Just a Little White Lie

The guys had lifted Lana's new chair and ottoman out of the back of the van and carried it into the house. She and Nita had lagged behind. Nita wanted to find out some information about how Lana had found the chair, and Lana wanted to take a sneak peek back at the rose bush. She had heard the snap of the wooden stem, and she wanted to see if the rest of the bush was in tact. When Nita looked toward the house Lana quickly swung her head around, saw the poor rose bush crumpled under the van tire, then swung her head back before Nita could take a breath. Lana was devastated, but she would never let them see it. The smile on her face returned when she thought of her new chair.

"You didn't find that chair on the internet did you?" Nita began before taking a big breath. "You can never trust those people that sell their stuff on the internet. I'd be afraid they would meet me and rob me, or worse. And I'd never want them to find out where I live. There are a lot of really crazy people out there, Lana, just looking for ways to get to you. You didn't, did you?"

"Didn't what?" Lana was stalling and thinking.

"Buy that chair on the internet!" Nita exclaimed. "Where did you find it? You didn't get if from a store, did you? If you did, you should have let them deliver it. That's why they charge so much for their furniture, then they turn right around and make you pay a delivery fee. They all do it. I can't believe they get away with it, but they do. Where did you get the chair? It's really pretty, isn't it? And I like the ottoman that came with it. It would look great in my living room. Did they have another one where you got it?"

Unfortunately, Nita stopped talking, and Lana was left standing there with no believable explanation that she could think of to tell her neighbor. She gazed into the house as if she were interested in what their husbands were doing, and then came her rescuer. Sandy, their golden retriever bounded through the door and headed for the van, thinking she was going to get a ride. Thank God for dogs!

"Come on back, Sandy, we're not going anywhere. Sorry, Baby."

When Lana turned back, Nita was staring at her, waiting. She didn't say anything. She was maddeningly, and uncharacteristically quiet.

A moment of silence told Lana she had no choice but to give some sort of answer. Well, she would just have to lie, just this once. She was not about to admit to this woman that she had bought the chair from someone on the internet.

"Well, a friend of ours...... that we know from church......" wow, she thought. That's almost going too far, to lie about it being someone from church!......"knew a couple that needed some money. So they decided to......sell some of their, uh, stuff, uh, furniture. So....I said I would buy something. You know, just to help them out." Whew. She almost admired herself for such a great lie. Then she quickly remembered, "But they didn't have anything else to sell! They sold enough!"

"What a shame!" lamented Nita. "Churches usually give people money to help them out instead of making them sell their stuff. That's really strange."

"Well, they're not in our church. They just have a friend who's in our church. Gary." Shut! Up! She chided herself. It's bad enough to lie, but stop before it goes too far.

The two ladies and Sandy entered into the house, and went into the sitting room where Lana's new chair had found a home in the corner beside the window. The husbands had already made their way out to the garage through the kitchen door, so Lana led the way to follow them. She really didn't want to make this an all evening affair. She wanted to draw all this neighborly sweetness to a halt, get the van in the garage and go to her room. Alone. She didn't want to talk because she knew Neil would bring up the rose bush, and she simply hadn't the heart to think about it tonight. She loved that beautiful yellow rose with its deep pink edges named for Judy Garland. She probably would never find another one.

Lana and Nita stepped out into the garage just as Neil was parking the van and Larry was headed across the lawn.

"Come home, woman!" Larry called to his wife, and she kept right on walking. Neil hit the button that closed the overhead garage door, and that was that. She didn't have to do any maneuvering.

"I'm starving," Neil said, and he headed toward the stove to find the soup was cold. "I'll nuke this and you can go in and try out your chair."

Lana headed down the hall without a word.

"Hm," thought Neil. "Guess I won't tease her about the bush after all."

He loaded his dishes into the dishwasher when he'd finished eating, and mosied down the hall to find Lana already in bed. Her light was on, and she was playing some game on her lap top.

"I thought you'd be in your chair with your new book," he finally ventured.

"Not tonight," she offered, and then she was quiet.

Neil hardly knew what to do next. After all these thirty-some years of marriage he still hadn't learned what to say or do when she behaved like this. Was she mad? Or was she hurt? He had no idea.

He went into the master bath and got ready for bed. He wouldn't be able to watch TV in the other room. He couldn't concentrate on anything but what to do for her. Finally, he sat on the edge of the bed, picked up a Zane Grey from his bed table and pretended to read. Nothing. She didn't make a sound, and he was going crazy.

"What was the name of that beautiful rose out front?" he asked finally. At first he wasn't sure she would answer.

"Judy Garland," she finally spoke.

"I was thinking. Maybe, if we get lucky, we could go out to the nursery on Ridge Road, and see if they have one. I've never seen so many roses in my life as they have there. I don't have to be to work until ten in the morning, and we could go then. What do you think?"

He gazed into her eyes with the tender love that he felt for her. She looked up at him and smiled.

"I think that's a very good idea," she said. "And I also think I have the most wonderful husband in the whole world."

"Well," he grinned. "That's something I've always known. It's about time you came around to acknowledging it."

And, Neil thought to himself, FINALLY! I did it. It was the perfect thing to say to make her feel better. NAILED IT!