Page 217 - TruthAboutLyingFinal

Nicholas Boothman
“I saw the message,” she said before he could speak. “Everyone did. I assume you’re trying to build something?”
“We are. And we need your help.”
“Why me? I’m not a scientist or a...”
“Because you’re not carrying what the rest of us are carrying,” Henry said. “Guilt. Compromise. Damage. Because people trust you in a way they don’t trust us anymore.”
A pause.
Then:
“Where are you?”
“Convention center on Eighth. We’re in the main hall.” “I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
She arrived with her daughter, who sat quietly in the back doing homework while Claire joined the core team. And it was Claire who finally articulated what they were building in a way that made sense.
“You’re not trying to make people perfect,” she said, looking at the frameworks they’d developed. “You’re trying to make it easier for people to be good. You’re trying to make the right thing easier. But still leave room for judgment, mercy, the small kindnesses that make life bearable.”
She looked around at the exhausted faces.
“That’s what people need to hear. Not that you’ve built a perfect system, but that you’ve built a human one. One that acknowledges we’re going to make mistakes and gives us ways to fix them.”
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