Chicago. Amsterdam. Naples. Cairo. Edinburgh.

Chicago, Amsterdam, Naples, Cairo, and now Edinburgh. What did all these cities have in common? They were all the cities that Lawrence’s wife had sent him to as a cruel cat-and-mouse game that she decided to concoct instead of divorce papers. They were only twenty-six, but it seemed that Lydia was having a full-blown quarter life crisis. Out of the blue, after a year at her dream job, Lydia had quit with no explanation and took off around the world, leaving only subtle clues for Lawrence to follow. With the fifth city coming into view of the bus, Lawrence only felt more weary, and though he hated to admit it, he was only dreading what elusive message that could come from his wife at this stop.

           When he first awoke to Lydia’s absence to one extra plane ticket to Chicago on his nightstand, he assumed that this was some reckless way that she was coping with her mother’s recent death. Her family had lived in Chicago before moving down to Louisville, Kentucky years later, and he assumed that maybe this spontaneous journey was one of nostalgia and closure.

           He was wrong.

           That was nearly 6 weeks ago, and he was no closer to finding Lydia in any of the four previous cities as he was in his empty apartment before this vicious game began. After two weeks of searching for her in her hometown, only another ticket was left in her wake. Tucked in the latch of her childhood mailbox was a ticket to Amsterdam addressed to Lawrence with an elusive promise:

           Find me and take me back if you wish. If you find me and don’t take me back, I will give you this ring.

           Now, Lawrence was on a bus heading towards Edinburgh, determined to get the heirloom wedding ring back and serve her makeshift divorce papers he had written up on a pair of napkins from the airport. It was in no way legally binding, but with six years of history together, Lawrence could leave it no other way. He needed the closure. He needed the to get the ring and to see Lydia for one last time. 

           With every ticket left behind for him, there were directions to a hotel or hostel booked for him. Lydia was never at the end of the invitation. Instead, she seemed to be as elusive as a ghost, floating and bestowing small hints at each stop. He assumed that she had been using her mother’s will to fund this extravagant escape, and he often found himself cursing her for using it so recklessly when he hasn’t been able to publish a book in the past three years.

           Lawrence was a mystery author, but when his mother-in-law got sick, the mysteries and tricks he used to think up were replaced with a dreary black-and-white view of the world. Any wonder of life he had was replaced with a feeling of dread that hovered over their house until the day she passed.

           Once in Edinburgh, he visited the modest hotel room ordered for him and put up his luggage. He had made an itinerary of different sites he believed Lydia may be interested in hiding out. The city in Scotland was beautiful in its own elusive way. Historic stone buildings still sat in bustling towns like a moment frozen in time. Lawrence’s heart was torn while walking the stone streets of the old town. Lydia sent him on the adventure of his life, but the cost was constant failure and abandon.

           The death of her mother was what set Lydia off onto this crazed journey; thus, Lawrence thought it was fitting to search for her in the Real King Mary’s Close first, a clustered square known for its ghost stories of a civilization that was buried away in secret. The site was relatively empty with most people not wanting to explore haunted ruins in the safety of the daylight. A guide offered him some information, but once he showed her Lydia’s photo, she was silent.

           His heart raced. She must have been here. It likely wasn’t respectful to the graves in that place, but he began to race through the old ruins, paying little attention to the homage made to the ancestors who had fallen years ago. Towards the end, a familiar figure was staring at a homage made to a young girl who died of an illness.

           It took everything in him not to call out to her, and he was afraid that if he called out to her, she might disappear again. He grabbed her shoulder and spun her around, suddenly coming face to face with the tear-stained face of his wife that he had been searching for. His heart was racing and bubbling up into his throat, unable to form the millions of questions he wanted to ask her. Closure he told himself. I needed to find her so that I had closure and could take the ring back.

           “Lawrence,” she breathed out, in awe that he had found her.

           His will had been broken, and he collapsed into her arms, holding her hard so that she could not escape again. Tears were welling into his eyes, falling onto her shoulder.

           Her laugh was broken up by a cry, “I thought I planned it out so well. You weren’t supposed to find me until the next stop.”

           He pulled her back, and a swell of anger stirred in him, “Lydia, you were going to-”

           “Rio de Janeiro,” she ignored him. “Did you figure out the puzzle yet? Do you know what I was trying to tell you?”

           He shook his head, “You’ve been so reckless. What do you mean puzzle?”

           Before she could answer, the detective mind that set up mystery stories within him set up the clues. Chicago. Amsterdam. Naples. Cairo. Edinburgh. Rio de Janeiro. C.A.N.C.E.R.

           “Lydia, this isn’t how you cope with your mom…”

           “Lawrence, this isn’t about her.”

           His heart stopped, “No-”

           She nodded, more tears flowing, “Yes. I saw how my mom fought and suffered. I saw how you fought and suffered, even though she wasn’t even your mom. If you found out about me too, you would’ve insisted that we use her will for my treatment, and I didn’t want to spend a fortune only to suffer and die in the end.”

           “So, you spend it all on this extravagant trip to spend your last moments away from me? Lydia, I lost you before I lost you.”

           “But you have a story now, don’t you? A mystery. And if you still want me, we will finish out this adventure with enough memories to last me three lifetimes.”

           His initial motive seemed to be a distant memory now. A small part of him knew that as soon as he saw her again, it was all over. She was his treasure that he had been searching for, and now that he found her, he was never letting go.

           He grabbed her face and kissed her. “Let’s go live a thousand lifetimes.

           “The first book of mine that Lydia ever read was the one she inspired me to write. She often is moving too quickly to the next thing to focus on sitting down and reading a book, but for this one, she just kept smiling and saying that she wanted to know how it was going to end. I think that’s part of why we’re so good together. She’s such a ray of light that would bounce around from one opportunity to the next, that in all my years of writing mystery novels, I never quite would figure out what she would end up coming up with. She’s the greatest mystery, adventure, and love of my life. I told myself when I was going to look for her, that I would get my heirloom ring, closure, and move on. But when I saw her,” Lawrence finally stole a glance at his wife, seemingly peaceful and asleep, still brandishing his ring. “I knew that there was nothing else I needed to look for. Lydia was the kind of girl that would make the 6 weeks she was gone seem like a lifetime, but when you caught up to her again, she would replace that time with what felt like a million lifetimes. And that, my love, would make me take you back, every single time.”

           Tears filled his eyes as well as the eyes of everyone in attendance. In the end, it was never about the ring or the closure, but it was about chasing the thing that was most valuable to him to the ends of the earth. Once he got it, he never dreamt of letting go again until the harsh reality had finally reared its ugly head.