The Other Side of Midnight

NOELLE AND CATHERINE

Athens: 1946

16

Inexplicably, Time had become Catherine's enemy. She was unaware of it at first, and looking back she could not have told the exact moment that Time began to work against her. She was not aware when Larry's love had gone or why or how, but one day it had simply disappeared somewhere down the endless corridor of time and all that was left was a cold hollow echo. She sat in the apartment alone day after day, trying to figure out what had happened, what had gone wrong. There was nothing specific Catherine could think of, no single moment of revelation that she could point to and say, That was it, that was when Larry stopped loving me. Possibly it had started when Larry came back after three weeks in Africa where he had flown Constantin Demiris on a safari. Catherine had missed Larry more than she had thought possible. He's away all the time, she thought. It's like during the war, only this time there's no enemy.

But she was wrong. There was an enemy.

"I haven't told you the good news," Larry said. "I got a raise. Seven hundred a month. How about that?"

"That's wonderful," she replied. "We can go back home that much sooner." She saw his face tighten. "What's the matter?"

"This is home," Larry said, curtly.

She stared at him uncomprehendingly. "Well, for now," she agreed weakly, "but I mean--you wouldn't want to live here forever."

"You've never had it so good," Larry retorted. "It's like living at a vacation resort."

"But it's not like living in America, is it?"

"Fuck America," Larry said. "I risked my ass for it for four years and what did it get me? A handful of two-bit medals. They wouldn't even give me a job after the war."

"That's not true," she said. "You..."

"I what?"

Catherine did not want to provoke an

argument, particularly on his first night back. "Nothing, darling," she said. "You're tired. Let's go to bed early."

"Let's not." He went to the bar to pour himself a drink. "A new act's opening at the Argentina Night Club. I told Paul Metaxas that we'd join him and a few friends."

Catherine looked at him. "Larry--" She had to fight to keep her voice steady. "Larry, we haven't seen each other for almost a month. We never get a chance to--to just sit and talk."

"I can't help it if my work takes me away," he replied. "Don't you think I'd like to be with you?"

She shook her head and said, "I don't know. I'll have to ask the Ouija board."

He put his arms around her then and grinned that innocent, boyish grin. "To hell with Metaxas and the whole crowd. We'll stay in tonight, just the two of us. Okay?"

Catherine looked into his face and knew that she was being unreasonable. Of course he couldn't help it if his job took him away from her. And when he got home, it was natural that he would want to see other people. "We'll go out if you like," she decided.

"Uhn-uhn." He held her close. "Just the two of us."

They did not leave the apartment all weekend. Catherine cooked and they made love and sat in front of the fire and talked and played gin rummy and read, and it was everything that Catherine could have asked.

Sunday night after a delicious dinner that Catherine prepared, they went to bed and made love again. She lay in bed watching Larry as he walked down toward the bathroom, naked, and she thought what a beautiful man he is and how lucky I am that he belongs to me, and the smile was still on her face when Larry turned at the bathroom door and said casually, "Make a lot of dates next week, will you, so we won't have to be stuck with each other like this again with nothing to do." And he went into the bathroom leaving Catherine with the smile still frozen on her face.

Or perhaps the trouble had started with Helena, the beautiful Greek stewardess. One hot summer afternoon, Catherine had been out shopping. Larry was out of town. She was expecting him home the following day and had decided to surprise him with his favorite dishes. As Catherine was leaving the market with her arms full of groceries, a taxi passed her. In the back seat was Larry, his arms around a girl in a stewardess' uniform. Catherine had one brief glimpse of their faces laughing together, and then the taxi turned a corner and was out of sight.

Catherine stood there numb, and it was not until some small boys came running up to her that she realized the grocery bags had slipped from her nerveless fingers. They had helped Catherine pick up everything and she had stumbled home, her mind refusing to think. She had tried to tell herself that it had not been Larry she had seen in the taxi, it had been someone who resembled him. But the truth was that no one in the world resembled Larry. He was unique, an original work of God, a priceless creation of nature. And he was all hers. Hers and the brunette's in the taxi, and how many others?

Catherine sat up all that night waiting for Larry to walk in, and when he did not come home, she knew that there was no excuse that he could give her that could hold their marriage together, and no excuse that she could give herself. He was a liar and a cheat, and she could not stay married to him any longer.

Larry did not return home until late the following afternoon.

"Hi," he said cheerfully, as he walked into the apartment. He put down his flight bag and saw her face. "What's wrong?"