NOELLE AND CATHERINE
Athens: 1946
16
Inexplicably, Time had become Catherine’s enemy. She was unaware of it at first, and
looking back she could not have told the exact moment that Time began to work against
her. She was not aware when Larry’s love had gone or why or how, but one day it had
simply disappeared somewhere down the endless corridor of time and all that was left was
a cold hollow echo. She sat in the apartment alone day after day, trying to figure out what
had happened, what had gone wrong. There was nothing specific Catherine could think of,
no single moment of revelation that she could point to and say, That was it, that was when
Larry stopped loving me. Possibly it had started when Larry came back after three weeks
in Africa where he had flown Constantin Demiris on a safari. Catherine had missed Larry
more than she had thought possible. He’s away all the time, she thought. It’s like during
the war, only this time there’s no enemy.
But she was wrong. There was an enemy.
“I haven’t told you the good news,” Larry said. “I got a raise. Seven hundred a
month. How about that?”
“That’s wonderful,” she replied. “We can go back home that much sooner.” She saw
his face tighten. “What’s the matter?”
“This is home,” Larry said, curtly.
She stared at him uncomprehendingly. “Well, for now,” she agreed weakly, “but I
mean—you wouldn’t want to live here forever.”
“You’ve never had it so good,” Larry retorted. “It’s like living at a vacation resort.”
“But it’s not like living in America, is it?”
“Fuck America,” Larry said. “I risked my ass for it for four years and what did it get
me? A handful of two-bit medals. They wouldn’t even give me a job after the war.”
“That’s not true,” she said. “You…”
“I what?”
Catherine did not want to provoke an argument, particularly on his first night back.
“Nothing, darling,” she said. “You’re tired. Let’s go to bed early.”
“Let’s not.” He went to the bar to pour himself a drink. “A new act’s opening at the
Argentina Night Club. I told Paul Metaxas that we’d join him and a few friends.”
Catherine looked at him. “Larry—” She had to fight to keep her voice steady. “Larry,