Half Life Read Online Free PDF Page B

flame.  Desire courses through me, something I never really experienced with my wife.  Unfortunately each kiss drains her of a little more strength and we have to break apart.
    “ Let me try something, ” I say.
    Closing my eyes I concentrate on every electrical appliance in the house, taking the onus off Kate.  So when we kiss again I draw from the electrical sources.  Her tongue slips into my mouth and I groan and press her back into the couch.  I feel her hands on my back, warm and pulsating with life.  As the passion increases the appliances go haywire.  The television switches itself on and races up and down the channels, Beethoven once more erupts from the stereo, the microwave and blender whirr into life in the kitchen and the lights frantically flicker on and off.
    Kate looks up at me breathless.  “ Wow. ”
    She looks divine with her clothes and hair mussed up and cheeks flushed.  Then I recall myself and hastily sit up.
    “ What ’ s wrong? ” she says, sitting up with me.
    “ Please accept my apologies.  I got so caught up in the moment that I dishonoured you. ”
    “ What do you mean? ”
    “ We ’ re unmarried.  I should never have touched you like that.  I am appalled with myself. ”
    She appears amused.  “ Things have changed Tom.  You don ’ t have to be married to share a kiss, or more. ”
    “ You mean people have relations freely? ” I say, shocked.
    “ Yes.  I thought you would have gathered that from watching our favourite show? ”
    “ I assumed that was all make believe, ” I say slowly, attempting to come to terms with this shocking information.  “ So I haven ’ t dishonoured you? ”
    “ You are so sweet, ” she smiles, taking my hand.  “ And no you haven ’ t. ”
    “ Then that is all that matters. ”
    Shortly after Michael ’ s departure two police officers turn up asking if they can search the house for the hideous sculpture.  Kate had it removed by some scrap metal merchant days ago so she lets them in and offers them tea, which they pleasantly decline.  I follow them through the house, breathing down their necks and sensing my presence they make a hasty search before leaving, assuring Kate she has nothing to worry about.
    From then on we grow even closer, spending most of our time together.  It starts to feel as though we ’ re a real couple.  I see her off in the morning with a kiss and she returns and we kiss again and talk about what we ‘ ve got up to in the interim.  We spend the evenings curled up together, talking.  It ’ s just so wonderfully peaceful and incredibly fulfilling.
    The only thing that spoils it are the incessant phone calls from Michael.  Sometimes there ’ s just silence on the other end but the majority of the time he spews a torrent of abuse and filth at her and she hangs up, red faced with rage and fear.  She complains to the authorities but as the calls can ’ t directly be traced to him there ’ s nothing anyone can do.  She changes her number twice but somehow he always manages to find it out and the calls continue.  When the fear starts to get the best of her I assure her that she will always be safe in this house and she feels better.
    Soon a whole new level of intimacy opens up between us and she finally asks the question I know is inevitable.
    “ Tom? ” she says one night when we ’ re cuddled up together on the couch.
    “ Yes? ”
    “ Did you jump off that balcony? ”
    “ No. ”
    “ I ’ m glad.  I ’ d hate to think of you so unhappy that you were forced to do that. ”
    “ I was thrown off it. ”
    She sits bolt upright, surprise written all over her face.  “ By who? ”
    “ Clara ’ s lover and his friend. ”
    “ Clara, your wife? ”
    “ The very same.  I ‘ d just woken from a nap, I ‘ d been working very late the night before, consequently I was exhausted.  I was stood on the balcony enjoying some fresh air and the view of the sea when the three of them entered.  I