A lie, or sham story: also a single stroke on a drum. To flam; to hum, to amuse, to deceive. Flim flams; idle stories.
I never absorbed any consequence for the elaborate and bogus story I told to a classmate in the 7th grade.
He was new to our school at the time and I guess I felt this gave me license to exercise my seniority with nonsensical tales of what horrors awaited him at the end of the school year.
I came up with the idea that our class, and only our class, annually performed a vocal concert in which every class member performed a solo song or classical vocal piece. No other class in the school did this, only ours, and we had done it since Kindergarten. It was such a routine for us that you wouldn’t even hear anyone talk about it until the day before, when we would discuss what songs we wanted to do so as not to repeat anyone else’s song. The concert was held before all the parents and faculty of our school and of the much larger school across the street. Newspapers and reporters were known to show up for this annual holiday spectacle.
I don’t know who was more full of it: myself for telling this story or John for appearing to believe every word I said.
Whatever the case, I got away with it in the end when, for reasons I can’t recall, the last day of school was cancelled. I remember seeing John walk along the walkway outside our classroom, seemingly pre-occupied, and I wanted to ask if he was relieved at not having to perform the next day. Did I ask or had I already worked this silly lie to its conclusion? I can not recall.
