To read the first part of this story, CLICK HERE.
Jacob was concerned about his wife, Mary, because she didn’t always think things through logically before making decisions. This had caused a problem when she sent a note to the family of her friend saying she hoped her friend would rest in peace, because her friend hadn’t passed away. If Mary had thought about it more, she would have realized that.
Jacob feared Mary’s impulsiveness might get her into real trouble someday. He decided to talk to her about it to try to convince her to attempt to analyze things more before reacting.
Mary didn’t seem to understand his concern. “What kind of things could cause a problem?” she asked.
“Do you remember when we were getting married, and my mother told you that she had always wanted a daughter and was grateful to now have one?” Jacob replied.
Mary nodded.
“Do you remember how you took that to mean my mother was pregnant?” Jacob asked.
“Well, that was what it sounded like to me,” Mary said.
“But, Mary, my mother was only referring to you and having a daughter in the form of a daughter-in-law.”
“How was I supposed to know that?” Mary asked.
“My mother was nearly sixty when we got married,” Jacob said. “It would be almost impossible for her to be having children. It took almost two months to quell all the commotion you caused trying to throw that surprise baby shower.”
“I was just excited for her,” Mary replied.
No matter what Jacob said, Mary couldn’t see it as a problem. He tried to think of some way to help her think about it more. Then, one day, he saw Mary’s cell phone sitting on the table in the kitchen, and he had an idea.
He took a picture of the phone so it was easy to tell that it was on their own kitchen table. He then filed it away where he could use it at the right time. It wasn’t long before that time came.
Mary was going shopping, and after she finished, she planned to go to a meeting she had each month with some friends. She was the secretary of a lady’s organization and took minutes on her cell phone. She would then come home and transcribe the minutes from her phone into an email she sent to everyone to recap what they had discussed. She took her assignment seriously and never missed a meeting.
After she left the house, Jacob waited until he felt Mary had just enough time to reach the grocery store. He then texted her the picture of her cell phone sitting on the kitchen table. Everything worked just as he expected.
It wasn’t long before Mary returned home and dashed into the house. She ran into the kitchen and looked at the table. Not finding her phone there, she frantically searched all the places she normally put it. Soon she came to Jacob, who was reading the paper.
“Honey, can you tell me where my cell phone is?”
Jacob calmly looked up from the paper. “Why do you ask?”
“Because you just sent me a picture of it sitting on the table, but it isn’t there!”
“And how did you get the picture I sent?” Jacob asked.
“It came in on my cell phone,” Mary replied.
“Then where was your cell phone at the time you were looking at the picture?” Jacob asked.
“On the table,” Mary said.
“How could it be on the table if you were holding it in your hand looking at the picture?” Jacob asked.
Mary pondered that, and it slowly sank in. She looked at the phone in her hand and smiled sheepishly. Then she left for her meeting.
Mary did try to think things through a bit more after that.
