âTHE CUCKOLDâS MOTHERâ
One Tuesday in early April, a few minutes before the prefecture clock struck noon, a young man, who looked no older than 25, appeared before me. Weâll call him AndrĂ©s. He was dark-skinned, with short black hair, bulging eyes and a proud demeanour, and he had a surprising complaint to lodge:
âGood morning, your honour,â he said. âIâve come to report my wife as a whore.â
âWhat!?â I asked. I wasnât expecting such a statement.
âYes, your honour, you heard me right.â
âWhat do you mean sheâs whore? What sort of nonsense is that? Do you mean she works as a prostitute?â
âNo, your honour, thatâs not it.â
âSo, what is it?â I said, not yet over my initial surprise.
âWell, you see... This morning I left to go to work like every day, and when I was almost there I realised that I had left some of my tools at home. Iâm an electrician, you see.â
âOkay... and then what happened?â
âI went back to get them. When I got to the house, before I opened the door, I heard some faint groans from my wife, as if she was struggling with something. I thought maybe she was in the bathroom doing her business and was constipated. I didnât go in; I went to the bathroom window, but I realised that the groans werenât coming from there, but from our bedroom. I was about to speak and ask her what was happening, when I heard someone else moaning, a man to be specific. And then, the worst thing possible... My wife saying âharder! Harder!ââ
âHow awful!â I said.
âYes, your honour, awful. I was paralyzed, completely frozen. My mind refused to believe what it was hearing. I didnât know what to do, how to react. I was overwhelmed by this feeling of suffocating. I took a few steps away and went to sit on the ground under a tree nearby. My heart felt like it was trying to get out of my chest, it was beating so hard. I felt like the sky was falling down on me, like the world was ending. A thousand things went through my mind. Iâve seen terrible things like that in films, or Iâve heard about them, but even in my worst nightmares I never dreamt such an awful thing could happen to me. I thought of doing something crazy, going in and killing them both with my bare hands, but I controlled myself, thinking about my kids.â
âOh! You have children as well...â
âYes, your honour, two little ones. A five-year-old girl and a little boy whoâs not even one yet.â
âAnd were they in the house too?â
âOf course, your honour, where else would they be?â
âI donât know, Iâm just asking.â
âWell, your honour, as I was saying... The children were in the house too, and thinking of them made me decide to wait. I stayed sitting under that tree waiting for my head to clear so I could figure out what to do. Thank God I controlled myself.â
âI see... and what happened next?â
âOh, thatâs the best bit, your honour,â he said sarcastically. âShortly after, I got the second blow fate had in store for me. I saw, coming out of my house by the back door, none other than my own nephew. He didnât see me. I followed him for a block and then I came up behind him and grabbed his neck. âYou bloody prick!â I said to him. âHow could you do this to me? You were like a son to me!â Because as it happens, your honour, I helped to raise this nephew.â
âWhat a state of affairs!â I said.
âYes, your honour, at that moment my thoughts were clouded by rage and the only thing I wanted to do was kill him, strangle him with my bare hands.â
âAnd how old is your nephew?â
âBarely 17, your honour.â
âStill a child... and your wife?â
â27.â
âA bit old for him, no?â
âMaybe, your honour; I wonât disagree with you there.â
âAnd how long have you been with your wife?â
âMe? Well... counting when we were going out... nine years, your honour. Six married, and three more as boyfriend and girlfriend.â
âGoodness, quite a while then.â
âYes, thatâs right.â
âAnd in all that time, were there any other affairs you know of?â
âNever, your honour, I swear on my childrenâs lives. I never had the slightest doubt about her in my mind.â
âI see... but tell me more about the business with your nephew. What happened next?â
âI was about to kill him, your honour, and Iâm very sorry about that. Just when I was strangling him, some passers-by got in between us, telling me to let him go, that I was going to kill him, and they managed to separate us. As soon as he was free, he tried to run off, but I caught him again. He was terrified; he told me it wasnât his fault, that he was going to tell me about the whole thing, but that I had to calm down and not hurt him anymore. Loads of people had crowded round us because of all the commotion, and there were some people we knew among them. I was so worked up and overexcited that I told him to speak, to tell me everything he had to say to me in front of everyone. Nothing mattered to me anymore. Well, your honour... what he told me next finished me off.â
âGosh, that bad?â
He nodded and gulped. His eyes were extremely watery. It seemed only a matter of second before tears would be rolling down his cheeks.
