It is something I will never get used to. I know how it works. Well, not actually, but I can repeat what I’ve been told. I’ve counted on this skill more times than I can count. It’s even funny sometimes when I see it happen.

It’s never funny when Sarah uses her vanishing act on me.

Of course, my wife doesn’t think it’s too funny when she slips into bed next to me, thinking I’m sound asleep and after a minute or so I turn over and glare at her. Sarah hasn’t specifically said so, but I think it’s the blueish glow my right eye, the cybernetic one, emits when I’m irritated with her, and the room is pitch dark.

To say Sarah has more than a few quirks would be putting it mildly. One of those quirks is her need to roam undetected far and wide at nighttime. What’s more, she often does so using her genetically designed ability to appear to be invisible.

How you ask?

Like I said. I can repeat what she has told me. I doubt you’ll understand it either. What do you expect from an illegal, military grade clone. The truth be told, I doubt Sarah knows either.

I used to worry about her when she was out roaming the streets at night. Especially in the city we used to live in, Beta Prime’s Capital City. Even in the upscale parts of town, Capital City was a rough place. And Beta Prime being an ice world didn’t help matters.

One of the interesting things about Sarah is how gorgeous she is. I mean, why would a woman who looks like Sarah give a battered hulk like me a second glance? Those long, dancer’s legs, beautiful figure, and the face of an angel?

I’m not complaining, mind you.

Well, actually I am. It’s zero fun to have your beautiful wife slip into your quarters and dress for bed and be invisible while she does it.

I waited till Sarah was completely settled and resting her head on my right shoulder before I opened my mouth.

“Nice to see you,” I muttered. “Or not see you as the case happens to be.”

Sarah raised her torso up, supporting herself with her left elbow and brought her right fist down on my chest. She didn’t like it when I caught her fist and held on to it with a grip she was not going to escape from.

“What’s the deal?”

“Let go of me!”

The cold fury in Sarah’s voice surprised me. I let go of her wrist and turned on my side, reaching around her with my left arm as I did so. With a firm grip on her, I pulled Sarah in against me and held her tight. Normally, such an act on my part was done with ill intentions. Nothing harmful, just amorous if you catch my drift.

There was nothing amorous about my actions this time.

“Where have you been?”

“You know.”

“No, I don’t know,” I snapped.

Sarah grunted as she pushed against my arm and gave me a good kick in the shin at the same time.

“I was wandering.”

“Really now.”

I flinched this time when she landed a kick on my shin.

“Enough of that,” I barked, startling my new bride. “I can live with you wandering,” I snarled. “It’s the sneaking about when you get back I don’t like.”

“I wasn’t sneaking,” was Sarah’s terse reply.

“Um, yes. Sneaking.”

This time Sarah remained silent.

“Then why weren’t you visible when you entered our quarters and don’t give me the answer it was because of modesty. Modesty hasn’t been an issue since our wedding night when we’re alone.”

I felt Sarah’s body relax. Not because she felt safe and secure but out of a sense of defeat.

“You’ll be angry.”

“I’m already angry.”

“I don’t want to tell you,” Sarah whimpered.

It was my turn to feel uncomfortable. I hate emotionally charged situations like this, something I could never get Sarah to understand. In large part, it was one of the primary reasons I had avoided women in general and relationships in particular after my skirt chasing days ended years ago.

“I won’t shout at you.”

It was the best I could do under the circumstances. The cop in me is suspicious of sneaky behavior. The husband that I now was even more suspicious of sneaky behavior by my wife.

Sarah grunted at me.

“There’s being sneaky and then there’s being sneaky,” I pointed out to her.

“My birthday is not for another seven months. We don’t have an anniversary as such, and you’ve never told me when your birthday is. So, there is no reason for you to be sneaking about in order to hide a present. That leaves the bad kind of being sneaky.”

Another kick to my shin.

“Enough with that.”

I let go of Sarah and sat up. The sensor on my side of the bed turned on the reading light and then dimmed it.

“Kick me again and see what happens.”

“You’re being mean,” was Sarah’s response.

“No, you’re being sneaky and I’m not going to put up with it. Now explain yourself.”

My wife looked over her shoulder at me with her left eye for a brief second before burying her head under her pillow. I took that pillow and smacked her with it.

“No hiding. Talk.”

“You won’t understand.”

Exasperated, I blurted out a frustrated response. “I don’t understand now. What’s more, I won’t be able to understand if you don’t tell me what is going on. I’m not a mind reader and I haven’t got the slightest idea what has got you in such a state. It’s exhausting, Sarah!”

“I always walked around in a different frequency in your apartment.”

That, I hadn’t expected.

“And I would have known this how?”

Sarah gave me quick side-eye before snatching her pillow back and sticking it under her head while clutching it with both hands.

“I took showers, Sully. We weren’t married, you catch MY drift?”

“Sarah, most of the time I was asleep, and I never left my room when I did hear you inside my apartment.”

“I miss the way things were,” Sarah mumbled.

“Like sneaking into my bedroom and watching me?”

My wife rolled over to face me. “More proof you’re mean,” she whispered. “Letting me think you didn’t know about that.”

I chuckled which elicited an even bigger frown from Sarah.

“You married me.”

That earned me a jab in my ribs.

“I miss home,” Sarah whispered. “You know, Joe’s Place and eating with Father Nathan. I miss my parish and services. I miss Joe and Ralph and Alice. I even miss Josephson.”

Sarah looked up at me and traced my facial scar with her index finger.

“I miss Capital City.”

That raised my eyebrows. Missing our friends I could understand. But the city? That I didn’t get. And I told her so.

“It’s where we fell in love, Sully. It’s where you protected me, and I convinced you to let me in.”

Sarah had a point. I know my wife well enough to know she wasn’t lying. I guess we both missed Capital City in our own way.

It still didn’t explain what she was hiding. I was just too tired to fight about it. There would be time to drag Sarah’s secret from her later.