Eclipse

The apartment was beautiful.

It was everything that Maria had hoped for: big, spacious and bright with a small but perfect kitchen, gleaming white bathroom and a roomy bedroom with an enormous wardrobe.  She ran around the apartment happily like an excited child, finally coming to a standstill in the living area, where she collapsed on the couch and gazed out through the large windows to the city skyline outside.

The man who had followed her into the apartment walked over to her casually.  He was Gavin Samuels; a tall, dark-haired man with a solid build and a long stride.  His true age was concealed by his youthful appearance; he seemed only to be forty, but in reality he was fifty-six.

He looked down to Maria, the pretty young woman of only nineteen years.  She was born in a remote town in Taiwan and immigrated to New Zealand when she was sixteen years old.  Despite being only in the country for three years, she spoke perfect English with a slight American accent.

As he walked over to her, she jumped off the couch and threw herself at him in a heart-warming embrace.  Gavin was startled by her actions.

“Oh, Gavin,” she exclaimed in a girlish voice.  “This is beautiful.  Thank you for finding this apartment for me!”

Gavin remained still as she clung onto him.  Maria was a woman with a very strange personality.  When he first met her (at one of his employer’s engagements) she acted in a professional, although quite plain, manner.  He remembered her vividly from that night: her shocking red lips, eyeliner that matched the eerie darkness of her long dress and her wavy dark hair that majestically bobbed up and down as she walked around.  She looked sophisticated, but dry and emotionless; the sly kind of woman who seemed to always be conjuring a new scheme for success in her head.

Gavin spoke to her for much of the duration of the engagement, during which she opened up out of her ‘shell’.  She became eccentric, funny and someone that was likeable.  She was not as mysterious and unpleasant as she had appeared to him in his first impression of her.

“Oh, it’s no problem, Maria,” Gavin smiled.  “I’d do anything for you.  You’re a special girl, you know?  Talented.  Funny.  Beautiful.  Oh, the list goes on…”

Maria laughed and stood back from Gavin, taking the time to collect herself.  He gazed at her admirably.  He reminded himself why he took such an interest in the girl; spent so much time with her and so much money on her.  It reminded him why he agreed to pay for her apartment’s rent for the next two months.  His mind, again, began to wander.

“Thanks, Gavin.  You’re so sweet.  What could I do to repay you?” Maria asked.

“Oh, I don’t know…” Gavin chuckled.

Maria’s face abruptly lit up with ecstasy.  “I know what I can do.  Why don’t I invite you around for dinner tomorrow night?  It can be my first proper dinner in the new apartment!  Are you free tomorrow?”

“Yes, of course,” he said.  “What time do you want me to pop by?”

“Let’s say, seven,” Maria replied.

“Well then,” Gavin smiled cunningly.  “See you tomorrow.”

Maria rose the following day at the modest time of nine-thirty (considering she stayed up until one to unpack all of her luggage) and immediately fixed herself a coffee.  She relaxed on the couch in the living room, lazily combing through the various magazines that lay stacked in her ‘magazine basket’ while sipping at her coffee.  Eventually, she took a shower and got dressed to go and do a bit of shopping.

Her mind felt numb with a subdued feeling of happiness as she left her apartment.  For the first time in her life, it appeared that she had a home that felt as if it was permanent.  A home that felt safe and comforting.  A place all to herself.

Maria never liked saying much, but she rated her life up until that point as being a terrible one.  She grew up in several dingy houses in the poorest part of town (she could not even remember its name, it seemed so long ago) and spent her whole childhood working, helping to keep her family alive for her mother who raised her five children by herself after their father died suddenly of an unidentified virus when Maria was nine.  She was the second oldest child in the family and her mother always preferred her above any of her other siblings (mainly because she was the only girl, but it was also she was the most intelligent of the children).  She hoped for a better life for her only daughter, so she organised for her distant cousin Min, who lived on the North Shore in Auckland, to look after her.

Maria initially hated New Zealand.  It was so different, and the people were strange.  They were mostly European, and those who she encountered were rather arrogant and up themselves.  Min was married to a Malaysian architect (Min was half Malaysian herself) and Maria became associated with the local Asian community, often going with Min to socials with other Malaysian women.  One woman in particular, Dolly, a fifty-five year-old socialite married to a rich lawyer named George Archer, took particular interest in Maria.  She pitied Maria, and gave her some small yet influential advice:

“Maria darling…” Dolly said in her queer accent at a dinner at her house one time; living up to her name by wearing putrid makeup, making her face unusually pink and perky and smelling like a garden of sick flowers.  “You a nice, pretty young girl.  Why don’t you go out and find a good wealthy man with no wife and make him happy?  It will make you happy too,” she smiled, showing off her stunted, decaying yellow teeth, knowing that the horrifying advice, which was concealed enough not to be noticed in the dinner-table conversation, had been understood by the intended recipient.

