You're Not Going to Believe This

At Whit's End, fourteen-year-old Jamie Wentworth takes a phone call from his cousin and best friend, Jonathan Charles Stephan Michael Wentworth III, known to everyone as Budgie. The two boys are as different as night and day: Jamie is dependable and level-headed, while Budgie has a well-earned reputation for stretching the truth, like the time he skipped the library for the Fun City Amusement Park and blamed a band of gypsies. Now Budgie is in trouble again. He has been put on restriction for taking his mother's brand-new umbrella out in the rain without permission and coming home without it.

Budgie's explanation is a doozy. He claims he gave the umbrella to a saloon girl wearing a red satin dress covered in shiny silver sequins, who rode up out of nowhere on a purple hook-and-ladder fire engine. Jamie, who has heard one whopper too many from his cousin, doesn't believe a word of it and tells him he makes the boy who cried wolf look like Mother Teresa. Budgie hangs up, hurt that nobody ever believes him.

Mr. Whittaker, who runs Whit's End, reminds Jamie how Budgie earned his nickname in that very shop. Budgie was clowning around imitating old Mr. Cunningham's English accent, not realizing the man was standing right there. Caught, Budgie invented a story about practicing for an oral report on the British Empire, and the unamused Mr. Cunningham declared him just like a little budgie bird, "all squawk and no brains." With a room full of kids listening, the name stuck. Even so, Whit encourages Jamie to accept his cousin's unusual personality and think of him as a blessing instead of a curse.

Moments later Budgie bursts in, announcing that he has been "ventilated" (he means vindicated). He explains everything: lightning struck the generator that runs the Fun City Ferris wheel, so an actress named June Haverman, who plays a saloon girl in the park's new melodrama, was sent to fetch the fire truck to rescue the stranded riders. The truck looked purple because it had just been given a coat of maroon primer, and when the rain started, June asked Budgie for his umbrella. To Jamie's surprise, Whit can confirm the details about the melodrama and the repainted fire truck. Then Budgie unveils his proof: right on schedule, June Haverman herself walks into Whit's End, sequined dress and all, and backs up his whole story. Jamie sheepishly apologizes.

But the triumph collapses immediately. June asks which of them is the detective, because she has come to clear Budgie of charges that he robbed a grocery store. There was no robbery and no detective; Budgie made it all up to convince her to come vouch for him. June is furious that she took time off work over a lie, and she storms out promising that the next time she sees Budgie from a fire truck, "I'm going to ask the driver to run you over!" Disgusted, Jamie takes his root beer upstairs, wanting nothing to do with his cousin.

Whit gently points out the problem: Budgie proved his innocence, but he did it by lying again. People judge each other by the things they say, Whit explains, and a lie hurts both the liar and the person lied to. Trust is a fragile thing, and once it's broken it takes a long time to rebuild. Budgie, who has just felt how much it hurts when no one believes you, finally understands why everyone gets so angry with him. He finds Jamie upstairs and offers a sincere apology, admitting his stories were hurting people and promising to try hard not to exaggerate anymore. Jamie forgives him and promises to be more trusting in return. Then Budgie mentions the fishing pole Jamie loaned him last month: "You're not going to believe this, but..." As Jamie groans, Budgie laughs and assures him he's only kidding.