Location: Heart of Haynesville RV Park; Mansfield, Louisiana
I've been back for five days now, and the weather hasn't been too bad. I think I came back at the right time, but I have been eyeing the weather forecast in Galveston for a future visit.
This story popped in my head as I was making my last tow before arriving back here. I'm not sure how all of this happens, but these stories bang around in my head until I can type them out. Once that happens, then I'm freed from them being "silent echos" in my head. This one is a little different and you'll see at the end.
Two Points of View
They were both sitting anxiously in the hospital waiting
room, hugging each other as they counted down the time until they became
grandparents. The medical technician stopped in front of them and said, “Open
wide”, as he showed them what to do by opening his own mouth. Anne was the
first to comply by opening her mouth and the technician quickly and efficiently
swabbed the inside of her mouth with a cotton swab. He then turned his
attention to George who protested and said, “why are you doing this”? The
technician explained that it was a free service provided by the hospital to all
family members of newborns. They had contracted with Ancestry.com to provide
families with a genealogical family tree. George looked at Anne and they both
shrugged as he opened his mouth for the swabbing. Their son came out of the
delivery room beaming with pride and amazement. He had witnessed the birth of
his son and realized he was now a father. His father looked at him and said, “welcome
to the club”. The times couldn’t have been happier for the entire family.
For the next several days, George and Anne reminisced about
how perfect their marriage and family had been for the last 23 years. They
thought of how they met at a restaurant where each had been dining alone, and
their tables were close enough for a conversation to start. She had been stood-up
by a date and he was recovering from a recent breakup. It was when each ordered
black coffee with their dessert that two shattered hearts reached out to each
other. George asked her if she wanted company. She replied, “Sure, but only
until they could finish their coffee”. Four hours and three pots of coffee
later, they were asked to leave because the restaurant was closing. Neither
realized that hours had passed while they were just talking. When they walked
outside, the only two cars remaining in the parking lot were theirs and as if
there was another fateful intervention they were parked next to each other. It
was as if their cars had been getting to know each other at the same time their
owners were doing the same thing. The cool night air broke the magic spell as
they both climbed into their cars and drove off into the night.
Over the next days, George couldn’t get Anne out of his
mind. He had so many questions he wanted to ask her. He longed to know everything
about her. He regretted not getting her number when they were at the restaurant.
He was at a loss on how to find her again. Then he thought, ‘why not go back to
the restaurant and see if they knew her name’. He arrived at 7:00 and before he
could ask about her, the maître-de quietly said under his breath, “Geez, here
we go again”. George was puzzled by that but then asked about the woman. The
maître-de said, “Follow me”. When they stopped, George’s heart fluttered as he
saw Anne sitting at the same table as last time and with a cup of coffee in
front of her. They each had had the same idea of how to find the other. From
that day forward, they both knew exactly where the other was at any time of day
or night. They married a year later and two years after the wedding day the
family became complete with the birth of their son, George, junior. Years
followed, with their love for each other growing stronger every day. They never
had any major arguments and only minor disagreements such as which color to
paint the walls in the living room. As usual, they compromised and each painted
two walls in their color. The bi-color room became a conversation piece for
decades. Both attributed the lack of arguments to the one and only big one they
had not long after getting married, but before Junior was born. Neither knew
why they argued or who was at fault. All they knew was it was a big one and
both promised each other never to repeat that again. Twenty years of amazing
family memories followed. Each year held so many wonderful memories that they
seemed to blur together into one. Memories, such as the birth of their son
where George held Anne’s hand throughout the labor just as Junior had recently
done with his wife, to teaching Junior how to ride his bicycle or when, years
later, comforting him when a girl broke his heart in junior high. Ultimately
Juniors’ heart healed, and one day he brought his future bride home to meet
them. To George and Anne, it was as if life was coming full circle. A year
later, everyone was overjoyed to hear about Junior and his wife being pregnant
and a new grandson that would soon be joining the family. Junior proudly told
his parents that the plan was to name the baby, George III and nickname him
‘Trey’. George was swelling with pride and told everyone about the upcoming
event and about the three generations of George.
Anne had been checking the mail early every day since Trey
was born. The one day that she was late in doing so, George brought the mail into
the house. He was scanning the envelopes for bills when he noticed one from
Ancestry.com. He almost threw it away as junk mail before remembering the mouth
swabbing in the hospital. He called for Anne so they could open it together.
