No More Lies

It was an ordinary day, and I was swishing about the kitchen, trying to make lunches for the children to take to school, and for my husband to take to work. I made it look effortless. The television was on, telling me the latest forecast for the day. There would be rain later. I was not concerned. I was however, delighted that my packages I ordered would be arriving that day. I had placed another delivery last week. Everything was so easy these days. All you had to do was yell out for Alexa to order something for you and she would. Then, all I had to do was sit back and wait for it to arrive.

I kissed my children goodbye and watched them get onto their bus. I felt the cool kiss of my husband on my forehead when he took his paper bag from my hand and rushed out the door to his car. He made promises to be home in time for dinner. I sighed and did not hold my breath. I knew it was pointless. Seeing him rush off to the big city, while we lived out here an hour and a half away in precious suburbia meant he almost never made it home by dinner.

Sure, I could look great for his dinner parties. My food always came out great for his cocktail hours. Play dates for the children were always a success. Even my schmoozing with the other ladies in the neighborhood was always top notch. Our family of four had all the necessities and more. However, there was something I was missing.

I went to the doctor, and he just prescribed me the latest in depression medication. He told me I was just depressed. The second big virus since the Coronavirus hit came six years ago and it was only last year that we were able to become more normal and less quarantined. There was never a day that would go by that I didn’t see an ad on the TV for depression medication.

I changed from my bathrobe into my workout clothing. I switched the TV to a workout subscription I had called Energy Plus. They had everything on there. It was sponsored by the big stationary bike company that had become big around 2018. I was in the living room in the middle of my exercise when I heard the music from the doorbell. My heartbeat already was up, but then it stopped for a moment.

I dashed to the door and flung it open with gusto. It had to be the delivery. My eyes took in what they saw. She was stunning. She had short, choppy, brown hair in a pixie cut that hung down over one eye. She had several ear piercings and a tiny heart tattoo by her left eye. She wore an opalescent choker. Her nails were painted white. She was slightly tan. She wore the uniform in a pale blue of the delivery service. She filled out the top well, and she had thick thighs that you could see in the shorts. She had blue and white striped knee high stockings, and white pumps.

“Uh, hi Raimai,”I said casually. “I’ve been expecting you. Would you like to come in? I can get you a bottle of water.”

“Sure,”she said. A little bead of perspiration ran down the side of her face and then down into her cleavage.

I tried desperately not to follow it all the way with my eyes. I handed her a cold bottle of water from the fridge, and she laid my packages on the counter.

“Looks like it’s gonna rain soon. It’s so hot already,” I said to her.

“Yeah,” she replied. “Good thing I have time to take a short break before it starts. I am glad we became friends. I swear it seems like you keep ordering things just to see me.”

‘If she only knew’ I thought. “Gosh, she’s so gorgeous.”

“What was that?” Raimai replied.

“You heard that?” I asked. That was when I realized that my thinking had gone to talking out loud.

“So, I was right. Your secret is safe with me,” she sauntered over to me.

Those luscious lips that just spoke planted the sweetest most seductive kiss I ever had in my entire life. That was when she took me to the couch, and I realized what it was that I had been missing.

When I awoke, I had found on the coffee table a note hastily written.

“Gotta go. I’ll see you next week when you order something else.” -R

I sighed. The rain patted at the window and a smile washed over me. I decided to fall back to sleep until the TV woke me up.

I saw static, like the kind you see when there is no picture, and it was on full blast. Then, I saw a picture of me and Raimai in our birthday suits. Next, I saw the screen take on a face as if it was stretched the length and width of the screen and, it was human. I was freaking out. I imagined it was my medication and guilt working on me. It laughed a wretched laugh.

“No more lies!” it yelled. I was full blown panicking by then. It was getting late too. The kids would be home soon. I had to get up. I had to get dinner going. I turned the TV off, and I unplugged it. I showered, and put on some decent clothes. I started dinner, and waited for my family to come home.