âWell, yes, your honour, very bad indeed. He told me that my wife wasnât just sleeping with him, but also with a load of people from the neighbourhood, including some members of my own family.â
âGosh, thatâs terrible!â
âIt is indeed.â
âCouldnât he just have been saying that to deflect attention from himself?â
âI thought that too, your honour, but he said he could prove it. And he did indeed. He took me to see a few people and they all confirmed it.â
âWhat do you mean he took you to see a few people?â
âThatâs it, your honour, a few people.â
âBut, how many are we talking about?â
âWell, we talked to three people from the area, and two cousins of mine. But they told me there were others as well.â
âI can imagine how that must have felt. And did they tell you how long this had been going on?â
âFor several months.â
âWith your nephew as well?â
âNo, your honour, not him. He said with him it was more recent, since last month. He also said he was one of the ones who had been with her least often, but that it was common knowledge in the neighbourhood that people were taking it in turns with her, and there were times when she slept with several guys on the same day, one after the other, or even at the same time. In other words, she was having orgies in my own bed while I was out working.â
âI canât believe it!â I said, extremely surprised.
âWell believe it, your honour, because itâs the truth, I confirmed it myself this very morning. I spoke to several people, including my two cousins, and no one dared deny it. More than that, some of them offered to be witnesses for me if I needed to make a declaration.â
âWhat do you mean, a declaration? A declaration where?â
âIn the divorce proceedings, your honour. Iâll do anything. I want to take the kids away from her because, besides being a whore, that woman is a bad mother; she doesnât deserve our children.â
âOkay, calm down a little, itâs not as easy as that. Only a judge can make that call, and for that youâd have to go to court. Itâs only in rare cases that parental authority can be taken away from a mother.â
âYes, your honour, I know that. Iâve come directly from seeing the lawyer at the company where Iâm working at the moment; heâs going to do all that for me. He told me the same thing youâre saying now: that it wonât be that easy, that my wife would have to have done something very serious to our children for parental authority to be taken away from her, and weâll have to go through a court process that will probably last a few months, or maybe years, et cetera. But I canât wait that long, your honour. I want you to help me with this, since youâre the authority. I want you to lock my wife up for what sheâs done to me â not just to me, to our children too.â
âWhat are you talking about!?â I said in surprise. âI canât get involved in this; this is something youâll have to sort out between you. I canât punish your wife for being unfaithful to you.â
âNo, your honour, thatâs not what Iâm referring to.â
âWell, explain yourself, because, frankly, I donât understand.â
âWell, you see, your honour... My wife has been really, but I mean really dirty; she hasnât just betrayed me, sleeping with whoever she felt like, but sheâs done it in front of our children.â
âWhat!?â I asked, raising my voice slightly.
âYes, your honour, you heard me right. It wasnât enough for her just to cheat on me; sheâs done the filthy things sheâs been up to in front of our kids, with them watching.â
âThat really is a very serious accusation,â I said. âYouâll have to prove it.â
âNo problem. Outside there are three members of my family waiting who have slept with her, and theyâre willing to testify. I knew youâd ask for witnesses, thatâs why I brought them.â
I was astounded.
All I could say was, âOkay, well, bring them in.â
When I had them in front of me, I asked each one in turn if it was true that sex acts had been committed in the presence of the children, and all of them without exception confirmed it to a greater or lesser extent. Some of them made remarks to each other quietly, looking at AndrĂ©s out of the corner of their eyes and sniggering in silence. They couldnât imagine what I was about to say to them:
âAll of you are under arrest for child abuse.â
Their faces were suddenly drained of colour. The mocking smiles disappeared instantly.
âWhat!?â asked one of them. âWeâve come voluntarily to give statements, and youâre going to arrest us?â
âYes, thatâs right,â I said. âAnd youâd better pray to God that none of those children was sexually assaulted, because otherwise youâre going straight from the police cells to prison. And you know what happens to rapists in prison...â
Immediately, without waiting for them to say any more, I li...