The Ghostwriter's Words

Sara: She should have mentioned

She had a husband. She was married. Yes, Sara was aware this was something she might have mentioned.

No, they weren't divorced or even separated. Although she hadn't returned home since a decade before her current monogamous relationship began, which she was desperate to salvage with someone who was not her husband. But that led to an entirely different conversation. No, for more than fifteen years, she hadn't been with her husband, or anyone else, as monogamy would imply. No, she also hadn't seen her husband. Although that began to skirt the edge of the truth of the revelations to come. She hadn't spoken to him, per se, but she had regularly communicated with him, although not in any personal, intimate sense. No, they weren't having clandestine late-night chats. Yes, he technically knew where she was, at least the GPS coordinates of her present location, so he would know where on the planet to look for her if she ever needed his help. Her husband knew nothing about who she was with. Or what they'd been doing. And he hadn't for the past two and a half decades. No, she hadn't been lying to her husband as well. It was hardly the first time she'd been away for an extended period. He preferred not to know the specifics but did have more than a general sense of the things she did while she was away.

What had she been doing? Sara asked herself. She was on a wanderlust, was the simplest answer. Although, this was her longest by far. That and numerous others of various lengths would be additional fire beneath another issue that had percolated for much of the past fifteen years. One that was now near boiling over. Her age. Why didn't she appear any older? She hadn't aged. At all. Not a day.

Fifteen years earlier, at the beginning of their relationship, Sara had appeared that she might even be underage, which had been a concern. And why Sara's claims of life experiences then and since were viewed with skepticism. She couldn't have done all she'd claimed in so few years. Except, it still appeared that she could be underage to anyone who hadn't spent the past fifteen years with her, observing themselves grow older, as was appropriate given the time that had passed. In contrast, Sara didn't appear a single day older. This had become an increasingly tense and regular topic of discussion and only the emerging tip of her deepest and most closely guarded secrets.

Of course, Sara couldn't imagine confessing her truly significant secrets would be considered the truth. No, they would only be pathetic diversions from the fact that she was married, had a husband, and had lied. So, confessions of most of those other closely guarded secrets would need to wait.

Beyond his name, any explanation of who Sammy was would be meaningless. That he was the Descendant to a significant portion of the world would mean nothing. That he was also the wealthiest man in the world would only add confusion to the mystery of Sara's wealth. Although, it had been, in a way, an inheritance from the kind benefactor who'd found her naked beneath a waterfall.

And tomorrow was Sammy's birthday. One that Sara couldn't miss. Not this one. This birthday was special. No matter what, she needed to be there.

Then what? How should she respond to the simplest questions that might follow? A snarky: How many years was her husband celebrating? A bitter: How long have the two of you been together?

No! Ridiculous lies and diversions.

Will you come with me?

She repeated those words in her mind. Would she ever have the courage to speak them aloud? Would she ever have the chance?

Sara was far less concerned about the need to confess having a lover to Sammy. He was aware that she'd had many. She'd never lied to him about that. But not divulging the details about each of her many lovers was not the same lie of omission as never mentioning that she was married and had a husband to someone she claimed to love and had been faithful to for the past fifteen years. Sammy preferred not to hear the details of her sexual adventures. And he had discovered long ago if he didn't want to know, it was better to enjoy the benefits of anything new she'd learned on her travels and not ask questions because Sara would tell him the truth and had a vivid and explicit descriptive talent.