*this is a work of nonfiction based on actual events as told by the man who experienced them firsthand.
My neighbor took a taxi home from the hospital and found his wife cooking in their kitchen for another man.
I lived in a tightly knit community. We always knew what the neighbors were doing. What we didn’t see for ourselves, they told us.
Such was the case with one married couple who encountered a bit of marital discord when the husband caught his wife in his home with another man.
My neighbor suffered a medical emergency and was rushed to the hospital via ambulance. His dutiful wife followed in their shared car and stayed with him through the night as he went through the long process of being admitted.
Unfortunately, the doctors said he would need to remain in the hospital for several days. So his wife drove home exhausted and prepared to stay alone for a few days while her husband recuperated. Only that’s not exactly what happened.
After staying in the hospital overnight, the man felt much better. Doctors agreed. He was stable and could go home.
While nurses wrote up the discharge paperwork, the man called his wife to give her the good news. He was going home, and he needed her to pick him up, but his wife didn’t answer the phone.
She still hadn’t answered the phone by the time he was ready to leave early that afternoon.
He thought perhaps she’d gone to work or went to stay with family overnight so she wouldn’t be alone in their empty house. That’s why he called a taxi to drive him home.
That’s when the trouble started.
There was a strange car parked in the couple’s driveway. The curtains in the windows of the house were all closed. There was no sign of life.
The man still thought his wife might be at the home of her friends or family, but he questioned that strange car in the driveway. It wasn’t a good sign.
He felt apprehensive as he approached the front door of the house. Fortunately, his keys were in his pocket. He didn’t have to knock.
When he turned the key in the lock and opened the door, he heard sounds coming from the kitchen. He followed the sounds and discovered his wife cooking bacon and eggs for another man.
The man was sitting in his spot at the table, drinking coffee from his mug, wearing his clothes.
His wife flipped the eggs. “What are you doing home so soon?” she asked.
I was only a child when this incident took place, but I can still remember the man standing in our front yard, telling my parents what had happened in a hoarse yell. Back then, I barely understood what he was saying. Why was he so angry about a half-cooked pan of bacon?
It wasn’t until years later that I understood what had really happened, or why our neighbors moved out and sold their house shortly thereafter.
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