Rabbit Trails and Spiderwebs

Clearly The sentence came as a surprise.   Actually, I didn’t think they were listening that close.   The words were not difficult, the sentence was not complex, but the effect was.   The result was that I had a choice and only a moment to decide.   To hide behind the usual nostrums and platitudes to deflect or would the more honest version of the truth come through.   This dilemma is not a place I find myself often.   I am a quick study and usually quite vigilant about my conversation partners and their talents to penetrate my shielding. Until this. A conversation is a mix of items, and like any recipe there are some common ingredients and then a few things that change the bars into cake or cookies.   It is the same for a conversation.   Many common things are to be expected, and then a few random items that turn it toward or away from any given depth.   Things like the amount of time expected or the closeness of the relationship.   The partners comedic natur

Opacity I have seen the look before.   The eyes gave it away.   Intense. Piercing. Resolved. Searching. Like a ray of light into the foggy twilight, you could see the light beam across the meadow.   It moved with a deliberate and steady motion. Penetrating, like an MRI that was “thin-slicing” all that it landed on.   Now it had landed upon me. It was probing for the flaw.   The telltale sign of perfidy and malicious intent to harm.   The reason to resist. I have seen this happen before.   The dissonance of fear and desire.   Hope and the trepidation that there might be a mistake.   This is how the wound was inflicted last time, and the resolve to not let it happen again.   The determination to be a better judge this time. I know this gaze because I have used this gaze.   Often.   OK, to be clear, constantly…. There is an attentiveness to the vigilance.   A high level of discipline in the use and the application of the dye that will reveal the microscopic crack