Welcome Home

  John and Claire hadn’t spoken more than a few words as the hot afternoon faded into evening. As they lay naked side by side he glanced over and found Claire searching the ceiling. 

“What’s the matter?”

For a moment she didn’t speak and then turned to him.

“I’ve met someone.”

He wasn’t surprised but had hoped his premonition wouldn’t prove true. He’d been holding his breath and blew out a long exhale. 

“Do you want to tell me about it?”

“He’s a friend of a friend from work. We’ve been seeing each other for a couple of weeks.”

He tried to gauge the situation, but her eyes held no clues.

“What’s his name?”

“Alec.”

“Are you in love with him?”

She turned toward John in tears. “I don’t know. I’m confused.”

He nodded and reached for her, but she resisted his embrace. 

“I need some time to think.” She blinked away the tears as she sat up. “Please give me a few days to figure it out.”

The next day John took Charlie for a walk out to the meadow a block from the house. They cut through the eucalyptus grove and crossed the long-neglected property line where loose strands of barbed wire hung from weathered fence posts. Beyond the fence, the footpath disappeared beneath furrows turned up by a tractor to keep the weeds down.

When they reached downtown Moon Valley John snapped the leash onto Charlie’s collar. If they walked another block they’d be at the Italian restaurant where Claire worked but John hesitated to continue, thinking she’d suspect him of spying on her. Still, he wondered if she had even gone to work. Maybe she hadn’t gone in at all. Maybe she’d lied to him and decided to go see this Alec person. He had to assume that they’d already slept together and had probably talked about having her move in. He was tempted to go the extra block despite his hesitation but finally decided against it. 

So much had changed in the past 24 hours and he considered buying a six-pack of beer so he could forget about it all for a while. But instead, he bought a single beer and didn’t go directly home. He and Charlie walked out to the eucalyptus grove where he sat with his back against a tree while Charlie sniffed the ground before lying next to him.

It felt comforting to have this large open meadow so near the house where nothing had changed for many years. It was as if the meadow existed in a state of eternal grace, with no indication of any owner or restricted entry. He studied the enormous girth of the eucalyptus trees, wondering how long ago they’d been planted and for what purpose. The luxuriant green tree canopy exuded an aura of mystery and as he relaxed among the trees it felt as if he’d entered a protected sanctuary where the outside world had no power to penetrate.   

Hearing a plaintive cry, he glanced up to see a red-tail hawk soaring above the tree line. As the hawk floated along on the thermals another red-tail appeared. They both began circling in ever-expanding arcs and suddenly swooped down to land in the crown of a tree not far from where he and Charlie sat. 

He hadn’t noticed the large mass of woven branches in the tree’s crown, the nest where the two hawks were now feeding their brood of chicks. The squeaks and squeals from the chicks reached a crescendo and then the pair flew off again in search of more rodents to ambush.

John leaned back against the tree and closed his eyes, thinking about how excited he’d been just two days ago, so excited to be coming home to see Claire. And if he hadn’t gone up to work in Alaska none of this would have happened. How could he have been so foolish to think she wouldn’t meet someone?

It was nearly dark when he grabbed the empty beer bottle and stood up, startling Charlie who abruptly jumped to his feet. The gorgeous August day had fled and along with it his bliss. His relaxed routine prior to going to Alaska was lost, perhaps forever, and he wondered if Claire would leave him. He wasn’t sure if he could go on living in the house alone and he wasn’t ready to consider finding a roommate to help pay the mortgage. He’d paid a dear price for his sojourn.

As he rounded the street corner, he spotted a Volkswagen bus parked in his driveway. The driver’s side door swung open, and a tall and slender woman slipped out. She turned toward him and in the fading light he recognized Claire’s friend Kristanna from Northern California. She held a small suitcase and smiled as he walked up.

They briefly hugged.

“What a surprise.”

“Yes.” She nodded. “It was a spur-of-the-moment thing.”

“Claire’s still at work. Why don’t you come in?” John took the suitcase and led her through the front gate and into the house.

Even though he didn’t know Kristanna very well, having only met her briefly a couple of times, she seemed at ease and trusting so he briefly described what had transpired over the summer.  After he finished, she was quiet and simply nodded.

“I’m so sorry.”

Not wanting to make her feel awkward he thought he’d better suck it up and change the subject. He asked what she’d been doing since they had last met. She talked of spending time on her rural property in the mountains of Utah and how she and her new beau planned to move there permanently in the fall. She’d come south to see Claire and another friend they’d known from their days waitressing together. The conversation grew more relaxed as she chatted about the friend who was now a film student at UCLA. It felt good and right to have someone else in the house for a few days. It would relieve the tension that had been building with Claire.

LOVELY KRISTANNA

Claire came through the front door clearly excited at seeing her friend’s VW parked in the driveway. Kristanna rose from the couch to give her a hug and John noticed that she was the taller of the two. She was certainly an attractive woman and standing side by side the two of them made a handsome pair.

For a moment he forgot about the strained situation and simply appreciated the collective beauty of these two women. They had worked together in a restaurant up the coast and John understood now why they’d become such good friends. They were alike, both somewhat quiet and reserved, but Kristanna more so. And as they fell into conversation John appreciated their easy laughter and joking as they reminisced about the goings-on at the restaurant where they once worked.