Maria was startled by what Dolly said.  But then she took the time to look around her.  Those women in the Asian community who were the most successful (the richest ones) all wore a frail old man with grey hair on their arms as if he were an old ornament, with bank accounts containing more money than anyone dreamed of having in their entire lives.  Maria could not believe what was going on around her, so when she found some time alone with Dolly, she asked her about what she had told her.

Dolly was unimpressed with Maria’s unwillingness to accept her advice.  “Young girl, you’re bright.  You could be a real good woman – a lawyer or accountant or something of great worth like that.  But see, you have a big problem.  You have no money,” Dolly said as she walked around dozily in her little garden behind her ‘number two’ house, watering the half-dead flowers that lived in there with a teapot.  “Now, what you do to get money?  Well, you can work.  But where foreign girl like you can work?  Can you just go find job in big flash office?  No!  No one would be silly enough to take you, because you’re foreign!”

“That’s stupid!” Maria exclaimed.  “I can get a good job if I wanted to.  I speak great English!”

Dolly laughed.  “Not everything about speaking English good!  You need qualification!   The best place where you can get a job is fish and chip shop or dairy where all the other foreign people work.  Do you want that life?”

“No,” said Maria.

“Well then,” Dolly turned around after finishing her meaningless watering and smiled widely in a disgusting grin.  “Make yourself look pretty and I will take you to George’s law firm’s party next week.  It big thing.  One of the young associates is going off to Wellington to be partner in famous law firm down there.  Oh and Mr Cullen, one of the junior partners, just split up with wife.”  Dolly winked.

Maria reluctantly went with Dolly to the party.  It was located in central Auckland, in a medium-sized tower.  The upper floors of the building were occupied by an international investment bank while the lower floors were occupied by the law firm.

The firm looked exceptional.  Everything was so fresh and new.  The computers several women worked on in the reception area were the most modern and of the utmost high quality available.  Everyone wore remarkably clean and expensive clothing.  Dolly’s husband George marched around the place with great confidence and was always greeted warmly by numerous employees.  Maria noticed as she tagged behind the two of them that George took extra pleasure whenever someone commented on the beauty of his wife, who hung onto his arm like an oversized wart dressed in a ridiculously expensive sparkling green dress, looking like a B-Grade celebrity trying to desperately grab attention on the red carpet.

The party was dry and boring.  Dolly forced Maria to talk to some of the top partners she knew frequently had extramarital affairs, who took little interest in her.  After an hour of failure in finding a man who took any interest in Maria, Dolly became frustrated and dragged Maria into the ladies’ room to ‘freshen up’.  This so-called ‘freshen up’ resulted in Dolly shoving screwed-up paper-towels into her bra.

“What a mess!” Dolly exclaimed, looking at Maria in her fragile white low-cut blouse and black mini-skirt.  “You didn’t even try and look good!  What stupid dimwit would take any interest in you?”

Maria felt embarrassed and idiotic.  How did she let herself be dragged Dolly’s ridiculous game?  She was dragged out again into the party to stand around and try and attract some wandering eyes.  Those ‘eyes’ came in the form of a young lawyer named Warren, a tall and slightly overweight man with a near intolerable amount of body hair.  He took an unprecedented interest in Maria and was nervous around her.  Maria began to feel important and confident as Warren tried miserably to court her.  She wanted to show off Warren to Dolly, so dragged him with her around the party.  Dolly was horrified at Warren and immediately took Maria into the bathroom for a telling off.

“You silly girl!  You want to find someone that is wealthy, not some penniless git!” Dolly exclaimed.

By now Maria was sick of Dolly, so went home with Warren must to her dismay, who turned out to be wealthier than Maria thought.  He bought her several expensive gifts, including jewellery, in their six month-long relationship.   She was taken around with him to several engagements and got to know a few people before she dumped him to find someone better.  Now fluent in the art of manipulation, she easily found herself a good job working for one of her lawyer lovers for a year and a half.  But now she found someone much better than any of those weak men that crossed her path – Gavin Samuels.

Gavin wasn’t pathetic like all the others.  He was intelligent, genuinely handsome, somewhat of a romantic, and had a very deep pocket.  Maria considered him her greatest challenge yet, but if she were to get to him she wouldn’t have to work again.  Or, at the least, she wouldn’t have to work again for a very long time.

She arrived home in mid-afternoon after grocery shopping and thought about her great plan with Gavin.  A few weeks before meeting him she had heard some a gossiping receptionist at the firm where she worked that he had assets that, in total, were worth around six and a half million dollars, and that he had approximately two million dollars lying around in various bank accounts.  Her plan was going to span out over the course of around three and a half years: she would play hard to get, as she couldn’t afford to look like she was just chasing his money.  They’d get married after eight to twelve months of having a ‘proper relationship’.  Then after two years of marriage, she’d file for divorce after a ‘really bad patch’ in their relationship and grab half of all his assets.

