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Show Moon -117 The years in Manila after Joy left pushed slowly through the thick tropical air like an unsteady ship. The years here would be several more, for James had signed on for an extension of duty. In this place was a loneliness Anne hadn't thought possible. James often went out at night and didn't come home until nearly dawn. When Caleb and Lee weren't at school they were off playing tennis with James or somewhere with their friends. She wasn't quite herself. Sometimes her eyesight blurred and doubled. Other times her hands tingled or went numb again for a while; her legs felt unsteady. There was no Christian Science church , here. She corresponded diligently with the blue-haired practitioner lady in Washington, read from Science and Health each day, but it was not enough in this isolation, and her vision of God's healing grew dim. She thought about talking to James, but she was sure he'd only look displeased and say, "You didn't want to see a stateside doctor." She made him unhappy, and no wonder, she hadn't been much fun to be around, so one day she decided to take a taxi to the embassy and surprise James for lunch. It was time, she thought, to reach out to him (wasn't that the phrase they were using now?) let him know she was a woman who could take some action. She told the taxi driver to let her off at the outside gate so she could enjoy a stroll through the grounds to the embassy steps and take in the parklike atmosphere of palm trees, brilliant flowers, the cries of birds. Beyond the embassy was Manila Bay shimmering in the intense sunlight like a mirage. The rigging of the ships at anchor sprang into view like a forest. No wonder I've grown so far apart from my husband, she thought. He sees this everyday, and I have kept myself at home, a colorless inside woman. |