My Real Wife

My Real Wife

This is just a short little thing. It’s so small it is almost microscopic. If you blink you just might miss it.

I stood frozen in the doorway, my eyes fixed on the scene before me, my mouth unable to scream. Every nerve in my body was on fire. I fought to catch my breath, but I was breathing hard like I’d just run from an angry dog. I felt like I was about to pass out. My head was spinning, I was dizzy, and I was nearly blind with rage. Before me, in our bed, lay my wife fucking our worthless neighbor, a guy I thought was my friend. Five years of marriage plus two years before that, and I thought we had a good marriage. I never doubted her. I trusted her completely. And now, before my eyes, I learned what that trust was worth.

I was trying to scream, but nothing came out. I wanted to run, but I couldn’t move. I wanted to get a gun, but I didn’t have one and I couldn’t have raised it if I had. I wanted something heavy to hit him with; but I just stood there frozen in place, seeing but not believing, wanting to be somewhere else, anywhere else, and knowing that this was the end of my life as I knew it.

I guess they finally saw me standing there, fists clenched, eyes wide, mouth open, collapsed against the door frame. He started to laugh and she started to scream. At least she had the decency to scream. I was the trusting, faithful husband and this is what it gets me? He thinks it’s so damn funny and she gets caught in her moment of betrayal. I wanted to kill them both.

At long last, with every fiber of my being forcing it from me, I let out the scream that was bottled up inside me. It seemed to go on forever as my rage overpowered me...

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“Honey, honey, wake up! You’re having that dream again.” My wife was holding herself to me, gently stroking my face, her breasts soft against my side and her head lying warm on my chest. “You’re just having that dream again.”

I started coming down from the rage that woke me. I caught my breath and my pulse slowed. “Damn it. I thought they were behind me.”

“You know this always happens whenever you have a really great day. The therapist explained it. You believe you don’t deserve good things, so when you have a great day like today you naturally expect something bad to happen. It won’t, dear. I promise. That’s all behind you.”

She was right, you know. That awful day was far back in the past, but I dredge it up every time I’m feeling especially good. I’d had another great day at work today, just like the day in my memory. I signed the biggest contract in my company’s history today. Not only did it guarantee us three solid years of income, but it would allow us to expand. That day long ago had been a day like this. I came home with great news to find my wife in bed with another man.

So, what am I doing lying here with my wife comforting me? She’s a different wife. She is a very different wife. She is everything the first wife was not. She is loving, faithful, and devoted. She has an open heart and a warm smile. She views our lives as two made one and she is going along for the ride wherever it leads. She’d never cheat on me and she would kill me if I cheated on her. And that is exactly the way I want it. I will never complain about a wife who knows what’s hers.

Speaking softly, she says, “It’s my fault. I’m sorry.”

“How is it your fault? My God, girl, you saved me from that pit of depression where you found me.”

“I forgot. Whenever you have a really great day, I make it a point to exhaust you so you’re too tired to have nightmares.”

I had to smile at that and kissed the top of her head. I love it when she exhausts me. “You know, it really isn’t your fault. You’ve brought so much happiness into my life that this stupid nightmare has almost left me. Truth is, I was surprised by it myself. I haven’t consciously thought about that day for a long time.”

My wife climbed onto my hips, pulled her nightgown over her head, and smiling down at me she said, “Be quiet and take your exhaustion like a man.”

Well, I could tell she was determined, so far be it from me to argue. I adore this woman. I wasn’t exaggerating when I said that she raised me out of that pit where my first wife left me and gave me back my life. Having a wife that you love betray you so completely, the way my first wife betrayed me, will do that to a man. This wife, this loving and kind woman, saw something in me that I could no longer find in myself. She reminded me of who and what I am, helped me stand again, and has stood by me ever since. She slowly and lovingly healed me. With her kisses she distracted me. With her breasts she brought me life. And with her body she gave me joy. Yes, the exhaustion was wonderful!

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About two months after that last nightmare, and it really was the last of my nightmares, I met up with an old school friend. Jim was in town for work, just one night and then he’d be back on the road, so we had him over for dinner. He’d never met Claire and it took him all of two minutes to decide I’d married well.

While Claire was in the kitchen he said, “If you don’t mind my asking, I heard about you and Barb breaking up, but I never heard why. What happened with you two?”

Jim had known Barb and he had been at our wedding. “I caught her fucking a neighbor.”

He just sat there, staring in disbelief. “You serious?”

“Serious as the grave.”

“Damn. I would never have guessed it.”

“Surprised me, too. I had two rough years after that. She fought the divorce, but there was no excuse for what I saw.”

“You seem to have bounced back well enough.”

“Claire gets the credit for that.”

“So then, tell me about this new wife of yours.”

“Well, I met my real wife when...”

“What?”

“I said ‘I met my new wife when...’”

“You called her your real wife.”

“I did? I guess I did. Well, that’s what she is. The first wife was a mistake. Claire is my real wife.”

He raised his glass and smiled. “To real wives!”

I smiled and raised my glass. “To real wives.”