Those who are always Believed

It used to amaze us, when we were kids, that everyone always believed Patti.  She was a liar of the first order, but everyone always believed her.

When I say everyone, I mean, her parents, teachers, her friends, strangers.   We were always amazed at how Patti could tell a tie and instantly was believed without question.

In class, for example, the teacher used Patti as the ‘spy’.   Patti would ‘report’ on people she didn’t like.  She would lie, the teacher would believe her, and the person she didn’t like would be punished.

We used to marvel at Patti, wondering how and why people always believed her.

“Patti goes on as if she’s too stupid to lie.  She’s quiet, she acts humble, she puts out this attitude that if you ask her a question she doesn’t have the ability to fabricate,” explained the older sister of one of my friends.

One day a new girl, Andrea, came to school and she was nice and friendly and we took her into the group and Patti was jealous.  Of course, Patti didn’t say anything, didn’t betray anything,  we didn’t know or even suspect.

One day Patti was alone with Andrea.   As Patti was quiet, Andrea did most of the talking  and was waxing warmly about Margie.  Softly, Patti said to her, “huh? You should hear what Margie says about…you.” in her soft dull voice.

Patti never explained, admitted, revealed what, and walked away.   Subsequently, Andrea was cold to Margie,  and as Margie was our friend forever we started to leave Andrea out until she was completely out.

To use modern language, we ‘unfriended’ her.

Some years later one of the girls, Kimmie,  was talking about a girl called Lois who was an annoying tagalong.  Kimmie was complaining that she can’t even go to the bathroom without Kimmie following her.

Patti said she’d take care of it.

Sure enough, Lois disappeared from the circle and Kimmie had to know how Patti had done it.   “The same way I got rid of Andrea.  When Lois was saying what a great friend you were I looked at her like this, and said, “You should hear what Kimmie says about you…”

We were kind of slapped by the fact she’d used this ‘missile’ on Andrea, who’d we had liked, and Patti’s words were a complete revelation as to why Andrea had been so different and why we had unfriended her.

It was then we began to appreciate how Patti had manipulated us.

We began to be absent, giving excuses why we couldn’t go here or there and being in different classes made new friends, only dealing with Patti when we were forced, and acting as if nothing was changed , but everything had changed.

For years we had known Patti, we knew her abilities, but had never taken that next step to manipulation.  That Patti manipulated us and we never knew it.

I’m sure she continued on for the rest of her life, lying and being believed, and being able to manipulate people around her.

All of us became rather alert to opinions and very unwilling to believe anything without clear proof.  We believed nothing we were told unless we could get some kind of outside verification.

In a way it was a good thing.  We were not gullible, we were suspicious, and less likely to be tricked, which helped us a lot in life as we didn’t believe rumours, gossip, statements that could not be proven by an outside source.