki nods. “Iniko, you must know that not everything has to be spoken. Not even the truth. And there is also no need to replace that truth with a lie.”

Iniko finds Enki to be a most curious lad. He is certainly unorthodox, and unlike any other villager he has encountered. Perhaps that curiosity is what keeps drawing him to meet him by the lake. 

But as Iniko continues to get crops for his friend, the paranoia in his heart grows.

Especially when the villagers start to take notice of something strange.

“The sky is ominous today!” One of them says, pointing at the grey clouds above them.

“And look!” Another gasps. “Our crops are gone!”

“It’s the Swindler of the Leaves!” Someone blames. “They must have been stealing our crops and ruining the sanctity of this land!”

Iniko breaks into a cold sweat as he stares at the barren cornfield.

“Father, what is going on?” Iniko asks in panic.

“Lies are sprouting in the Truth Village.” His father purses his lips. 

“I don’t understand. Is it because someone has lied?”

“Possibly. But there is a worse crime than a lie from the mouth.” His father’s gaze hardens as he stares down at his son, pointing a finger at where his heart is. “It’s from the heart.”

“What do you mean?”

“If your heart is deceitful, it will display in your actions.” His eyes go back to the cornfield. “Thievery, adultery, murder, all of these are worse than any lie that is uttered.”

Iniko’s body becomes ice cold at his father’s words.

“You stole the crops, you fiend!” A villager starts to argue with another.

“Why are you accusing me?” The other barks. “I will not willingly break the rules of the land!”

“You hated me the second I said that I had to feed my five children!”

Iniko realizes that he must be Enki’s father.

“You’re right! But I can swear to you, despite my hatred for you, the livelihood of my family outweighs that by a million! My five boys deserve that much!”

The words come out quickly, but Iniko catches it. He catches the one lie.

Enki said that he had a sister.

With that, Iniko’s world shatters, realizing what the world is capable of. How ugly and twisted people can be.

The betrayal is insurmountable.

A storm booms, making the villagers scream in terror. The wind grows stronger, shaking the stable huts, challenging them to stay on the ground.

But Iniko sprints, knowing exactly where he must go to end all this.

He reaches the old hut wrapped up in vines. The cage of the beast. The home of the Swindler of the Leaves.

Despite the trembling in his legs, Iniko bangs on the door.

“Enki!” He yells.

“It is the end.”

Iniko swirls around, seeing Enki beam up at the sky.

His fury washes over him tenfold. “You lied to me!” 

“This whole village is a lie.” As the Swindler of the Leaves speaks, the wind blows harsher around them, plucking the leaves out of the trees, swirling around his feet like the beginning of a tornado. “Everyone believes that being true means being good. But look at the greed in this village, Iniko! Look at how they believe in their twisted truths to deceive people through guilt!”

The leaves come in clusters, thickening from his feet up to his knees, swirling with more ferocity.

“You’re lying!” Iniko accuses him with bulging eyes. “You’re lying!”

“Am I lying, Iniko? What kind of truth is this village seeking? The truth that one believes in or the truth that is observed? These people use their own truths for their benefit! They use greed to get what they want! Yet when someone lies to protect their loved ones, they get punished!”

Iniko clutches his ears as the wind whistles obnoxiously. 

“Do you think I’m the Swindler of the Leaves, Iniko?” The beast hisses. “Didn’t you ever think that the Swindler is this village? The eyes that are watching you from the trees? They’re not here to protect you from lies! They’re here to keep you away from the truth! I am the truth!”

“Stop it!” Iniko screams.

“The village started off as a sacred place, yet it has been ruined by greed!”

“That’s him!” A woman’s voice yells from far away. “It’s the Swindler of the Leaves!”

Iniko looks back and watches a mob forming, heading towards them.

“Banish him!” A villager shouts.

Enki laughs. “Looks like they’re coming for me.”

“Wait!” Iniko’s senses slowly come back to him, stretching his arms wide in defense. “Stop!”

“It doesn’t matter.” Enki’s voice grows quiet. “I’ve always known that this will happen. And I’m not afraid.”

Iniko stares at him in alarm, with his prophetic words. But despite the calmness in his voice, he notices the way his legs tremble. 

Why is he surprised? This boy always lies.

The crowd chants for Enki to be banished, and the tornado of leaves swirl around him faster and faster.

Iniko doesn’t know what to believe when Enki looks at him. Should he believe the warmth and fear in his onyx eyes or the sly, fox-like grin on his face?

“Open the door and you’ll see what I mean.”

The tornado of leaves fully covers the boy, swirling rapidly until it explodes into a burst of white, like white dandelion seeds blowing away into the sky.

The crowd gasps at the sight.

“The village saved us!” One declares.

“Prosperity will come again!” Another says.

Everyone cheers at the disappearance of the Swindler of the Leaves, except Iniko.

Because to him, that tornado gruesomely and ruthlessly took a life away. A life that he thought he knew well. 

The image of Enki’s expression before he was fully enclosed in the leaves will never be wiped away from his memory. 

Nor the words he said along with it.

Iniko walks away from the crowd towards the wrapped-up hut.

He knocks the door dumbly, before opening it.

The hut is rotten and broken for the most part. He spots the crops he gave scattered on the ground, with the fabrics of clothing piled up on top of each other.

But then he sees something. Or someone.

“Hello?” Iniko calls out.

The pile of clothing moves, and Iniko flinches, believing that the true beast is lurking inside.

But what peeks out of it is a small girl.

Her face is sullen. There is no light in her eyes, making her look like she is almost at heaven’s door.

“Enki?” She murmurs.

“No.” Iniko shakes his head. His heart beats furiously, wondering if this is the Swindler’s sister. “I am not Enki.”

The girl’s eyes glisten. “Is he… gone too?”

She starts to sob, alarming Iniko. Without thinking, he kneels by her side.

“No, you didn’t!” He answers quickly.

That is the first lie.

The girl cries. “He was such a nice boy. He helped me when I fell ill, and was abandoned by everyone. Even if he didn’t know me.”

Iniko feels his head spiral as she reveals that Enki in fact lied. But why, he still does not understand.

“He said I should trust the person who opens the door.” She looks at Iniko. “Are you a good friend of Enki’s?”

He does not know how to respond to that. Was he a good friend?

“Yes.” He answers, it being the only response he can think of as he gazes at a girl who seems to be minutes from closing her eyes permanently.

That is the second lie.

She sighs in relief, closing her eyes. “Enki always said that everything will be okay. Will it?”

Iniko gulps. “It will.

That is the third lie.

The girl closes her eyes, never to be opened again.

Something sprouts in Iniko’s heart. Something dark and empty. He stands up from the ground, walking slowly towards the door. None of the villagers are there anymore, having returned to the richness of their land.

But Iniko closes the door, trapping himself in his cage, away from the lies.