Roger worked a little faster that day. May a little bit sloppier too. Although the new NMR equipment the lab had installed had been the victim of a protracted break-in period and endless calibrations, it finally was deemed ready to begin training the lab crew on. Roger had been assigned the task the previous month of traveling to France to visit the manufacturer and learn first-hand of the improvements in the new model over the previous one. He wasn’t the most experienced one in the lab, but he had been exposed to machines from the same manufacturer while working on his doctoral degree at the University of Tennessee. So, getting the assignment was a pleasant surprise to him.

Roger had never traveled outside the US before, really even not out of the southeast. There was that one trip to California to present his dissertation to a group at a chemistry society meeting, but that was it.

Getting back and assisting the manufacturer’s representatives in getting the new equipment installed and calibrated meant the usual work of analyzing properties of the long-chain polymers could get back to its normal boring pace. What a life.

But tonight he had an appointment.

His coworkers had agreed in the past that they would make an appointment every other Thursday night to meet at one of their houses to play board games, eat pizza or something, and drink beer. It was a time of bonding, sharing, and daring.

They had been called to work from all over the US. Tom from Maine. Roger from Tennessee. Justin from Arizona. Noah from Virginia. Ryan from Wyoming. Chris from Texas.

Roger and Tom were in the analytical department. Their jobs entailed testing the compounds produced by the development department to determine their properties and trying to find suggestions to manipulate them to increase their usefulness, and hopefully, patentability. They supervised several techs that set up the machines and ran them, leaving Tom and Roger to interpret the output. The techs were mostly Chinese or Korean young men who had bachelor’s degrees in chemistry or mathematics.

The rest worked in the development department. Their jobs were to find and synthesize new compounds that had commercial possibilities. They could be entirely new compounds or alterations of natural or otherwise existing ones. Many more worked in the development department and a higher percentage were American.

The two departments shared the same building and were separated by a long hall running between them. They shared employee lounges, restrooms, locker rooms, and a kitchen for those who brought their meals. Although they weren’t the whole department, they were the ones who, as it turned out, had enough in common to form friendships outside of work. This was something harder to do with the bosses, who were mostly Chinese. Cultural differences and all. And not a scotch drinker among them.

Roger was a scotch drinker. And no surprise since he was in all other outward appearances straight off the plane from Edinburgh. Red haired, and so many freckles that his childhood friends had nicknamed him “Spot”. Thankfully, no one he worked with knew that.

Justin was the youngest and most recently hired and the only one still unmarried and living in an apartment. He did have a girlfriend who was the daughter of a man who also worked where the group did.

Ryan and Chris were mid-30s, married, and well settled in to life in suburbia.

Noah was recently married, late 20s, and seemed mature beyond his years.

Tonight, the appointment was at Tom’s home. He was the most senior of the group and everyone thought that he should probably have retired by now. He might have but for the fact that he and his wife had 5 children and his wife had been a stay-at-home mom. They had put all 5 through private colleges and Tom was having to work longer because he had not been able to save a big enough nest egg to retire. That said, he had the nicest home and the biggest yard and the others always liked it best when it was his turn to play host. If the weather out was manageable, he preferred something cooked on the grill, and tonight it was quite pleasant.

Tom loved old movies from the 30s and 40s and was often commenting on things that he said happened that were like a scene from a movie he had seen. He also preferred music from another time. The 1960s for popular music.

Tonight, Tom had turned on the small, colored electric lanterns he had strung from posts in his fenced back yard and had a music mix playing that included old songs by Chubby Checker. One that was Tom’s choice was Limbo Rock. It had a kind of crazy Caribbean tune and beat to it to it and Tom would sometimes try to sing it when he had a few too many. The menu was also his standard. Steaks for everyone. Better than the pizza that was the more standard fare.

This night the game of monopoly had ended earlier than normal due to a decided lack of focus, caused partly by the high-gravity beer supplied by the evening’s host and partly by the mental exhaustion of the week’s work. At least they could unwind a little more than usual since they had been given the Friday off that week.

As the beer was still available, the gathering moved to the back yard where a badminton net and a spike-ball game that seemed to always be set up invited anyone stable enough to try participation. No one did.

Rather, the group lounged in the Adirondack chairs and took turns floating out subjects for conversation to see if anything could get off the ground. In this group, that wasn’t easy.

Justin tried to start a conversation on baseball. He had been a pitcher on his team at college and was up on all the players he followed. Although at work in the break room, he and Noah were often talking about the games they had watched of whatever the seasonal sport was at the time, this night he was alone in that fascination and that conversation balloon was quickly shot down by the group.

