Chapter 32 Orion
Orion
The next evening Sam was in the hot tub alone. Usually William accompanied her, got in first, and held out his hand to help
her. But tonight he’d gotten a phone call he wanted to take in his study—Do you mind, sugarplum? I’ll join you ASAP—so Sam was on her own beneath the dark trees, watching the phantasmagoric swirl of the northern lights, flinching at every
crack! of branch or ice, and clutching a big rock.
It was probably stupid, Sam knew. Not because she hadn’t seen the Rabbit. She had. But because if the Rabbit was still here
and intended Sam harm, Sam’s rock wouldn’t make much difference. The Rabbit had a knife, Sam was pretty sure of it, and in
the game of Knife versus Rock, Knife won every time. But Sam might have the advantage of surprise.
She tipped her head back. At least the lights were fantastic, shimmering green and shooting flares across the Milky Way. Sam
remembered from her research for The Sodbuster’s Wife that Scandinavian settlers thought the lights were a good omen, whereas some Native Americans believed they were spirits
of ill-tempered giants kicking a walrus skull around the sky. Either way, they were said to be departed souls, crossing over—
“Bubble bubble toil and trouble,” said William from the dark, and Sam screamed, hurling the rock in his direction. She felt more than saw him duck and swear.
“Simone,” he said, looming up next to the tub in his spa robe with her rock in his hand. “What is wrong with you?” On his
face in the green light was a look of almost insane rage, and for a second Sam feared he might smash the rock into her head.
Then it was gone, so quickly Sam wasn’t sure she’d seen it at all.
William threw the rock into the snow and took off his robe. “You could have really hurt me,” he said, lowering himself into
the steaming water.
“You scared the hell out of me,” Sam said.
“I just came out of the basement bulkhead door, that’s all. You really do have the most pronounced startle reflex.”
“Sorry,” Sam said. Sorry not sorry, she thought. Perhaps she had a pronounced startle reflex because there’d been a woman
hiding with a knife in their bedroom closet, but she didn’t want to open that argument again.
William settled into his usual position facing the lake. He scooped water onto his face and sighed.
“We have a problem, Simone,” he said.
Sam’s stomach dropped. She had the feeling she always did at these moments, as if he’d opened a trapdoor beneath her that
even she hadn’t known was there. Please don’t end it, she thought. Don’t send me away.
“What is it?” she said warily.
“You’re too far from me. Come here.”
Sam slid over to her customary spot between William’s knees. He rested his chin on the tendon between her neck and shoulder.
“There,” he said, settling her back against his chest. “Isn’t that better?”
“It doesn’t suck,” Sam said.
There was another crack! and Sam flinched. William’s arms tightened around her.
“I’ve got you,” he said. “And it’s just the ice.”
Sam nodded. There had been a thaw that afternoon, the temperature rising into the twenties from subzero, and the ice was expanding, producing its usual symphony of weird noises.
Booms, space lasers, deep moans. When Sam first arrived, she’d said to William, I know this is ridiculous, but do you have .
. . whales here? Sometimes the ice sounded like those big creatures communicating to each other underwater, the tenderest and most forlorn
sound Sam had ever heard.
“Here’s our problem,” William said. “I’ve done everything I can to convince you that you’re safe here with me. And it’s not
enough. You still don’t believe me, do you.”
Sam shook her head, reluctantly. “I don’t. I’m sorry. It’s not anything you’ve done or not done. You’ve been a splendid host.
And I do love it here. It’s otherworldly beautiful. It’s just . . .”
“You don’t feel safe.”
“Right. I don’t.”
“Then that’s a dealbreaker,” said William. “We can’t go on this way.”
Oh God, Sam thought. Here we go again.
“What if . . .” William paused so long, Sam turned to look back at him. “A minute, beloved. This scares me a little. It’s
hard to say.”
Sam felt him breathing beneath her, his stomach like a bellows.
“What if we look for another house? Together?”
“Seriously? Do you mean it?”
“I do,” he said.
Sam twisted fully around in the water. “Oh, yes,” she said. “Yes, William! Yes yes!”
He grinned. “I love making you say that. What if we both come up with a wish list of what we want in a living space, then
compare? I won’t live in a city, Simone. That’s not for me. But I would consider a university town—provided we had adequate
privacy.”
“That’s perfect,” said Sam. “Thank you. You don’t know what this means to me.”
William moved her off his lap so he could submerge fully, then burst out of the water with a Pah! He slicked his hair back, looking like the world’s most elegant nude headwaiter, and pulled Sam to him in the center of the
tub so they floated nose to nose.
“Don’t look now,” he said, “but we are being watched.” He turned them so they faced the horizon. “That guy there, see him? Orion the mighty hunter. He shows himself
only at this time of year.” With a dripping finger William traced the celestial giant’s limbs and sword, his arrow permanently
aimed at the Bull.
“The world’s biggest Peeping Tom,” said Sam.
“Exactly. Think I could take him?”
Sam laughed. “Absolutely.”
“What if I get one of his stars for you?” William squinted and pointed. “Like that one, that brightest one there. What if I pluck it from the sky and put it on your finger?” He reached for his robe and took
from its pocket a black velvet box.
“What if,” he said, “we got married? Would you feel safe then?”
Sam stared at the box. William was moody, arrogant, prone to not taking responsibility for his actions. Paranoid about his
study and his past. Vain about facial hair. Vituperative when angry. And Sam loved him. She loved him with all her heart.
“Please, Simone, open it,” said William.
Sam did. The ring was emerald cut, a skating rink on a platinum band. The diamond glimmered green from the fantastical lights
above.
“What do you say?” William said. “Will you marry me, Simone? Come, madam wife, sit by my side and let the world slip / We shall ne’er be younger.”
Sam put her palms on either side of his wet face and kissed him.
“Yes,” she said, “I said yes I will Yes.”