The next day, I watched them all walk out the door again, and once again I was alone. They all said goodbye. My husband said ‘Darling’ this time. He didn’t even use my name anymore. It’s Veronica. At least on my packing slips it had my name right there. I told Alexa to order more oranges and paper bags. Tears ran down my cheeks. Each day I endured, until Raimai came again, and once more we filled the empty parts in each other’s souls.

That time, I didn’t fall asleep. That time, the TV still did the same thing, and it had my mother’s face and it yelled “No more lies!” I didn’t understand it. I had even unplugged the thing. Yet, here the blasted thing turned on me, did things a normal TV should not be able to do, but still it did.

“Alexa, post a TV for sale, on Marketplace,” I said. I wondered what would happen.

“Done!” It chimed.

Suddenly, I got a reply from Alexa that I had one message. I told her to read it. She said I had someone interested in the TV. Would I hold it for the buyer if she were to come to the house. I gave instructions and immediately felt bad for giving someone a poor condition TV. It was actually my neighbor who got the TV. I asked her that night if the TV did anything unusual like a bad picture, and she answered negatively. Chills ran down my spine.

The following week I saw Raimai again, and once again I thought of the strange TV I sold. My husband asked what happened to it, but I just told him I had ordered us a new one. I told Raimai, when she dropped off the new TV, that I had to stop seeing her, or I had to tell my husband the truth. She didn’t understand. She shook her head, and told me that she thought we had a good thing going. I told her that someone knew the truth.

“It is impossible, Ronnie. I made sure no one was looking,” Raimai said and held my hand.

“Just trust me. If you don’t believe me, then wait for Kevin to take the kids to his mother’s house and while they are away I will show you.” I thought it would be possible to sneak over to my neighbor’s home while she was at work and Raimai could see for herself what this TV knew.

So, in a few days, she came over in a ridiculous spy outfit, and I took her to the window where the neighbor had the TV positioned where we could see it. The cat jumped up and scared us. The neighbor was not at work and heard us scream. She ran out and asked us what we were doing so I did my best to explain. She wanted to call the cops or worse yet threaten to put me away in a loony bin, but Raimai wanted to make me happy so she just asked politely if she could just have some time with the TV. The neighbor said she could rent the TV for a couple days and give it back. That was the plan. I sighed in relief.

“So, can you keep our secret?” I asked the neighbor.

“Yes, but after that, no more lies.” and shaking her head at me and put her index finger to her head and spinning it ,”just so you know, I think you are off your rocker. I knew something was up when you called to see if something was strange with that TV. It is something strange with you. You need to get some time away from the Twilight Zone.”

A few days later Raimai returned the TV to my neighbor, and she told me that there was nothing wrong with the TV at all. It was perfectly fine. I shook my head in disbelief. I knew what I saw. How could this be? I needed time with it again to be sure. I told them to sit with me and watch a show, anything. Maybe I was wrong and hallucinated each time.

About part way into The Price is Right I saw the static. I told them what I was seeing, but they weren’t seeing it. Again, there was the two of us and there was the saying. I told them everything that happened. They didn’t see or hear any of it. I was perplexed. After I realized I had to ask if either of them believed me, I still had to make a decision.

“Do you believe me?” I asked them both.

“No hon,”said my neighbor. “You have a guilty conscience.”

“Maybe,”said Raimai. “Stranger things have happened,” she smiled at me nervously. “It doesn’t matter what we think. The thing is, you have to know what you think.”

What I thought was that I was loosing my mind, but that I had also found the most wonderful thing, the most wonderful person in the world. It didn’t matter whether or not if she believed me either because she loved me and cared about me. She was willing to see me test myself.

“No more lies,” I said to my family. “I am in love with someone else and I am leaving this gilded, hollow, egg nest. I am not going to be the mother hen keeping it together. This isn’t the world I wanted. It was all lies. My life was a lie. It was all a performance. You children are going to the best private schools money can afford. You have a great life. Your father is working hard so he can have many mistresses and tons of money for an apartment in the city. I did not sign up for this. This was not my dream. I will not keep taking another pill and living another lie for another day. I will not stay numb. Today, I am honestly me.