**Following is an excerpt from my autobiography which describes an incident which took place on our honeymoon.
We rented a
nice hotel room on the beach, and enjoyed ourselves a great deal. There was,
however, one particular incident at Vero which momentarily concerned her
parents, when we returned home.
As we were
body surfing, a larger than average wave caught my wife unawares, and she found
herself tumbling, head over heels, beneath the water. As she surfaced near the
beach, both of her cheeks were pretty beat up.
My first
thought… "No one is going to believe I didn’t whup on on her on our honeymoon."
As I recall,
the next time Jean saw her parents, she was alone. And of course they were
“shocked out of their gourd,” as we say in the South, when they saw the marks on her
face. By now the previously pink areas had darkened in color, and looked, for
all the world, like we’d been in a “knock down, drag out” fight, (and she had
lost).
Well, of course
her dad and mom asked about the marks on her face, and Jean decided to play it
for all it was worth.
“Royce beat
me up! I talked back to him, and he punched me a couple of times.”
I can only
imagine what my in-laws thought of me at that moment, especially since they had
previously thought I was “the cat’s meow,” and they obviously liked me.
Her dad did
all he could to show a little restraint, as his voice rose several decibels,
“What? Royce
beat you up?” And his cheeks must have turned almost as red, as the marks on my
wife’s face.
Jean knew
her father, and she knew when it was time to bring “the little ha ha” to a
speedy conclusion.
“No Daddy.
Royce would NEVER hurt me. I just got pummeled by a big wave. It drove me
straight into the bottom, and messed up my face.”
I can only
wonder if her parents were immediately convinced, or whether a bit of doubt
remained. But I think, before their youngest daughter stepped out their front door
that day, she had convinced them it was all a big joke; (but perhaps in her
parents’ eyes, not a very good one).
by William McDonald, PhD. "Snapshots." Copyright 2008
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