my shorts anyway. Boarding takes time too. I’ll be back in less than five.”
“Okay, but hurry,” she said.
Darwin got up and turned away, walked three steps, stopped and turned back. “I almost forgot. I’ve got something for you.”
“Can’t it wait? Go to the bathroom.”
“In light of what we just talked about, I’d like to give it to you now.”
The attendant announced the boarding of the back half of the plane.
“You’re running out of time.”
“I have at least ten minutes and I only need three,” he said as he pulled a white envelope out of his backpack.
“What’s this?” Rosina asked, a smile playing across her lips.
“It’s a surprise. Inside this envelope is everything you’ve been waiting for. But there’s a condition.”
Darwin started hopping from one foot to the other, implying his desire for a bathroom. What he was really doing was building the courage to do what had to be done.
“What’s the condition?”
“You cannot open it without me present.”
“That’s fine. Now hurry along. Go to the bathroom and come back. We’ll board the plane and I’ll open the envelope. Deal?”
“Sure,” Darwin said as he back stepped away. At ten paces, before he turned around and lost eye contact with her, he said, “Get on without me. I’ve got my boarding pass right here.” He slapped his back pocket. “Save me a seat. Keep it warm. I’ll be with you sooner than you think.”
Rosina stood up and grabbed his backpack. “Okay, but hurry. You have me seriously curious now.”
Darwin turned before he had a chance to cry and hurried away, wondering if he’d ever see his wife again.
Rosina lined up and edged closer to the attendants, one person at a time.
Why did he have to piss now? I hate boarding alone.
She got to the attendant and presented her passport and boarding pass. The attendant scanned her boarding pass and told her to have a nice flight.
“My husband is coming. He’s been delayed a few minutes, but he’s already through security. He still has time, right?”
The attendant looked at her watch. “Oh, yes. We start boarding early enough so that people like your husband can make it. He still has at least fifteen minutes.”
What a relief.
“ Okay, thank you. His name is Darwin Kostas.”
The attendant nodded and reached for the documents of the traveler standing behind Rosina.
She moved along the boarding ramp until she slowed behind people gathering near the plane. After a small wait at the plane’s door, two more attendants stood there to greet people. She showed her ticket and was told to go to her seat nine rows up. The aisle was jammed with people putting luggage above their seats. She politely waited and then squeezed by to take her seat.
Darwin would be coming at any moment. She couldn’t wait to see what was in the envelope. It was just like him. He’d been surprising her during their whole relationship, and this was just another surprise in a long line of them.
She sat there and tried, but couldn’t for the life of her, figure out what was in the envelope.
Rosina glanced around at all the people seated close by. Then she looked up the aisle. Darwin still hadn’t boarded. She lifted the envelope and tried to peek through it.
Damn!
It was one of those security types with the crisscrosses on the inside, obscuring anything legible on the paper inside.
Oh, Darwin, what have you gone and done?
She thought maybe it could be tickets for a cruise. Or perhaps tickets to the theatre or an opera. Maybe he was going to fly her to New York next so they could tour Broadway, or possibly Las Vegas for a little gambling.
The suspense was driving her nuts. But then, that was why Darwin did his surprises.
She flipped the envelope over and noticed that it actually wasn’t sealed. The lip was pushed in the back, like a birthday card.
That’s right. Darwin doesn’t lick envelopes.
Over the course of their relationship, Darwin had opened up to her about his phobias, of which he had a few. He was afraid of the dark, which many people are, but his was an actual phobia. He had an irrational fear of it, like the dark was a living thing. They always slept with lights on. He also had a fear of sharp or pointy things. He couldn’t get a needle at the doctor. He would get too angry. They had to put him out to administer a needle. It was that bad. At a restaurant, he’d only use spoons or plastic utensils to eat with. No fork, no knife. And he didn’t lick envelopes because the paper could cut him.
He thought his stepmom had caused his phobias, he’d told her. He talked briefly about how she always had needles in the house and as punishment, she would leave him in a dark basement room for hours on end, waking him with a jab of a fork in his side when dinner was ready. He’d end up being awake most of the night, languishing in the dark as the house slept, crying, waiting to be poked. By the time he was twelve, his fear of sharp and pointy things had grown to where he wouldn’t enter the kitchen anymore.
His stepmother had died a horrible death. It was a freak accident, he’d told her, impaled on a pitchfork in a farmer’s barn. No one knew what she’d been doing there. No one was charged with any crime related to her death.
The flight attendants announced that the plane would be getting underway shortly. Rosina snapped up and sat rigid in her seat.
Darwin hadn’t returned yet.
She looked down at the envelope. A flight attendant walked by, counting the heads of the passengers, no doubt looking for the missing person.
Against better judgment, Rosina slipped her thumb under the lip of the envelope and flipped it open. She looked one more time to make sure Darwin wasn’t walking up right then, catching her in the act of sneaking a peek.
She pulled the paper out and opened it. A note. After scanning the beginning, her eyes raced to the bottom.
It said he was sorry, and that this was for the better. Stay on the plane. Do not get off. He would handle this on his own.
Baby, I love you, but those men aim to kill me and I can’t lead them to you anymore. Go to Athens. I’ll meet you there in a few days.
Run.
If you don’t, you could be hurt, or worse, killed.
Run.
DO NOT get off the plane!
Rosina looked up, her eyes watering. The attendants were shutting the plane’s doors.
“Wait!”
Everyone looked in her direction.
She got up, opened the overhead compartment, grabbed her backpack, and ran for the exit door.
“Wait. Let me off.”
“But ma’am, they’re getting ready to taxi out.”
“My husband is supposed to join me. He’s not here. I’m not leaving without him.”
She pushed past the woman to the door as the entry ramp was pulling away. Rosina looked down at the ground and saw how far it was. She looked back at the attendants and then the gaping passengers. She turned as if she would retake her seat, then quickly spun and ran and leapt over the open space, landing solidly on the ramp.
