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Excerpt

Just then Kevin was startled to hear a phone ring. The little man's expression clouded as he rummaged inside his vest, pulled out a cell phone and answered it, yelling, "I told ya never ta call me on this line unless it's important! This better be good!" He paused a few seconds to listen to what the caller had to say and then replied in a calmer tone, "Good, good, that's excellent. Ya did the right thing by callin' me. We don't get a guest o' his stature often. I'll come ta welcome him as soon as I can. What a pleasant surprise-for me!"

He clicked the phone off and turned back toward Kevin. "Sorry 'bout that. It's hard ta get good help these days. Most o' the people I get are dumb, greedy, or incompetent. I havta do almost everything myself. I don't know what I did before cell phones were invented! Now I can stay on top o' things much better than ever before. It's a devil o' an invention. I just don't know why I didn't invent it." Looking hard at Kevin, he asked, "Where were we? Oh, I know. I was about ta ask ya if ya'd like ta earn some money makin' a bet with me. It could be the easiest money ya'll ever make."

Kevin started laughing to himself, thinking that his family had put this guy up to playing a trick on him by pretending to be the Father of Lies, like in Grandpa Pat's story. Because it seemed so funny, he didn't stop to think about the fact that his family knew nothing about Patrick Dunn, so they wouldn't have known to choose an actor for their trick who looked like Patrick. Nor did he think about the fact that Patrick had told him there was about to be another breakout. Kevin had completely lowered his guard.

He decided to make the fun last a little longer. "Well, I don't think betting is a good thing. My parents-well, mostly my mom-told me never to bet anything that I can't afford to lose." All the time he was speaking, Kevin had to fight back a huge laugh that was trying hard to get out. He had decided to string the guy along as long as he could, to get as much fun out of it as possible.

The little man grinned at him, his eyes sparkling. "I couldn't agree with your mother more! She certainly taught ya well, but I havta tell ya-this is a very easy bet ta win. All ya havta do is guess who I am and ya'll win these 100 gold coins. Nothin' could be easier than that!" The Father of Lies reached into the leather bag he was holding and pulled out a handful of gold coins and dropped them back into the bag a few at a time, thinking it would make him look like a genuine leprechaun. He also knew that most Irishmen know leprechauns love gold and the feel of it, so caressing the coins would make his story more believable.

Kevin replied with much more politeness than was his custom, "No, I don't want to make that bet, sir. There are thousands of names in Ireland, and I wouldn't have much of a chance at all to guess yours. You could be an O'Brien, or a Doyle, or a Dunn, or a Murphy, or a Mulcahy. That's a sucker's bet if I ever heard one-there's no way I could possibly win it! And just a few minutes ago you said you couldn't tell a big lie." Kevin smirked. "Telling me that it was an easy bet to win was a huge lie. So see, the Blarney Stone must've worked for you the way you wanted after all! If I told a lie like that, I'd be grounded for a week or more, depending on how my mother felt that day." Kevin knew the tricky little fellow wasn't expecting him to guess his actual surname, but it was a way to make the fun last a little longer.

The Father of Lies started pacing back and forth to distract Kevin while he decided how best to respond. Kevin wasn't reacting the way he had thought he would, so he'd have to change his strategy. "Well, part o' what ya said is true....there are thousands of Irish names; maybe I worded the bet wrong. What I meant ta say was ya'd havta guess what I do, what me job is, such as carpenter or shoe repairman." He said 'shoe repairman' with emphasis because he knew every Irishman understood that leprechauns make their living as shoe repairmen to the fairies, and Kevin must surely know that, too.

"Well, I have to say, that does make it a lot easier. What would I have to give up if I lost the bet to you?" Kevin was starting to get into the thing. His family had picked the perfect person to pretend to be the Father of Lies! It was a lot of fun pulling the guy's leg while the guy was trying to play a trick on him.

