OBSESSION
***I was looking through my phone for a picture and ran across a screenshot about a ”Noir” story contest from, Alta, a California publication. I looked at the rules. Said, “I can do that.” I sat down and wrote this story. Sadly I was past the deadline.***
Someone had rifled through my desk. I sat at the desk every evening after I come home from work. Nothing was missing but something was there that I hadn’t seen since it arrived three years before. I pulled the envelope out from between the books stacked at the corner of the desk. I hadn’t put it there; I hadn’t even opened it when it arrived. It was from Janet, a woman I dated for a time in the mid 90’s. To be honest, I lived with her and almost married her, until her obsession with me became violent.
I hesitantly opened the letter.
Dear Tom,
I am sending you this letter to let you know that you won’t be hearing from me again. I’m sorry for all the things I put you through over those last few months. I just needed you to bear with me while I regained control again. You were right to have left. I understand that now. I understand that I am to blame. I understand that I left you no choice. I understand that I am to blame. I am to blame…
I can see you right now opening a bottle of wine in the kitchen and the two glasses on the counter and the woman in the living room looking at your bookshelf and fingering the copy of The Odyssey and then patting it gentle as she moved on. I can see her blond hair and it looks like it smells like strawberries and I can see her skin radiating from the sunlight streaming in from the window as the sun goes down. I can see you hand her the glass and I watch you clink them together and take a drink…I can’t do this any longer.
I thought you said you loved me…
Janet
I was floored, I remembered the night Becky from accounting had stopped by after work and we drank a bottle of wine and discussed literature until late into the night. I was moving on from Janet and I was excited by this new interesting woman. I thought nothing of it when I didn’t hear from her over the weekend or when I found out Monday, she had taken a job across town. We had spent the night together, that was all. Two weeks later her parents reported her missing and the police questioned my boss and me. I told them of our Friday night dinner at my place and he explained how she had called Monday morning to quite because she had found another job that paid more. The police visited me at home and looked around a bit. I don’t know if they ever located her, but I never heard about it again.
Just as I reached for the phone to call the police, Jill walked through the door.
“Who you calling Babe?’ She asked.
“The Police.” I said as I set the phone receiver down and handed her the letter.
She read the letter and looked at me in confusion.
“Don’t call the police, this is from three years ago, it will wait until morning, I have an evening planned.” She stated.
We got in the uber and the driver started off.
“Where are we going?” I asked
“Somewhere fun.” She said
We pulled up to the Fairmont Hotel. I immediately had flashbacks to New Years Eve 2012, the night I meet Janet in the Tonga Room tiki bar in the basement of this very hotel.
“I got us a room for tonight, but we are really here for the tiki bar.” Jill said.
“Ok.” I said with a perplexed look upon my face.
“Come on, it will be fun.” She said.
We made our way downstairs to the bar. A band played on a floating stage in the lagoon. The hostess showed us to a table handed us menus and asked for our drink order.
“We will be having Singapore Slings.” Jill stated without giving me a chance to make my own choice.
The drink order took me back to that New Years Eve when my friend Skip and I drank so many Singapore Slings he eventually puked red vomit in the lagoon. Janet helped me take Skip back to our room and then her and I returned to the party downstairs.
She was beautiful with red hair, hazel eyes and pale skin. She wore a meteorite neckless and it intrigued me all night. My gaze would constantly fall upon the stone suspended from her neck. “My father found it in New Mexico, and had it made into a neckless for my mother.” Janet had told me. They had died in a car accident when Janet was young and the she always wore the neckless.
As midnight struck the New Year, I pulled Janet to me and kissed her as deeply as I had ever kissed a woman before. We left and went to her room in the hotel and continued to talk about books and museums and music and we talked about a future together. I was smitten, I had probably already fallen in love. She was everything I wanted.
Jill and I drank three or four Singapore Slings and ate some dumplings and several coconut shrimp skewers. I was feeling my drinks, but Jill seemed to be handling it better than I.
I wanted to go to the room and enjoy the rest of the evening in bed. Jill on the other hand wanted to dance so we proceeded to the dance floor. I am no dancer on a good day but in my inebriated state I must have looked like a fool. I soldiered on to make her happy.
I felt weirder than normal as we made our way to the room. I just wanted to get to the room and lie down. Jill seemed clear headed and invigorated from the dancing but she drank as many as I did and she is a lot smaller than I am. We made it to the room and I sat down on the couch, Jill excused herself and walked into the bedroom.
I looked around the room and saw an open bottle of Stags Leap Cabernet. Jill must have come to the hotel prior to coming to the house. I stared at the empty bottle intently until the bedroom door opened and Jill walked out in a blue silk kimono. The kimono looked exactly like the one Janet used to always wear. I looked away for a second and looked back again to make sure I was seeing clearly. It was just like the one Janet wore and she also wore a meteorite neckless.
I sat there unable to move and horrified as Jill walked past me to the bar and picked up the bottle.
“I thought you said you loved me…”
