I
got a letter in the mail. That didn’t surprise me, because all my
correspondence comes in the post mail for me, but what surprised me was who it
was from. Rory Abbott, with his name on the envelope. I used to let myself secretly
think, in unspoken thoughts I was too ashamed to acknowledge, that I wanted him
to reach out. I wanted him to work to find me, to tell me that he missed me and
wanted me to come back and start our life together.
I
stood at the mailbox in the humid morning air, the sea breeze blowing my lazy
fallen strands of hair back around my neck. It was a lush morning, and quiet.
The heavy tropical plants seemed to be collecting sweat already, the bright
houses were glowing in the morning rise, and chairs rocking breezily on their
thick wooden-plank porches.
I
looked back down at the browned envelope in my hand, already damp, having spent
a few days traveling through the Keys, no doubt. Now that this letter was here,
I didn’t know what I thought. I didn’t feel the sense of relief and romance that
I thought I would. No, there was nothing but a wave of self-loathing that I had
worked so hard to give up.
I
walked back up to my porch, barefoot over the uneven cement where thick
crabgrass grew in the cracks, slowly, slowly up the steps, and sitting at small
table in the small wicker chair on the porch in a daze. I tossed the mail on
the tabletop in front of me, Rory’s letter face-up. I sipped iced coffee. I
thought about Rory. I thought about me. I thought about the plane that brought
me here, and the disaster that kept me here.
It’s
been four years now. Back then, I was living in Boston. I was married. I would
have said that I was happily married, because I truly felt that I was happily
married, but happily married people don’t have affairs. So why did I do it? I’m
asked that by everyone, but I asked it of myself more. I had just moved to
Boston with him. We had been married a few years, I loved him. Then I met Rory,
by chance, on the small walk of West Street off the Commons. I felt nothing
more than some sort of Hunt; it raised my blood pressure, awoke my Fight or
Flight, brought tension and adventure to my life. And the moral world, the
world on paper, can’t seem to believe in relationship indulgence out of
marriage. I didn’t believe in it either, until it happened. Isn’t that the way
it always goes? And now? Am I criminal for being human?
When
everyone found out, I broke. Why was I surprised? Energy in, energy out. Tension
build, and tension break. My husband left for a week, to stay with his brother in
Milwaukee. I didn’t blame him, but I cried on the floor while he packed his
things. Who had I become? I thought I had integrity. I still felt like I had
integrity. Did this slip invalidate my entire life? I couldn’t stay there in
that emptiness. A friend had once told me about a beach in Belize. I had never
seen the beach in Belize.
I
loved that beach. It was lush. I felt loved, at a time when I wasn’t loved, not
even by myself. It was weird though, the way I couldn’t push the dark thoughts
out, couldn’t stop internally berating myself, couldn’t stop thinking about my
husband, about Rory, about the way I ruined my life at 24, and the stain I was
going to carry on now forever… but when the afternoon thunderstorms came, my
mind was clear, I could think of anything.
It
was gone when I got on the plane. I was back to my place of suffering, the room
I knew would always exist in my brain, always there in my mind for me to
revisit, no matter how many locks I put on it. We had a layover in Miami, but
we didn’t get that far. The plane required an emergency refuel and the closest
airport we could get to was Key West, and we barely made it there. As the plane
descended in a rocky, turbulent landing, I knew my impending death would be
everything I deserved. I cried against the window while they refueled, until
they told us we all needed to disembark. I wrestled my carry-on out of the
overhead compartment, and sulked into the airport to wait, but as I exited the
plane into the Florida air, something changed. Something smelt of hope, the
wind brought a sense of rebirth with it, that heated island air. I was barely
in the lounge when they announced our plane was discovered to have a mechanical
error, and to see customer service to book new flights. I saw the signs for customer
service. I walked towards it. Got to the desk. And then I kept on walking. I
walked right out of airport. There was nothing to go home for. I had ruined
lives. Me, I was the cause. I didn’t deserve to feel better, and they didn’t
deserve me around for the hurt, and they didn't deserve me around to use me. I would be home now, on Key West.
I
took a cab to the downtown. I found a room not far from Ernest Hemingway’s
house. I saw the neighbors waving to one another. I saw the old man smoking at
the outdoor café. I saw the roosters roaming the streets. And I saw myself
here, for a long time.
I
had a fine job in Boston, but the job market in the isolated Key was limited. I
approached the landlady of my small inn and offered to work for her for room
and board. She agreed. I worked for some of the sunset cruise companies in the
evening for money. I made friends with tourists, I made friends with the
locals. I didn’t tell anyone but my parents where I was, and told them not to
tell anyone else. The humid climate suited me well after those cold Boston
winters. The small, intimate community was good for me after the sprawling
anonymity of the larger city. I found myself happier here, alone, than I had
ever been with someone, up north. I found friends in other local business
owners. It was enough to satisfy my lonely times, but not enough to ever make
me godmother, and that was how I liked in. I began painting the lighthouse in
different painting styles. I braided my hair, I bought flowing island dresses,
I let go of my self-degradation. I bought a bike. I fed the roosters, the
roosters who wake us for morning, for light. And only sometimes would I wish
that I would Rory would work to find me, to prove to me that maybe it had been
real, that maybe it was worth ruining my life over. But he never did. And each
year I forgot about it a little more, and my wedding ring tan faded into
oblivion, as though it had never been there.
And four years later, here it was. I had disconnected myself in every way possible, and his sealed, stamped letter had found it’s way here to my life on Key West that had been so devoid of everything before, that at times I really was able to convince myself that it had never happened. I looked at the letter, and reached for it, and my fingers were trembling.
I
looked at it, and took a breath, and then tore it open, pulling the letter from
it and almost ripping it, and was disappointed at the brevity of it, even
though I hadn’t read it yet. What would it say? Would he reappear? Would this
all be worth it? Would he come? Would I go? Would it be an ending?
You’re hard to find, you know that? Let me know when you’re in town again, I still have that spare room
Rory
I felt sick. I had wanted to hear from him I realized, but I wanted it to be something other than it was. But it’s what it had always been. Why did I still want him more than the man that had been my husband? I see now that he was the better man, better for never reaching out, better for never tormenting me, for delineating me. And he was the one I knew I’d never find again. Who comes up with these endings? We all have so many acceptable endings for our lives, so many permutations and ideas, and none of them ever what we are actually delivered.
I
heard a rooster crow. I took my iced coffee in my hand and walked back down the
porch, down the crooked walkway, into the street. Did Hemingway ever feel this
validated? He had to have walked this street at some point during his tenure
here. I smiled because for the first time, I knew with certainty, I knew that
here was where I’d stay forever.