by Rhodeza Salisi

 

            Parked in a semi-isolated area by the Berkeley Marina, Linda's unseeing eyes took in nothing of her surroundings as tears slid silently down her cheeks.  She couldn't believe that after thirteen years, things had ended like this.  She thought back to the day that she now realized was when her life first started to fall apart.

                                    *                                  *                                  *

            This is not a good way to start out the day, thought Linda as she made a u-turn and sped home.  She was thankful for the lack of traffic as she pressed down on the gas pedal, straining her engine.  She parked her car on the curb, ran into the house to the living room, and picked up the important documents she needed to bring her boss for today.  Linda had woken up late this morning and had completely forgotten them.

            Documents in hand, she began to walk back to the front door when she heard a murmur upstairs and paused.  Listened.  Hearing another murmur, she was surprised.  It was her husband Chris talking on the phone.  Linda knew that he loved sleeping in for as long as he could, and that he didn't have to go to work until ten.  So why is he up this early and talking on the phone?  Curious, she walked quietly back to the living room, not wanting her heels to click on the gray tiled floor of the entrance.  She slowly picked up the white telephone off the receiver and put the phone to her ear.  She was just in time to hear the last part of the conversation.

            "No more doing this on your terms!  Meet me at the usual spot tomorrow at two or else I'll make sure everyone knows your secret." Linda was chilled by the anger in the whispering voice that sounded neither male nor female.

            In a calm tone, Chris said, "I can't get away from work this week. How about next Monday?  I can take some time off and –"

            With finality, the voice said, "Tomorrow at two.  No excuses.  Or else you'll regret it."  There was a click and then a series of beeps.  Linda hung up the phone and walked to her car in a trance-like state.  What the hell was going on?

                       

            Linda walked straight to the bedroom, glad to finally be home.  She'd been running on autopilot the whole day, her mind too busy trying to make sense of the conversation she had heard earlier.  While she changed into casual clothes in their bedroom, she tried to compose herself and act like everything was normal.  She walked downstairs to the kitchen.  Wrapping her arms around Chris, she gave him a little squeeze and asked, "How was your day, dear?"

            "It was good, same old same old.  Won my case today.  How was your day, honey?"

            Recalling this morning's mishap, and her performance at work today, she sighed.  "Not so great.  Tomorrow I get to work on more documents..  Exciting stuff," she said sarcastically.  After a small pause, she asked, "And what about you?  Doing anything exciting at work tomorrow?"

            "Just the usual load of cases to work on.  Another long day at the office for me."

            "Will you be in any meetings?  I might call you for something, and I wouldn't want to interrupt anything." Linda waited for his answer.

            Chris froze then quickly relaxed, an imperceptible movement that under normal circumstances she would've missed had she not been watching him so closely.  "No, but I’ll be out of the office at some point.  I have to go over some things with some important clients, so just leave a message with my secretary and I'll call you back when I can."

            Although her insides were in chaos, she said very agreeably, "Alright," and managed to act normal for the rest of the night.

                                    *                                  *                                  *

                      I can't believe I was so stupid, she thought, I should have paid more attention to his "work".  Linda wiped her face with the back of her hand.  She twisted in her seat, trying to locate her purse which she had carelessly thrown into the back seat as she rushed to escape from the house.  She pushed past a duffel bag and several plastic bags, finally finding it wedged underneath a bag which contained her dirty running shoes.  Opening it, she grabbed a tissue and blew her nose.  She rummaged through her purse a second time and found her compact mirror.  Looking at her reflection with a critical eye, she winced at what she saw.  No sparkling eyes.  No blonde hair.  No glowing complexion.  Her normally bright blue eyes were red-rimmed, and puffy.  Her usually immaculate brunette hair was mussed, her complexion dull, and there seemed to be millions of new wrinkles etched into her face.  She felt like she’d aged twenty years overnight. 

