The Wife

“Good afternoon,” Chris said to the apartment management lady cheerfully, “my name is Chris Chau. I’m just moving in with my wife today. She’s working today so I thought I’d move in first and arrangement everything so that it’s all ready when she gets back after a long shift.”

Sally, the superintendent in her fifties is impressed by this young man. Tenants seldom announce initiate conversations with superintendents these days except when they’re old and lonely. But the new tenant Chris is probably only in his mid thirties. “Hi Mr. Chau,” she replied, “Welcome to the Le Grande”

Sally’s shift ends around 8pm. She hasn’t got a chance to meet his wife yet. She wonders what lucky lady has grabbed this fine gentleman.

For the next month and a half Sally sees Mr. Chau every morning during weekdays when he goes to work and sometimes at nights when he’s home early. However, she has yet to meet his wife. Chris sometimes chats with her when he gets back in the evening. Sometimes the subject would be about his wife. He often talks about her with delight. “So when do I get to meet your lovely lady?”

“What you haven’t met her yet? Maybe you did and you just didn’t know Melody? Here, take a look at a photo of ours.” Christ takes out a brand new wallet, opens it and flips through the various compartments in the wallet. “Oh shoot, I forgot I just switched wallet. Our wedding photo was quite worn out and I was going to get it redeveloped. I’ll show you when I have it again. In the mean time, I’ll ask her to introduce herself tomorrow, alright?”

The next day came and went and no Melody introduced herself to Sally. Sally doesn’t press the issue with Chris when she sees him that night. If Melody doesn’t feel like introducing herself that’s her choice. Although Sally can’t recall seeing any stranger repeatedly in the last few months. She’s in her fifties yes but she memorizes faces like no one else.

A week goes by. Chris returns home early again today. “So Melody said you’ve had a good chat last week.”

Sally’s puzzle. “Maybe I’m getting old, Mr. Chau, but I don’t recall having met your wife yet.”

“Don’t be silly, she’s told me all about it, about how she apologizes for not introducing herself sooner and all.”

“I’m really sorry Mr. Chau, I can’t recall.”

“Oh here, take a look at this wedding photo,” Chris takes out a photo from his wallet. Sally takes a look. Women usually looks quite different in wedding photos but Sally is confident that she’s not seen anyone like that before. The woman in the photo is not beautiful or ugly. She’s just…unique? It’s a face Sally would remember if she’s seen it before. She shakes her head with a smile. “It’s ok, maybe some other day.”

“No no no no no, I don’t want it to seem like I’m lying. Let me take you to her right now. Mr. Cheung can look after the entrance for now.” Chris insisted.

Sally follows Chris up to is apartment on the 10th floor. Chris presses the doorbell to announce that a guest is coming so as not to surprise his wife. Then he uses his key to open the door. “Honey, I’m home.”

The apartment is your average 500 sq. ft. two bedroom ones. Sally takes a peek before going in. There is no photo of the couple on the wall.

“Melody, honey, where are you?”

All of the doors in the apartment are open. There is a small balcony. Chris goes out to it and back but there is no sign of his wife. He then pushes a speed dial button, listens to it and looks puzzled. He calls again. This time he puts in phone on speaker mode so that Sally could here. There’s an announcement from the phone that the number is not in service. Chris shows Sally the call history to prove that he has called that number before constantly and talked for minutes.

“What’s happened?” Chris asks, more to himself than to Sally.

“Calm down, Mr. Chau, maybe she’s gone to visit a friend? Relative?”

“We don’t really have any friends. It’s always been just the two of us. Her relatives all live abroad.

“I need to call the police. I’m sorry Sally. This is just all very strange.”

Because Melody hasn’t been missing for 24 hours the police didn’t do any investigation. That night Chris finds more strange things – every possession of Melody’s has disappeared. Her clothes, makeup kit, etc…as if she’s never there. When the police finally gets involved, the place where Melody’s supposed to be working tells the police that they’ve never hired anyone by her name of looks. None of her relatives are contactable. The polices goes to Chris’ apartment and only find Chris’ print to be prevalent there. If two people have lived there the other person must be wearing gloves all the time. They also find that from the cups and mugs and eating utensils, this is more likely a singles apartment rather than an apartment that lives two people. They go on to look at Chris’ social network activities. Chris did say he’s married but there is no reference in any of his posts that indicate so. In fact Chris seldom post anything. Chris’ own relatives swear they’ve seen their wedding photos but have not attend their wedding because they chose to wed abroad.

The photo in Chris’ wallet could’ve been the only real proof that this woman exists but strangely Chris’ lost that wallet together with the photo before he could show it to the police. He did have a receipt to show that he’s reproduced the photo but he can’t find the negatives and the developer doesn’t have any backup of this job.

Chris was sure he’s married to Melody but to the rest of the world this woman never existed.

– THE END –