Dr. Urbino has just gotten involved in the fire department. Before its existence, people used ladders and buckets of water. Now, the Society for Public Improvement, a group headed by Dr. Urbino, had gotten together a corps of professional firemen and a water truck. At first, they only put out fires. Then Dr. Urbino remembered seeing a fireman in Hamburg revive a boy whoÂ’d been frozen. So the firemen also performed emergency services of other sorts. The medical school offered them a special course in first aid. Dr. Urbino sends his servants after the firemen and goes to get dressed for the luncheon. He is so upset over the letter, he really doesnÂ’t care much about the bird.

Fermina Daza is dressed stylishly for the luncheon. She looks beautiful even at her age. She is glad the time of corsets, bound waists and bustles is over. She is sitting at her dressing table putting on her hat. Ever since they returned from their honeymoon, she had chosen his clothes according to the weather and the occasion and laid them out for him the night before he wore them. She cannot remember when she had also started helping him dress and finally when she dressed him completely. She had begun to do it out of love, but for the past five years, she has done it because he cannot do it himself. They had just celebrated their golden wedding anniversary and they arenÂ’t capable of being without each other for even an instant. As they get older they need each other more. They cannot say if their mutual dependence comes from love or convenience. They prefer not to know the answer. She had noticed in recent years her husbandÂ’s uncertain step, his Mood changes, and his loss of memory, and lately he had developed a habit of sobbing in his sleep, but she prefers to think of all this as the happy return of childhood rather than the signs of final decay. She treats him as a senile baby rather than as a difficult old man.

She is an elegant sleeper. She is also ferocious when anyone disturbs her idea that she is really asleep when she really isnÂ’t. If he fumbles for his slippers, sheÂ’ll say he left them in the bathroom last night. Then sheÂ’ll roll over and complain that no one ever lets her sleep in this house. Then sheÂ’ll turn on the lamp, "content with her first victory of the day." They were both playing a game. "It was one of the many dangerous pleasures of domestic love." One of these same kinds of trivial games also almost ended thirty years of their life together. One day there was no soap in the bathroom.

It was when Dr. Urbino still dressed himself. He had returned to the bedroom from his study and began to dress without turning on the light. He could see her lying in bed in a half sleep. He finally said to himself, but aloud, that he had been bathing for a week without any soap. She woke up in a fury because she remembered that she had forgotten to replace the soap in the bathroom even though she had noticed it three days ago. It had not been a week as he had said, but it had been three days. She was angry at having been found out in a mistake. She defended herself by attacking, her usual strategy. She lied and said she has been bathing every day and there had been soap. He knew her tactic, but couldnÂ’t stand it this time. He went to live in the internsÂ’ quarters of Misericorida Hospital on a professional pretext. He came home only to change clothes before making his calls on his patients. She went to the kitchen when he came in and didnÂ’t come out until he was gone. They did this for three months. Every time they tried to resolve the conflict, things only got worse. He wouldnÂ’t come back until she admitted there was no soap in the bathroom and she wouldnÂ’t have him back until he admitted he had lied.

Table of Contents | Printable Version