Maria arrived at her apartment after some light shopping, including picking up some groceries from the supermarket down the road.  She didn’t spend that much time on cooking dinner.  She prepared a lacklustre dish of fried fish and boiled vegetables

Gavin arrived at seven, on the dot.  As usual he was wearing an expensive suit, and with him he brought a bouquet of an array of attractive, colourful exotic-looking flowers.  Maria was delighted by the bouquet and immediately found a vase to put them in.  Not long after, they sat down for dinner on the smallish dining table, which was illuminated by several candles.

Gavin smiled at Maria in his strange, suspicious way after they began eating.  “This fish is lovely, Maria,” he said.

No doubt he was lying.  Maria was appalled by her cooking.  “Thanks, Gavin,” she said elegantly, forcing a bleak smile.

The conversation they had as they dined was thin and uninteresting.  They talked about what their largely plain and ordinary days.  This continued into general topics like politics and the economy.  As they spoke, while soaking in a cloud of boredom, Maria’s mind began to float away from the situation.  She began wondering about her life and what she had done.  She began thinking about her family and how they must still be living in pathetic poverty in the same town she grew up in.  She began to remember the hardship and pain she endured.  Then she compared it to her life now: a life of luxury.  One could describe it an ‘evil’ life; a life that is fuelled by manipulation and deception.

There she was trying to seduce a rich man to get all of his wealth, while her mother and other siblings worked until their bodies ached for morsels of money.  For a moment she questioned her lifestyle.  Why was she doing what she did?  Why didn’t she give a flying fuck about her family?  Why wasn’t she trying to help them instead of thinking about herself?

Their conversation eventually took them from the dinner table to the couch, which Maria was not very happy with.  She was more open, more at risk from any advances.  She wanted to keep Gavin at bay for a little while longer.

They began talking about things of a sexual nature, to the utter horror of Maria.

She folded her arms and crossed her legs, feeling a little uneasy about the conversation and the situation.  Gavin seemed different that night.  He was very aggressive and ungentle.  Maria wanted him to leave.  She had done enough to continue the lust for her.  It was only a matter of time before she could enter the next phase of the relationship.

Then Gavin shifted an unwelcome hand onto Maria’s knee.  She looked down, astonished, at his hand.  She started wide-eyed at Gavin, who was sitting next to her with a queer look on his face.  He had a crooked smile, and his right eye was slightly squinting.  In the dull light of the city and the burning candles at the table, she could see that his right cheek was twitching feverishly.  Maria was startled.  She had lost control of the situation.  She had to gain it back immediately.

“Gavin…” she murmured.  “What are you doing?”

There was no reply.  Maria’s heart began pumping hard.

“Gavin,” she repeated.  “What do you want?”

“You know what I want, Maria,” he said gently, but darkly.

Maria lurched away from him, but he tightened his grip on her knee.

“Maria, don’t be such a silly girl,” he hissed.  “I spent so much time looking after you and I have wasted thousands of dollars.  Can’t a man ask for a little repayment?”

“No!  Not like this!” she exclaimed.

He chuckled softly.  “Oh, I don’t want it any other way.  I wanted to have you from the first time I set my eyes on you.  Now, you can either give me what I want or I will take your world away from you – I’ll take away this apartment.  There will be no more endless supply of money for you to splash on anything you want and there will be no more expensive gifts.”

Her mind went blank.  She gazed, shivering in fear, at Gavin’s eyes in the pale darkness.  Those white, menacing spheres in the night burned right through her as she fell back onto the couch and he climbed on top of her.  His moist and disgusting breath lapped against her skin as he smiled.  Maria’s mind went into a whirl as he began caressing her.  She tried to fight back, but her limbs wouldn’t move.  She fell into a blind trance; where the world around her didn’t seem to bother her.  Her mind began to fill with forgotten memories, forgotten moments of her past in Taiwan.  She remembered playing with the siblings she cherished.  She remembered their faces, their laughs and how they used to tease each other playfully.

Then she remembered her mother, a woman who’d do anything for the well-being of her children, even if it meant risking her own life.  A woman who had a ferociously busy schedule: working while looking after her children.  A woman who Maria loved dearly.

Gavin began tearing off Maria’s clothes and she was momentarily pulled back into reality.  Still, she didn’t do anything to stop him.  She didn’t care about what happened to her.  She didn’t care about her new life, or about trying to get money from rich old bastards, for she didn’t care about anything other than leaving everything that she had built in her new world and going home where she belonged.  To a place where wealth didn’t really matter.  Because all she wanted was to be with her family.

© Ryan Mathew Neil Marsich 2010