“You know, I just want to be home watching hockey. It’s Saturday night. There are rules, Kyoko!”
My eyes hurt from the constant darkness. Time had blacked out shortly after she asked me to put the blindfold on, so I didn’t know if it had been 5 minutes or 2 hours, but my hamstrings were stiff, and it hurt as I tried to shift from left to right. I needed to put weight on my right side.
Kyoko was silent. The digging of her nails into my palm meant ‘shut up’. As a nail poked into my skin, I heard the familiar slight jingle again.
“Are the handcuffs necessary?” I needed to see her face when she answered the question. Would it be warm and gracious or would she just answer me with no expression? I opened my eyes and stared into the blackness of the blindfold.
“I knew if I asked, you wouldn’t come. Plus, this is more fun.” Her words glided out from her lips with a hint of passion. I imagined a smile trickling out from the corner of her left lip showing off the dimple in her cheek that made it hard not to love her, “and stop whining that it’s Saturday night. Happy Anniversary, Emil. Our night is just beginning.” Again, said in slow soft tones as her finger edged along my ring finger before running along the twists of the 18 karat gold band. It
“When I agreed to a special anniversary dinner I didn’t know you would plan it for a Saturday.” I felt around in front of me, hitting the side of a round table thst was rougher than I expected, grainy.
“You agreed, honey.” She clasped my ring finger again, brought it to to her lips and kissed the inscription underneath- our love always. “What do you smell? Focus on that.”
I had been trying to smell the rat since she guided us out of the car. The gentle rain masked any outdoor smells unlike when we got married 6 years ago- apr 1 2017 but my thoughts drifted instead to the hockey game. I wished I could see the score at least so I inhaled quickly, hoping to hide that I didn’t know.
“If I took the mask off I could look at the score in the game.”
She slapped the table “Enough! What do you smell?”
“Nothing, ok? I smell nothing.” I should be smelling popcorn or roasted nuts, like every other Saturday.” While I couldn’t smell anything, I could hear some scuffs on the floor like s chair being pulled out, “We aren’t alone. Where are we?”
She didn’t respond. With her handcuffed hand she lassood 2 of my fingers and began touching the tabletop.