Adultery

ADULTERY
ONE NIGHT, IN A DREAM, Judy Rudy caught her husband, Frank--who was asleep right beside her--in bed with another woman. The scene was vivid: wild, romping sex. The two of them did not even stop when she burst into the room and caught them in the act. Now she looked over at her husband, Frank, sleeping peacefully, a look of quiet contentment on his face. She stared at the ceiling. Emotions welled up inside. She looked at him again and moved away, not wanting his filthy body to touch her. Once more, emotions welled up. Suddenly, in one swift movement of anger, she shoved him out of the bed and onto the floor.
He woke up with a start.
"Wha–-?!"
"Don’t play innocent with me, you no-good, filthy bastard!"
"Wha–-?!" he said again.
But she lit into him before he could finish, daring him to deny what she had seen, to come up with one good justification for the sin of adultery. Frank lay there in a heap on the carpet, confused and disoriented. He apologized over and over again, saying that it wasn’t his fault, that there must be some mistake, that he would never do such a thing, that it was, after all, just a dream, and--and her dream at that.
"Ah," she glared back at him, "so you’d rather I not know; is that it? Keep your sordid affairs in secret?"
Once more Frank tried to apologize, but was met only with a cold, hard, solid stare.
A month later, she caught him again. It was the same as before: she burst into the cheap motel room while they were in the middle of their wild, uncontrollable passion. Kicking him out of the bed, Judy screamed at the top of her lungs, "What’s her name? Tell me that, will you!" She spat at him. "You no-good, filthy worm, you."
And, "How can you do this to the children?"
"But it’s not my dream," he protested.
"Shut up!"
And she threw a pillow. He gathered up his things and moved out to sleep on the couch.
For two years-–about once a month--Judy Rudy would catch her husband in bed with other women. Once she caught him with another man, and she almost divorced him on the spot.
"But," he’d cry out, pleading, "how can I be held responsible for something I do in a dream? And when it’s not even my dream?"
But she would have none of his poor excuses.
Frank was having a tough time of it. Until one night, in a dream, he caught Judy in bed with not one, but two men. He had never imagined that such acrobatics were even possible. He stared and stared, and when she finally saw him looking on, she laughed out loud in his face. In the morning, when he woke up, he stared at the ceiling for a long time. Emotions welled up inside. He got up from the couch and went into the bedroom, where he found his wife, sleeping--and alone. He bent down beside her and took her hand in his and held it. He kissed her tenderly and whispered into her ear. "I understand," he said. "I understand. I’m sorry, but now I understand."
Judy looked back into her husband’s face and reached up and hugged him close. She cried softly into his ear, "I know, I know; it’s all too horrible, isn’t it? Hold me close. Just hold me."