Because I want our love story to have a happy ending, Malena answered.
Slowly, Malena walked towards me and kissed me passionately. Malena unbuttoned my shirt and kissed my chest. Malena unbuckled my belt and put her hands into my pants. I melted. Soon, we were on the floor fucking each others brains out, in front of a dead body. Exhausted, I slept off on the floor where we had made love. When I woke up the next morning, the body was missing. Malena entered the room with two coffee mugs in her hands.
Placing one of the mugs in my hand, Malena said:Drink up your coffee before it becomes cold.
What happened to.... but before I could finish my sentence, Malena answered: I have taken care of everything while you were sleeping. All you need to do is to make a police report.
Like Malena had instructed, I went to the police station. I told them that my wife was missing and I could not find her anywhere.
****
A few days later, a letter arrived for me. It was from my wife. She no longer loves me...Our marriage was making her miserableShe felt like a bird in a cage that was crying for freedomShe had found a man who brought joy into her miserable lifeShe wants to spend the rest of her life in his arms.
My wife wrote: Forget that I existed in your life. Forget that our marriage existed. When I married you, I really believed you will be the first and last man that I loved. Perhaps we are not meant to love one person for the rest of our lives.
I showed the letter to the police. I showed it to my friends and to her friends. To my relatives and to hers as well.
My wife is not missing, I said.
She had abandoned me.
They believed the lie that was written in the letter. My wife did not write a single word in the letter. It was Malena who composed the letter.
****
Have you seen the movie Silence of the Lambs Yes.
Do you know the character Hannibal in the film
Yes.
Like him, I eat human flesh. I have eaten every part of her. There is nothing left. I do not think the police can find any trace of her. Looking at my shocked expression, Malena laughed her head off.
Sometimes you can be so gullible, Malena said.
You believe everything I say and that is what I love about you.
Malena had invented many wild stories on what she did with my wifes dead body. But all her wild stories had one thing in common.
The truth is always missing. In one of her wild stories Malena said that her best friend owned a swimming pool filled with piranhas and Malena had thrown my wifes dead body into the swimming pool.
The piranhas had eaten all of her and there is nothing left, Malena said, laughing.
The other wild story Malena told me was that she had sold my wifes body to a pharmaceutical company that was always looking for dead bodies to conduct research on.
They paid me a hefty sum of money for the dead body, Malena said, winking at me.
Many times I had lost my temper listening to her wild stories. I wanted the truth and I was not getting it. But I can never stay mad with Malena. She always knows how to win my heart.
I like it when you get angry, Malena said while resting her head on my chest after one of our lovemaking sessions.
You look more handsome when you get angry, Malena added.
You will never tell me the truth about what you did to my wifes dead body, will you I asked.
I always tell the truth even when I lie, Malena said.
Here you are again, speaking in riddles, I said.
Why are you so obsessed with the truth My darling, the truth is overrated. The truth is not important. All you have to know is that your wife is no longer in our lives. Just be happy. Do not worry about anything else, Malena answered before planting a passionate kiss on my mouth.
****
As long as men exist, womens lives will be full of suffering.
That was the motto that my wife believed in when she was not married to me. She belongs to a group of friends who hated men the same way Hitler hated the Jews. If they had ruled the world, they would have wiped out my species. They wanted a world without men.
The first time we met was in a college. I was studying to be a chef while she wanted to be a painter. For me, it was love at first sight. But love and men had no place in her life.
I have seen many women giving up their dreams in the name of love, she said.
They end up in an apron and making cookies for their husbands.
I am not going to be one of those women.
She sent back all the love letters I had written to her. She dumped all the flowers and gifts I sent to her in a dustbin. But I never stopped pursuing her. I was determined to win her love. I was determined to make her as my wife. I was determined to make her the mother of my children.
When I go hunting, I rarely go home empty handed, I told her.
She found my determination attractive, charming and extremely sexy. Slowly, she allowed me to dance into her heart.
****
Our love story would have a happy ending. But I made one mistake. I introduced the woman I love to my mother. Sometimes, abandoned women can be complicated and my mother was no different.
Since my dad left us, her world revolved around me. My mother never liked any of my friends. My mother wanted me to have only one friend and that friend was her. My mother was a control freak. My mother was choking me with her love. There was always tension between my mother and me. I wanted freedom. I wanted friends. Every day I hated my mother more and more.
You are my universe. Why cant I be your universe my mother asked.
The moment I was an adult, I decided that I would not stay under the same roof with my mother anymore.
You are going to abandon me like your father did, my mother said angrily.
Mother, please do not be dramatic. I am not abandoning you. I will come to visit you from time to time, I said.
My mother used every trick in the book, from tears to begging, to change my mind but she failed miserably. I just wanted some distance between me and my mother. I just want my mother to stop choking me. So I was not surprised that my mother hated everything about the woman I love, from the way she looks to the way she talks.
Mother, I know you want me to only love you and no one else, I said.
I cant make you my universe, because I have certain needs that you cant satisfy. I am sure your religious values would not allow you to jump into my bed.
She slapped me hard on my face. I laughed hysterically.
Get out from my house, my mother screamed angrily.
Get out from my house. Get out from my house. I do not want to see you anymore.
****
Two years later, my mother was back in our lives. The woman I love has become my wife and we were waiting for the birth of our first child. My mother was thrilled to be a grandmother. She desperately wanted to be a part and parcel of my family. But I was not ready to accept my mother into our lives.
Never marry a man who hates his mother because he will end up hating you, my wife said jokingly.
I do not want you to hate me, so you need build a better relationship with your mother. Besides, it will be nice if our child has a grandmothers love. Forgive your mother and allow your mother to be a part of our family.