Claire had been asked to exchange shifts for the coming two weeks with the waitress who worked the day shift. She would be filling in while her friend went on vacation. That left John with the obligation of entertaining Kristanna over the next five days. This struck him as an odd but welcome turn of events. Now he wouldn’t be left alone to stew or feel tormented about what Claire might decide to do. 

He and Kristanna spent the next day lying side by side on a secluded beach near Seaside Village where she and Claire had waitressed. Years before an entrepreneur had converted a three-story mansion into a family-style eatery that became a landmark in the village, one of only a handful of businesses on Seaside’s main thoroughfare. The mansion had originally been the headquarters of a religious cult and seances were held there. The activities had apparently rendered the place haunted, with flickering lights, mysteriously locked doors, and inexplicably cold rooms. 

That day on the beach stretched into the next as John and Kristanna grew comfortable with each other and explored the nearby mountains and creeks in the national forest above Moon Valley. John didn’t intend to allow Kristanna’s attractiveness to complicate his life. But her gentle nature, their mutual love of the outdoors, and the difficult situation with Claire drew them into an unspoken affinity. 

On the third day, he took Kristanna up to a tree-shaded stream with a deep swimming hole about a mile beyond the trailhead parking lot. They stripped off their clothes, swam, and then sat together on the stream bank beneath an overhanging oak tree. As Kristanna became more relaxed John was finding it difficult to keep track of the conversation while averting his eyes from her naked body. She had leaned back against a boulder and then turned to answer the latest of his queries. 

“I grew up in San Diego but realized pretty quickly that I had to get the heck out of there. It’s a military town and so conservative and my father was a tyrant. So, when I turned 18, I married my boyfriend and we drove the VW up to Utah. We lived out of it for a couple of months and then bought 16 acres of second-growth forest for dirt cheap. We built a cabin and moved in, but by the second year our marriage fell apart, so we divided the property, and I got the cabin.”

John and Kristanna’s spending so much time together appeared to be creating a problem for Claire. She hadn’t gone off to see her new boyfriend and hadn’t once mentioned him. She wasn’t exhibiting outright jealousy, but John realized that something was developing that threatened her status.

He had to admit that there was indeed an attraction. Kristanna’s presence and their daily outings and conversations had eased his emotional distress and he didn’t want to think too far ahead about what would happen once she left. He was content to simply enjoy the time with her moment by moment.   

Claire headed off to work on the last morning before Kristanna was set to drive back home. She and John sat drinking coffee on the porch while Charlie slept at their feet.

“I’ve had such a good time.” Kristanna turned to John and smiled. “Thank you for taking me to all those wonderful places.” She leaned over and stroked Charlie’s head. “And you’re such a good and smart dog.” As she spoke Charlie opened his eyes, gave a little grunt, and settled his head back on his front paws. “I wish I could take you along to keep me company on the drive home.”

Her comment gave John an idea. Should he suggest that he and Charlie ride along on the trip back up the coast? Even though he knew such a suggestion would be crossing a boundary, the desire to prolong their time together was getting the best of him.

“What if Charlie and I came with you as far as Big Sur?” He glanced over at Kristanna.

“Do you really want to?”

“Why not? I haven’t been up that way in a long time and I could help with the driving.” 

“That would be great.”

 The thought of driving to Big Sur with Kristanna suddenly gained traction in John’s mind and her positive reaction stirred something in him. He was surprised that she’d consented so quickly and wondered how he could broach the idea with Claire.

            They went out to dinner that night and John sat across the table from the two of them, watching the play of candlelight in their eyes. He felt a not-so-subtle tension and while tacitly engaging in conversation he was simultaneously working out how he might pull off the trip with Kristanna. Should he take Charlie with him? How would they get back? He even considered telling Claire he was going south to visit his parents, hiding his car somewhere, and then meeting Kristanna on her way out of town.

        After they returned home John sat in bed waiting for Claire to finish up in the bathroom. He’d decided to tell her the truth about his proposed plan. He had no idea what her reaction would be but had decided he didn’t want to be messing around behind her back. Even if she had met someone else, at least she’d been honest about it and had waited until he got home from Alaska before deciding whether to leave him or stay.

 When she came into the bedroom John asked her to leave the light on. She gave him a questioning glance as she slipped into bed beside him.

            “I’ve been thinking about catching a ride with Kristanna up to Big Sur. I might stay up there for a few days and hike into the hot springs with Charlie.”

            Her eyes narrowed. “John, that’s not a good idea. She’s my best friend.” 

            “I’d just be catching a ride with her. What’s the matter with that?”

“Please don’t do this John. I know I’ve hurt you, but this is not a good way to pay me back. It would just make things more complicated and ruin my relationship with Kristanna.”

            As her bitter inflection trailed off, she turned away and John recalled how he had assumed they would be spending the rest of their lives together.

It was truly surprising how quickly their relationship was unraveling, and he sensed their time together was coming to an end. 

            The next day John woke early and took Charlie for a walk and when he returned, he felt the tension in the house. Obviously, Claire and Kristanna had discussed the proposed trip to Big Sur and Kristanna barely gave him a glance as she carried her suitcase out to her car. After a flurry of goodbyes, she backed the VW out of the driveway and then puttered off down the street.