16 May Interactive Story: The Lie
Decision 1: steal (a) or not (b)
- She steals.
At first, nothing happens. Laura buys a computer, a gorgeous suit, and sets off trying to get a job at — firms. Until she gets a call from her friend, who’s desperate because the firm who had hired them for the job realized the money missing and is conducting an investigation. She begs Laura to lie about it: they will come asking you like they asked me, I told them I knew nothing about it, that we took the money, put it in the envelopes like we were instructed, and dropped them off at the company’s office, like we had been instructed to.
Now what? If Laura lies, she might be setting herself up for a lot of trouble, she cant see how they wouldn’t get caught. If she doesn’t lie, she’ll definitely get in trouble.
Decision: to lie (C) or not (D)
- c) She lies. Shakily, because it goes against her nature, she says she doesn’t know anything about what happened. But, the company obviously finds out. She’s probed again – Laura, did you lie about this? And this time:
Decisions: admits to the lie (e), doesn’t admit to the lie (f)
- She admits.
à Turns out the billionaire doesn’t care for the money, he cares for the loyalty. He admires her for her bravery.
à Doors open. She’s perceived with respect by the big guy, who takes an interest in her loyalty and offers her a job.
(LINKS BACK TO B).
End.
- She doesn’t admit. (Meaning, she continues the lie). Bad move. Her friend talks and blames her.
Laura gets caught lying, ends up in jail.
End here.
- d) She doesn’t lie. Laura tells the truth about what happened, she explains it honestly and makes clear it’s not her intention to put anyone in danger. She apologizes.
Turns out that the owner of the company she steals from is a huuuuuuuuge billionaire who values honesty above all. He appreciates Laura’s honesty, even after stealing, and especially her bravery for coming clean. He offers her a job. (LINK BACK TO B)
End.
- She doesn’t steal but her friend does. (her friend gets arrested)
à Turns out the billionaire doesn’t care for the money, he cares for the loyalty. He admires her for her bravery.
à Doors open. She’s perceived with respect by the big guy, who takes an interest on her loyalty and offers her a job.
End (with note of her thinking about ways to help her friend?)
The Lie
The job seemed simple enough: stand in a shop by the entrance, sell the event’s merchandise, and organize the profits. It was a day-long interactive conference on Technology Trends and Innovations, something Alyssa had no interest in, and an exceptionally tedious job. But she needed the money, desperately.
Born and raised on the outskirts of Chicago, she had a rough childhood. Her father was a janitor at a fancy building in Downtown for many years before he passed away from liver cancer when Alyssa was only 14. Her mother was left alone with four children and set off to battle: she worked three jobs to be able to afford rent and food for the family. Alyssa dropped out of school to help, first at home taking care of her siblings, then, eventually, with jobs as hostess.
Despite her poor background, Alyssa was a smart girl. She learned quickly, mainly by watching, and was good at improvising. She was charismatic and loved wearing big, colorful earrings – she made them herself and thought they contrasted greatly with her short curly hair.
That night, she had red earrings on. They danced around her head when she moved too abruptly.
“Do you have change for $100?” Sonia, the girl working with Alyssa asked.
“Here,” Alyssa handed her a bunch of five-dollar bills.
“Ugh,” She sighed. “Just 40 more minutes ‘till we can close this shit up.”
Alyssa shrugged. She knew Sonia from High School and the two had shared friends, but they were never too close. Sonia was not an easy person, with a strong personality and a tendency to be loud. Tall, white as paper, with a piercing on the nose and a dark brown hair, Sonia had many friends. She knew a way into any club for free, was always working a different job, and could hook you up with any drug in a phone call. No, Sonia wasn’t a good influence, and Alyssa knew it, but she also knew the girl to be fun.
But, for some weird coincidence, the manager had hired Sonia and Alyssa as the two vendors for the Tech Trends event’s merchandise. A closed event, filled with about 800 important people. And, to Alyssa’s surprise, most of them wanted something from the store. There was a plethora of tech gifts, gadgets, and even books, but Alyssa found them overpriced. Sonia had agreed. Even so, the two had been selling non-stop.
