Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Marriage -- Fiction; Outlaws -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories
By the time Simon took the tubeway out to the suburban Long Island
community in which Jane-Marie Paige lived, the bright spring afternoon
was fading into dusk, tinting the western sky with bands of color
ranging from deep blue and purple through mauve to delicate, dusty
pink. The smell of spring was in the air, but with the coming of
night the lingering chill of winter was still apparent. It would be
great, coming home again to a new wife, to a drink and an excellent
home-cooked dinner, to a cozy fire perhaps--especially when you
could have all that and still retain the pulse-quickening feeling of
adventure.
Whistling, Simon found Maple Lane and walked by the rows of spherical
houses which could rotate with the sun from equinox to solstice and
back again. Simon could tell it was a development of newlywed homes
by their small size, by the absence of baby carriages and toys on the
front lawns, by the small clumps of white birch trees and windows with
their curtains drawn.
He found the address listed on Jane-Marie's registration papers and
turned up the walk, noticing the small, ranch-type name post with "Mr.
and Mrs. Jane-Marie Paige" on it in big gold letters.
"It's Simon," he said as the door slid soundlessly into the curving
wall. "I'm home."
Suddenly, Jane-Marie appeared there in the doorway. She must have been
at one of the curtained windows, peeking out at him. There were soft
lights behind her and a delicate halo circled her dark hair from the
raditiara she wore.
"Simon," she said, barely above a whisper, a radiant smile on her face.
"They called me. Come in, darling."
But she still barred the doorway. When he came in he came into the arms
of his waiting wife, his newlywed wife, his Jane-Marie. "I missed you
ever since they sent your picture," she breathed, while he kissed the
lobes of her ears, the tip of her nose, her eyes, her warm, eager lips.
"Jane-Marie," he said. It was genuinely thrilling to her, he sensed. It
was more than that to him. It was--it was illicitly thrilling, worth
all the quick exits and close calls with the police.
"You'll muss me," Jane-Marie scolded him, drawing away and rearranging
her hair under the tiara. "There. Are you hungry?"
"Honey, I'm famished."
"Well, I'm making no promises. I'm not much of a cook, really. They
didn't tell me how long you were going to stay, but I should improve
enough so when the next--"
"Sh. I'll be here three weeks."
"Come in, come in." She took his hand in her own warm one, pressing the
door button and dimming the hall light as they walked into the house.
"Tell me about yourself, darling. What do you do? How are you going to
spend your time in New York? Oh, I'm so excited. There's so much to
talk about, so much to learn about each other. Do you play bridge?
There's a couple down the street, the wife's a Transient and just got
here today, but I know the husband, who likes to play bridge. Do you
like music? I'll turn some on."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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