A Spider Sat Beside Her

by K E Lanning

  “Welcome to my humble abode.” With a smile, he pulled her toward him. Edward put his hands on her shoulders and drew her to him, nuzzling her gently on the neck. He ran his fingers through her hair and pulled her head back gently with strands of her hair, kissing her deeply.

  In between kisses, Edward said softly, “I’m beginning to really like you Antarcticans.” He rubbed his face against her cheek. “It must be a hard life down there.”

  Lowry felt herself becoming aroused. “It can be cold and lonely.”

  Edward pivoted her around and pushed her gently to the bed. He sat down, placed his hands on her hips and slowly pulled her into his lap. He ran his finger down her neck and rotated her onto the mattress, caressing her hair. “Tell me how you and your family came to be there.”

  Lowry was succumbing to him; it had been a long time since she had felt loved. He stroked her hair, and she found it hard to think clearly. “It all started with my Uncle Nick. He is a geologist and was offered a job out of grad school to be on the first expedition to map the continent, which of course was exciting, but he hesitated with such a huge commitment.”

  “I can imagine.” He caressed her cheek with the back of his fingers and then nibbled on her ear.

  “But life can get complicated, and from what my mother told me, he had fallen in love with a married woman, so rather than be shot, he opted for Antarctica.”

  He kissed her eyebrows. “Talk about a lifestyle change. I wouldn’t have a clue how to survive.”

  She chuckled. “I’m afraid, dear Edward, they didn’t have blow dryers down there at that time. But the mining company had a good training program, and they sent him to live with the Eskimos for a couple of weeks to learn survival techniques.”

  “Really? That’s interesting.” Edward’s eyes opened wide. “Good friends to have.” He traced his finger around her ear. “Obviously, he adapted to Antarctica.” Mussing her hair, he whispered, “What about you?”

  “I refused to move until they had blow dryers.”

  Edward kissed her gently, and then he stretched across her, clasped her hair, and kissed her roughly. He pressed his mouth deep into hers, and she could barely breathe as he peeled her clothes away.

  Lowry reached up and unbuttoned his shirt. He jerked the shirt off and threw it on the floor, followed swiftly by his pants. He gently lay down on top of her naked body, and they made love, but this time, Edward seemed hurried—once the conquest was fait accompli, was his interest abating?

  Afterwards, he rolled to the side, sighing as he stroked her thigh. “You are so lovely.” Shifting onto his back, he exhaled and closed his eyes with a little smile.

  Lowry lay her hand on his chest and asked, “What about you, Edward? Did you attend some fancy prep school, and then onto a prestigious law school?”

  A twinge rippled across Edward’s face and he turned away from her. Blinking at his reaction, her hand lingered on his arm as silence filled the room.

  Edward cleared his throat. “No prep school for me. My dad left us when I was about six years old. My mom couldn’t pay the mortgage, and the bank kicked us out.” Then, with a sigh, he continued softly, “We were homeless for months, moving from shelter to shelter, until one of the agencies found an apartment that my mom could afford.”

  Lowry felt his muscles tense under her fingers.

  With a voice as thin as a whip, he said, “My mom worked twelve-hour days, but I studied hard and got a scholarship out of high school, and then a full ride at Yale Law.”

  Edward turned back to her with a smile. “I met Attorney General Halder my senior year at Yale, and he hired me to work at the Department of Justice. I’ve never looked back because, you see, Lowry, the day we moved into that little apartment, I decided that I’d never be poor again.”

  Lowry pursed her lips. “It’s not a crime to be poor, Edward.”

  He stared up at the ceiling with his smile frozen in place. “Isn’t it?”

  His phone whistled. He grabbed it off the side table and stared at the screen. The pain of his past slipped away from his face, and he returned to the confident Edward she knew—or thought she knew.

  “I’m afraid I have to go to another meeting, my sweet.” He kissed her tenderly and sat up. He retrieved his clothes and went into the bathroom.

  She shivered and pulled the sheet over her nude body. Edward’s past was not what she had imagined, and she was surprised to hear that he had bootstrapped his way upward.