Reluctantly, I listened to the advice of the woman I love. And it was the biggest mistake I have made in my life.
****
Most daughter- in-laws hate their mothers-in-laws. But my wife became my mothers new best friend. They spent a lot of time together. Under my mothers influence, my wife changed a lot. There was a time my wife was ambitious. My wife harboured a dream to be a wellknown painter. As a wedding present, I built a shack in our garden where she can spend many hours painting.
But my wife no longer dreams of becoming a famous painter. My wife had transformed the shack I had built into a playhouse for our child. My wife used to be outspoken. Not anymore. She turned into a docile housewife who whose main aim in life is to make me happy. My wife became one of those women that she despiseda woman who gives up her dreams in the name of love, ending up in an apron and making cookies for her husband.
I have trained her to be a better wife for you and a better mother for your child, my mother said proudly.
My mother, the woman I hate, had changed the woman I love. I could no longer recognise her. She had become a stranger to me. Slowly, I was beginning to hate the woman I love. What do you do when you hate the woman you love
*****
God has an ego problem. Why do we need to worship him, always I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.
That is what my wife said when we were dating. But motherhood changed her drastically. My mother took my wife to one of the church sermons and she had fallen madly in love with God.
I want heaven, my wife said.
I want heaven for my husband. I want heaven for my child. Follow the road God had chosen, heaven will be given to us on a silver platter.
My wife became a born again Christian. She literally twisted my hands to believe in Jesus and church.
Dont you want your child to grow up with religious values my wife said.
Dont you want your child to go to heaven You have to be religious at least for your childs sake.
I have always allowed the woman I love to run my life. I can miss paying my taxes but there is no way I can miss going to church on Sundays. I pretended to be excited about angels, devils, heaven and hell. Inside I was miserable. This was not the life I wanted. I hated God. I hated religion. I hated churches. And most of all I hated my wife.
****
I did not only lose my mother- in- law. I have lost a mentor. I have lost my best friend.
That is what my wife said at the funeral service of my mother. I was not interested to give a eulogy on my mother. I would not have anything nice to say about my mother. Gladly, my wife filled my shoes. My wife worshipped the ground that my mother walked on.
I was a lost soul. my wife said.
But once my mother-in-law entered in my life, I was no longer lost. She was an angel who saved my soul. She has made me a better human being. I do not have my mother-in-law beside me anymore. But what she had taught me will never disappear from my heart.
Indeed, there is some much truth to what my wife said. My mother was gone but not her influence. My wife had become a carbon copy of my mother. The woman I hate, my mother had taken over the soul of the woman I love, my wife.
****
I cannot control my feelings for you... I was born to love you and no one else.
Boldly and bravely Malena confessed her love to me.
Malena wanted me. Malena desired me.
What you feel for me is madness, I said.
When love is not madness, it is not love. Malena said.
Stop chasing me, I would not become your lover at any price, I said sternly.
When I go hunting, I rarely go home empty handed, Malena countered.
Malena never stopped pursuing me. Malena never stopped seducing me. Malena never stopped writing love letters to me. Malena was determined to be my lover.
Malena wrote to me: I am in love with a man I cant have and you have a woman that you cant love. What a tragic life we are living.
Then, one wet cold night, I became weak and allowed Malena to jump into my bed.
You are born to ruin me, I said.
Malena wrote poems about me. Malena painted me. I never felt so loved in my love. I was no longer miserable. When you are in love, you are rarely miserable.
****
The first time Malena caught my eye was when I attended her first ever art exhibition. Malena presented a series of paintings that depicted the relationship between God and human beings. Her paintings tell the story of human beings who are tired of their God who wants to be worshipped and praised all the time. They invaded Heaven, captured God and beheaded him.
Malena ended her painting series with a quote: Men will never be free till the last priest is strangled to death.
The paintings were visually stunning but the messages were too twisted for most to digest. Many could not accept the fact that God was not portrayed in a good light in her painting. Some cursed Malena. But Malena didnt care. Malena enjoyed the havoc she had caused. Malena said to me at her exhibition: I find all religions have one thing in common. They are all annoying.
Two days later, our church priest visited Malena with the aim of reforming her. Repent! God will forgive you and you could likely enter heaven, the priest said.
But I do not want to go heaven, Malena said.
Why not, asked the puzzled priest
Because in heaven, all interesting people are missing, Malena answered with a loud laughter.
******
Malena was a painter, an activist, a rebel and a feminist. Malena had spent many nights behind bars for taking part in street protests. Malena believes in speaking up against injustice and making the world a better place.
Malena is not the kind of woman who dances her life to the music that society had set for her. I loved her rebellious nature. But then again, everything about Malena fascinated me.
Well-behaved women do not spend time behind bars, I teased her.
I never wanted to be a well-behaved woman, Malena said. Every woman dreams to be a well-behaved woman, I said.
Not me. I want to create history and well-behaved women seldom create history, Malena said with a huge smile.
****
We took extreme measures to make sure nobody knew about our affair, especially my wife. But I became careless. Malena became careless, too. My wife found the love letters that Malena had written to me. My wife found nude paintings Malena had done of me.
My wife shouted: How could you let our daughter paint you naked
How could you have sex with our daughter
I tried to explain to my wife that what Malena and I have is not an ordinary case of incest.
We are born to be lovers, I said.
My explanation infuriated my wife even more. My wife yelled: I will report you to the police. I will make sure you spend the rest of your life in prison. I will make sure you will never see our daughter again.
It was then Malena appeared from nowhere with a hammer in her hand. I just watched as Malena hit my wife, her mother, to death. I did nothing to stop Malena. I have always allowed the woman I love to run my life.
