How would God respond to making a mistake? Would planets collide or mountains slide into the sea? Or would the ledger of all life simply remain out kilter until a series of small events forced that ledger back into balance again? It's probably the l...
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44 years before today
late April, Seoul, South Korea
in the year after all the wars had ended
and all the jobs had disappeared
On their one and only night together, she told him six lies. In the dizzying World of Liars and Their Lies (a place that is more commonly referred to as The World), her six lies were rather harmless. In fact, they were virtually innocent, if a lie can be labeled as such. Each misstatement was injected so judiciously into the less thrilling parts of his life story that they might have gone unnoticed. She described him as "most strong" and "most handsome." She even started one trifling compliment with "you make me feel..."
Well, it's probably not necessary to complete that particular tribute because it's too easy to guess the rest of what was said. Or at least come close.
Quite clearly, these were easy lies. They were six momentarily believable lies. No. Come to think of it, the real number wasn't six lies but five. Five undeniable lies and a sixth that was just gray enough to fool those people who are determined to avoid the truth whenever possible.
In the year after all the wars had ended and all the jobs had disappeared, lies were the only commodity in Korea to flourish. There was a great bounty of lies. A glut. A flood. A bump-bump-bumper crop. Despite that, her sixth lie was still hard to recognize for what it was because it might have been true on some days and then not on others. It might even have been obvious on some days but not on every single day.
"Sammy," she said, "You are the most honest man."
That's it. Those were her words. With her black (black) eyes fixed on his, she squeaked out the words the most honest man. At first, he had a hard time understanding what she was saying. Although the words were simple enough, her English was self-taught and her native Korean tones were in constant conflict with any syllable that insisted on being pronounced with a more delicate timbre. When he understood what she was saying, that lie and all the other lies suddenly made perfect sense.
"Sammy, you are the most honest." And to that, he happily agreed.
Unfortunately, in a moment of passion, even something as absurd as that sixth lie might sound plausible. You see, mingling one untruth with another can be like discovering the alchemists' dream of divining gold from lead. In fact, this entire saga might be no saga at all if her lies had never come in contact with his. It would be the sword that was still stuck in the stone, the great wooden horse left outside the gates of Troy, or Tiny Tim's crutch cracking with age as it sat beside the fireplace because it was never needed in the first place.
But once those magical chemicals found themselves next to each other, the electrons and protons did their mystical work and a KABOOM! was inevitable. Well, that's close to the truth but not quite right. For those who are pathologically obsessed with precision, it was definitely more of a kaboom than a KABOOM! Regardless, the facts here are simple. While she was giving birth to six small lies, he was fathering one colossal fib of his own.
