Page 68 of In Sheets of Rain

I said nothing.

* * *

It was while I was reading a book an hour or so later, and Sean was working again on the station computer, that she came in. All high ponytail and shining eyes and a wide smile. She bounced on her feet and talked a mile a minute. Sean looked a little uneasy. His eyes darting to where I was sitting, cross-legged on the centre of the double bed just to the side of him.

She hadn’t seen me. But when he didn’t immediately offer a reply to one of her questions, she looked around the room and did a double-take.

I smiled. The book I was reading forgotten before me.

“This is my wife,” Sean said. “Kylee. Kylee, this is Suzy, a volunteer officer up here.”

“Nice to meet you,” I said.

“You too,” she offered, but it was a lie.

* * *

That song fromPulp Fictionwas blasting out of the speakers. People were standing around with plastic cups of booze in their hands. Some inside Cathy’s house. Some out on the balcony. Conversations were vibrant and vigorous. Laughter filled the air. Black humour rode shotgun.

Sean got up from the couch and held his hand out to me.

“Come on, let’s dance. I love this song.”

I shook my head and laughed. “No way! I’m not showing Uma Thurman up!”

“Spoilsport. Cathy!” he yelled above the music and chatter and snorts of laughter. “Come be my Uma! Kylee’s feeling threatened by my John Travolta!”

Cathy wandered out of the kitchen, stubbing out her cigarette in a nearby ashtray.

“You’re on,” she said, and they started dancing.

I looked around the room at all our fellow co-workers, at those I called friends and those I merely knew as ambo brothers and sisters. And watched as Sean did the twist with Cathy, even going so far as to do those silly finger movements. The ones that cover the eyes, from side to side, while their bodies twisted.

They looked ridiculous.

“Kylee, you could take a lesson or two from Cathy on how to loosen up,” Sean shouted; several pairs of eyes turned toward me.

I felt my cheeks redden.

“Nowthisis how you have fun,” he yelled, and everyone laughed along with him.

And I wondered, who is this man I married?