x Yours.
I reread the words. Fear charging on a loop through my bloodstream. What did the letter mean? Why now? Andwhowas watching?
I stood at the front door, winter boots on my feet and a kitchen knife clutched in one hand. I must have looked like a mess, I felt it, hand trembling as I read the words over and over.
Who was watching?
I dropped the folded scrap of notepaper the letter was scribed on and kicked at the cardboard box at my feet. Inserting the tip of the knife along one taped corner, I lifted the edge and then opened the top fully.
Food.
Mostly salted meats and sausages, but there were mason jars of pickled vegetables and tomato sauce. I dug deeper, hands curling around a still-warm jug of what looked like goat’s milk. It felt like a feast for a king, even if I would never eat any of these things at home.
I dragged the box of food into the house, kicking the door closed and locking it securely behind me.
When I came down the stairs earlier, I hadn’t known what to expect, only wishing I’d known where that gun was hiding when I saw a stranger walking away from my front door. But it didn’t matter, the contents left tears of joy brimming at my eyelids. Maybe Tav had found his way out, maybe he’d arranged this until he could get a helicopter to me. Hope beat through my chest for the first time in days. I pushed the exhaustion from my brain, a nightmare long forgotten as I went to work unpacking the new rations and adding it to my stash in the pantry.
Dried jerkies and cured cheeses and even cans of nuts and dried fruit were buried in the bottom reaches of the box. By the time I’d emptied it, I calculated that I had enough to get me a few more weeks at least.IfI rationed everything daily. My mouth began to salivate as I wondered what kind of delicacy I could indulge in for dinner that night. Maybe lentil soup or smoked salmon. I rarely thought about making dinner at home, but given no other option, my mind cycled on the nutrient content or every morsel that passed my lips.
I emptied the box, closing the flaps and for the first time noticing who the package was addressed to:The Sunday Wife.
What did that mean? Had there been a wife before me? Was there a Monday and a Tuesday Wife too?
I’ll be watching.
Don’t disappoint me.
The note felt more ominous on the second reading.
I had to know who was watching and from where. Was it the man that had delivered the box? Was he my neighbor in the valley with the puff of chimney smoke that was always watching?
I ran for the binoculars again, holding them to my eyes as I searched the landscape through the wintery window. The idea of trekking out into the snow for answers felt like a poor waste of energy resources, but the idea of sitting and waiting at the top of this mountain while someone else was watching felt even more horrifying.
I gulped down my fear, anxious for the sun to fully rise and light the landscape, maybe then I could investigate the footprints and make out which direction they’d come from. I tapped the smart house screen, ensuring the doors were both physically locked and the alarm system was still intact. While it brought a sense of safety upon our arrival at the chalet, now it felt more like a prison security system meant to keep me locked in.
When the sun fully crested the mountain peaks to the east, I shoved a pair of sneakers on my feet and then headed for the basement, determined to find the rifle that I'd found a few days earlier.
For protection, I told myself.
Or maybe curiosity.
Was the gun one of the surprises?
With only a few bare bulbs lighting my way, I dug through the closet where I’d first found the rifle and the ice melt. The ice melt was in the spot I’d left it, but after twenty minutes of searching the dark corners, there was no gun. I slumped against the door jamb, mind running wild with me as I wondered where it’d gone.
Had Tav taken it with him for protection? I hadn’t seen it on him when he’d left early that morning, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t found a way to dismantle it and stow the pieces in his rucksack. Terror looped through my bloodstream as I considered for the first time that maybe I’d been sleeping right here with the enemy all along. Maybe Tav wasn’t who I’d thought, but how could that be? We had two years of history together, never had he indicated any sort of psychotic split from reality.
Or had I been too busy looking the other way?
I became obsessed then, determined to find the weapon. Determined to prove the innocence of my future husband. The man I loved. The man that’d swept me away to a winter paradise.
I stumbled away from the closet and into the main basement, darkness shrouding the corners just like it had when Tav had hurt his ankle down here. I felt along the walls in the darkness, fearful of what I might find and just as fearful about what I might not. My fingers landed on a switch then, and I flipped all of the knobs in an effort to find another light. They were all burned out, or attached to other electrical items in the house that I couldn’t see. The electrical guts of the smart house were familiar, but the actions conveyed consequences I wasn’t yet sure of. Everything about this place left me off kilter, the sense of reality and the outside world dampening as I grew accustomed to my own shallow breaths.
I reached another dark corner, prepared to give up and search instead for a flashlight or candle to light my way, when my fingers wrapped around the trim of a door jamb. I found the door knob, twisting it easily. The door swung open, the smell of old dust and dirt invading my nostrils in a plume.
I searched along the wall for a light switch, thankful when I landed on something hard and plastic. I flipped the switch, relieved when a dim yellow light lit the old room.
And then I nearly stumbled.
