Sandy and her father where almost back home when he asked her what she wanted to do for her birthday. Without really thinking, she blurted out what she knew would be impossible. "I want you and Mom to drive me and all my new friends to the Brooklyn Bridge for a huge party!"
The car hit the curb as her father turned onto their driveway, and he hurried to keep control until he brought it to a stop, leaving the engine running.
Sandy unbuckled her seatbelt and looked over at him. He had Sandy's hair color and her skin tone, and was still dressed in his business suit and tie. Usually, he was calmer about a lot of things than Sandy or her mother but right then, he looked like he was having trouble maintaining that calmness.
Finally, he turned to his daughter and said, "Sandy, the Brooklyn Bridge is on the other side of the country. There's no way we can drive you and your friends there for a party. I'm sorry."
"But that's what I want," Sandy told him. "It's what me and my friends want since, um…since we all started reading the 'Where is…?' book series."
Her father frowned. "I don't remember buying you any of those books."
"Sure you did," Sandy said, patting him on the arm. "I've let my friends borrow them."
He rubbed his forehead. "All right, Sweetheart, I have to meet with a client. Tell your Mother I'll be home by five 'o clock."
"And that we're going to the Brooklyn Bridge for my birthday," Sandy added as she hopped out of the car and closed the door behind her. "Bye, Daddy!" She hurried away before he could reply.
Their home was a single-story dwelling, painted beige with two large white windows in front on either side of the front door. Sandy opened it up and called, "Hi, Mom! I'm going out to play with my friends! Dad will be home by five!"
"Sandy, wait!" Her mother's voice called back. "You still need to wash up the breakfast dishes like you promised!"
"I can't! I read that dirty dishes now carry radioactive food germs that can mutate children! It'll be safer if you do it! Bye!"
She closed the front door and jumped off the porch, waving to her father as he drove off. A few moments later, she was jogging down the sidewalk in the opposite direction and then turned the corner onto the next block. She stopped to peek back around that corner and when she didn't see anyone, Sandy settled herself down on the curb and put her chin in her hands.
There weren't any friends. There hadn't been any since she and her parents had moved into the neighborhood three weeks earlier. Except for Muggs, but he was gone now because Sandy ignored the rule about no ball playing in the house and then blamed Muggs when she broke her mother's favorite lamp.
Sandy scraped the bottom of her shoe along the street. No friends, no Muggs, and a bunch of neighborhood kids who still treated her like she had 'New Kid' disease. If it weren't for them…
"Hi Sandy," a pleasant voice said. Startled, Sandy looked to her left and found two furry animals standing on the sidewalk next to her. One was a bear roughly the color of a really ripe apricot, and the other was a lamb the color of soft green mint. Both of them smiled at her.
"Who are you?" Sandy asked.
"We're the Care Bears," the bear replied, revealing herself to be the one who had greeted Sandy. "My name is Friend Bear, and this is my cousin Gentle Heart. Can we sit with you?"
"Um…okay."
Friend Bear sat down on Sandy's left side while Gentle Heart took the right. Once they were settled, Sandy glanced back and forth between them and said, "How do you know who I am?"
"We always know children who need us," Gentle Heart answered.
Sandy immediately sat up a little straighter. "I don't need anybody. I'm fine."
Friend Bear gave her a worried look. "You know that's not true, Sandy."
"It is," Sandy told her. "There's nothing wrong. I really am fine."
Gentle Heart hesitated a moment before she put a paw on Sandy's shoulder. "You can tell us what's bothering you, Sandy. We'll understand. We're here to listen and to share your feelings."
"I'm fine!" Sandy said again, brushing Gentle Heart's paw away and then standing up once again. "And I don't have time for this! I have to make a phone call to Congress about making my birthday a national holiday."
She started walking away in a huff, wanting nothing more than to get away, but then stopped short when both Friend Bear and Gentle Heart rushed to get in front of her. Both now wore identical distressed expressions on their faces.
"Please don't run away, Sandy," Gentle Heart pleaded. "You must talk to us about the lies. You're in danger."
Sandy tried not to show how surprised she was that they knew about her lying. So she frowned and tried to step around them. "What danger? Nothing is happening."
"Not yet," Friend Bear corrected as she moved to block Sandy once more. "But if you don't tell us why you keep lying about things you'll be in danger of being sent to The Land of the Living Lies."
The land of what? Sandy scoffed and tried to get past them again. "Don't be silly. There's no such place."
"There is!" Friend Bear insisted as she and Gentle Heart continued to keep Sandy from moving forward. "I've been there before and it's a horrible place!"
Sandy finally pushed her way through them and started down the sidewalk. Behind her, she heard Friend Bear say, "This is terrible, Gentle Heart. I'd better send up the distress signal."
That made Sandy stop and then look over her shoulder, and she was surprise to see Friend Bear shoot a beam of flower-shaped light high up into the sky. This allowed Gentle Heart to catch up to her and say, "Please listen to us, Sandy. We just want you to stay safe. The Land of the Living Lies is a real place."
Sandy scoffed again and crossed her arms. "Well, even if it was real I wouldn't be afraid of it. Lies are better than the truth anyway."
Gentle Heart's eyes widened and she let loose a few distressed bleating sounds before saying, "You don't mean that."
"Yes, I do," Sandy retorted, stamping a foot. "Lies are easy and they can fix everything."
Friend Bear appeared at Gentle Heart's side just as Sandy finished that sentence. Sad, the Care Bear shook her head and said, "Oh Sandy, that isn't true at all. Lying doesn't fix anything."
"All it does is hurt you and the people you care about," Gentle Heart added softly.
"I don't care about anyone!"
Without warning, the sidewalk began to rumble and shake beneath them. Sandy cried out and tried to keep her balance as the two members of the Care Bear family tried to do the same. But after one particularly hard jolt, Sandy fell to the ground…and a large crack appeared in the sidewalk next to her.
"Sandy!" Friend and Gentle Heart exclaimed, trying to get to the little girl's side.
More cracks appeared around them as pieces of the sidewalk dropped down into the void of darkness beneath the concrete. Panicked, Sandy abandoned the idea of standing and crawled away, scrapping her knees as she moved. She made it halfway onto the street when the section of sidewalk supporting the lower half of her body crumbled, and Sandy found herself scrambling and then failing to hold on to the asphalt in front of her.
A streak of rainbow colors flashed in front of her eyes as she started to fall and then all of a sudden, Gentle Heart and Friend Bear were both there, reaching out their paws to grab onto her hands and arms. Unfortunately, Sandy was too heavy and pulled them down with her.
They all screamed as they started to fall, and Sandy closed her eyes.
But not before she saw a golden bear and a pink elephant falling after them.