Everyone assumed Ben’s older brother was the big expert. When he told me that, by touching Geraldine’s freckles in a way that resembled a constellation, she would give in to my every request, I believed it. I found out the hard way it wasn’t quite gospel. He claimed his poodle was part wolf. “Listen to its bark,” he advised. “That’s where it becomes obvious.” There was an endless stream of these gems. Yet he could really put it across. Most were convinced. He was good at lying. I believed him when he said he saw our kindergarten teacher naked. “People have to be naked at least once a day,” he said. “And my brother has a friend who has a window across from her apartment.” Nothing could ever be substantiated. Lie upon lie, a deluge of confabulated delusion. I heard he became a successful lawyer. If you can make others believe, there’s a place for you in this crazy world.

Bio: Gary Glauber