The Intrigue of Mystery

Prepare for some rambling. But it has been a long week and I'm not too concerned right now about style. Call it something close to James Joyce and "stream of consciousness" if you want.

I've decided that mysteries intrigue me. In fact, it's a hard time for me to stop thinking about them. Specifically, mysteries regarding the human psyche. For example, if a person has a legitimate reason to get out of a class, especially on test day, why not take that legitimate reason and go for it? They might want to get the test over with, in which case they put aside the excuse and just take it anyway. But that's not the mystery. The mystery in this case is that this student, while allegedly having a legitimate excuse for not attending class, made the unwise choice of simply skipping and not following proper procedure for getting excuse from the test.

This is a puzzle that defies logic. If I like ice cream, and an ice cream cone of my favorite size and flavor is offered me (and I'm hungry for ice cream), why would I deny that offer and steal the old lady's ice cream next to me instead of taking the gift? It could be chalked up to stupidity, or possible embarrassment at taking a gift, and maybe I think it's more manly to steal an ice cream cone rather than take what's offered for free.

Humans often act irrationally. That could be another explanation. This is a fact that has taken me a long time to accept, and even now it is an explanation I am reluctant to accept, except perhaps on the rarest of occasions. When I was studying history in undergrad I remember trying to reason out how people should have behaved in the past, based on the assumption that people do act rationally, will choose what's best for them if they know what it is, etc. But one of my professor's pointed out that this is not always the case. Food for thought, for sure, and I'm afraid he's right.

So irrational behavior COULD be the explanation. This is the explanation that a parent of this student has accepted. The girl just acted stupidly. She could have legitimately skipped the class, but did not.

This explanation should only be accepted if all others are exhausted. So what are other possibilities? Revisit the facts stated on ice cream. I do like ice cream. Is it possible I don't. (Very short pause.) Nope, it's true. Second thing to consider: is ice cream being offered me for free, or did I mistake the guy behind that ice cream cart, and he said "three" (dollars) instead of "free"? This should be reconsidered. Perhaps the ice cream is not free. Perhaps it really is three dollars. And I only have a dollar in my pocket. And he is not taking credit cards at his ice cream stand. So if I want ice cream but don't have the money, and then I see a little old lady walking by with a cone, and no one nearby to guard her, the temptation to steal that ice cream increases dramatically.

Translation: is it possible the alleged legitimate excuse this student had, and could have used to get out of the class, is not so legitimate after all? What's working against this conclusion? Anything?

Yes, there is. Specifically, the mother of the alleged student believes that her child did have a legitimate reason to skip class, but simply acted unwisely by not taking the correct steps.

The mystery is thus birthed. What can this mean? Who to believe? What other avenues to explore?

What reason do we have to believe the mother is correct? In her favor, she gave birth to the girl (I think). She has reason to know her very well. So it could be that we have a simple case of irrational behavior, and no lying.

Other possibilities? Yes. If the girl lies repeatedly to one authority figure (i.e., me), is there any reason to suspect she does the same with other authority figures (i.e., her mother), and maybe even tries to pit them against each other, using a web of lies and deception?

Quite possible. How can we explore this further? Are there any other sources that might be consulted on this?

There are. Leads, at least. Namely, possible witnesses who might be able to verify that said student was not in the location she claimed to be to support her story. If these witnesses can only be accessed, and convinced somehow to give an honest report about the location of the student in question, then the student can be proved to have lied once again, and confirm my suspicion that the excuse was not a legitimate one, but another lie to cover up a stack of previous lies.

Dilemma: What to do if witnesses do give evidence to "convict" this student? This would mean that not only has she lied to her teacher, but also her mother, and her mother has either bought the story, or even worse knows she is lying but mother pretends to believe her for the purpose of trying to get her off the hook? This is a tricky business. I'm not a parent, but imagine the shock of finding out that your child lied to you, you bought their story, and you defended them on the basis of this lie? Are there parents out there who have experienced this? What did you do in response? Would you want to know that your child has deceived you and you have wrongly leapt to their defense? I think I would, but I would be extremely disappointed with my child, and am not sure how I would react.

Another dilemma: if my suspicion that this is simply a web of lies is confirmed, and I am able to get a witness to tell me the truth, said witness will likely not be happy should I pass on the testimony to the student's mother. After all, they are friends, and there's a silly code among teenagers these days that says you should never say something that will get them in trouble, even if questioned and it's the truth. I guess their "friendships" get destroyed this way, which suggests to me they are not real quality friendships in the first place.

So as you can see, this is a tricky business. But it's also a fascinating one, for it is an unsolved mystery. Is this student a terrible liar? Does her mother know her very well, or has the mom been duped? Is the Mom stooping so low as to try and cover for her lying daughter? There is a possible witness. Can I convince this witness to tell me the truth? If the witness confirms the daugher has lied to her mother, do I tell the mother this? Or do I just keep my mouth shut and try to smooth things out, only playing the "ace in the hole" should the mother start to be demanding and put the blame on me for her daughter's academic troubles? I'm not interested in bearing the bad news to the mother that she has been deceived by her lying and conniving daughter (if this is the case), unless really necessary. This would not exactly be considered fun, nor part of the job description when I signed up here! However, I really do want to know for my own sake as to whether I have totally misjudged this student, and she did simply act irrationally (but not as connivingly as I have thought). That the mother seems to have bought the girl's story is an interesting twist to this continuing mystery.

Regarding getting this witness to testify to me and shed light on the mystery, there is a trump card I have to play that might help. Namely, I just caught this witness cheating again. When I confront this witness with this evidence, I may just be able to work out a "plea bargain," and squeeze the testimony out of him. One of those "shoot with me straight now and tell me the honest truth, and I might go a little more leniently on you" deals. We'll see if such "coercion" will work or not.

I'm thinking now I may be in the wrong career. Maybe criminal interrogation, or investigation, should have been my field of choice??

It's an unsolved mystery now, though I'm afraid I know what the truth is...