Til Death Do Us Part

Chapter 8

I waited for hours that felt like years (I had no clock to measure time). Eventually, I heard the sound of an approaching engine. It rumbled up the driveway. I heard the garage door open. Eddie was home. I remembered him saying he got off at six. I figured it was early evening.

I sat on the bed, awaiting the inevitable.

But Eddie didn't come up to my room right away. I heard him walking around downstairs for awhile, and the sound of things being dragged across the floor. The sound of heavy furniture being moved. What was he doing?? I figured he was getting his living room ready for "the Prom."

Eventually I heard him come upstairs. I could hear that he was panting with exertion. He went into the bathroom (I could tell because it was the only room upstairs not locked and he didn't pause to dig out his keys) and I heard the shower come on. Probably about twenty minutes later, it shut off and I heard Eddie exit the bathroom and go to his door. I heard him unlock the padlock and enter, closing the door.

I hoped to God he didn't notice anything had been disturbed. If I'd overlooked something when I'd been in there earlier...

I'm guessing another half hour passed. Then his door reopened...and, with dread, I heard the sound I had been waiting for: his footsteps approaching my room.

I tensed, my heart jumping wildly in my chest, not knowing what to expect.

His key turned in the locked. Then the door opened.

He stood there, smiling at me. He was dressed in a cheap-looking tuxedo with a red flower in the lapel. His hair had been slicked back straight. It gleamed. I could faintly detect the smell of hair gel. He was holding something wrapped up in a drycleaner's plastic storage bag -- a dress. A Prom dress.

"Well, hurry up and get ready!" he said good-naturedly in greeting. "The Prom starts in less than an hour!" He held the dress out to me. I took it from him. He pointed to the bathroom. "You can take a shower first, if you want."

"Maybe I better," I agreed. I did really need a shower. I hadn't bathed in almost two days and had been wearing the same clothes since yesterday.

"Just don't take too long."

"Don't worry, I won't," I told him, flashing a smile as I walked past him. I entered the bathroom. It was still steamy from Eddie's own shower. There was a paper shopping bag sitting next to the sink with "Emily" written on it. I opened. It contained some brand-new cosmetics. Eddie must have picked them up for me on his way home from work.

I hug the Prom dress on a hook in the bathroom door, then I undressed, showered, patted myself dry with a towel, wiped the mirror clear of steam and carefully applied the makeup. Then I opened the plastic bag holding the dress. It was sky blue and sequined. I was not surprised at all to see it was an exact copy of the dress I had worn to the Prom in the final episode of Til Death Do Us Part. I briefly wondered where he had gotten it.

I put on the dress and regarded myself in the mirror. I had to admit, I did look pretty good in it and my make-up. Hell, I looked ten years younger...although you still wouldn't have mistaken me for the twenty-two-year-old woman (playing a seventeen-year-old) I had once been.

I braced myself for whatever was coming next, then opened the bathroom door and stepped into the hallway.

Eddie stared at me wide-eyed, a comical look of awe on his face. He was speechless for a moment, then found his voice. "You...look...amazing!" he told me in a tone of utter reverence.

I smiled. "You don't look half-bad yourself," I replied. In a way, it wasn't a lie. In his tux with his combed-back hair, Francis Voight, aka Eddie Caldwell, looked as close to handsome as he probably ever had or would.