When I got there I found him already waiting for me. He was leaning against the car with his hands shoved in his pockets looking down at his feet. I looked up at me as I approached and I felt my heart leap. I tried to mentally shove it back down before saying. “Sorry I’m late, I lost track of time.”
“Don’t worry about it. I just got here, “he said cooly.
I put my clothes in the car and turned to him. “Ready?” I asked.
“Yeah let’s go.”
He walked ahead of me as we climbed the stairs. I couldn’t tell if I was making it up, but there still seemed to be some tension lingering from this morning. I told myself it was just me and kept walking.
Ron called for a rickshaw and we climbed on. As we were headed towards the bookshop he turned to me, “So what are we looking for in this book shop?”
“Well,” I said, “I was thinking that maybe it’s some kind of code. So I wanted to do some research on that.”
“Why didn’t you just ask me to do that. I could have just looked it up on my computer,” he said. There was a subtle hint of irritation in his voice.
Irritated by that I said simply, “Sometimes it’s just easier to try to look by yourself.”
He nodded, probably catching a sharpness to my tone, and we rode the rest of the way in silence. Once we got there I asked him which way the English section was. He pointed to the left and I headed that way. I noticed he was following me while pretending not to. I was browsing around looking for what I needed and he pretended to look at books nearby.
He never was one for books but I loved them. Especially when I was in Bangladesh. Sometimes while we were here I would finish an entire book in less than a day. I always found it hard to be with my own thoughts and the internet here would cut out during power outages so I needed something to occupy my mind during those times. So, I would read. The problem was that even after the internet came back I would keep reading. Sometimes to a point where my husband had to plead with me to put the book down so I would eat.
I finally found a book on WWII codes. I wasn’t very hopeful but I thumbed through it anyways. Ron came over and stood looking over my shoulder. “Find anything?” he whispers.
“No,” I shook my head slightly. “I’m looking for some kind of letter numeric code. It’s the only thing I can think of so far. If I’m right we would be left with a six-letter word.”
“My name has six letters,” he said. “Maybe it’s my name.”
“Possibly,” I said thinking. “My name also has six letters. Either way, we won’t be able to try it if we don’t know which number represents each letter. Besides for all I know I’m completely wrong to begin with. It just seemed worth a try.”
“No you’re right,” he said smiling at me. “That’s a good idea. I hadn’t thought of it.”
I smiled to myself. I kind of thought I should have thought of it sooner. “You should help me look,” I said handing him the book in my hand and grabbing another about the caesar shift.
We sat there for just about an hour before Ron started getting restless. I figured he was probably hungry and seeing as I hadn’t gotten anywhere either I decided maybe it was best we went back. I closed my book and sighed before asking if he had found anything. I realized by now he wasn’t even looking at the book.
“No,” he replied, “but I’m really not much for reading. If you want I could buy a few of these books and you could keep looking later.”
“Sure,” I nodded, “that’s probably a good idea.” I grabbed a few that looked promising off the shelf and we headed over to purchase them.
As we were walking out Ron asked if I was hungry.
“I could eat,” I said.
“There’s a pizza hut just over this way,” he said pointing down the street.
“Sounds good,” I said simply. I wasn’t a big fan of the cheese here in Bangladesh but I guess I’ve been spoiled growing up. I grew up in Wisconsin where I could get hundreds of different kinds of cheese but here I could find only two. Mozzarella and paneer.
I had never actually been in a pizza hut while here. We usually just ordered delivery. It was busy but I didn’t mind too much. He ordered our food and we sat towards the back of the restaurant. We chatted while we ate. It was mostly him asking me about myself and my family. I was enjoying myself fully. In the future, we would talk for hours. Even after two years of marriage we would sit and talk about anything and everything. If I closed my eyes I could almost pretend I wasn’t in Bangladesh. It felt good to feel even somewhat normal.
We finished our food sooner then I would have liked. It would have been nice just to keep sitting here enjoying each other’s company. But they were busy so we had to leave.
Once we were outside we looked for a rickshaw. “There’s on across the street,” I said. Without even thinking I took a few steps forward.
“Look out!”