Madame Polygraph

Amy Pope slid her hand out from the warmth of her bedcovers and blindly tried to locate her cell phone. It was 7:00 am and her alarm was beeping and reading the time to her over and over again. The noise grew louder and she opened both eyes to find it before the sound woke her husband. She grabbed the phone, silenced the alarm and sleepily made her way to the bathroom to shower. Although it was early and she really wanted more time to sleep she enjoyed this time to herself each day. She took a shower, styled her hair and applied her make up all while listening to her favorite music playing softly in the bathroom.

After Amy got dressed and made her way to the kitchen, her “real” day was about to start. She was greeted by her two kids in the kitchen, a son named Axel and a daughter named Alice. They were shuffling around the kitchen preparing breakfast for themselves before heading off to school. Amy went about making a pot of coffee, just like she does every morning. She opened the trash can to toss the liner and grounds left in the coffee maker from the day before when she noticed a cupcake wrapper on top of the trash.

“Hey y’all, who ate a cupcake?” Amy asked her kids sternly. It was barely 8:00 am and far too early for anyone to be having that much sugar.

“Not me!” Axel was quick to defend himself against eating the cupcake. He knew how serious his mom was about not eating too much sweets.

Just as Axel had denied eating the cupcake Amy’s right foot felt a pinch. Axel was lying and she knew it!

“Axel, don’t lie to me. It only makes the matter worse. You may not have dessert for the rest of he week, since you helped yourself to this cupcake today.”

“Mom, I would have just eaten it tonight anyways, what the difference?” Axel tried to plead his case for eating the cupcake early but Amy was resolved in her punishment and went on making the coffee. Aaron, Amy’s husband came down into the kitchen tying his tie and scanning the kitchen counter for his keys.

“Hey honey, does this dress look okay on me?” Amy asked her husband.

“Wow, Amy! I was just about to tell you how amazing you looked. I don’t think its just the dress though” Aaron winked at his wife and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

Amy stood still, recognized that she hadn’t felt a pinch in her foot and smiled realizing her husband had been genuine in his compliment.

“Sweetie, I won’t be home for dinner tonight,” Aaron explained to Amy. “I have a client coming into town and I need to go over the contract renewal.”

Pinch. Amy knew her husband was lying, but about what part? Was he lying about meeting a client? Or lying about the contract renewal? It took years for Amy to realize that her gift (or curse, as she felt it was at times) indicated that what she heard was either truth or not, but she hadn’t distinguished whether they were serious lies or simply “white lies.”

Aaron didn’t know about Amy’s gift. They had been married 14 years and had two children together and she still lied to him every day. She was lying by omission. She wasn’t being completely honest about herself and her capabilities or who she really was.

Amy was in fact, Madame Polygraph. A superheroine who could tell if someone was lying as soon as they spoke. She anonymously aided the police force with investigations and interrogations in order to reach the truth as quick as possible and seek justice for the crimes that had been committed.

The kids ran outside and jumped on the bus to school and Aaron followed and slid into his Beemer and pulled out of the drive way. Amy finished loading the dishwasher, grabbed her keys and jumped into her minivan. She drove to an abandoned building by the harbor, pulled into a parking spot and went inside a side door. The door led right inside a room where there was one way glass window, a set of headphones and a phone on a table in the middle of the room and a chair. Amy took a seat, picked up the phone, dialed a number and instructed the person on the other line that she was ready.

An officer escorted a man in hand cuffs to a seat at a table in the room on the other side of the window. The officer began asking questions and Amy would press a button if the person was lying with their answers. That is what Amy spent the rest of her day doing. She sat in room, alone, pressing a button with the hope that she was helping society and keeping the community safer.

 

Source: Madame Polygraph