It was a long day and, when 8 o’clock finally came, Alyssa felt exhausted. She threw herself on the only chair inside the shop and sighed, watching Sonia count the cash.
“Wow, we’re way above the goal.” She bit her lip piercing and smiled at the same time.
“Nice, by how much?”
“I mean, just in cash, we made fifteen hundred more than the expected.”
“Cool.” Alyssa got up and picked up her bag. “I’m going. I still need to drop the money off with Jose at the firm and I want to get home.”
Sonia put the notes inside two big envelopes and looked at Alyssa. “Hey, here’s what I’m thinking…” She spoke slowly, “Jose has no idea we made an extra fifteen hundred dollars. I’m like, not in a good moment financially so, $750… I mean, that’s a lot, I could fix the AC in my car with it, and that’s been broken for months.” She clicked her tongue.
Alyssa was quiet, unsure how to respond. Did she just say she wanted to steal the money?
“How about we don’t tell anyone and split the cash?” Sonia’s face had now changed – her eyes almost glowed. “Listen, we didn’t keep receipts for cash sales, there are no cameras in the shop, ‘cause I checked, and there’s more than enough stock for every product. The guys at the firm will never know.”
Alyssa had never stolen or even considered stealing, and Sonia’s proposal caught her off guard. On one hand, it was a tempting idea. She seldom made more than just enough to pay her bills every month. There was a lot she could do with seven hundred fifty extra dollars. However, she knew it was wrong and, worse, she knew she could get in real trouble for it.
“Alyssa!” Sonia almost chanted. “We can’t take long on this, girl, what’s it gonna be?”
Decision 1
Alyssa took a long sigh – she hated being pressured – then looked at Sonia and said:
“Okay. Let’s do this.”
Sonia smiled and quickly pulled the fifteen hundred from one of the envelopes. She split it in half and handed Alyssa her part.
“We should hang more often, girl.” Sonia put the envelopes with the rest of the money down, blew Alyssa a kiss and rushed out of the shop.
Alyssa looked down at the money she held tightly in her right hand. She felt a sudden rush, a funny buzz that made her giggle. The adrenaline of doing something unruly for the first time. No, that wasn’t so bad. She put the money inside of her purse and set off to deliver the cash at the company that had hired them. No one was in, so she slipped the envelopes under the door and went home.
Alyssa decided not to tell her mother and hid the money inside her private journal, the only place she knew, by experience, mom would not look. She was wide awake that night, brainstorming on what to do with the money. She didn’t have her own account at the bank, so she couldn’t deposit it without telling someone. She wanted to buy something for herself, but she knew that if she saved the $750, the next month would be a calmer one. Eventually she decided that she would take a portion of it to buy herself new heels, the black leather pumps she had seen online, and save the rest.
Her last thought before falling asleep that night was
More often than not, she wondered if the company had noticed the missing money. But a week passed, and she slowly began to relax.
Alyssa was folding the clean laundry for her mom and listening to Kayla, her middle sister, babble about hair when her phone rang. She checked the screen: it was Sonia. Her heart skipped a beat.
“Can you finish this for me?” She asked Kayla while putting a neatly folded white shirt down and rushing to the next room.
“Alyssa, I’m so glad you picked up!” Sonia sounded nervous.
“Hey, what happened?”
“Ok, so, Jose from the Tech Show just called me. He said that they’re missing $1500 that the girls who worked the day before us left in the cashier.”
“Oh.” Alyssa sat on the bright orange couch and covered her mouth with a hand.
“Yeah, so we didn’t make anything extra, we just took the money the girls made the day before.” She laughed. “But don’t worry, it’s fine. I told him we saw nothing and know nothing, but he was going to call you so I’m glad I caught you first.”
“Okay so, I’ll just tell him the same thing.”
“Yes, just say you don’t know shit.”
It sounded simple enough, but it did not feel right. Alyssa’s stomach churned. She stared at her phone for a moment before returning to her bedroom.
“What’s up? You look like someone died.” Kayla asked the minute Alyssa stepped through the door.
“Oh, nothing at all.”
“Come on sis…”
Alyssa sighed. She knew she could trust Kayla and she felt like she needed to talk about her problem.
