Back to the time when I was a clerk working in a 24-hour convenience store on the East Coast, people there were experiencing a heat wave. So the absolute thing you wouldn’t want to do was staying in a hot car! That’s what I thought when I saw a woman doing that. Going past the car, I noticed she was always lying, but not sleeping inside. The car was piled with her belongings, including a variety of paints and brushes, from the passenger side to the back seats.

I’d been aware of this car parked for a few weeks in the same space on this quiet lot just next to the convenience store where I worked. Maybe she was in trouble. Finally, one day I asked my partner to fill in for me. Then I stepped out of the store, went over to the car and got a close enough look to see the woman. I found that she was clear-headed in spite of a little pain in her face. This made me more anxious.

“Excuse me, I’m John. I work in the convenient store over there. I’m here to check out if you need any help,” I said.

“Pretty good. Thank you, gentleman. By the way, I’m Justine,” the woman replied with a sweet smile. Seeing that she was OK, I told her I had to go back to work and that I’d be there if she needed a hand.

The next day, after a little rush following the noon, there were no customers coming to buy groceries. With a bit of time, I invited Justine in to enjoy some cool air from the air conditioner. I gave her a cold drink, and then we sat down. “Thanks for your invitation. And I know you have many questions about me. John, go ahead,” she said calmly. She dressed with artistic taste and behaved gracefully. Naturally, I did have much doubt in my head about her situation. When asked why she kept staying in the car, she stopped for a while and said, “Because my precious works are in it.” She added, “What I did was all for my next art exhibition.”

Then she told me that she was an artist.

A month later, I received a call from Justine when in the store.

Ferguson Jones was planning to be a famous inventor. He was not famous yet, being only in the fourth grade, but he was on his way. Ferguson had just completed his first invention.

“Mom,” he said, “my invention is ready to be viewed. You can see it, too, Willard,” he said to his brother, who was busy trying to fix the kitchen clock. “Step right into my room.”

On a table in Ferguson’s bedroom was a device made of wooden sticks, cardboard tubes, and rubber bands. A red balloon was tied to the top.

Ferguson held up a hand. “Just watch,” he said. He unfastened one of the rubber bands, which caused a ball to roll downward. The ball fell onto a device and caused a pin to stick into the balloon that popped with a loud noise.

Ferguson’s mother laughed. “Very clever!” she said.

“But not very useful,” said Willard. With these words, he went back to the kitchen to continue his useful job of repairing the clock. He had the larger clock parts spread out on the table and the smaller parts lined up neatly on the sill of the open window.

Ferguson was sorry that his brother didn’t appreciate his invention. But he wasn’t discouraged. He got right to work on Invention Number Two. When it was finished, he called in his mother and brother again.

Invention Number Two was a network of strings that ran all the way across Ferguson’s room.

“Watch this,” Ferguson said, sitting down on his bed. He started his device, which caused all the other strings to move in a complicated way. Eventually, one of Ferguson’s tennis shoes rose into the air and traveled toward his bed.

His mother chuckled. “That’s innovative!” she said.

“Maybe so,” said Willard. “But why not invent something useful?” He turned around and went back to the kitchen.

Ferguson tried to think of a useful invention. But he soon realized that what he liked best about inventing things was the invention itself not what it was able to do.

Just then Willard accidentally brushed a small part of the clock off the window.

Half an hour later, Invention Number Three was finished, which combined some of the finest features of Inventions One and Two.

Annie’s eyes popped open Friday morning. She hurried downstairs and began to have her breakfast quickly.

“What’s the rush, early bird?” Dad asked. “Today’s my spelling test. Dad,” Annie said. “Mrs. Page promised a prize to everyone who gets 100 percent. I’ve studied the list all week. The words are hard, but I’m ready.”

Annie studied the spelling of each word again as Mom drove her to school. Finally, it was time for the test. “Impatient,” Mrs. Page began. Annie wrote down the word correctly and quickly.

“Word number two: weird,” Mrs. Page said.

“Easy,” Annie thought. She quickly wrote it on her paper.

Twenty-three words later, Mrs. Page collected the test papers. “I’ll mark your papers during lunch,” she told the class. After lunch Mrs. Page said, “Several of you earned a prize today for perfect test scores. Tracy, Jonas, Olivia, and Annie all scored 100 percent on the test!”

Annie smiled as she walked to the front of the room. Mrs. Page gave each of the four students a nice pencil. Annie’s was silver, pink, and blue — her favorite colors. She held the beautiful pencil high while the class clapped. “This is one of my best days ever,” Annie thought as she sat down.

Mrs. Page handed back the test paper and Annie read the words over, proud of the hard words she had spelled. Suddenly she stopped at the word “weird”. It didn’t look right. Annie pulled out the study list and made a comparison. “W-i-e-r-d,” she whispered. She had spelled it wrong.

“What should I do?” Annie wondered. “I want my classmates to think I’m a great speller. If I tell Mrs. Page I’ll have to give back my prize, or I will become an example for telling a lie.”

Annie stared at the test paper with the big red “100%” written at the top. Then she thought of a lesson Dad taught her when she was very young, “We should always be honest.”

Slowly, Annie raised her hand.

Annie looked around.