A Window Away

Ten minutes after Aimée left, Julius arrived home carrying a whole lot of gardening products. He hadn’t put everything down when Liuba told him about Aimée’s unexpected visit and her questionable state of mind. “Aimée said she wanted to see you,” Liuba blurted out at the end. “Why did she leave then?” “I don’t know. She went to see Tooti, via the tree,” Liuba said, pointing at the old tree in the backyard. Julius dropped everything down and, under Liuba’s surprised gaze, he ran to the indicated tree. Swiftly he climbed it to see if his note was still there. The cobwebs around the little house were disturbed and the note was not there but instead, Julius found a roll of film that he took with him. He had a feeling that the film must have been important for Aimée to hide it there. His instinct also told him to go to the laundry and check on Tooti. As soon as the bird saw him, it became agitated for a while then settled. “Were you happy to see Millie? Julius asked the bird when he heard Tooti utter clearly, “where are you when I need you, four eyes?” It took Julius less than a second to realise what those words meant. His gut feeling telling him that his Millie was in some sort of danger, he rushed back home, hid the film in a safe place, and grabbed his car keys. “I have to go somewhere grandma,” he yelled and walked out to his car. “What about lunch?” Liuba protested but Julius was already out. She heard his car lurch away from the driveway and she shook her head. Finally the moment Aimée had been dreading was upon her. Throwing her bag on the passenger’s seat, she gripped the wheel, drove out of Martha’s driveway and headed towards home. She was determined to confront her husband and get her freedom back. It was time to put an end to the sham that was her marriage. Pregnant or not, it was no use clinging onto the wreckage of it. As she was getting closer to her destination, she decided it was best to keep her pregnancy to herself. ‘I may be able to sneak out of Australia, have my baby in a remote country and raise it in a totally different environment. It is a frightening prospect but I would do it if I had to. My baby would and should have a normal childhood, one very different than Craig’s. I’ll make sure of that. What sort of a father would a borderline narcissist with a huge chip on his shoulder and, not to mention, a bisexual man be to his offspring anyway,’ she was thinking. Craig had been stalking the house like a caged animal since early morning but, as soon as he saw Aimée coming through the gate and progressing towards the stairs, he went to sit on the easy chair. Popping one leg up, he placed his chin on his knee and waited for her. Cautiously, Aimée let herself into the house where a stony faced Craig was waiting for her. Reluctantly, she glanced his way and gave him a cold, “hello!” Stifling her fears, she meant to present a flawless front when she’d put her cards on the table. “So where is the knife?” Craig asked her, a menacing glint in his eyes. “What knife?” she asked casually. “The one you intend to plunge into my back.” “What are you talking about?” A smug smile appeared on his mouth. “You think you stuck it to me, didn’t you? So now you have decided to play dirty with me. What’s next, blackmail? Is that what it’s all about?” “You are not making sense. What has happened to you?” “You, you have happened to me,” he retorted huffily. “I just came to talk about our marriage that’s apparently not working. I want a divorce Craig,” she said without preambles. That simple sentence was like waving a red flag in front of a bull. “I couldn’t give a toss about what you want. I want the film,” he screamed, the cords on his neck standing out. Aimée glanced at his face and got startled by the urgency in his voice. “And what film would that be?” she asked, fear catching at her own voice. “All right, stop playing miss innocent with me and I don’t need some convoluted explanations from you. Where are the negatives or have you betrayed me already?” he shouted again. Those words so harshly spoken scared Aimée to a point she forgot why she went there in the first place. Suddenly she became aware of the shivery sweat that was coating her body. She knew that anything out of the ordinary could send Craig into a bit of a mad fit but she didn’t expect such a reaction from him. “Stop one damn second, I am not here to talk riddles. I have been the object of your scrutiny long enough. I did the best I could, with a bad situation but now I want out,” she tried to plead. “Are you in another one of your flights of fancy?” “I can’t live your complex life anymore,” she said. “Maybe you have to examine other people’s lives before you pass judgement on mine. Anyway what do you think is wrong with my life?” “I don’t know, why don’t you ask yourself? Better still, why don’t you ask Sal, your Italian stallion?” she yelled as she felt tension wrap around her body like a tight girdle. “So it was you, and you keep pretending you have nothing to do with it. You have to tell me, where did you take the film?”