Rocks Don't Lie by Sally Collins

Gary burst into the rock shop, the tiny bell on the door clanging violently to announce his exuberant arrival. “I’m in LOVE!” he announced to whomever had just been startled by his entrance. 

“Who’s that?!” Mona, the shopkeeper, aimed her one good eye at the door. “Oh. Jeez, Gary!  Can’t you just come into a room like a normal person?”  The other 3 patrons in the shop went back to browsing through the many baskets of polished agates, jaspers, and turquoise stones. 

Gary put a hand over his mouth and quietly glided past the displays of crystals, through the tendrils of incense smoke, and over to Mona. “I’m in love,” he whispered, smiling. Mona’s “good” eye was a cloudy blue and her “dead” eye was covered with a beautiful cinnamon colored headscarf that was draped diagonally across her face, tied at the bottom just below her right ear and anchored at the top by an updo only a half blind woman could create.  She moved her face closer to his to study his expression and smelled a hint of Whiskey. “Maybe you’re just tipsy. Also, your beard is out of control,” she commented. 

 “Mona, listen to me. This is it. I’ve found my soul mate!” 

“Again?” Mona replied. 

“For real, this time. I can feel it. It was love at first sight! Her name is Tammy. Angelic, right?”  Gary went on to tell her about the woman he had been meeting up with at Mooney’s Pub as Mona half listened. They were interrupted by a customer needing to know more about stones that heal intestinal issues. 

Mona directed Gary to go look at the Tiger’s Eyes stones. “They’ll help give you clarity,” Mona said as she turned to help the customer. He left Mona to her business and floated around the small shop thinking of Tammy. 

He found the polished, golden-striped Tiger’s Eye stones in a black basket in the corner. As he picked up handfuls and let them fall through his fingers, he lost himself in a daydream about his new found love and their happy life together. He had been married and divorced thrice, but this felt different.  Plus he was a changed man. He’d been through a lot, he’d grown as a person, and he’d moved out to Sedona to start a whole new life. Mona had told him about the “higher frequency” here that vibrated from the Earth and how it was a perfect place to start over. He closed his eyes, breathed deeply, and just felt happy. He also felt something weird wrapped around his fingers. He opened his eyes and found a thin, gold necklace tangled in his hand with a tiny floating diamond heart attached to it. Gary audibly gasped, dropped the stones back into the basket and studied the necklace.. This is definitely a sign! he thought. He ran back to tell Mona. She, however, was very busy rubbing the belly of the customer who had interrupted them earlier. 

Gary wandered out of the rock shop and sat in the afternoon sun at the small picnic table, untangling the necklace. It was so delicate. So perfect. He could see it adorning Tammy’s beautiful neck, hanging just above her lovely collarbone, the little heart floating right in the small precious little dip at the base of her neck. Once untangled, he noticed a small gold tag on the clasp. It was engraved, “Always”. He would present his divined gift to her tonight at Mooney’s at the dart competition.  

That night the bar welcomed him with the sounds of jukebox music and clinking glasses, while pieces of conversation could be heard erupting through the jovial crowd -- good natured razzing, exaggerated compliments, and hearty laughter. Gary scanned the room for Tammy. He immediately spotted her standing at the bar - a beacon of beauty radiating across the pub. She walked up to Gary, dart-ready in her strappy heels, form-fitting jeans, and rock concert t-shirt. Her tan was a dark contrast to her bleached blonde hair, and her beautifully glossed lips parted to show her smile. She exhaled her cigarette smoke over his head, then leaned in to give him a quick smooch. His heart did flips. 

“New shirt?” she winked, handing Gary the bottle of beer she had ordered for him. 

“Yes,” Gary blushed. “You said you liked flamingos, so…” he popped up the collar of his new button up shirt displaying a well executed pattern of flamingos, “... I found flamingos.” 

Gary and Tammy snuck back to a small corner booth with their drinks.  After some strategizing about the approaching dart competition, Gary directed Tammy to close her eyes. He placed the necklace on the table, splaying it out just so, then told her to open her eyes. “Oh, Gary. This is beautiful,” she said picking up the necklace. “This is too much, though. I can’t take this…” 

“Yes you can. I found this after meditating with some stones for clarity.  The gold means you are precious to me. The floating heart is because you make my heart float. And the diamonds… well...as soon as I saw it, I knew you had to have it. It was meant for you.”

