TO HIS SURPRISE
David was considered to be lucky enough to have a beautiful and charming wife in Helen. He had known Helen since her childhood and again they studied in the same primary school. They had been in good terms since then.
But David was not happy at all by the way that he was treated by his pretty wife. He felt as if Helen ignored him at several events where he thought he should be given priority over other men in their circle.
At many events, marriage parties or other gatherings, Helen tried to avoid his company and joined her circle of friends which included some men. She started the dance with him at the parties but ended with some of his good friends.
Most of his friends were treated with special priority by her and it was only after his marriage that many of his wealthy friends paid regular visits to his home. Most of them had rarely visited his house before, although he was always happy to invite them into his home and offer them the drinks and snacks of their choice.
“A beautiful wife is always the attraction of the unsatisfied friends,” he concluded. Sometimes his friends would stay until midnight and talked very freely with Helen, giggling with her in his presence as she prepared delicious dishes for them and served them with a loving heart.
He could hardly tolerate the situation but he had no alternative but to keep quiet. He was completely overlooked at certain events and found himself to be the ignored husband in the presence of his friends.
He began to become suspicious of her and the time came when he could stand it no longer. He bravely decided to complain about the matter to Helen who in turn did not take the matter seriously but giggled at him in response. She tried to convince him that she was treating his friends so nicely solely for his benefit. She also reassured him that he would not lose her love towards him at all by her doing so. After all he was her only darling, she assured him and David had nothing to say.
Various expensive gifts were given to Helen by those friends, and this pained David for he did not have the extra money to spend on her make-ups and perfumes of which she was very fond. She dared to show David the very expensive set of earrings given by one of his friends, which was far out of the financial reach of David.
David was not happy at all with the explanations given by Helen. No loving husband would be pleased to be laughed at by his wife, and her reasoning was not an acceptable justification to tolerate Helen’s flirting with his friends in his absence. Obviously Helen was trying to fool him.
David was doubtful about her behavior. He could tolerate witnessing her free behavior with his friends in his presence, but why should Helen entertain his friends in his absence? And why should she ignore him while treating his friends so nicely? After all he was her husband and the owner of the house. And again why should she accept the gifts from his friends when he did not like that? After all, a good wife should be satisfied with what her husband could afford to give her. A wife accepting gifts from the friends of her husband without the knowledge and consent of her husband did not bid well…
David lost his peace of mind. He could not even concentrate properly on his work. Of late, Helen had even stopped co-operating with him in bed during their usual sexual affairs. Helen’s pretty face, attractive figure and luxurious wardrobes could no longer be of any attraction to him.
David decided that there was no fun in having a charming wife who was not faithful to her husband. He could not bear to think of Helen sleeping with his friends. The mere thought raised his eyebrows and his heart skipped a beat. He found he had developed hypertension through fear and was compelled to take tablets to soothe that. He could not tell anyone of his situation for it would not be good or advisable to do so. Indeed, it would spoil his life and the future. Surely he would be taken as a coward husband.
Surely, his friends would not buy such expensive items for his wife just like that. There must be a sexual affair in his absence. His fear became so strong that he ended up warning his friends not to visit his home in his absence and to never visit late at night, not even when David himself was present. He warned Helen about her behavior and asked her not to take any more gifts from his friends and to restrict her behavior with them, as he was not happy at all about it. She should ensure David who was aware of her material needs, and she should be content with what he bought for her.
David became even more worried when he was transferred to a night shift. It had been a bit easier to check upon his wife during the daytime. He could easily find out information regarding the movements of Helen and details of his friends’ visits from neighbors, and he therefore restricted her accordingly. Moreover, not all his friends were free to visit Helen during the daytime as most of them had full commitments within the work place.
Now however, the situation would be harder to monitor as most of his friends would be free by night fall. It was not possible for him to shirk away from his night duty every-day, and thus there was no means of checking up on Helen, as he didn’t even have a telephone at home. His good neighbours were even helpless under the circumstances.
One night he succeeded in getting an hour’s permission from the fore-man to leave work, and so he went straight to his house in the middle of the night. He was very much up-set to find his best friend Paul’s motor-cycle parked outside his home. The dim light of the bed lamp from his bedroom peeped from the dark curtains. All the windows were closed and there was no way he could peep inside without them knowing.
He lost the temper, and kicked the concrete floor of his compound. He could not tolerate his wife sleeping with his friend. Listening harder, he could hear the sighs of sexual relief and the smacking of kissing lips which burned his heart like acid. He pushed the door very aggressively and rushed to his bedroom like an injured tiger.
To his amazement he found his wife nearly naked, with only a towel wrapped around her waist and a novel in her hand, as if she were reading an interesting novel. She looked at David with an alluring smile but he was not in mood to see that.
He did not bother to talk to her and went to explore the other rooms to seize his friend red-handed. But he could not find any one in the kitchen, bathroom, W.C. or store. He searched under the beds, opened the wardrobes and looked out onto the terrace but to his disappointment he could not find Paul. But the presence of his motorbike outside and his shoes in the house could not suppress his fear. He could not tolerate the situation and rushed to Helen who gave him a flirtatious smile and asked him what was wrong and why he had rushed home in the middle of the night whilst on duty? If he had come, he could sleep with her and have good time with her as they had not slept together for long.
David couldn’t believe her attitude. The funny behavior of his wife raised his suspicions and he lost his temper. He got hold of his T.V. set and threw it out from the window, slashed the arm-chairs and over-turned the table. He rushed into the kitchen, smashed all the crockery and threw the cooker out of the window. He kicked the door of the bath-room and broke the mirror into tiny pieces. He could not move any further, fainted and dropped on the floor, unconscious.
When he awoke and sensed the situation, he found himself in a hospital bed in a General Ward, and could see a bottle of glucose hanging above his head with a nurse standing to the side of him, adjusting it. He could very well remember the tense situation of yesterday night.
Before he could make out anything he was not only surprised but shocked to see his friend Paul lying unconscious on the nearby bed. What was Paul doing in the hospital?
When he inquired about how the fellow had come to be in hospital, he was told that the person had locked himself in the huge freezer before David entered the house and had been unable to get out. In his fury, David had opened the freezer and released Paul, but in doing so, David had hit his head and fallen unconscious. A good house-wife had rung the ambulance and both were brought unconscious to the hospital.
“Oh no,” he suddenly remembered everything. In the midst of his rage he had realized how and painful his head was and had rushed to the freezer for the ice. When he opened the door something huge had fallen upon him and knocked him un-conscious.
The reality growled at him like a wild dog and he fainted again to the surprise of the nurse on the duty.
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END
© H. V. Kerai
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