Apparition

We spent over three hours touring the Caverns and managed a late lunch nearby. We drove over the San Antonio River and the River Walk on the way back to the hotel. "Why haven't we gone there?" asked Alex.

We parked at the hotel and walked back to the River Walk. We strolled along the riverside walkway most of the afternoon. We found the river cruise attraction and floated on the river for a couple of hours. I put my arm over Alex's shoulders and she curled up against me.

Later, we ate dinner at one of the many Tex-Mex restaurants along the River Walk and walked back to the hotel as the sun began to set. We shared our first kiss on that walk.

We took the elevator together to the ninth floor. We walked past Alex's room and entered my room together. Inside, we shared another kiss and then, several more. Alex unbuttoned my shirt and I did the same for her. We didn't tear off each other's clothing as might be described in a cheap bodice ripper novel. We took our time, slowly revealing our bodies to each other.

Our naked kisses were emotional and overpowering and we stumbled toward the bed and fell on it together without pulling back the bedspread. Our first time making love was an impassioned, somewhat nervous, affair. We stumbled with each other, laughed and recovered. When I entered her, I saw stars.

I've read descriptions of that kind of experience in novels but I had never experienced it. I literally saw stars, flashes of light in my eyes. I paused, consuming the emotion, until Alex moved beneath me. We made love for longer than I expected and shorter than I wished. Afterward, we lay together, sharing uncountable kisses and laughing at the wonder of it.

After sequential bathroom breaks, we removed the bedspread and climbed into bed together. We made love a second time, curled up together, and said "Good night."

Several hours later, I woke again in the darkness of the room. Alex was asleep next to me and my night visitor was standing next to the bed with her robe already on the floor. Silently, she moved me back and climbed into the bed next to me. Alex woke when I tried to move her to make room.

"Wha...?" she started to say before I put a finger on her lips. Her eyes opened wide when she saw the woman in bed next to me.

Speechless, Alex watched as the woman got out of bed, walked around the bottom of the bed and climbed back in next to her. The apparition leaned over Alex and kissed her. Her surprise quickly vanished as the kiss lingered. Alex closed her eyes, put her arms around the young woman's neck and returned the kiss.

Soon they were engaged in a mutual, tender jousting bringing each other to climax. I watched as Alex succumbed twice to the strange woman's attention. The atmosphere in the room filled with the fragrance of cocoa with a hint of blackberries.

Alex watched as the woman turned her attention to me, mounted me and rode me until I came inside her. Satisfied, she rolled off me, picked up her robe and left the room. Only her fragrance remained.

Alex looked at me. "What the hell was that all about?" she asked.

"I have no idea," I admitted. "This is the third time she's shown up since I've been here."

"And, she... you know, has sex with you every time?" asked Alex.

"She does," I admitted. "She never says a word and she always leaves naked," I explained.

"Damn," said Alex.

We lay awake for another hour, trying to figure out who the woman might be and what she wanted, before we kissed, made love again and went to sleep.

In the morning, we showered. Alex went next door to pack. We checked out and headed for the airport. Alex and I were married six months later.

We heard nothing about our meetings with Bob and Ray for three weeks and then it was a small panic to start work. Within six months we were staffing a large, all brick, windowless building about two miles outside San Antonio. The building had a faux entrance and no parking lot. The location was surrounded by a ten foot high chain link fence with a razor wire top.

There was a single guard station staffed twenty four hours a day by unapproachable, armed guards. The location was identified as belonging to the local telephone company with instructions for visitors to contact the company at their offices in downtown San Antonio.

We had a staff of forty-seven working in the building and an unknown number of others we believed were provided by the government. Workers reported to work on a staggered schedule. They parked in the employee parking lot of the hotel, entered the hotel through a rear doorway, walked to a specific elevator, entered four numbers and descended several levels where they used an underground high speed tram to travel the two miles to the new building.

The employees of the site were paid through several other enterprises of the government and they reported the income generated from those same sources. Government accountants explained to our accountants how to report the income. No one actually understood how the procedures exactly worked but they satisfied our independent auditors.

We were allowed a single management interface with the mysterious agency. Alex was everyone's choice. Her security clearance is now higher than mine, so high that the name of her clearance is itself secret.

My business card now reads, "Executive Vice President of Special Projects." Cameron has disappeared into the bowels of the building outside San Antonio. I think he's running the show there. I don't know what his business card says. Alex's business card reads, "Alex."

One of my daily responsibilities is to monitor the San Antonio local and national news for any hint of a story that might show interest in the activity two miles outside the city. Most of the time it's unproductive. However, in mid January, I noticed a short article on page five of the San Antonio Express-News about a young, unnamed woman, giving birth to a baby boy in room 923 of a hotel I recognized. The woman, whose name was withheld by her request, refused to identify the father of her child.

I did the math and was immediately intrigued. I had spent a week in room 923 thirty-nine weeks ago and had been visited three times at night that week by a mysterious woman. I wondered if I had somehow fathered the baby that had been born nine months later in that same room.

I discussed the story and my thoughts with Alex that evening. Over the months, Alex had frequently shared that her experiences that week, and especially Friday night, were instrumental in her decision to marry me. While curious herself, her advice was to forget the story and its implications. Her logic included the woman's reluctance to be identified and to identify the father, as an indication that the woman didn't want the notoriety. She also speculated that exposure could bring unwanted attention to why I was in San Antonio that week. As a precaution, she also advised that I not register with any of the DNA registration sites to avoid potential problems later on. I took her advice and didn't follow up.

Alex and I have done well over the last few years. We have two children of our own and more money in the bank than we'll ever need when we retire early. Every year, on the same date in March, we sit in our bed, naked with our backs against the headboard and toast each other with mugs of hot cocoa mixed with a dollop of Chambord blackberry liqueur.