Then she saw the engraved tag. “Oh, my… You had it engraved?  Always?”

“We were always meant to meet,” Gary explained, “and I will always be glad I met you,” he continued, “and I feel like that word might change -- metamorphosize, if you will, into something more meaningful.  Eventually.” He blushed. “I just feel a sense of ‘Always’ when I’m around you.”  

Tammy’s chin started quivering. “Gary. My sweet, sweet, Gary. This is the most thoughtful thing. It’s romantic and poetic and…”  She wiped her eyes. “I’m sorry. Don’t worry. These are tears of happiness, Sweetheart.  It’s just been a loooong time. I can’t believe you put so much thought into this surprise. I’m feeling it, too. The always thing. I am definitely falling in love with you, Gary.”  

“Me, too,” he said. He placed the necklace on her, they shared a kiss, then went on to dominate the dart competition. 

The next day, still feeling high from his perfect datenight, Gary busted into the Rock Shop, assaulting the silence with the tiny clanging bell again. “Mona!” he shouted from the door.

“Geez, Gary! You really need to work on your entrances!” 

Gary wound his way through the few customers and around the tables in quick, tiny steps saying, “MonaMonaMonaMonaMonaMonaMona!” until he was all the way to her.  “Mona!”

“Good Lord, Gary. Yes?”

“You said that my dreams would come true here, Mona. You were right! Remember Tammy? It’s all coming together!”  He told her about the stones and the necklace and the dart game and his eloquent interpretation of Always and…

“So you lied to her?” Mona interrupted.

“What? Lie? No. Why would you…”

“Did you pick it out for her, buy it, and have it engraved for her?”

“No… it was given to me by the universe... for her…”

“Does she think you picked it out for her, bought it, and had it engraved?”

“Oh. Well. I didn’t say that I did…”

“Did you know, Gary,”  Mona said, hitting the G in Gary harder than usual, “that after you left yesterday, a little girl came in looking for that necklace.”

The thought that it might be a lost item had crossed Gary’s mind, but the stones and the clarity and the diamond heart all coming from the universe seemed more reasonable in that moment.

Mona leaned in in order to look Gary in the eye. “Her father is in the military. He gave it to her before he got deployed overseas.”

Gary gulped.

“She was crying.”  

Gary blinked.

“You need to give it back.” Mona sat back in her chair and stared at him.

“I can’t do that! She’ll think I’m a liar!”

“You are a liar,” Mona said matter-of-factly. 

“What if I just don’t do it? That little girl lost it. It’s her fault,” Gary looked hopefully to Mona.

“Well, since I’m not a liar, I will tell her what happened to her necklace. Then when I meet Tammy, I will tell her the funny story about where her necklace came from.” Mona shrugged as if the whole thing was so simple. 

“How do I do this? Can you give me a reading or pull a Tarot card,” Gary was practically whimpering in his desperation, “Or... OH!!  Give me a witchy potion of some kind that I can give her so she forgets I gave her the necklace, then I’ll just take it back, and she’ll never…”

“Gary, if you really want a relationship with this woman, you need to be honest.”

Gary knew she was right.

“Also, your beard is out of control.”

Deflated, Gary had some decisions to make. He fondled the Tiger’s Eyes first, hoping to gain clarity, but got nothing he wanted from them. He hadn’t actively lied to her, but… he knew he had deceived her. She said she loved him because she thought he was the type of person that would’ve thoughtfully chosen and engraved a perfect thing to symbolize his specific feelings about her. She did not say she loved a dude who found a necklace and didn’t even try to find out who it belonged to.  He stared at the rocks, then took a handful to keep in his pocket, hoping somehow they could help him figure things out.

