The Cats of Rhodes

I closed my eyes and quietly chastised myself for such foolish thoughts. How could I ever have wondered if my wife was getting ready to hurt me? It was crazy! I opened my eyes again and found Julia staring squarely at me. Her eyes were intent and I could hardly stand to hold her gaze, it was that uncomfortable. Then she smiled and winked. I sighed in relief.

Julia jumped off the bed and like a little girl skipped around the room. "Wha...? What are you doing?" I asked bewildered. One moment, she was seducing me like a cat, the next she had forgotten all about me and the hard on she had just giving me.

"I'm going out." She said and opened one of the drawers. She rummaged through as if there was a lot to chose from, although I knew she brought nothing but three sweaters and two pair of jeans.

"Out where?" I asked but there was no response. "Julia!" I said loudly, and when that did not help I jumped out of the bed after her and grabbed her by the shoulder. I spun her around and made her face me, forcing myself to look into those beautiful, yet creepy eyes. "Out where?"

Her face was serious, not a grain of amusement to be seen. "You do know that I'm not coming home with you, right?"

I was stunned. Not so much because she decided not to come back with me, but because I had only just realized that deep down inside of my heart I knew that I had been aware all along, since the moment we stepped on the Rhodes soil, she would not be coming home with me. I knew it, but was not aware of it.

"What?" I asked dumbly. "Why?"

Julia turned away from me and slowly stepped into a pair of jeans. Her movements struck me as deliberate and the elegance that she always possessed seemed even more pronounced.

"Julia, why?" I asked in desperation.

"You knew I would stay all along, didn't you?" she said dreamily, her eyes looking at something out the window, something visible only to her.

"No!" I said, reaching for my own pair of jeans. Standing naked in front of her suddenly made me uncomfortable. "What are you talking about?"

"It's Halloween tomorrow, you know." She said, still in that maddeningly dreamy voice. "You should go home. You should go today. Right now." With that she looked at me and I took a step back. Her face was not her own any longer. It was different. Beautiful, but frightening. It seemed rounder and fuller, and I could have almost sworn that I saw a barely visible coloring on her cheeks, just as if she had put the make up on in stripes and forgot to smear it off. It was like the stripes of a cat.

"I can't go without you." I said. "I won't leave you here."

"Sure you will." She said, not a trace of sarcasm in her voice. She talked as if it was a given that a husband could leave a wife behind, thousands of miles from their home.

"I can't." I said hoarsely.

"You can."

I was grabbing for straws. "What will I tell your parents?"

She smiled and slid on the black turtleneck that she wore the night before. I noticed she did not wear a bra underneath. "I called my mother last night and told her that I would be staying here for a while. She seemed okay with it."

"She seemed okay with it?" I could not believe what I was hearing. "What do you mean?"

"I found a small apartment and a job, I will be okay here on my own." She said and looked at me again. "On my own." She repeated, as if there was no space for any more protestations from me.

"Do what, Julia?" I asked as I finally managed to pull my jeans on. "What will you do? You can't even speak Greek." I pointed out the obvious.

"I don't need to speak the language, you know. They hired me to do some restoration on the Turkish cemetery."

Why was I not surprised over that? "Restorations? You're a second grade teacher, for God's sake, Julia! What do you know about restoration of the cemetery?" I yelled, furious and almost afraid that for the first time in my life, I was ready to hit my wife.

Julia simply smiled and reached under the bed for the duffel bag. Gently and distantly, as if I was not standing right next to her, she stuffed the few bits of clothing inside the bag and carefully pulled the zipper. As if in a dream, I saw her take her wedding band off, reach for me and drop it inside the palm of my hand.

"Julia, no..." I said, my voice barely audible.

"You know I have to go now, baby. You know that." She said and nodded yes as I was shaking my head no. "You've known that for a long time, but wouldn't admit it. I have to go and I'll be happy. And you will be too. Back in Chicago."

"No, Julia," I said. "No, please."

Julia took my face in her hands and I thought she was going to kiss me, instead she licked my lips, long and hard, first the upper lip, from corner to corner, than the bottom one. I was right; her tongue did feel rugged and dry.

She stepped away from me and grabbed her back. "You need to go." She said and there was warning in her voice and eyes. "You need to go, Peter. My parents are expecting you. There's a ticket in your nightstand draw and they know when the plain is arriving. Go!" She said, turned on her heels and walked out of the room and out of my life forever.