  Lowry listened to Edward hum, grooming himself in front of the mirror. Staring at the ceiling, she shook her head. Somehow, there was a puzzle piece missing. She glanced around his room and noticed a tablet next to the bed streaming photos of him at exotic resorts or leaning on expensive cars, usually accompanied by a beautiful woman. Lying there, staring at photo after photo flashing by, Lowry felt a cold dose of reality. She didn’t know Edward at all.

  Lowry jerked the sheet away and sat on the side of the bed, staring at the floor. Edward’s extreme façade of perfection contrasted with an honest man who had climbed from the gutter to be an up-and-coming lawyer at the DOJ. Had he risen above his childhood plight, or was there a more sinister path he had taken to hide the wounds of his past?

  She grabbed her clothes, and with her hands shaking, she threw them on. Who is the real Edward?

  If he was not who she thought he was, could her “love” of Edward be a rebound from her relationship with Frank? She exhaled and, with furrowed brow, sank into a chair near the bed. Did she just swap flat beer for a highbrow martini with a rotten olive?

  When Edward returned to the bedroom, he had a grin on his face, but his smile faded as he noticed her change in mood. He came over to where she sat and knelt in front of her.

  “What’s wrong, baby?” he asked, reaching out for her hand. Turning her hand over, he kissed her palm and then held it to his cheek. “Am I being an insensitive male, leaving you at a tender moment?”

  Bewildered by her emotions, she said nothing but swept her hair back with her free hand.

  Narrowing his eyes, Edward folded his arms. “I knew I shouldn’t have told you my background.” His jaw tightened as he stared at her.

  Lowry blinked as she returned his piercing gaze. She had had no hint of anger issues with Edward, but fresh out of a violent relationship, perhaps discretion was the better part of valor.

  Pursing her lips, Lowry shook her head. “It has nothing to do with your past, Edward.” She pointed to the photo slide show. “I just feel a little odd joining your parade of women.”

  A smile broke over Edward’s face. “Ah, you don’t need to be jealous, my love.” He held her hand to his cheek, studying her face, but she stared at the floor. “I’ll come by your room in two hours, and we’ll have dinner and continue our, uh, conversation, okay?”

  She met his eyes briefly and then murmured, “All right.” Safer for him to think she was merely jealous instead of having serious doubts about him as a person.

  “Good, see you at seven.” He smoothed her hair and kissed her nose tenderly, seeming to know he needed to shore up his defenses.

  Lowry followed him out of his quarters and stumbled back to her room. She ran a hot bath, rubbing her temples as she stared at the flowing water. When the bath was full, she relaxed in the warm water and tried to sort her thoughts in the quiet.

  To “make love” implied that one loved the other participant, but somehow, with reality shining a new light on Edward, she just wasn’t sure this was the case. She dunked her head under the water to block the sour note ringing in her ears.

  She pulled herself out of the water and dried herself off slowly. She looked in the mirror. Her skin was fresh, and her body nicely muscled. She was desirable but also vulnerable. She dried her hair and finished dressing, but she could not shake her disquiet.

  ***

  Lowry started when the doorbell chimed at seven o’clock. She knew it was Edward but called out, “Who is it?”

  Edward said, “Sw
eetheart, didn’t we have a dinner date?”

  She hesitated but went to the door and opened it. “Come in, Edward.”

  Edward walked through the door and pulled her into his arms with a seductive look. His lips brushed her ear. “Maybe we should order in instead?”

  Lowry stared out into the corridor, murmuring, “No, I’m starving. Let’s go.” She glanced up at Edward’s puzzled face but grabbed his arm, and they walked out of the cabin toward the café.

  They sat at an intimate table in the Observation Room. Edward ordered a carafe of red wine from the robo-waiter. “I’m surprised they have a decent list up here.”

  The robo-waiter brought the carafe and poured two glasses of wine.

  Edward twirled and sniffed the wine, took some in his mouth, gurgled, and then swallowed with a nod.

  Distractedly, Lowry gazed out of the window at the stunning vision of Earth—the planet she had retreated from to heal from life and yet . . .

  Lowry choked on her first sip of wine.