He arranged to meet Tammy for truffle mac-n-cheese - their favorite. Gary got to the restaurant first. He’d found a new shirt with one flamingo on it and hoped she’d notice the effort. Mona had helped him get his beard under control, and he’d ordered Tammy’s favorite drink. She arrived, all smiles, wearing a low-cut top, the necklace prominently displayed around her neck. Gary began to sweat.

“There’s my guy!” she leaned in to give him a little kiss, her hand holding the necklace as she leaned. “Oh!  Your shirt! I love it,” she said giving him a wink. “My cheeks hurt from smiling last night! We make a great team!  We should try billiards or trivia night next.”  She grabbed his hand across the table. She had a level of comfort with Gary that wasn’t there before. He knew it was because the necklace, and his words about the necklace, had brought a bit of commitment into their relationship - the first step in their new, fragile partnership. An important first step. One that should be solid. Now, he was about to shatter all of that.  Gary felt like his throat was closing. He knew his news would hurt her, confuse her. He knew that when he spoke, his words would stab into her happy bubble and change everything. Mostly, he knew that the way she looked at him would change. He would lose any chance he’d ever had with her.

“We should have a “ship” name. That’s what the kids call it. Combining our names. Like… Tammary,” she laughed easily and took a sip of her drink. Gary felt nauseous. He couldn’t do it. “That’s cute, right?” Tammy went on her happy train of thought. 

Nope. He wouldn’t do it. It would be fine. They would just never go into Mona’s shop again. He chose this relationship with Tammy over Mona’s friendship. Decision made.

They ate their dinner, shared stories from their childhood, and laughed. 

“Gary,” Tammy said, “I know it’s soon, but I haven’t felt this way about anyone in a long time.”

Gary reached across the table and held her hands tightly, a little too tightly, and looked into her eyes. 

“Gary, I love you.”  He let the words fill his soul for a moment. That’s all Gary wanted in the world. To be loved. And to be loved by someone like Tammy.  

He looked into her eyes and felt cared for. “Tammy, I…”  She smiled, encouraging the words she longed to hear from him. “Tammy, I… I found that necklace in a pile of rocks.”

For a moment, she had heard the wrong words. She had heard the words she wanted to hear, but then his actual words emerged and hung in the air.

“What?”

“Rocks. Like these.”  Gary pulled out the handful of polished Tiger’s Eye stones from his pocket and plopped them on the table. They landed loudly and bounced and rolled a bit before landing where each would rest. 

“I have no idea what you are trying to tell me right now,” Tammy said, clutching the necklace.

“I lied. I didn’t lie, but it sounded like a lie, so it was a lie, and now a little girl doesn’t have the necklace her soldier dad gave her, and I thought the rocks were giving me clarity, but…”

Tammy took the necklace off and laid it on the table, then told Gary to calm down and explain. He started from the beginning. As he explained, he fiddled with the rocks and stacked them one on top of the other. He explained how he didn’t mean to deceive her and how he didn’t want their relationship to be built on lies. He apologized for being a fool and a liar. When he was finished, he was exhausted. “I’m sorry,” he said, “And I need to give that necklace back to that little girl.”  He picked the necklace off the table and stood to leave.

“Wait,” Tammy grabbed his wrist that held the necklace. She didn’t look mad, but there were tears in her eyes. She took off her glasses and wiped her eyes. “Look.” She gestured toward the rocks on the table, all stacked into one tower. 

“Oh, sorry. I’ll get those…” Gary reached toward the stack.

“No,” Tammy said. “Look at them.”

Gary looked. 

“You are a man willing to tell the truth when you could easily have continued to lie. It takes more bravery and strength to admit you made a mistake - to right a wrong - than it does to do the right thing automatically. Each bit of honesty, stacks up a whole pile of trust, Gary. Like these rocks. One step at a time - one stone at a time - we will build a strong relationship.  As long as we promise to always be honest with each other, we’ll be good.” Tammy smiled. “You wanted clarity, baby. Look what these rocks are saying.”  

“So, you’re giving me another chance?”  

“How can I not? We’re a team. Tammary. Remember?  Now, let’s go make a little girl happy by giving her her necklace back.”

“Tammy?” Gary looked into her eyes. “Always. I promise.”

She giggled. ”Always.”