I'm on to you!

One of my favorite episodes of Star Trek: TNG revolved around the crew investigating their mysterious thirty second period of unconsciousness after going through a wormhole. Several clues are discovered, suggesting that their brief stint of unconsciousness wasn't so brief after all. They spend a good part of the episode engrossed in the mystery of what really happened to them.

Perhaps the most entertaining mysteries of my life was brought on by one of my ex boyfriends, "Rick." It was the typical story of young gay love, starting out hot and heavy and quickly turning frigid and forced. He eventually spent less time with me and always found ways to excuse himself from dates we'd made in order to catch up on work or help a friend move.

When he wasn't glued to his laptop, he was stepping outside to take phone calls. He'd tell me that he'd go to the Starbucks on North and Wells to get caught up on work and to watch live performances. He'd disappear for hours with that stupid old laptop that didn't have an integrated wireless network adapter and come home with wet hair.

It didn't require much to understand that he was sneaking around behind my back, having sex or dating other guys. It hurt because we started out as very good friends, and being betrayed by one of your friends is the ultimate burn. But all I had to go on was my overactive imagination and my insecurity... or did I?

Rick didn't know it at the time, but he left many clues for me to investigate. The first clue was his strange behavior, acting odd and canceling appointments and dates with me. I then decided to visit this fantastic Starbucks location on North and Wells and was shocked to learn that they hadn't had live performances in months. Before I knew it, I was finding contradiction in everything that he'd been telling me since the strange behavior started and decided to file them away for future use.

A lot of contradiction proves that he's a liar, but how could I catch him being unfaithful? I began by installing a program onto my computer that takes screen shots every time you left-click or press 'enter.' Then I conveniently misplaced the power cord for Rick's laptop so he'd have to use mine. After using my computer and disappearing into the night to head to his office to grab some paperwork, I quickly checked the logging program and discovered that he'd been typing e-mails to one of our mutual friends. Rick had left to meet him for a sexual tryst.

I confronted Rick with the info, eventually showing him the screen shots of his unfaithful e-mails and attempts to delete the internet browsing history on my computer to futilely cover his tracks. At that point, all I could do was pat Rick on the head like the dog he was and explain to him that the truth always comes to the surface. The smart people are the ones who find it faster.

In that Star Trek episode, Captain Picard explains that people enjoy a good mystery and that if clues are left behind, they'll follow them until the mystery is solved.

I think that a large part of the allure of a good mystery is that a mystery is, in essence, a secret waiting to be discovered. Humans are blessed (or cursed, depending on how you choose to believe) with insatiable curiosity, especially when it involves secrets. There's always a select group of people who just don't accept that things are always as they appear to be, and they'll spend a great deal of time figuring out the truth. Maybe people should think about that before they go behind other peoples' backs and betray sacred trusts that shouldn't be betrayed for the sheer fact that said trusts are extremely rare in the first place.