It`s been eight years, she thinks. Eight long years that they have been apart. Three years that he has been married to Tess. And every night since then Liz has wondered what he`s doing right now; if he is looking out the window thinking of her as well. Or if he is in her arms, wrapped safely away where Liz cannot touch him.

Eight years. Too long.

Would one night make a difference to their survival? Would one night bring them all to the end of the world?

Of course not. One night was nothing. Nothing compared to how many nights eight years brings.

And she won`t be able to live without one night.

Just one.

The house he lives in is cold and empty like his heart. He is accompanied in the house by a woman who cleans it and helps pay the water bills. He does not love her.

As the wind comes into their room from the window and blows the thin covers of the bed into soft ocean waves, Tess is sleeping, facing away from him. There is a full moon outside, so the room is lighted with a gently faint, glowing blue. He lays and stares out at the night sky above the garden in their backyard. He has a beautiful house. Beautiful, but empty.

Out of the moonlit night comes a figure he at first thinks he is imagining, seemingly right out of the sky. It is a slender, beautiful, frail figure, the surreal image of a glowing female made of sky with a flowing gown of stars. But she isn`t imagined. The figure is standing on his carpet right in front of his bed.

She is unreal, materialized from his deepest dreams and wishes, an elegant ghostess of the night. She is everything he wants, everything he needs, everything he longs for in days in this uncomplete home. She is HER.

She is Liz.

She wears only a thin, silky robe that is hanging open around the neck to expose her chest to that he can see her bra. Her hair is tied neatly back with a white ribbon so he can see the smooth, delicately curved features of her face, illuminated by the moonlight.

He thinks she isn`t really there.

So she stands this way for many minutes.

Then he sits up and turns his head to side. Tess is all the while softly breathing in her sleep at his side. He slowly stands and walks up to the window next to her. He waits so, so long before touching her, because he fears she isn`t there and he can`t touch her, and that if he tries to she`ll go away. But he finally takes her hand, very, very slowly, and raises it to his face, smelling it, feeling it, kissing it, holding it against his cheek. She doesn`t disappear. So he holds her delicate neck with his other hand and moves closer to her.

Tess remains deep in sleep.

Max moves his face close under hers, smelling her scent, and kisses her neck. He wants to taste this ghostess that has come to his room in the dark, and the whole time he holds a prayer in his mind that she will not go away, not until he`s ready.

Liz moves her hands slowly to his shoulders, closing her eyes. She can hardly believe it is happening either. He places gentle kisses all around her neck, her throat, and the soft exposed skin of her breasts, and finally reaches her mouth. This is when he knows it can`t be real.

Tess grunts and stirs, one of her legs moving and curling up slightly in the bed. Max does not look at her, but he does hear her. He looks at his night godess for one moment, and takes his hands away from her. She closes the robe around her.

Max climbs back into bed next to Tess. When he looks back Liz is gone.

Liz is huddling against the brick wall outside his house. He will wake up tomorrow morning and think it had been a dream. All she was tonight was a dream.