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ARTICLE TWO OF THE MARRIAGE CODE
by Stoyan Valev www.bg-dekameron.com
Translated from Bulgarian by: Mariana Zagorska
Every evening, Russlan come home late and replied to his wife's reproaches with article two from the code of a married couple: 'That's my job, sweetie!'
What could be that job at midnight when he was not at work, Pepa could easily guess. It was quite logical. After all, Russlan disliked wasting his time with friends in pubs, restaurants, or night bars. He even hated those places: a well-known fact since the time they were dating.
They had been married for several years. Being married sounded somehow respectful and filled with responsibility, but at the end she found herself staying at home and looking after their little girl Iveta while he did everything he wanted. "No, it would not go this way", Pepa thought filled with anger while going round the empty house.
One day at noon, Russlan came back home with a terrible headache. The apartment looked surprisingly quiet and empty. They must have gone for a walk, Russlan thought as he lay on the couch. Soon the sound of his snoring filled the room. When he opened his eyes, it was already five p.m. There was nobody in the house yet-neither Pepa nor their daughter. He sat nervously in the living room and waited for them. Finally, at six-thirty, Pepa and Iveta came back home.
'Where have you been?' Russlan asked, furious.
'Daddy… the teachers… kindergarten … it was nice!' Iveta didn't stop babbling. He listened to her for a moment, grabbed her, and put her on his knees.
'Where have you been?' he asked again.
'Kindergarten… teachers… a doll… her eye….' Iveta was trying lucklessly to describe, all at once, her childish impressions. She started again and again, but her father had no more listening to her. He switched on the video recorder and played a cartoon, which attracted Iveta's attention, and the child started clapping her hands with excitement.
Russlan looked around. Pepa wasn't there. He found her in the kitchen.
'If the child is already going to a kindergarten, as I've just heard, where have you been the whole day?' he asked sharply.
She gave a short answer: "On business."
Everything her fingers touched produced an incredible noise.
'What business?' He asked, startled.
'I've registered a company of my own and now I'm busy with furnishing the office, buying some equipment," she said, still standing with her back to him.
'And the money? Where did you get them from?" he asked, shocked.
'I borrowed some money' she said in a careless tone and turned on the hot water tap, letting it spout.
'Who gave them to you?' Russlan asked, and added bitingly, 'If it's not a secret, of course!'
"Some people… friends," mumbled Pepa. She skillfully threw a peeled potato in the saucepan, splashing some water on her husband.
'And who will pay them back?' Russlan asked angrily while drying himself.
'The one who took them' Pepa snapped. The oil in the pan started frying, the coffee was boiling, and the water was still sprouting.
Russlan went into the living room to think over he new situation. "Probably Pepa was going to succeed , which means more money in the family budget", so he decided to leave the attacks and wait.
Soon it became clear that Pepa's income was much higher than his, ; that her real estate agency was permanently prospering . Once, Pepa even decided to make a joke and offered him to leave the newspaper he was working for and pay him a salary to take care of the house.
'You may also ask me to have a child for you?' He grunted out in discontent and she suggested playfully.
'Have a try, it's not a big deal. You can make it!'
Russlan joined her laugh, but it was a vicious mockery of his personality.
Usually, Pepa was coming home at midnight and even when he was pretending to be sleeping, she used to say: 'That's my job, sweetie!'
One night Russlan couldn't stand and cried: 'Don't harp on the same string! I have already noticed that your job requires to gad about at night!' 'Oh, darling!' Pepa tweeted as she took off her dress and remained only in her underwear. She sat in front of the mirror.
"Damn it, she's really beautiful" Russlan thought for a moment and felt the immediate reaction of that part of the body, which always voted in the name of the female beauty.
Pepa looked at herself in the wall mirror and said with her back to Russlan:
'I thought people say it after they have just made sex with their lovers and come back at home to their husband or wife'. 'What?' Russlan sat in the bed, shocked.
While Pepa was watching herself in the mirror she picked some cotton-wool and dipped it into a dark liquid and continued as if she hadn't noticed her husband's surprise and indignation.
'When you told me this for the first time your job involved a close meeting with a journalist trainee in a hotel room'.
'How did you know that?' The words slipped out unwilling and Russlan bit his lips.
'The little bitch was so bewitched of your tricks in bed that she found me in the park and demanded on getting divorced with you. It sounded to me like an ultimatum. I told her to get out of my life and she did', Pepa smiled while she rubbed down her face with the cotton-wool.
'Wretch!' Russlan snarled furious.
'Who do you mean, honey?' Pepa asked as she took off her bra still staying with her back to Russlan.
"I meant the little bitch, sweetie!' He said tenderly and reached his hand to her naked back.
'So, it will be better to strip this thing too', and her fingers skillfully took off her bikinis. She did it for the second time this evening, and he felt his desire bigger than ever.
Before he noticed, Russlan found somehow logically second Article of the Marriage Code: "A man desires his wife most when he starts sharing her with someone else."
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