Hearing Kevin's response, the Father of Lies felt his excitement mounting and knew that it was time to set the hook. "That's a fair question. I'll get ta choose anythin' on your person that I want, but from the looks o' ya, that won't be much. I do like ta bet! It runs in me family, it does." In order to make it seem very easy for Kevin to guess he was a shoe repairman, he added, "I like ta bet almost as much as I like the feel o' me gold." He paused a moment before adding, "There's nothin' in the world I like as much as the feel o' me gold," again hoping to sound like a leprechaun.

Kevin couldn't believe his family had gone to all this trouble just to play a joke on him. He decided to keep the joke going a little longer. "Well, if you like gold so much, what you plan to take from me must have great value or you wouldn't risk your gold for it." Holding up The Talker, Kevin said solemnly, "It must be this shillelagh. It has been in our family for years. But I couldn't think of losing it to you."

The Father of Lies realized he had overplayed the gold thing a bit and needed to do some quick backpedaling. That wouldn't be a problem; he was good at backpedaling or whatever it took. After all, he wasn't called the Father of Lies for nothing. "Na, it isn't your shillelagh, although it is a fine lookin' one, indeed." He paused a moment to look at Kevin's shillelagh. Something about it looked vaguely familiar, but that wasn't important-he needed to get the kid's soul. The Father of Lies turned his attention back to Kevin as he continued, "Na, it isn't your shillelagh at all. Ya know a leprechaun like me has piled up huge amounts o' gold over a very long lifetime. In fact, I'm near the end o' me life and I'm tryin' ta give me gold away ta nice people so it won't go ta me greedy relatives. The fact is, me makin' this bet is just another way ta go 'round Ireland givin' me gold away. Well, do we have a bet, young man?"

Kevin thought to himself, "This guy's good-very good. That was the fastest turn around I've ever heard." After thinking about what to do next, he decided to finally put an end to the charade and move on to the part where he guessed that the guy in the leprechaun suit was the Father of Lies. He had enjoyed the prank, but he wanted to find out what his family had planned next for him. He wondered if any of them were hidden in the trees watching, so he spoke loudly in a dramatic tone. "Done and done again! You have a bet. You, sir, are The Father of Lies, the bad guy of bad guys, the one who got kicked out of Heaven by St. Michael and the other angels! You're the one my mother warned me about. You're the guy who goes around trying to get people to do bad things so they can't go to Heaven and they end up in the Shadow World with you. You are Evil personified!"

Kevin smiled broadly and paused a few seconds before asking, "So....when do I get the gold, Mr. Diabolic? You can turn it over to me now and be right on your way back to the Shadow World for another few hundred years or you can wait until I hit you on the head with The Talker and make fire come out of your nose! It's your choice."

The little man in the leprechaun garb suddenly flew into a violent rage, the likes of which Kevin had never seen in his life and never, ever wanted to see again. The man's physical appearance was instantly completely transformed into the most hideous of creatures, and at that very moment, Kevin realized that this was no joke-this was the real Father of Lies! He had horns and a tail, like the old pictures of him, but the transformation went far, far beyond that. Instead of just two horns, he had many horns of different sizes and shapes. His ten-foot tall body was partly covered with scales and partly bound in leather with hair. He had one hand that looked rather normal, but a powerful looking claw where the other hand should be. He had long, very sharp hooks on his feet instead of toenails. In the place where a human would have a stomach, he had a visible cage-like thing that had several spirits locked up in it. They were screaming because of their confinement. His tongue was shaped like a snake's. On each side of his body hung a loop that looked like something a chain could be put in to confine him if necessary. But what made him most frightening was the way he had positioned himself while his body was being transformed. He was crouched down and looked like a lion ready to lunge at an animal and completely devour it.

The words the Father of Lies shouted were so foul that Kevin recognized only a few of them, even though they all seemed to be English.

Seeing the Father of Lies' real appearance, Kevin was convinced that this was the real thing and that he needed to get as far away from this place as fast as he could. He was surely in more trouble than he had ever encountered in his entire life! In that instant, many things came into focus and he wished he'd paid more attention to the story about this event when it happened to John Murphy years ago. He had heard the story innumerable times, but at this particular moment, when he most needed to recall the details, he couldn't. Kevin was on his own with the Father of Lies, who looked hell bent on completely destroying him!