In graduate school he had developed a technique that covered his ass. He was so smooth that shades of truth were such a bare blip of the kilowatts that nobody really noticed. If he came out with an actual lie he'd duck out of the room as cool as he could manage and the lights would be fine.

Of necessity, Jonathan didn't have a lot of close friends nor did he run with a crowd. His best buddy made a remark once about it, having seen it happen a couple of times.

"Jeez, Jon, you got some kind of electrical power or something?" he said.

"Me? I thought it was you!"

Unsure of themselves and shallow back then, they just laughed.