Kauai with Jim was a dream. We’d been here for three months and I never tired of it. After all the misery I endured with Robert last year, I would never have believed I could feel so healthy and happy again. Swimming, eating lots of fruit and vegetables, sightseeing in our rent-a-wreck car, walking the beaches, hiking trails—it was the perfect holiday. And I was with a man I loved.
Our accommodations were rustic to say the least. It was only a partially closed in shelter with a thatched roof, but in this great climate we didn’t need more. A couple of metal spring beds stood in the middle of the room. We pushed them together and covered the stained mattresses with plastic. The small counter had a gas barbecue for outdoor cooking, under a bit of an extension of the roof in case of rain.
The campsite was up on a high hill, out of the way of most of the tourist traffic. The peaceful atmosphere was just what we needed. I’d had many months of the silence of desperate loneliness and misery when Robert had kept me isolated in our cabin last year, but what Jim and I had here was the quiet of contentment and companionship.
The sky was often overcast. It took us a while to figure out that, just because it was cloudy over our campsite, it didn’t mean the sun wasn’t shining at the beach a few miles down the hill. We had stayed in our camp for the first three days waiting for the sun to appear. Finally we decided to go into town, down at sea level, for something to do. What a surprise when we realized it was hot and sunny down there. That was often the case and we learned to work with the weather.
*****
I was lying in my lounge chair outside our palapa, reading a romance novel I’d picked up in town when Jim pulled in with the car. He plunked down two bags of groceries on the counter beside the barbecue.
“I think we should celebrate tonight.” He pulled out two big steaks. “I’ll barbecue the steaks and maybe you could make up a salad to go with them?”
“Sure....” I put my book down. “What are we celebrating?”
“Our time in Hawaii, and maybe our plans to go home soon?” Jim raised his eyebrows, waiting for my answer.
“You want to go home?” I guess I knew the time would have to come.
“I think it’s soon time.” He pulled up the lawn chair close to my lounge chair. “I have to start thinking about doing some maintenance on the boat and getting it ready to go fishing soon.”
Funny that he was looking forward to going home, while for me, a black cloud moved into my brain. My head began to pound with an instant stress headache. “Of course you do.” I patted his hand and tried to smile, but I couldn’t shake the image of Robert lurking everywhere, ready to grab me and take me back to a life of seclusion and punishment.