The Happy Marriage

It was also said that this woman had given birth to three sons after lying with the devil. Once they’d grown into adults, her sons caused a great deal of havoc and violence: stealing, killing, torturing, and always managing to evade the law. Quite the contrary, in fact; they prospered and managed to mingle with the city’s most distinguished notables. One night, their mother came down from the mountain and ate them. In the early hours of that morning, the bloated corpse of a mare was discovered lying in front of the city’s gate, and when they sliced it open, they discovered the bodies of the three men, whose skin had turned green and whose eyes had gone missing …

On seeing the captain’s astonished expression, Imane stopped and said:

“Don’t worry, I just made that up, don’t be scared!”

“Are you sure you don’t have a nicer story to tell me before you leave?”

“Yes, I love you.”

“Now that’s a nice story.”

XXIII. Casablanca, December 19, 2002

I know why Katarina and Peter go through hell. They don’t speak the same language. They have to translate everything into a common language. Sometimes it’s like listening to preprogrammed tape recorders. Sometimes all you get is the vast silence of outer space.

— INGMAR BERGMAN, Scenes from a Marriage

On his psychiatrist’s request, the painter used a tape recorder to list all the reasons why he’d fallen out of love with his wife. He used several tapes. He wanted to be specific, and tell the whole truth in so far as he saw it. He might have made some mistakes, but in any case this was meant to be an outlet for him, and not an indictment against his wife.

He pressed “record” and launched into a preface of sorts:

Here is the list of reasons that led me to the conclusion that my wife and I haven’t loved one another in a long time. I may be wrong, and needless to say, these reasons are subjective, and they aren’t exhaustive either. Well, here we go:

My wife always does what she pleases.

My wife is a flash flood, a flood of words, a storm.

My wife is a diamond that nobody polished.

My wife believes in things she can’t see: she believes in ghosts, in haunted houses, in the evil eye, in bad energies and destructive vibes.

My wife is in love with love and the idea of a Prince Charming.

My wife likes cars that are big and beautiful. She can’t stand being driven around. She always drives on the left side of the road and thinks that all the other drivers are always wrong.

My wife never admits to any of her mistakes and doesn’t know how to compromise.

My wife doesn’t know how to keep track of time, but she does however have a keen sense of direction. She’s also good with numbers and sums …

My wife always thinks she’s sincere. She tells the truth when she lies.

My wife is a wild woman who is still haunted by hunger and an inclement land.

My wife turns into a fury when she’s upset, an animal whose wound becomes her weapon.

My wife displays a kind of logic that no mathematicians could have ever predicted. She’s the only one who knows how it works and the only one who uses it.

My wife is capable of destroying herself so long as it proves the other person is guilty.

My wife has convinced herself that she’s oppressed and that my family’s always been out to get her.

My wife is a happy and crazy drunk. Yet she claims she’s never abused alcohol or been drunk.

My wife believes a married couple cannot have any secrets between them. She thinks they should live in sweet harmony and that partners should be blindly complicit and assimilate into a single, uncomplicated person.

My wife’s memory is very selective, and she’s possessed of great charm and intelligence, is fiercely determined, and displays a kind of calculated madness that is just shy of crazy enough to make it seem like she’s not mad.

My wife doesn’t like analyzing things, or questioning them, hates doubts and the possibility that she might be wrong.

My wife isn’t a witch, but she trusts all the sorceresses she comes across and would more readily believe a magician than a scientist.