A Tap on the Window

Sixteen

When she gets home, she sees a sliver of light beneath his door, so she decides to check on him. He could have fallen asleep with the light on, and if that’s the case, she’ll turn it off. But maybe he’s sitting in his chair, reading. He does that sometimes when he can’t sleep.

Once she has the door open, she finds he is, indeed, awake, but not in his chair. No book or magazine in his hands. Just looking at the ceiling, as though some movie is being projected there.

“Are you okay?” she asks.

“Just thinking,” he says.

“About what?” she asks, although she has a good idea.

“I thought about what we could say.”

“Say about what?”

“About why I’ve been away.”

It’s never been this bad before, she thinks. Him harping on things like this. The events of the last few weeks — that boy’s unexpected visit — have agitated him. He’s not the only one.

“Okay,” she says, since part of her is curious about what he’s come up with. “Why have you been away?”

“I was in Africa.”

“Africa,” she says.

“On a safari. I got lost. In the jungle. In the rain forest.”

“I think that’s in South America,” she says. “I think you’d have a hard time keeping your story straight.”

“We could work on it together so I’d be sure to get it right.”

“You should turn off the light and go to sleep,” she says.

“No!” the man shouts, and the woman recoils. He is usually passive, manageable.

“Don’t you raise your voice to me,” she says.

“I went to the Arctic! I was on an Arctic expedition! And now I’m back!”

“Stop it. You’re getting yourself all worked up. You’re talking nonsense.”

“Or maybe I was in the desert. I was wandering the desert.”

The woman sits on the edge of the bed and places her hand on his clammy forehead. She pats him gently.

“You’ll never get to sleep if you get yourself all wound up,” she says soothingly. “You’re overtired.”

He wraps his hands around her arm and pulls her to him so her face is inches from his. His breath smells like the inside of an old leather bag.

“I don’t blame you,” he says. “I understand. But it has to end. It can’t go on forever like this.”

She’s been thinking that herself for a while now.