“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.
Rosina ran after her husband, having no idea where he was or where to start looking.
Darwin had stood off in the distance, watching the attendants board the plane. He’d seen his wife walk up, be processed and board just like everyone else.
And yet he waited. The final boarding call had been announced. Then he heard his name over the loudspeakers, asking him to come to gate C36 for immediate boarding. They did it a few times and then the attendants dispersed, assuming whatever it was they assumed when a checked-in passenger failed to show up for a flight.
He saw the ramp start to slide away from the plane and the plane’s door being shut.
Then he turned around and walked away, happy that Rosina was finally out of danger. She was safe. She would be in Athens soon. She had her purse, a credit card and a debit card attached to his bank account where over fifty-thousand dollars sat. Each and every month, Amazon deposited his royalties into his account. She would never want for money again. They were married. What was his was hers now.
If he made it out of this alive, they would reunite and share the rest of their lives together. But right now, he needed to remove the threat from their heads.
He walked back to security, told a guard he had only aided in the boarding of his four-year-old with his wife and that he needed to be let out now. The guard showed him to an exit and Darwin stepped through, walking back into the main part of the airport.
Travelers ran this way and that way without a single care in the world. At least not the kind he had. They moved to and fro, without fear of death, except for the people who feared flying, which he was glad wasn’t one of his phobias.
He had no idea what his next move was. All he knew, at that moment, was he needed to get Rosina away from the shit that he’d started. Now, with her safe and on her way to Greece, it was time to confront the men who were trying to kill him.
Calling the police was out of the question. What could they do? Protection? Some of the police were on the Fuccini payroll. That’s probably how they knew about the meeting in the hangar. The same hangar Darwin happened upon late that night while looking for a group therapy session.
No, the police wouldn’t do. He had to solve this on his own. Maybe an apology would suffice? Or maybe doing something for the family? Would that make things right?
He’d be willing to steal from someone, maybe pick a few pockets. Anything would be better than being hunted and tracked, or even killed.
Dejected about his options, Darwin made his way through the throng of travelers feeling a certain sadness. He already missed his wife and it had only been twenty minutes. And the idea that he’d been deceitful to her so early in their marriage made him feel about one inch tall. He loved Rosina with everything he had, but he just couldn’t bring himself to include her in his problem. More specifically, this problem. He started it and he would finish it.