                                    *                                  *                                  *

            After taking care of the most urgent business at the office, she told her boss she was feeling sick and took the day off.  She immediately drove to Chris' work, parked, and waited in her car.  Glancing down at the car clock, she noted the time: 1:00 p.m.  Perfect.  Opening her briefcase, she pulled out some documents and worked on them as she kept an eye on the building's entrance and Chris's car.  Finally, at 1:30 she saw Chris come out.  Linda started her car and followed Chris from a distance to his destination, managing to keep him in sight despite the lunch rush.  When he stopped near a park, she continued driving and parked three blocks away.  Slipping on a pair of sunglasses and a pair of worn running shoes, she doubled back to the park on foot.  When she reached the practically deserted park, she spotted Chris sitting on a bench with his back to her.  Just as she was about to get closer, she saw him lift his hand in a wave and she ducked behind some thick hedges.

                Unwilling to risk getting spotted, she stayed crouched down.  One minute stretched into what seemed like eternity.  She cursed her stupidity for following Chris as she felt her legs beginning to cramp.  From her position, she could hear nothing that was said between Chris and his mystery visitor.  Frustrated and impatient, Linda attempted to create a little hole in the bushes.  After a few vicious tugs and snaps of twigs she was successful, and brushing aside her sense of triumph, she eagerly peered through the hole.

            For a moment, all she could see was Chris' back, and then he moved, finally revealing the mystery caller.  It was a woman.  She had sparkling blue eyes, blonde hair, and a glowing complexion.  She was beautiful.  Linda judged the woman to be about twenty six – seven years younger than Linda, and twelve years younger than Chris.  She was still unable to hear their conversation, but watched as the woman paced back and forth, pausing every once in a while to make sharp, quick, agitated gestures with her hands.  It stayed this way for a couple of minutes, before Linda noticed the woman's voice gaining in volume as the couple continued to argue.  The  was woman was full out screaming.

            "What do you mean we're over?!  You can't just do this to me after six months!  You promised me you'd leave your wife and I sacrificed a lot of things for the life we were going to have together–"  The words six months echoed repeatedly in her head.  For that long?  From the way she suddenly stopped ranting, she guessed that Chris spoke although she couldn't hear what he said, but whatever he said caused hatred, fear, and resignation to run across the woman's face.  Then Chris walked away.  When he was twenty feet away from the woman, she said, "Fine, you win for now.  But I will get you back, you’ll regret this."

            Chris left, but Linda stayed behind to observe the woman.  She watched as the woman just stood there, her whole body radiating anger before completely breaking down.  She didn't know how long they remained like this, but when the woman was spent and began to leave the park, Linda quickly got up and followed her, ignoring the pain of getting up.  The woman seemed to wander around aimlessly through the neighborhood, sometimes walking around the same block two or more times.  They did this for what Linda estimated to be about half an hour before she decided to stop following the woman and go back to her car.  Just as she was about to turn around, she noticed the woman go up a short walkway into a neat little house that was blue with white trim.  Linda watched as the woman took out her keys, unlocked the door and went inside.  She noted the address of the house before she turned away to return to her car.

                                    *                                  *                                  *    

            She was startled out of her reverie by a thud on her windshield.  It was raining.  She watched drops of water trickle down her windshield, matching the drops running down her face.  Linda looked beyond her windshield and noticed people quickly making their way to their cars. The marina was almost empty.  Good.

                                    *                                  *                                  *

            Despite Linda's new-found knowledge, life seemed to go on like normal.  Linda worked, ate, and slept, an endless cycle of monotony.  The only difference from her previous routine was that she stopped near a certain blue house with white trim every morning before going to work.  She just sat there in her car, watching the house as the blonde woman ran out at the same time every morning in a blue jogging suit with her hair in a ponytail.  Linda wanted to confront her, but could never find the right words, so she just sat in her car and watched. 

