Lies and Lemons Read online

  “But eating junk before dinner is a different thing.” Ma pulled the jar back toward her and put the lid on. “I’m glad you told me about breakfast.”

  “That’s not all Celine wants to tell you about,” said Michael. He looked meaningfully at Celine.

  Celine took another deep breath. Sure enough, her nostrils filled with the tartness of lemons. “I bought overalls.”

  Ma leaned forward and opened her mouth. Then she froze again. She closed her mouth and sat tall and prim. “Tell me more.”

  “I used my own money. From allowances. I saved up. And I wore them to school today.”

  “But I saw you leave for school in your nice black skirt with the red ladybugs.”

  “I changed on the way.”

  Ma cleared her throat. “I see.”

  “I love them. I can do rolls on the grass in them without even getting hurt. And the pockets are big enough to hold everything.”

  Ma nodded. “Well, where are they?”

  “I hid them.”

  “Looks like this is a day of revelations.” Ma slowly smiled. “So go on. Go get them and model these wonderful pants for me.”

  Angel Talk

  You’ve done a good job, little angel.” The Archangel of Honesty kissed the little angel on the forehead. “And much faster than I expected.”

  “I’m not finished. When Celine was talking with her mother, I put lemon drops in front of her nose. She kept breathing lemon.”

  The archangel pursed her lips. “I thought she was on her own.”

  “I saw her hesitate—and I knew she needed the lemon smell.” The little angel shook her head. “No, I’m not done till she can tell the truth without any help from me.”

  “It’s hard, isn’t it?” said the archangel very softly.

  “Telling the truth without any kind of deception at all? Yes,” said the little angel. “It’s hard. For anyone.”

  The archangel hugged the little angel. “You seem to understand Celine pretty well now.”

  “I think I do. Celine deceived her mother because she felt powerless. Learning that she has rights was hard for her.” The little angel sighed. “Learning that you have a right to be whoever you are, whether you’re boring or interesting, is hard, too.”

  “Are you talking about Celine, still? Or someone else?”

  “I’m not sure,” whispered the little angel.

  The Last Whiff

  The doorbell rang.

  Celine ran for it. “Hi, Cara.”

  “I smell lemon.” Cara wrinkled her nose. “I can’t get it out of my nose. It led me here.”

  “My middle name’s not Susie,” said Celine.

  “What?”

  “Did the lemon smell go away?” asked Celine.

  Cara sniffed. Then she smiled. “Yes. What do you know.”

  “Go home.” Celine started to shut the door.

  “Wait. If your middle name’s not Susie, why do you want to be called Susie?”

  “I don’t. I mean, I did. Susie’s a nice name. And it doesn’t sound like a spider. But now I like the spider, so I’m happy to be called Celine.”

  Cara blinked. Then she slowly turned and walked away.

  Celine shut the door.

  The doorbell rang.

  Celine opened the door. “Oh, Mrs. Marcy. Don’t tell me you smell lemons.”

  “I don’t,” said Mrs. Marcy. “Should I?”

  “No.” Celine felt herself blush. “Sorry. I just thought . . . well, it doesn’t matter.”

  “I came by to see if I could help you set up your new ant farm.”

  “Actually, Mrs. Marcy, I fed the ants to my brother’s spider.”

  Mrs. Marcy’s face lost all its color.

  “I’m sorry. But he was hungry.”

  Mrs. Marcy didn’t say anything.

  “And it was my fault he was hungry. See? I should have told you on the playground, but I didn’t want to upset you. I’m sorry you came all the way over here for nothing.”

  “Well, that’s all right,” said Mrs. Marcy at last. “Good-bye.”

  “Wait. Are you sure you didn’t smell lemons?”

  “Yes, I’m sure. Why? Do you smell lemons?”

  Celine took a deep breath. “No.” She laughed. “Isn’t it wonderful?”

  Angel Thoughts

  The Little Angel of Honesty emptied one pocket of all the spider hairs. Then she emptied her other pocket. It had a family of glass spiders. She’d bought them in a store near the beach—a store that sold things from Venice, Italy—right there in Venice, California.

  The little angel had planned to take the real spider hairs along with those glass spiders back to her friends and let them come to their own conclusions. Like always. They’d think she was really important, even though she was the littlest angel. Like always.

  But now that plan didn’t seem so good.

  The little angel didn’t want the other angels to think she was important for all the wrong reasons. She was who she was. And she liked who she was. And maybe if the other angels knew who she really was, they might like her, anyway.

  The little angel puffed out her cheeks and blew away the spider hairs. Then she picked up the glass spiders and dropped them in an empty metal garbage can. The fine legs broke with a high, tinkling noise, like a tiny bell.

  Now the little angel filled her pockets instead with the small carved wooden balls she’d bought in a different store—a store that sold only goods made from California trees. These balls were some kind of evergreen, but they smelled like cinnamon. The other angels would love them.