Roger attempted to get a conversation started about scotch and the taste differences in peated vs. non-peated, in blended vs. single-malt, and in the effects of aging on mellowing. Alcohol being one of the subjects bonding the group together, this did go a little further as long as Roger didn’t push the conversation too hard. He had been watching Youtube videos by a guy in Scotland named Ralphie who would record himself sampling numerous varieties of scotch over the nearly hour-long recordings and making his tasting comments. On the longer videos, it almost seemed Ralphie was enjoying his work a little too much. Roger attempted to get the guys to watch one of Ralphie’s videos but overtaxed the wi-fi. They could have just connected with their phones but were also bonded by their cheapness and had all tried to use Tom’s network while there. Previous experiences with that had led them away from the online games they had tried to board games.

Politics is often a risky topic to bring up, even among friends, so instead of talking politics, they talked about politicians. That’s safe almost anywhere.

“Did you see the latest press conference the governor gave?” said Noah.

“It was like the recording of when Iraq fell during desert storm and Baghdad Bob was on live TV denying American soldiers had entered Bagdad as a few of them entered the studio and were caught on camera.” “He can’t really believe what he’s saying, can he? I wonder who he’s protecting?”

“He just says what he’s told” said Ryan. “That’s all most of them do. The really smart ones know it’s a lie. But they know who really put them there and who keeps them there and what they have to do if they want to stay in the game.”

“You mean like Putin’s generals?” said Chris.

“Yeah” said Ryan. “They know not to go above the 2nd floor of any building they’re in unless they stay far from the windows.”

“It must be a requisite skill of being a good liar to be a politician,” said Noah. “Do you think they require special training for it or does it just come natural?”

“Probably a fair amount of both,” said Ryan. “Maybe there’s a gene for it and it predisposes them to seek a position in politics.”

“In fairness, they hardly have the monopoly on lies,” said Chris. “I mean, who here hasn’t lied to others or even to themselves?” “It’s just too easy to do sometimes. We either want something or want to avoid something and if a little lie gets the job done, we pick up the pieces later. If it’s lying to someone we love, we expect forgiveness if they find out. Like it’s owed to us. If it’s someone we don’t care about, what does it matter? When you get right down to it, lies are sometimes quite useful. Lies sell. Lies comfort. Lies control. Lies move masses. Lies divide and conquer people. Lies enslave. Lies kill. Lies get killers released. All in all, lies are practically indispensable at times. And it’s been that way as long as there have been people. We use lies like amateurs. Politicians, they’re the pros.”

“What sets the pros apart from the amateurs?” said Justin. Chris answered, “The amateurs, you can often tell when they are lying. They won’t look you in the eye, their voice changes, or they have some other tell. One time when Rose and I were over at Ryan’s for a meal with his wife, we were talking about it and she said his mother had told her that when Ryan was telling a lie his nostrils would flare a little. So he could not lie without turning his head away so she couldn’t see his nose. The pros have had so much experience they don’t have to resort to things like that. They can look you right in the eye and tell you the biggest whopper and never bat an eye.”

Tom added, “I guess that is how the old joke about the way you can tell a politician is lying is when his lips are moving got started. I saw a story in the news today about the president’s press secretary and a press conference Q & A session. One of the reporters asked a question about the problems of illegal immigration at the southern border. The press secretary said that illegal immigration had declined by over 90% since the beginning of the current administration. The reporters in the room stared at her, incredulous as they wondered if they had heard her claim correctly. One pressed her and she didn’t back down. But another later wrote that she is an amateur liar because she always looks down at her lectern and shuffles her binder when she lies.”

“She needs more training,” said Roger.

“She’s in the best place on earth to get it.” Ryan butted in.

Roger continued, “How could she have gotten that job being such a poor liar? I’m telling you, one of the duties in her job description should say she is responsible for making silk purses out of sow’s ears. I mean given what she has to work with, that’s got to be tough”

“More like making silk purses out of sow’s rears,” said Ryan.

“Major downer” Justin said. “Can’t we talk about something else?”

“Throw something out” said Tom. “But no more baseball.”

“What if people stopped lying?” said Justin.

This was most like Justin to say something like this. He was the youngest member of the group, the most recent out of college, and the one who still harbored a shred of what one might call idealism and optimism.

“Where did that come from? said Ryan.

“Yeah. And what if pigs started flying” said Tom.

“No. Really. What if people stopped lying. What would that look like” Justin persisted.

“What do you mean by “people”?” said Tom. “You mean me? You? Us? Our kids? Our president?”

“I mean everybody.” Said Justin.

“Everybody?” said Tom.

“Yes, everybody.” Justin replied.

“That just would not work.” Said Ryan.

“Why not?” said Justin.