When she came downstairs and joined him, she noticed the envelope he was
holding and knew what it was immediately. George ceremoniously announced, “We
have been building our future for twenty-three years and now we can discover
our genealogical past and tie the future and past together”. Anne didn’t
respond as she held her breath. George read and re-read the findings, he then
slowly turned to Anne and flatly said, “It says I’m not blood related to Junior
or Trey. It says you are, but that I’m an outsider, not even a part of the
family”.
It was at that moment that Anne’s darkest fears became a
reality and her heart sank. That reality was something that had occurred so
long ago that she had completely put it out of her mind. It was as though it
had never happened. It had been out of her mind until that damn cotton swab was
put in her mouth, and her memories came flooding back. The memory was of her sitting
in a hotel bar after a long day while on an out-of-state business trip. Before
leaving on her trip, George and she had that one big argument of their lives
that they had made jokes about over the years. After one too many drinks, a
stranger came over and offered to buy her another drink. The first thing she
noticed about him was how similar he looked to George and that sparked a
combination of anger from the argument and the desire to make up. This
confusion of feelings probably affected her answer when she told him, “Sure”.
She woke up the next morning with a whopper of a hangover and gasped when she
rolled over and saw the stranger lying next to her. She instantly realized what
had happened and fled back to her room. In her mind, her life was over. She
abandoned the business meeting by faking an illness and flew home on the next
flight. She debated with herself on the flight home as to whether to come clean
and confess to George what she had done. She wondered if the love of their
young marriage could survive such a confession. She made three decisions on
that flight, 1) She would not take a chance in telling George and reasoned in
her mind that what George didn’t know couldn’t hurt him and therefore by not
telling him, she would really be protecting him, 2) She would never again put
herself in a position to cheat. She realized that everyone is capable of
cheating; it is just a matter of being in the wrong frame of mind when given
the opportunity to do so. If she could protect herself from those two things
occurring at the same time, she would be safe. 3) She would devote the rest of
her life to being the very best wife to George. She would secretly make up for
her betrayal. Over the entire time of their marriage, she had passionately kept
all three promises she had made to herself.
Before Anne could explain, the door opened quickly, and
Junior, waving his copy of the report in the air, walked over to them. While
looking directly at his mother, he said, “This piece of paper says I don’t have
a father”. He quickly changed that by saying, “They are wrong because I have
had a father my entire life and he is standing right there.” Still staring at
his mother, he calmly asked, “Who is he?”, to which she softly said, “I don’t know”.
In unison, George and Junior asked in surprise, “what do you mean you don’t
know”. She clarified by saying “I mean, I don’t know his name or anything about
him.” She then told her beloved husband and son her most shameful memory. After
she completed her story, George and Junior sat in shock at what had been
revealed.
George was the first to speak when he stood and hugged Junior.
He told him, “I have loved you since before you were born and there isn’t anything
in the world that can change that, but for now I need to talk to your mother in
private”. With that, Junior shook his head while looking at his mother and
said, “OK, we can talk later” and left.
George turned his attention to the wife he had cherished for
more than two decades and the mother to the child he loved. He slowly said, “So,
our entire family life has been a lie?” She quickly replied, “No, I love you
now and I have always loved you. It was just one mistake. I was drunk and it
didn’t mean anything.” George said, “No, Anne, a mistake is forgetting to pick
up milk on the way home. What you did was a series of choices. Then you choose
every day to cover it up with lies. It may have been ‘lies of omission’ but nevertheless
were lies.” “I’ve proven my love to you for 23 years”, Anne forcefully said.
Controlling his anger, George told her, “I used to believe that until today.
Now, you’ve shown yourself to be a liar. How can anyone believe anything a
known liar says? Once the trust is broken, how can it be repaired?” Anne, while
sobbing, whimpered, “I was protecting you by not telling you.” When the last
word cleared her lips, she realized how silly that sounded. Those words which had
once helped her clear her conscious, now only sounded hollow.
(This is where the title Two Points of View
comes into play. The story could take two totally different directions. The
reader can decide. Which way should the story end? Should they divorce and face
all the problems that will bring about? Or, should they stay together and try
to work it out? Obviously, she shouldn’t have cheated, but should she have kept
it a secret and lied? (Comments are welcome.)
Darrell Goza
September 7, 2025
