He opened his eyes slowly, looked at his wife, first the chin, then the nose and finally the forehead. She was sewing, with her lips pursed (as all women do while sewing). He watched her intently, was it the morning’s fog that was rubbing its back against the bedroom window, was it the day’s first shaft of light that slantingly stroked her ears, was it the jocund manner in which she brandished her needle as a child does its scars, he no longer remembered, but she was beautiful, and nothing else mattered. She muttered something indistinctively, rose and brushed the crumbs of bread on her frock, flapped it once in air, pulled the needle away, started, as if she has seen a ghost. He never woke up so early, she held his face up by her pink palms and kissed him on the lips, there is nothing whatever the matter with him, she declared after examining his sleepy eyes and wrinkled forehead with her lips.
Holding her purse in one hand, tea cup in another, she approached him. Washing the tea around with a spoon, he lent his eyes to the purse. She was hiding her hands behind her, such a ravishing beauty she was, he thought. Much as a hen spreads her feathers and guards the nest and eggs, she was hiding something from him. He shaded his eyes with the back of his palm and looked at her...