y Son Thomas?

ome time ago Baron Von Lodge was the head of a small country near Switzerland known as Lilliland.

Lilliland was a very friendly country and there were many social groups that got together for just about any reason.

Four women met regularly and they called themselves a bridge club. Sometimes they actually played bridge, but usually they talked about how well their grown children were doing.

Their favorite meeting place was at the Tea Room in the Lilliland Hotel. They would meet for an afternoon of tea and biscuits.

The women often talked about their school days together and then there were some years that they lost track of each other while they raised their families. What they all had in common what they were born and raised and married in Lilliland. They also raised their families in Lilliland and had many mutual friends.

The stories of their children’s achievements all seemed to outdo each other. Perhaps some version of the stories could be attributed to parental pride, or perhaps not wanting to be out-shown.

One woman named Trisha talked for some time about her son Thomas. It seemed that she had stories that were just as interesting as the other women’s. “Thomas did this, and Thomas did that, and was just a wonderful son,” she would say.

Then one day, quite by accident, it was discovered that Trisha never had any children. There was no birth record for a son named Thomas.

When one of the women found out about this made up son, she asked her friend, Lady Angela of Alpine Castle, what to do. Should she tell the other women, or keep it to herself? Or, should she confront the woman about this deliberate deception?

Lady Angela said that she needed some time to think about it and wanted to talk to the Baron and Professor Hamblin, the Baron’s chief advisor.

Finally, Lady Angela’s suggestion was to very privately tell the other women, but not tell Trisha. Trisha wanted so badly to be a member of the group that she fabricated a story about a fictitious son. Maybe one day Trisha would come forward, on her own, and tell the truth about Thomas to her friends.

Friendships based on deceptions never last very long.