IV Lies

A recess is called. It seems we are to meet with the court counsellors before the judge passes judgment. I am the first to leave the courtroom and search for Snooks. He is nowhere to be found and, disheartened, I head for Granville Mall. The idea seems a good one - no traffic except taxis and buses along the street. The sidewalks are wider and benches and flowers take up residence with the congregations of homeless young people that disdain the benches in favour of blankets on concrete. I used to make sandwiches and deliver them to those huddled in doorways on drizzly Vancouver afternoons. The manager of McDonalds on the corner of Robson and Granville once chastised me for adding to the troubles of the neighbourhood. Now I have troubles of my own.

Books have always brought me comfort and I enter The Granville Book Company to search the shelves for the answers to my predicament. I buy:
Never Be Lied to Again: How to Get the Truth In 5 Minutes Or Less In Any Conversation Or Situation (Paperback)
by David J. Lieberman.

The book suggests when liars are being accused of something, they'll stay calm because they're working on their rebuttal; this is why detectives were suspicious of O.J. Simpson when he didn't express outrage when accused of murdering his ex-wife and Ronald Goldman. Never Be Lied to Again claims to be bursting with tested tips like this for quickly determining when you're being boondoggled.

“Body language, facial expressions, sentence structure, and word choice can all reveal when someone is lying, says psychologist David J. Lieberman, and he includes 46 of these "clues to deception" to help you, including tricks for framing questions without putting others on the defense. Once you use your newly honed "human lie detector" skills to figure out if you're being lied to, you can then dig for the truth using the specific, influential words and body postures that Lieberman suggests. Written with flair and humor, Never Be Lied to Again is designed to help you get the upper hand in any situation, whether you're trying to figure out if your spouse is cheating on you or if you suspect your coworkers are cooking the books.”

I know J.C. is lying. But why? And more importantly, can I really get him to stop lying to me? Hope is a powerful force. It is the force that keeps us upright, on our feet, anti-gravity.

The Simpsons Handbook is for Snooks, not really nine as the judge presumes, but thirteen and mightily confused by the world. He takes most things literally. He studies joke books to teach himself the underlying message in things. Bart Simpson is his eye on an alien landscape. I realize he is similar to me as I try to discern the truth from the lies. I am not well versed in either. Fear prompts me to avoid the truth. After all, I might discover that someone really doesn’t like me or that someone really is as cruel or manipulative as he or she appears to be. I hide from violence and anger, often behind a fantasy - a lie. When Snooks doesn’t know what to say, he meows - literally. We all have our ways of avoiding the truth.

My husband, the gentle South Sea, is not here today. He is 1500 miles south, lapping the Santa Barbara shores, and maintaining the rhythm of a normal family life with Londonderry and Bean.