"There's only one way anybody would be able to tell this photo is a fake," Louise said. "And that's if one of us spilled the beans."
"What do beans have to do with it?" Gene asked.
"It's an expression, dingbat," Louise told him. "It means to reveal a secret. We've gotta make a solemn vow to tell everybody we were out in the park playing when a UFO buzzed by. It stopped over the trees, hovered there for a second or two, and then it zipped away. We just happened to have a camera with us and were lucky enough to snap this fuzzy picture. That's our story, and we're sticking with it."
"Wait," said Tina. "You mean you want us to lie?"
"Lying's such an ugly word," Louise said. "Let's just call it stretching the truth."
"I'm no good at stretching the truth!" Tina cried.
Louise patted her on the shoulder. "Just relax. Let me and Gene tell the story, and you can just nod your head. Now come on. Let's go to the supermarket."
"What are we going there for?" Gene asked.
Louise smiled. "You'll see."
They went to the store. When they got inside, Louise led the other two over to a newspaper rack. "Look at these."
"Newspapers?" Gene scratched his head in confusion.
"They look like newspapers, but the stories don't sound anything like the stories you read in regular newspapers." Louise picked up a paper called the National Truth and read a few headlines. "'Woman Grows Pumpkin in the Shape of the President's Head!' 'JFK Lives… In the White House Basement!' 'My Twin Brother is From Mars!' That sort of thing. This looks like just the kind of newspaper that would go for a story about UFOs." She flipped through the pages of the magazine until she found the page where they had the mailing address. "We'll mail them our photo and then just sit back and watch the bucks come rolling in."
They went home. While Gene searched for an envelope, Louise and Tina worked out a letter to include with the photo.
"How's this?" Tina said. "'Dear National Truth, we are three children who created a fake UFO photo. We thought you might be able to use it in your paper. Please get back to us as soon as possible. Sincerely, Tina, Gene, and Louise Belcher.'"
"Are you crazy?" Louise said. "Do you honestly think they're going to go for that?"
"Well, it's the truth," Tina replied.
"The truth is boring," Louise told her. "Nobody's gonna pay us a million dollars for the truth. Here, listen to this."
While Tina had been writing her letter, Louise had been working on a letter of her own. She read it to Tina:
"Dear National Truth,
I am a Fifty-Five-Year-old man with no history of mental problems. The other day I was in the field behind my house when I saw a weirdly shaped object in the sky. I happened to have my camera with me and snapped the enclosed photo. I thought you might like to use it in the National Truth. The price for this photo is one million dollars. I would appreciate it if you would pay in cash. Please get back to me as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
Herb Dunn."
"Who's Herb Dunn?" Tina asked.
"How should I know?" Louise replied. "I made him up."
Tina peered over her sister's shoulder. "Why are 'Fifty-Five' and 'Year' capitalized, but 'old' is not?"
"Stop asking so many questions!" Louise said angrily. "Let's just hurry up and mail this."
Gene came into the living room. "I found an envelope."
"Good," said Louise.
Carefully, she slipped the letter and photo into the envelope. She wrote UFO PHOTOS, DO NOT BEND on the outside. Then the three of them headed outside and walked over to the mailbox at the end of the block. Louise dropped the envelope into the slot. "All we have to do now," she said, "is wait."