  “You don’t like it?” asked Edward. “It’s a good vintage.”

  “No, it’s good. It just went down the wrong way.”

  The dinner came, and Edward dominated the conversation with light chitchat about his first days at the DOJ. Lowry smiled and nodded as necessary but spoke little. Digesting her emotions was proving more difficult than digesting the meal.

  With the arrival of the after-dinner drinks, Edward glanced at her and cleared his throat. He reached out and covered her hand with his. “Um, Lowry, I hate to be the one to break the news to you, but we just heard that the defense has called you as a witness, so I’m afraid that you will need to be at the trial in D.C.”

  Staring at him, Lowry’s mouth dropped open. “What? When?”

  Edward picked up his drink and downed it, and then looked at her. “You’ll be leaving next Tuesday on the ten a.m. flight to D.C.”

  They walked back to her room, and Lowry’s mind was in disarray. When Edward started to follow her in, she turned, put her hand on his chest, and said, “Edward, I’m sorry, but I think I’m going to have to call it a day. I’m frankly exhausted, and with this news that I have to testify, my mind is in a jumble.” She could tell he was not pleased.

  With lips pinched together, he snapped, “Look, Lowry, this might be our last night together.” Bending down to kiss her, his voice softened. “Our afternoon delight was just a tease.”

  Lowry drew back from his lips, and replied softly, “Perhaps so, Edward, but I’m in a muddle right now.” She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and ducked into her room.

  Was Edward a shimmering image of love—or just a mirage?

  CHAPTER 13

  The next week, Lowry poked her head into Zoë’s cubicle. In an annoyed voice, she asked, “I’ve been looking all over—do you know where Sevy is?”

  “I don’t know, but I’d take a bet he’s in Holoville again.”

  “Dammit! He promised to help me with mapping the Wilkes area today, and I have to leave in the morning.” Lowry lowered her voice. “I’m getting worried about him and this Holoville virtual thing; if he’s doing it during working hours, he must really be addicted to it.”

  Zoë snorted. “He’s addicted, all right—he spends hours in Holoville after work and, from what I hear, most of the night.” She sighed and her voice dropped to a whisper, “Rumor is, he might even be sleeping down there.”

  “Since when could reality ever compete with fantasy?” Lowry shook her head. “I guess everyone has some type of addiction, but when it starts to affect other people, it’s got to stop.”

  Lowry walked down to Section 3 toward Holoville, thinking about the kids, particularly boys, who were addicted to gaming and cyber-worlds. It was hard to believe that their parents, who would never let their kids take drugs, would abdicate their responsibilities and allow their children to spend hours in a virtual world, etching images of sex, crime, and violence into their brains. How could a kid learn about life and relationships if all they knew of “life” was through avatars and violent video games instead of youth activities and something crazy called family life?

  Lowry hesitated at the entrance to Holoville, taking a deep breath before she entered the fantasy world of goggles and light swords. Slowly, she opened the door and stepped inside. When her eyes adjusted to the dimness, she edged her way into the room, trying to find Sevy’s virtual cubby.

  She grunted as she bumped into something hard and rubbed her leg with a grimace. The flashlight on her phone revealed a virtual assault weapon sitting on a chair, its barrel posed for maximum damage on some poor fool’s shin. She shifted it onto a table and heard a voice murmuring in another room. Lowry kept on her phone’s flashlight, following the sound toward a darkened chamber. There were the faint sounds of music and a muffled voice as she stepped into the room. She beamed the flashlight toward the sounds and then sucked in her breath—someone was dancing in the middle of the room, their body completely covered in a Virtual Suit.

  “Sevy?” she called out softly as she crept into the room.

  No one answered. Music drifted out of the helmet, and she recoiled backward to avoid the bizarre dancing figure as it careened toward her. The figure came to a stop, and she moved in front of it, peering into the masked helmet. A muffled laugh came from behind the mask, and a hand reached out, caressing something in front of his face.

  He said softly, “My sweetness.” And Lowry knew it was Sevy.

