A Plausible Lie

"What does this look like?"

It was 6th period in a 9th grade English class. They were doing "Vocabulary Pictures". The assignment was to take four of their vocabulary words and draw them.

The boy was illustrating "vow". I overheard the conversation he had with his tablemates. He decided to draw a ring on a finger, as in the vow one takes when getting married. A decent interpretation, I thought.

The other boys at his table didn't think his picture was very good.

(I am terrible at drawing. I avoid it as much as I possibly can. So, when a student asks if a picture is good, I never tell them that it's not. Most of the time, it's better than I could do. If it's not, then that student doesn't need my criticism. That student needs my support. And I am always nice to them about it.)

The boy then asked me what I thought of his drawing. He held it up for me.

I knew what he was going for. And if I looked very closely, I could see it. The ring was large and prominent as was the finger it was on. He had drawn the other fingers very small and close to the palm.

Perspective-wise, it was well done. Execution-wise...

He asked me what I thought it was. I swallowed my answer. I couldn't tell him.

I can't even tell you what I thought it looked like. I made a promise when I started this blog that there would be nothing objectionable on this blog. I checked a little box. That's why there's no content warning when you try to access the blog.

Before I can tell you what it looked like to me, I would need that content warning.

Of course, what I saw did not even occur to them. If it had...

I frantically searched for a lie. A plausible lie. What did it look like? Other than that. What could I say?

In the end I said I didn't know. The boy went on to his next panel. And I didn't laugh.

I really should worry about my mind.