Short Stories

Prompt: You are in a typical awkward elevator ride with a group of other people. Suddenly a man says “So, I bet you are wondering why I’ve gathered you here” before hitting the emergency stop button.

Just as the elevator stopped midway, the hovering awkwardness is taken over by glances of surprise, shock and, even terror. The man takes off his hat which had covered a good half of his face, now revealing his balding head, gleaming eyes and pearly whites while he gave a gentle nod to acknowledge the sudden surge of attention he was enjoying. As strange as it may seem, it was remarkable - the way his eyes pierced into each one of theirs at the same time and how each one of them felt they had his complete attention, a grip they found overwhelming yet beguiling. 

‘If I told you that you’re all stuck in a dream, would you believe me?’, asked the man with no particular curiosity in his voice. Nobody said a word. ‘Well, you could just try pinching each other and see for yourself’, spoke the man with the same calm in his demeanour. The ah’s in unison cleared the air. ‘I don’t really care if you are disappointed or excited, you know. I’m here for a reason and I can’t do it without you’, his tone took a slightly patronizing turn. 

‘The five of you are here together not by a hand of coincidence. Rather, you are a carefully picked assortment of humans just rightly made for the mission I need you for’. How he said “humans” by mere utterance gave him an air of extra-terrestrial superiority. ‘You are all exceptional liars and excellent keepers of secrets.’ Cheeks turned red and half-hearted protests of denial were aroused. It seemed for a few moments that they were free from the arrested attention of the man but instead were lost in their own directories of secrets and lies- in a quick attempt to figure which one of their most malicious lies had led to the de drop arrival of the crafty bald man. Ranging from infidelity to insurance fraud, it was a perfect assortment. The man was right. 

As if to answer all their anticipations, he began to speak with the gait of a politician, ‘I come from the Planet of Deceit.’ All five pairs of eyebrows were raised but not anyone said a word. He continued, ‘The very first lie ever told in your planet was the result of an infiltration which happened a great many years ago. A prisoner who was serving his life sentence for the utterance of truth managed to find his way out of the prison and somehow fled the planet to seek asylum in yours. He was stopped at the guarded gates of Earth and asked to state his reason for visitation. In all genuineness, he narrated his story to the guards. To someone who had fled hostility in desperate need for asylum, the reaction of the guards came across as rather shocking and exasperating. They laughed! ‘You were imprisoned for speaking the “truth”?’ the guards said in unison as if that was the most incredulous thing they had ever heard. ‘But what is “truth”? Is it something like an unspeakable spell?’. It took our friend a few moments before he realized that on this planet, there did not exist the dichotomy of truth and lies. There were no lies, hence nobody knew of truth. ‘What a beautiful planet to live in!’ he thought. In his reverie, he had forgotten about the on-going interrogation. His truth didn’t sell here. The guards just wouldn’t buy it. Standing there at the fine border between our planet and yours, he started thinking of the perfect lie. He had no clue what a lie was supposed to sound or feel like, for in his life he had never spoken anything other than truth. He thought it was safe to presume that a lie is supposed to sound and feel exactly the opposite of what truth would. He would then gauge from the reactions of the guards if the lie has been effective or not. If they are pleased, it would mean it worked. 

With considerable reluctance, he invented an episode in his neighbourhood where they debated over the best planet to live in. Being the only one who supported Earth based on the mighty things he’s heard of it, he lost to the majority and was asked to leave his planet and live on Earth from then on. He carefully examined the guards for their reactions and was relieved to see they were convinced, even pleased. There, his ticket to cross the gate was a sweet lie. 

The moment he crossed the line, a tiny strand of hair fell from his head to the floor. Of course, in his merriment, he didn’t notice. He had realized that his truths were invalid here. In the absence of the truth-lie dichotomy, anything he says would be deemed true. He no longer found it difficult to weave lies as and when it served him. It started with little, harmless lies and went on to become malicious ones in no time.

Over the years, he started losing more than just hair. With every lie he told, he lost another strand of hair. For a really long time, he survived on falling hair but then after the last strand of hair fell from his head, his skin started wrinkling for every lie he told. His thick hair and tall stature had bought him enough time to survive on lies. After he ran out of skin to be wrinkled, he noticed he was starting to lose his ability to smell. 

It was then he realized that the more he could besprinkle his lies among people, the lesser the brunt of his own lies he would have to bear. He started selling lies to innocuous earthlings as if it was the sweetest tonic that ever existed. It gave them courage to venture out and explore, live double lives, and satiate their curious quench for life’s little adventures. They paid him in conscience. With this, not only was he able to slow down his descent to nothingness but as he noticed, he was slowly recovering from the damages he had already endured. His skin was tightening and so was his head growing back his gorgeous mane. 

A misfit in his own planet and another, he realized that he had started to lose himself the moment he stepped inside Earth. Survival on draining conscience from the others was not the noblest thing to do but he had no other option. If at all he was to go back to the Plant of Deceit, he would end up in prison. Moreover, his burgeoning conscience had drastically impaired his ability to lie.  After centuries of surviving on earth and watching humans turn to lies for even the slightest of matters, conscience started hitting him hard. Though not his own, it was what it was. It inevitably started taking a toll on his health again. 

He decided to weave a masterplan that would let him go back to his planet, but it was possible only after making it inhabitable for him. That’s when he started tracking the best liars around, to assemble a team for populating ‘truth’ in the Planet of Deceit. These expert liars would be able to survive the harshness of the planet with the tales they would be able to produce at the drop of a hat. As subjective as it was, what sounded and felt like the opposite of what was spoken there, was supposed to be truth. If it made them angry, that was the truth.’

The man’s captivated audience was now standing with their eyes out and mouths open. The elevator door opens and the man, nowhere to be seen. The perplexed group steps out only to be stopped by two guards in black. ‘What are you doing here?’.