continued to watch as if he wasn't him doing it; he felt like a stranger watching a forbidden scene of lust.
They passionately continued kissing until it turned into the ultimate betrayal.
Trischer began to run his hands over Elizabeth's body, while she, equally voluptuous, took off his shirt.
The clothes fell almost entirely.
Martyn Trischer and Elizabeth Abblepot made love before the annihilated eyes of Johnathan. He stared at all his certainties and his whole determination of man crumbling like salt statues hit by the storm.
7.
Johnathan Abblepot opened his eyes. It was Tuesday morning.
Only one night had passed, but the impression he had was that he had crossed unimaginable distances and geological eras to get to that moment.
He felt utterly dizzy as if he had an iron circle around his forehead of a much smaller size than his head. The pain barely left him the chance to focus on the first awakening operations.
He rinsed his face with cold water, as abundantly as possible. He quickly dressed, casually choosing clothes. And of course, he avoided Elizabeth.
Then he went to church.
Sometimes he did not like the sense of emptiness that was perceived in there when there was nobody: the light that came in through the windows was too much; he seemed to call someone at a party who did not want to introduce himself and therefore gave a feeling of abandonment.
Automatically, he took his place on the first bench in front of the altar, knelt and rested his forehead on the knuckles of the clasped hands.
It was still Reverend Johnathan Abblepot after all, and that was always his church. With his God.
The previous evening he had let Martyn Trischer leave.
After the disgusting scene he had witnessed, Abblepot had run to hide in the trees that were immediately beyond the fence, also to recover from the extreme sense of nausea he felt. He was astounded: with all the anger he felt in his body, would have loved to rush into the house, but a physical sickness had caught him, almost taking his breath away, and he just run away.
Once recovered, he waited a bit more time, daydreaming.
He saw the shape of Martyn Trischer going towards the city. So he decided to go into the house to let out all his resentment and hurt.
Elizabeth was shocked to hear someone knocking on the door. It was as if the whole house collapsed on her head when, once she opened the door, she found her husband's gloomy and flushed face in front of her.
The few moments after that were so confusing that it almost seemed as they never happened. Elizabeth wondered why her husband came back early, without luggage, and if he had by any chance seen Martyn leaving their house. Johnathan spent a few minutes undecided on what to do, begging himself to remain calm, but at the same time eager to throw on his wife all the suffering he felt.
In the end, they said each other everything, or at least what was left to say.
After that terrible event, Johnathan had earned the right to not justify himself for his lie and for spying on his wife: he told her the whole truth about his plan. Elizabeth listened indignantly but, submerged as she was by the weight of her guilt, she said almost nothing.
While Abblepot made his legitimate outburst, asking his wife the reasons for her action, as if this could have soothed his pain, Elizabeth confessed her love for young Martyn Trischer and the circumstances in which it was born.
Abblepot left his wife without saying a word, and he went up the stairs as if he was carrying excessive weight on his back. Elizabeth burst into tears: she fell on the sofa and only after many hours, overcome by exhaustion, she finally closed her eyes.
She didn't know or cared what her husband was doing upstairs, nor did he worry about his wife anymore.
Johnathan Abblepot thought about all these things, while with his head down, he tried to concentrate on prayer.
He looked up at the crucifix. A question echoed in his head, but he did not dare ask it out loud, for he knew that "you should not tempt the Lord."
"Anyway, He can read inside us," he thought immediately after, with resentment.
However, he refrained from speaking. He stared with greater determination at the wooden cross above the altar, and tears rose to his eyes. He felt prey to intense depression, yet a constant tingling ran through his limbs; he clasped his hands tightly together.
Then he got up, determined to go back to the house.
Once in the living room, he called, "Elizabeth", in a low tone. He knew he would find her in there.
She was sitting in the armchair, looking out the window, as if she had been still for who knows how long, just waiting for him to appear somewhere. She didn't turn around, but Abblepot understood that she had heard him calling and was paying attention to him.
The reverend said, "We didn't talk like decent spouses last night."
The girl replied, "And how can we be, John?"
"What I mean is that I was only able to speak by throwing at you all my frustration. And it can't be the only way to deal with this. "
Her husband's calm and apparent complacency almost annoyed her. Elizabeth said nothing.
Abblepot continued: "Please look at me."
So she did. Her eyes were sad.
"John," her voice almost turns into a sigh. New tears came to her eyes as if the previous evening ones hadn't been enough.
"Do you love that boy?" Johnathan's voice was firm.
"I do not know anymore. When it all started, I was almost convinced. Now I don't know anymore."
"Elizabeth, I would like to ask you the reasons. I would like to know why it happened ... but I will not ask you. I thought about it, and I don't think it would help me."
"John," she said again.
"Please let me finish. If this has happened, there must be many reasons. But we all make mistakes. Who knows how many times I did. I cannot tell you how long it will take me to regain the trust that used to bind us, but I am convinced that it is possible. If you want to, if you don't love Martyn Trischer so much that you'll want to sacrifice our relationship for him, maybe we can start again. In a different way, but together."
Elizabeth couldn't understand the emotions stirring inside her; she didn't know what to say.
"Elizabeth, I'm telling you that I want to try to move forward beyond this affair. I prayed: last night and this morning. I prayed for answers. Well, unfortunately, I didn't get any. But I decided to follow what I felt during all of last night's sleepless hours."
The young woman was silent.
Then she said, "John, I don't know what to say right now,
