"I'm Confused!"

I received an e-mail today from some friends of mine, let me call the "Tom and Faye" which are not necessarily their real names. They were over in the United Kingdom for a short vacation and were mugged in the park of a hotel they were staying at and lost all of their money and credit cards but fortunately they still had their passports. They checked with the US Embassy over there in England but I guess they weren't too helpful. They were supposed to fly back today but they were having problems settling their hotel bill as the hotel manager wouldn't let them leave until the bill was settled."Tom and Faye" requested my help if I could lend them some money so they could leave Britain and they promised that they would pay me back as soon as they get back to America.

I felt badly for my friends as I'm sure it is no fun to be stuck in a foreign country without any money or credit cards. At least it sounds like they didn't try to fight these muggers as the muggers probably had a big knife or perhaps a gun so I'm sure they used the proper judgement and escaped without bodily harm.

I wanted to help my friends in their hour or need because as the old saying goes; "A friend in need is a friend indeed!" I was confused however about their situation over in the United Kingdom because who in their right mind would leave Cape Cod during the Summer season to go over to England what with the reputation of "foggy London town " and rainy weather to boot?

I know where "Tom" works so I thought I would call and see if they had any updates on poor "Tom" and his family and their difficult predicament. The person who answered the phone said that "Tom wasn't there but would be back in the office in an hour or so. I thought "Great!" somehow "Tom" was able to fly back from England and he probably wanted to get right back to work after his traumatic ordeal. Then I thought, "Gee!, Maybe "Tom" and his family never even went to the United Kingdom and were on Cape Cod the whole time. Then I thought maybe "Tom" is in England but told the people in the office to say "Oh, you just missed "Tom" but he should be back shortly" to cover his quick visit to England. SO CONFUSING! But how could "Tom" and his family not be in the United Kingdom if I received an e-mail from them requesting my help? After all, if you receive an e-mail it must be true, right?

I still don't know for sure whether "Tom" and his family were over in England and if so were they able to make their flight back to America? A very confusing situation. I was so confused over this situation that I forgot to send them some money. The weather has been good on the Cape so maybe I'm just a "fair weather friend" and not a "friend in need" INDEED!.