My Lips Are Sealed

My Lips Are Sealed

I was walking to the Toby Jug, where all the coolest of men and women hung out regularly on a Friday night. To get there I had the walk past the very uncoolest bar in town, named “The Elegance”. It was where snooty rich people who only drank posh drinks – martinis, champagne and the like. They would not drink what I heard one person say coming out of that place that beer was for the poor and unsophisticated drinkers.

I could not resist looking through the window while walking slowly past. I was surprised by one person that I saw there. It was George, who usually was a Friday night regular at the Toby Jug. Even more surprising, and much more shocking was the woman sitting very close beside him. It was not his wife, she had red hair and was quite tall. This other woman which this other woman was short, with blond hair. The way that the two of them were touching each other told me that there was something relationship-based going on there. I quickly turned my face away so he would not know that I had just seen what was his dark secret from his wife. He would be a bad enemy to have as he was well- known to have a bad temper, and a streak of physical violence.

So, while it was quite tempting for me to tell friends in the Toby Jug concerning what I had just seen, I refrained from doing so. It was not just from fear of what he might do if he learned I had tattled on him. He was big, strong and violent, and we worked on the same floor of the same factory. I also did not want his wife to be shamed by this, as she sometimes went with her husband to the Toby Jug.

When I arrived at the Toby Jug, my mind kept picturing what I had seen. Although I sat at a table with three good friends of mine, I did not speak much, rare for me. I got a few looks that might have been born of my silence, but no one said a word about it.

On Saturday

On Saturday, when I was shopping for this week’s much needed food, I saw George’s wife Martha. She gave me a smile, and called out my name and I spoke hers in reply. We had been in a couple of the same classes in Junior High and High School. I once had asked her out on a date, but she turned me down, as she had just begun her relationship with her currently unfaithful husband. I now wished I had asked her out earlier. She was a good soul., whom I had a lot of respect for.

The Following Monday

I was going into the men’s washroom at work. I drink a lot of coffee in the morning, so the room and I are well acquainted – the giver and the receiver. While I was doing my business, there was a sharp and loud banging on the door to the toilet. I wondered for a few seconds why that was happening, there were four more toilets and not one of them was occupied at the moment.

Then I heard a familiar unfriendly voice say “I know you are in there Frank.” It was George. I yelled out ‘What do you want?, being careful not to turn my body around when I spoke. He replied with “You know damn well what I want buddy”, followed by deep breathing. “I know that you saw me in the posh pub. And you know something I do not want anyone we know to find out what it was that you saw, you nosy bugger. I especially do not want my wife to find out.”

I quickly finished my business, and tentatively opened the door, getting ready for what I would be facing or possibly defacing.

“I need a promise from you, so I can promise not to deface your face, and other crucial parts of you body.” He looked downward just under my belt as he said that. The threat was as clear as the water in a fully flushed toilet.

“I won’t utter a word George. My lips are sealed. I promise you that I have told no one about it, and that not a word will be uttered about this by me. I always keep my promises – always.”

He shook my hand as if he were squeezing a lemon or a baseball bat in the ninth inning with the score tied, and two outs with the bases loaded. He then let go and quickly walked out the door, no doubt feeling that he had triumphed with his threatened violence.

Next Saturday

The next Saturday I went to the market again, hoping to see Martha. I did. I asked her if she wanted to have a coffee with me. She smiled, said ‘yes’ and made a comment about what a heavy coffee drinker I was at school. She remarked on how I would sometimes put my hand up in class and ask the teacher if I could go to “urinate”. “You only once said ‘go for a pee’”. We both laughed at that

I had to restrain from telling her what I had seen. I had made a promise.

Martha then said, with turned down lips “I think that George is having an affair with someone”. Have you seen him in the Toby Jug with another woman? He never asks me to go with him, telling me that the Toby Jug crowd is not fit for sophisticated women.

“No, I have not seen him with another woman there”, I truthfully responded, hoping that I had not spoken the last word ‘there’ much louder than the others. No promise was broken.

On Monday, I used the company e-mail system to communicate an important computer message to Martha. It was her commercial address in the local paper as a person who repaired computers. I wrote, “I am a regular at the Elegance Bar. Recently I saw your husband with a woman who was not you. This is not the first time I have witnessed this. I thought that you should know this.”

So I lied twice, but told one truth. At no point were my lips not sealed, so I had not broken my promise.