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behind the heliport. It’s a biker bar. And it’s packed. Through the fogged-up windows they can make out a dance floor and a pool table. A crooner’s baritone punctures the night through a swinging door held open by a couple.
    They park the car and hesitate. There are some black girls singing in front of a huge karaoke screen. Julia rouses herself and drags Theo inside. The girls’ crystal-clear voices are at odds with the heavy bodies they shake at a devilish pace while the men slouching at the bar ignore them. Theo doesn’t pay them any attention either, at least no more than he does Julia. He seems distracted.
    He goes to the bar to order a couple of beers, shunning all contact, and returns, lost in thought. Julia makes a fresh attempt at conversation. “It would do us good to go on a motorcycle ride one weekend.”
    Theo’s gaze returns to her for an instant.
    â€œWe could tour the Berkshires,” she suggests.
    It will be beautiful there now, at the tail end of summer, and Julia knows Theo likes riding on mountain roads. Labor Day is coming up; it would be the ideal time to make the most of a long weekend.
    Theo puts his glass down. He takes a second too long to answer.
    â€œYes, we could take a couple of days and leave Friday,” he admits. “But I’ll have to be back Monday morning to hold down the fort.”
    Julia doesn’t want to ask any more questions. Hold down the fort on Labor Day, what a great alibi. Like the excuse he invented this summer not to go to New Zealand to visit their son. In spite of all evidence to the contrary, Theo claimed the trip had been planned without consulting him, and there wasno way he could leave the office. Julia went anyway, outraged by his dishonesty and because Ulysses had scheduled his vacation for the dates they’d planned. Besides, she wanted to meet her son’s fiancée.
    Her trip hasn’t made things any better. Theo has been irritable since she got back and has gotten into the habit of making hurtful remarks. If he’s run out of gas, it’s because Julia doesn’t contribute to the household expenses. If he can’t find the remote for their new TV, it’s because Julia isn’t organized. If Julia walks into their bedroom unexpectedly, it’s because she’s spying on him. He’s moved his office to the laundry room so Julia won’t disturb him.
    But that’s not all. In spite of herself, Julia can’t help keeping count of his new eccentricities: a sudden enthusiasm for heavy metal, a new interest in electronic games, and his latest craze, egg whites. For some reason Julia connects all of this to the story of a staff conference that Theo attended recently. He came back from it all excited. He told her about a colleague, a young Korean, whom he’d hit it off with. Then he told her he’d be back from work late sometimes because he planned on going to the gym with his new friend.
    Funny, that’s stuck like a fishbone
.
    Theo has set two beers down on the table.
    â€œBy the way, thanks for the lunch, honey. The guys at the gym were green with envy. We were all starving after the workout.”
    He sits down close to her and kisses her passionately onthe mouth. All of Julia’s wild imaginings evaporate in an instant.
Maybe it’s just a fit of jealousy
,
an aftereffect of my trance
. The thought takes her by surprise. She isn’t tired; why make this connection? Mechanically she replays the images of the young Asian woman putting on makeup in the bathroom, the bed, the clothes on the chair. Theo puts his arm around her waist and pulls her to him. They get up, hand in hand, and dance between the pool tables. Julia thinks back to her Rothko painting and feels guilty for allowing doubt to creep in.
    In bed later that night, Theo feels her moving and holds her close. Julia prays they’ll stay this way always, pressed close together. A plane flies over the