  Lowry shivered, watching this bizarre dance of love before her, realizing with dread and pity that Sevy had fallen in love with a Virtual Woman. She took a deep breath and then tapped Sevy’s outstretched hand, and she couldn’t help smiling as he flinched. He straightened up and slowly pulled the helmet off his head.

  Lowry waved at him like they were kids in high school. “Hi, Sevy, what’s new?”

  Sevy looked dazed for a moment as his mind returned from his virtual world. Then he pulled the virtual googles off his face and stared at her for a moment, his face flushing with embarrassment.

  “Why are you following me around? What I do in my time off is my business!”

  “Sevy, you’re right that your time off is your business, but unfortunately, this is not your time off. You were supposed to be helping me with the Wilkes project this morning.”

  Sevy’s brow furrowed. “What time is it?

  “It is ten o’clock in the morning—time to rise, shine, and deal with reality.” Lowry’s face softened as she touched his arm. “Sevy, I hate to be the one to tell you, but this virtual love relationship is a very bad idea.”

  “What do you care?” He turned away from Lowry. “No one else wants me.”

  “Don’t blame this on me. I never led you on.”

  “I know.” He looked down at the floor. “Lowry, I truly love her.” Then he smiled. “She’s wonderful and so beautiful.”

  Lowry exhaled, throwing up her hands. “Of course she’s perfect; you made her up from all the fantasies in your mind.”

  Sevy looked at Lowry and grabbed her shoulders. “I love her, and I won’t let her go.”

  Lowry stared at him. “Sevy, there is nothing to let go of!” She flung off his hands and paced in front of him. “Get a grip! What, are you going to have a virtual marriage and have virtual kids?” She gasped as Sevy’s face lit up with the idea.

  She felt a cold pit in her stomach. It was entirely possible. No babies crying in the night, no diapers—just gurgling sweet babies to play with, handing them off to a virtual nanny when you were tired of them.

  That should put a damper on the birth rate.

  Angrily, she pointed to the door. “What about your responsibilities? Do you know I found poor Poppy wandering up and down the corridor outside the Garden searching for you? I had to take her back to your quarters before she got lost.”

  He blinked. “I guess I forgot about Poppy.” He looked thoughtful. “Hey, maybe I could reprogram her, and she could be in here with me!”

&
nbsp; Facing him, Lowry threw up her hands. “Look, I don’t know if you get it or not, but you’re going to get fired if you don’t stop this obsession. Then you won’t have your little love nest to come to at all.”

  Sevy turned pale. “I guess you’re right.” He grabbed her arm. “Look, don’t tell anyone about this. I swear I’ll straighten this out and work like I did before.”

  She shrugged. Is that an improvement?

  “I will tell you, Sevy, I’m not the only one who knows about this, so you’d better go cold turkey on this whole mess for a while.” She felt sick as she turned toward the door, signaling him to follow her. “Come on, and let’s get this project on track before we are both fired. I have to leave in the morning to testify at the trial.”

  Walking out of the darkened virtual space with Sevy shuffling behind her through the dim light, Lowry trembled as if she were leaving a tomb. She glanced back to make sure he was following her—the misery on his face was revealed with the brightening light as they neared the exit. She couldn’t help but feel sorry for him; he wasn’t a bad person, just misguided and lonely, like most people are at some point in their lives. With her sad history of broken relationships, who wouldn’t want a fantasy relationship—in some sense, isn’t love a fable?

  They walked past the cubbies; Sevy stopped and slowly stripped off the Virtual Suit and laid it over his chair. His face pale, he caressed the lifeless metallic fabric as if his Virtual Lover had perished in some virtual disaster, never to be seen again.

  Sevy exhaled and mumbled hoarsely, “I’ll try to break it off, Lowry.”

  He turned away and stumbled toward the door, and then he stopped like a mule refusing to move. Lowry turned around, the red light from the exit sign revealing his face as it morphed from sorrow into a face of desperate rage. His jaw clenched, he leaped in front of her, pointing to the door of Holoville. “You have your Garden, and I have my virtual world. Everyone creates their own reality—who decides which one is true?” His mouth twisted in anger as he crossed his arms and leaned into her face. “Who made you master of my world?”