Had Chris not been so occupied with his own problems, he would've noticed the growing rift between them.  After the incident in the park, he was constantly receiving calls on his cell phone and the house phone.  When Linda asked who kept calling, he told her it was an “annoying client who fussed over every detail of their case.”  The one time she’d managed to get to the phone before he did, she heard a familiar woman’s pleading voice say “Chris”, before he took the phone out of her hand.  He looked at her apologetically and said, “Sorry, I’ve been expecting this call, it’s my client.”  He walked to another room, but not before hearing him say that they were going to meet one last time for “the case.”

 

            Linda walked into the house, glad that Chris wasn't there since he was in court today.  She changed into some comfortable clothes, then walked into the kitchen heading straight to the freezer for a gallon of rocky road ice cream.  She took the container, snagged a spoon from a drawer and sat down at the black marble-topped island that separated the kitchen from the dining room.  Just as she was about to dig in, the phone rang.  Regretfully putting the spoon down with a sigh, she walked towards the phone and picked it up.  "Hello?”

There was a pause.  "Hi, I’m Julie Anderson.  I'm one of Chris' clients and I'm calling to see if he's home."

Linda's stiffened as she recognized the voice.  It was her.  "I'm sorry, my husband isn't home right now, he's going to be working late tonight.  You want me to give him a message for you?"

"No, it's okay, it's nothing important.  I'll just tell him whenever I see him.  Thank you." Linda stared at the phone for a moment, put it back on the receiver, and wrote the message, "Call from Julie Anderson", on the little whiteboard next to the phone so that Chris could see it.  She walked back to the island.  Changing her mind, she put the ice cream and the spoon back, and went upstairs.  She sat on the bed, unable to go to sleep, her vacant eyes staring off into space.  Suddenly, she broke down.  This was too much for her to handle.

*                                  *                                  *         

She looked at her surroundings.  Gray skies. Rocks.  Sand.  An endless sheet of rippling blue.  A couple holding hands as they ran down the beach, trying to escape the rain.  They reminded her of herself and Chris, the walks they used to take down the beach, the romantic dinners they’d have, the fun little dates they’d go on every Saturday. .  But no more.  That was never going to happen again.

                                    *                                  *                                  *

Linda had come to work very late this morning, so when she came into her office, there were enormous stacks of documents on her desk that kept her working overtime.  When she finally got home, she was so mentally and physically exhausted that as soon as her head touched her pillow, she fell asleep.  Hours later, she woke up to the sound of the doorbell ringing.  She got up to answer the door, only to see a policeman standing there.  She momentarily panicked, but then quickly composed herself.  “Hello, can I help you?”

            “Are you Mrs. Shalber?”  She nodded her head.  “Is your husband Mr. Chris Shalber?” She nodded again.  The policeman took a deep breath and sighed.  “I’m sorry to tell you this ma’am, but your husband is dead.”  Linda clamped onto the doorknob as she tried to maintain a calm face, her wobbling knees betraying her inner turmoil.  There was the slightest bit of hesitation before she suddenly slumped to the floor.

 

            A week had passed since Linda had seen the policeman on her doorstep and been given such terrible news.  Chris had been last seen with a blonde woman wearing a blue jogging suit.  An eyewitness who jogged every morning said he saw the woman and the guy standing close together in the park talking to each other. Chris had been shot two times point blank.  The rest of the investigation was closed to the public.

                                    *                                  *                                  *

            She was finally alone in the Marina.  She grabbed a stack of receipts that were all paid in cash from several different stores and burned them in her car’s ashtray.  Reaching into the backseat, she grabbed the duffle bag and began filling it with the items from the plastic bags.  She dropped one of the gloves as she stuffed a blue jogging suit into the bag, and struggled to keep the hair from the wig from getting caught in the bag’s zipper.  Carefully placing an L-shaped package in the bag, she then put a layer of bricks over everything.  Closing the bag, she picked it up, and walked up the path that led to an outcropping of rocks that overlooked the water.  When Linda reached her destination, she double checked that no one was there, and with a grunt, heaved the bag as far as she could.  She watched as the bag sunk into the deep waters, disappearing from sight.