April
fools.
Roz has the habit of chewing on things before
asking about them, sometimes for quite a while, even a day or more. Then, we’re
sitting at dinner - Roz, Uncle Albert, and I - and without preamble:
“What was that all about?” To me and I’m supposed to know what “that”
refers to? I have a strategy. I say:
“I’m not sure.” And it’s as much the truth as a strategy because I’m not
sure about much of anything. But it does sometimes bring her to say what “that”
is.
“Nils,” she says. And I’m pretty sure she is talking about his phone
call. (See here.) But I shrug and say,
“Nils.” - in a “What are you going to do?” tone of voice.
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| cell phone drawing (crayolized) |
“I do,” I say, “I think. But I don’t know what to say. He thinks I’m
lying about everything, so I must be lying about him, and he doesn’t like it.”
“I see,” she says. And likely she does. Likely she sees all the way to
the end of what I can say. But she says it in a way that means also “Go on.” “I
see” meaning “Go on.”
“I am lying about him, but I lie about everything. As soon as I type a
word onto a screen, I begin lying because words in a row can’t describe sixteen
things happening at once, the phone’s ringing, your saying ‘It’s Nils,’ what your saying (as opposed to Uncle Albert’s)
- what your saying ‘It’s Nils’ means, what could he be calling about? I could
go on, but . . . .”
“But we’d get no closer to the truth,” Roz says.
“Right.”
“Because we’d be talking in words in a row.”
“Right.”
“Lies.”
“Right.”
“Then no one tells the truth.”
“No.”
“Ever.”
“Some try harder than others,” I said.
“The f,” Uncle Albert said
from his chair, “in fib is a
fricative, if I remember correctly. The b
is plosive. Should I go on?” he asked. “Both are labials, for example.”
“No,” Roz said. “We get your point.”
I didn’t, but I nodded.
04.01.20
_______________
Exercise:
Describe getting an injection. Tell the truth, the whole truth. Use as many
words as you want. Read what you have written. Is it the truth?
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