The three smiled and agreed with her. Now it was the reporter's turn. They gave him a curious look, since he had been silent for a long time, staring at his notes. Finally, he looked up and began to clarify everything.
"Luis, your lie is the most curious. This week you all worked hard on this. I would say your lie is 'The Pale Face.' You could not have simply smiled at it and carried on."
"Lucas, your lie is that the teacher reviewed your work in order to check the others. A teacher who enjoys teaching easy methods always has an answer sheet."
"Leonardo, your lie is that you 'stopped thinking about it' after the first Thursday. You should have investigated further. Going to sleep right then is your lie."
The reporter stopped speaking and looked at the three with a smile. Yet a drop of sweat ran down his face. He had been about to say what the man had said earlier, about keeping good grades, because it was so strongly repeated in the story. It seemed like that was the lie for each of them. The tale this week was well written and without flaws.
But he had managed to unveil everything. He smiled to himself and looked at the three friends, expecting to see their astonished faces for the third week in a row. But instead, he found them all smiling, their eyes glowing as if it were Christmas.
The reporter opened his mouth and let out a whispered "No..."
Leonardo was the first to speak. "Indeed, Mr. Times, we never stopped thinking about it, but that was after we saw the shadow. We still investigate it now. We have confirmed that the black shadow is a woman in her twenties, and the white shadow is a man about twenty-five with an athletic build. But that first Thursday, when we saw nothing, we truly let it go."
Then Lucas stood and said, "I assure you, Mr. Times, the teacher does check our work first. He simply gives us problems made up on the spot in his mind. He has never used a book to assign exercises, and he likes to check them that way because he can see every method."
Lucas sat down again, let out an "Oh," then immediately added, "Ah yes, and my lie was saying it was a blackboard. These days it's all whiteboards." A technicality we knew he would let slide.
Finally, Luis stood and, with a smile in his eyes, said to the reporter, "The Pale Face and everything that happens in my house is harmless. We studied each phenomenon until we got tired of them. So when I have homework, I like to focus on it and not think about things I can investigate later. My lie was simple and misleading, or perhaps 'curious,' as you said.
"My lie is only one word. I said, 'I checked some things on the computer and then went to sleep.' Well, at three in the morning, the computer is off and there is no way I could use it so late. Those were our three lies."
The reporter dropped his notebook and pencil, his eyes wide open and his mouth unable to close. A small smile escaped, then it grew into laughter. Holding his side, with tears in his eyes, he kept laughing for more than twenty seconds.
The three friends raised their eyebrows at each other as the reporter stopped laughing, wiped his tears, picked up his notebook, and stretched out his arm toward them. "Well played, boys, well played, little trio.
Now it's 2 to 1. This week's story was well crafted and you have defeated me. This week's column will be very interesting. I will bring you a copy of the newspaper next week, though I do not think you will beat me again." Finishing with that, he turned and left with a raised hand.
Luis, Leonardo, and Lucas looked at each other, holding back a smile, until they exploded with excitement and shouted in victory. The people around them smiled, finally breathing again, because the audience always held its breath when they faced off. This week had been one of the most exciting.
Even though it was a free event, people left a tip that was never asked for, many of them leaving with excitement. The price was vague, paid in the healthy rush of adrenaline.
The audience left what they wanted in Leonardo's hat and began to disperse while the boys kept celebrating. The shared thought of the people was that they could not wait for the next week and the next challenge.
The three friends stopped celebrating, and Luis smiled, saying, "Next week, the score will be tied."