But, You Promised

In the Jacobs kitchen, Dale Jacobs is hunched over a stubborn old blender he has been trying to repair for weeks, while Ann teases him about it and Robyn suggests that Mr. Whittaker could probably fix the thing without three tubes of glue and a wad of gum. Robyn is on her way out to meet her friend Donna at the mall, and her mother reminds her of two rules: be home before dark, and lock the bike. Robyn says she knows, she knows. Then the phone rings. It is Lucy, asking Robyn to come over, and Robyn tells her she cannot because she has to work on her world history project. Her mother notices that the excuse does not sound much like a joke. After Robyn leaves, Ann finds something on the counter that tells the whole story: the brand new bicycle chain lock, still sitting at home.

Later, Robyn bursts into Whit's End out of breath and announces that her bike has been stolen from the rack outside the skating rink at the mall. Whit asks her to slow down and tell him what happened, and one question in particular keeps coming back - did she lock it? Robyn says maybe, then says she guesses so, then remembers hearing at school about two men in a van who go around busting locks and taking bikes. The more she talks, the more details appear. They wore black. They looked like crooks. They talked funny. Whit says that if the bicycle really was stolen, and if Robyn really saw the thieves, the police should be called. Robyn hurries home to tell her parents first.

At home the story grows again, complete with a lock she swears was fastened tight and thieves who must have blown it off with dynamite. Her parents listen without letting on that they already know better. After Robyn goes up to bed, Dale and Ann decide not to confront her. They agree she will learn far more if she has to live with the consequences of what she has said.

The consequences arrive quickly. At Whit's End, Lucy and Donna compare notes and discover that Robyn told each of them something untrue to keep from disappointing the other. Robyn tries to explain that she only wanted everything to work out, but Lucy tells her that what hurt was the lie itself. Both girls walk away. Robyn is still standing there, realizing she has lost two friends trying to keep them, when Officer Sedgewick arrives and asks her to come down to the station.

Whit had reported the theft, and the sheriff's department has picked up two suspects who match Robyn's description. Behind the glass of the viewing room, Robyn sees Angelo and Mario Sisco, brothers who run a used bicycle shop, and hears them insist they are honest family men who would never steal from children. She cannot say for certain that they are the ones. The brothers offer an alibi, and it holds up completely.

Officer Sedgewick brings the news to the Jacobs house himself. The Siscos are cleared and well respected in their town, and the facts of Robyn's account simply do not line up. He tells her gently that he has children of his own, and that he knows how one small story leads to another and another. Robyn finally admits everything, beginning with the fib she told Lucy on the phone. Her parents point out what her father spotted from the start, since the lock was in the kitchen while the bike was at the mall, and they remind her that the truth is always better than harming innocent people like the Siscos or wrecking two good friendships. When you make a mess, her mother says, you clean it up. Robyn agrees, and she knows exactly where to begin - with an apology to her mom and dad, and then two phone calls to make.