A knife in the back

I read my mother's blog this morning and laughed so hard about her remembering when Mark told her that his Kindergarten teacher took them up in a plane and actually had her convinced this really happened. I thought, you know, that's pretty good for a 5 year old! And I realized that Mark and I both have this ability to keep a straight face when telling "stories".

Like the time that Mom was throwing a surprise birthday party for Dad. Aunt Barbara and Uncle Shelby came down to help set up while Mom and Dad were bowling in their league. Mark and I were in Jr. High and home alone. Mom called to be sure Barb and Shelby were there and Shelby had convinced me to tell her they hadn't gotten there yet. Oh, Mom was nearly beside herself and I thought it was really funny, even though I was pretty concerned about getting in trouble.

And then there was the time that Mark and I convinced this guy I was dating that Mark had sustained a big knife injury to his back while in high school. The 3 of us were sitting around in Knoxville talking and I just started off by saying, "Oh, that reminds me of when Mark got into that knife fight...Mark, show him your scar on your back." So Mark proceeds to lift his shirt and show this big scar where he'd actually had lung surgery to repair a collapsed lung when he was 16. Mark beautifully played into the story and began making up this story about a fight in an alley in Nashville where some guy had pulled a knife on him and cut him in his back. We had this guy convinced that this really happened....until I just couldn't stand it anymore and burst out laughing and then Mark did too. We laughed so hard and this guy was just sitting there dumbfounded until he realized we made it all up.