“Well, look at it this way” said Ryan. “Imagine the next time you go to Sams Club with your girlfriend and a pretty woman walks by and your girl asks you what you’re looking at and instead of making something up you tell the truth, imagine what would happen.”

“Well imagine next time you go to confession at church and the priest asks you what you have to confess and instead of saying “Oh, I forgot to pray or I said something mean to my dog,” imagine you told the whole truth, imagine how many hail Mary’s you would get for that” Justin replied.

“You’re just proving my point” Ryan said.

Tom was the sage in the group and often waited until a conversation had progressed to a certain point before speaking. At this point, he spoke up, “I remember an old movie about a society that you might call utopian. If I remember it, the movie was named Lost Horizon and was made in the late 30s. A plane full of people crashed while flying over an area of the Himalayan Mountains and the survivors were rescued and taken to a hidden valley called Shangri-La. Being sheltered on all sides by high mountains, the climate at Shangri-La produced an almost Eden-like environment. The society in Shangri-La had developed to a state of peace and tranquility and the members shared responsibilities, didn’t argue, didn’t envy each other, and didn’t lie. What seemed to be an ideal civilization turned out to be too stressful for the plane crash survivors and they ended up trying to escape Shangri-La. The seemingly ideal society at Shangri-La exposed the character flaws of the outsiders to the extent they couldn’t stand being there. They risked their lives trying to escape. It was a long movie, and slow moving, and some thought it promoted communism. The depression the US experienced was not over at the time and had also struck other countries. Conditions were ripe for agitation among the masses by radicals. Capitalist governments were on high alert regarding communism after the revolution in Russia and movements in other parts of the world back then.

But there was another movie, a comedy, made a couple of years later with Bob Hope in it called Nothing but the truth. In it, Bob made a bet with his boss and a few friends that he could go 24 hours without telling a lie. His friends asked him all sorts of questions to try to make him lie, but he wouldn’t. It became interesting when he was invited to a dinner party with his boss and friends and their wives. The wives asked him harmless, at first, questions, and he answered truthfully. After a few minutes of this and increasingly sensitive questions, Bob and his friends were in a lot of trouble.”

“So, you’re saying that civilized man can’t handle living without lying” Justin said.

“No. I’m not saying that at all.” Tom said. “Just that the people from outside Shangri-La in the movie had a hard time with the idyllic society there and wanted to escape. And in the Bob Hope movie, well, the truth caused trouble.”

“What do you think?” Justin prodded.

“Communication is rarely precise to begin with. A person speaking has a thought, feeling, or idea they want to express. They have in their mind what they intend for the one they are speaking with to think. The one listening may get the correct understanding of the intention or may not. Let’s say I ask a question, what is 2 + 2? I am wanting to get the answer, “4”. But the one I am asking is understanding it a different way. The answer they give me is, “an addition problem”. Both answers are correct. But I didn’t get the answer I wanted. Then when you add a motive, like deception, to communication, it can get even more complicated. So maybe a person can ask a question or give a thought in such a way that they get a response they like. I think many people routinely lie or at least stretch the truth so often that they don’t usually notice it. It’s like Chris said earlier, it’s just too easy to lie sometimes. We’ve all heard the saying, “The truth hurts.” And that can be true. But who does it hurt? Does it hurt the one lied to or the one doing the lying?” said Tom.

“Depends on the lie and who is telling it.” Chris said. He had been following the conversation and hearing his name prompted him to speak up. “It is interesting that there’s a saying about the truth hurting but not about lies hurting.” He added. “Sometimes people really want to believe a lie. They want to believe you can eat what you want, never exercise, and lose weight. They want to believe that everybody loves them. They want to believe that they still could pass for someone 10 years younger. They want to believe that they can still drive home after that one more drink. Truth can be like light. Light illuminates your senses and thus your thinking. It gives you information to make good decisions. Lies are like darkness. They hide and confuse. They either keep correct information from you or mix what good information you may be getting with bad information so you can’t see correctly to make decisions.”

This last comment by Chris did remind the others that they had to drive home and maybe having one more for the road wasn’t such a good idea now.

One let off a good yawn. Then another. It was catching. Someone stood up to stretch.

About that time, Tom’s wife returned from wherever she had gone and her car pulled into the driveway. Tom looked up.

Another yawned. Another stretched. Roger had drank a scotch or two before arriving and had nodded off. Noah prodded him and he snorted and jerked and looked up. The rest laughed.

“I need to head out,” said Chris. “I’ve got a long list of work around the house to try to complete this weekend and the extra day this weekend means I might actually get half of it done.”

“Which half?” questioned Roger. “The wife’s half of course,” answered Chris.

Next Chapter: Chapter 2