CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
It was sometime after nine o’clock in the evening and Jana Hastings was in the living room of her home in Fairfax, Virginia. She had brewed a cup of tea and was curled up in a large club chair in front of the fireplace. Beau was snoozing comfortably in front of the flickering oak flames on the large stuffed bed that she had picked up for him when she arrived back in Virginia. “New home, new bed, Beau,” she had said to him when she dropped it in front of the fireplace.
She had been reading more of the book she had begun reading in Oklahoma, ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude.’ She chuckled to herself wondering how many years of solitude she would have… and, how many had she already had? She lifted her eyes from the printed page to grasp her cup for a sip of tea. Her eyes rose to the mantle, and to two photographs there. She let the book drop into her lap and she looked more closely at each picture. On the left, there was one of her and Jack on their wedding day at West Point. It was not a posed photo; it was one taken candidly and contained her parents laughing gaily beside her on one side and her brother Tom clowning with Jack on the other. The beautiful Cadet Chapel was looming in the background, overseeing the joyful event. Such happiness was evident there.
Her eyes swept to the other side of the mantle, to another photograph of her pinning the single star onto her husband’s uniform on the day that he was confirmed as a brigadier general. It was only the two of them in this frame, some twenty-six years after the wedding picture was taken. It was clearly the same two people, a bit more serious, who had grown older, more mature.
She thought about the space between the two photographs, thinking it to be the timeline of the marriage of Jack and Jana Hastings. What had occurred in that space? How had they grown from the young couple who couldn’t bear to leave their hotel room in New York City to the couple viewing life more seriously? …the couple decorating Jack’s uniform, acknowledging his accomplishment? And now, here she sat in Fairfax, Virginia, by choice, while he remained in Oklahoma, half a country away?
She looked from one photograph to the other, then back to the first again. She regretted the distance between them; the emotional distance. Perhaps they had achieved too well the ability to deal with the geographical distance, making it easier to settle for a marriage in which they lived apart.
She thought about the man she had met the first night of her trip back east. The very enjoyable dinner and evening that she spent with Jack Davenport may have been a glimpse of what life should have been.
The ringing of her phone shook Jana from her thoughts. She looked at the caller I.D. wondering who would be calling at that time of night. She was surprised at what she saw. Beau stirred at her feet from the sound of the phone.
“Hello?” she answered.
“Hi, Jana,” greeted her husband. “How are you?”
“I’m fine, Jack. I’m fine,” she said, wondering who she was trying to convince.
“They have found the killer, Jana. He’s in custody and I’ve been released.”
“Why that’s great news, Jack. I’m very happy for you,” she said. “Who is it?”
“He’s a Mexican tied to a big crime cartel,” Jack explained. “Supposedly he… Well, it doesn’t matter, does it? I’m just happy it’s over. I’m happy for us, Jana.”
Jana was silent, not knowing quite how to respond.
“Jana? Aren’t you happy, too?”
“Yes, Jack. Of course,” she replied. “I said I was.”
“Yes. Yes, you did,” he said, his voice trailing off. Jack Hastings was disappointed that this was not the reception for which he had hoped. But, he could make things better. He knew he could. “I was thinking,” he said. “I’ll probably fly back there to Fairfax as soon as everything is wrapped up this week… there are a few legalities yet to be settled. But then, I’ll fly back and we can spend some time together… Maybe go on a trip…”
He waited for a reaction, for acceptance. But it did not come.
“Jana?” he said.
“I’m here, Jack.”
“Does that sound okay with you? That I come…”
“Jack, I don’t know,” she said. “I, uh…”
“Don’t know?” he interrupted. “Don’t know what? You’re my wife. I want to come get you… to be with you.”
“I don’t think… I…”
“What, Jana? What?”
“I need some time, Jack.”
“Time? Why? We’ve been separated for over a week now, Jana. Longer than that.”
“I…,” Jana didn’t know how to say what she wanted to convey to this man who had shared so many years with her. “I met someone, Jack.”
“Met someone? What in the hell does that mean?” he asked, his voice rising. “What do you mean you ‘met someone?’ You mean a man? You met a man?”
“Well, yes.”
Jack Hastings was incredulous. “How… What… You are involved with a man, Jana?”
“Oh, no.” She almost chuckled at the thought. “No, no.”
“Well, what do you mean then?” he asked.
“I mean that I met a man. There’s no involvement. I just think that I saw what an honorable man looks like, Jack.”
It was Hastings now, who was quiet, his words failing him.
“I need some time, Jack. Give me some time, will you?”