  A strange sensation warmed the angel. New feathers sprouted thick and white all over her wings. Flight was hers, at long last.

  The newest Archangel of Honesty took to the skies, ready to deliver her gifts truthfully.

  How to care for your pet spider

  Hairy spiders like Racine are not cuddly pets, but they can be interesting to watch. If you want to keep one as a pet, here are some things you’ll need:

  • a glass tank, ten gallons or larger, depending on how big your spider is going to grow

  • a screen to put on the top of the tank, so the spider doesn’t crawl out

  • a light mounted somewhere in the tank to provide heat for spider (You can turn the light off at night.)

  • bark or Astroturf for the bottom of the tank (You should clean it once a week.)

  • branches for the spider to climb on and hide in (these should be changed every other week)

  • live insects to eat (If you don’t want to catch insects yourself, pet stores will sell you crickets by the dozen. You can drop in a few, and the spider will eat them whenever he’s hungry. Don’t worry if your spider eats three crickets one day and nothing for the next few days. That’s normal for a hairy spider.)

  Meet the Little Angel of Responsibility in the next Angelwings

  No.10 Running Away

  I don’t like that mother,” said the little angel.

  “What? Why not?”

  “She made Danielle go shopping with her instead of letting Danielle do her homework.”

  “Now wait just a minute.” The Archangel of Responsibility scratched the very top of his head. When he did that, he looked taller than ever. “You saw the same thing I saw. The mother wanted everyone to help her shop, sure, but she didn’t force Danielle.”

  “But they could have gone shopping later, after Danielle finished her homework. Now Danielle’s going to get in trouble with her teacher.”

  “You’re right about the teacher part,” said the archangel.

  “I’m right about the mother, too,” said the Little Angel of Responsibility firmly. “She’s the irresponsible one.”

  “Come on. The mother asked Danielle if she had homework.”

  The Little Angel of Responsibility looked away in confusion. She’d been wondering herself about why Danielle hadn’t told her mother she had homework to do. Still, the mother’s behavior was what bothered her m
ost. “What’s so important about buying all those things, anyway? Bunches of grapes and plums. Is Danielle’s mother crazy or something?”

  “Sort of. That show she talked about worries her. She’s going to put her photographs on exhibit, and she thinks of it as her big break—her chance to become a professional photographer.”

  “Oh.” The little angel hesitated. “Oh, I get it now,” she said with sympathy. “Does Danielle know that her mother’s worried?”

  “Yes.”

  So that’s why Danielle didn’t tell her mother she had homework. “Well, then,” said the little angel, “Danielle was right to go shopping with her mother.” She nodded her head emphatically. “And there’s really no job for me here. Danielle is being very responsible. Her mother needs her.”

  “She needs her, all right, little angel. But what she needs most right now is for Danielle to do all the things she’s supposed to do. Danielle’s mother is counting on her to have her schoolwork done.”

  “Now we’re back to where we started. The mother shouldn’t make Danielle go shopping when it’s time to do homework.”

  “But she thinks Danielle already did her homework,” said the archangel. “Danielle made her think that.”

  “Danielle didn’t actually lie,” said the Little Angel of Responsibility slowly.

  “Does it matter? Danielle knows what her mother thinks. She does have a problem, little angel, and you do have a job here.”

  About the Author

  Donna Jo Napoli is the acclaimed and award-winning author of many novels, both fantasies and contemporary stories. She won the Golden Kite Award for Stones in Water in 1997. Her novel Zel was named an American Bookseller Pick of the Lists, a Publishers Weekly Best Book, a Bulletin Blue Ribbon, and a School Library Journal Best Book, and a number of her novels have been selected as ALA Best Books. She is a professor of linguistics at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, where she lives with her husband. Visit her at DonnaJoNapoli.com.

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  First Aladdin Paperbacks edition May 2000

  Text copyright © 2000 by Donna Jo Napoli

  Illustrations copyright © 2000 by Lauren Klementz-Harte

  Aladdin Paperbacks

  An imprint of Simon & Schuster

  Children’s Publishing Division

  1230 Avenue of the Americas

  New York, NY 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  All rights reserved, including the right of

  reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

  Designed by Steve Scott

  The text for this book was set in Cheltenham and Minister Light.

  The illustrations were rendered in ink and wash.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Napoli, Donna Jo, 1948–

  Lies and lemons / Donna Jo Napoli ;

  illustrations by Lauren Klementz-Harte

  — 1st Aladdin Paperbacks ed.

  p. cm. — (Aladdin Angelwings ; 9)

  Summary: The Little Angel of Honesty hopes to understand why Celine continually twists the truth so that she can help her and earn her wings.

  ISBN 0-689-83209-5 (pbk.)

  ISBN-13: 978-1-4814-6587-8 (eBook)

  [1. Angels—Fiction. 2. Honesty—Fiction.]

  I. Klementz-Harte, Lauren, 1961– II. Title.

  PZ7.N15 Lf 2000

  [Fic]—dc21 99-87417