Free Four Doors and Other Stories by A. G. Billig

she kept them. She also knew that men were hunters and needed to be lured all the time with new decoys. A woman needed to stay the same to make a man feel as secure as necessary, but must remember also to reinvent herself a little, day by day, so that he can discover her over and over again. Most importantly of all, play with mystery. Unveil it just a bit only to make it deeper.
    From that day on, he took back the old way home but he said nothing to Mary. Deep down in his heart, he was hoping his feelings would pass and that he would manage to stay a respectable fellow. He thought that his forbidden love affair might reignite his passion for his wife, as it happened to other men. Nevertheless, with each glance, touch, and kiss, Margaret took a stronger hold on him. She would meet him halfway and go down below the steep, barren, lakeside. They would hide under the long branches of a willow, the only tree left by the water. There, he would fill himself up with the taste of her lips, and the silk of her skin that smelled like grass and fire ashes. He would caress her soft curves, her flat belly, amazed by her little waist. In the evening, he would go back to his flat on the third floor, the very one he had chosen months ago for being spacious and light, only to feel like a drowned man into a sea of tiny objects and big pieces of furniture. His odorant had developed in a bizarre way so that the man was able to sense each and every little smell. The more he inhaled Mary’s expensive perfume, the odor of synthetic soap, woman’s body and face lotions, the more he longed for the scent of grass and fresh water, for Margaret’s sweet faint sweat. Yet, he had a hard time seeing himself living with the gypsies. What if he persuaded his beloved to elope with him, to another city? Get a fresh start. He spent evenings in a row imagining and planning before daring to speak to her about it.
    “I would never, ever, betray my people, do you hear?” Margaret screamed to his face. “Go away with you, turn into one of these pale, dead creatures, abide by some false rules we despise. Be cut off from the trees, the water, and the animals! Never!” He could never have imagined such a fierce look in her eyes and stayed there, defeated. This was it. Almost a curse of being half-living, whenever they were together, half-dead, as soon as he played the part of the respectable husband and engineer.
    “They would find us and kill us both, anyways, if we eloped,” she added in a soothing voice. “Unless you decide to join us. I bet they would accept you. As tanned as you are now, you look a little bit like a gypsy!” she giggled.
    “Margaret, you know I love you but I couldn’t possibly...”
    “It’s all right my love, no worries. We’re good. At least, until my father decides to marry me.”
    For the first time, he understood why men and women committed passion crimes. He would have been up for it as well if such horror happened. He took her into his arms, into a passionate embrace, and laid her down into the rich clover under the willow.
    As deepened into his thoughts as he was, he still noticed there was something wrong as soon as he returned home. Mary had puffy eyes and a swollen face. She, who always smiled and started talking about everything the moment her husband set foot in, was now silent. Her lips, tightly pressed one another, turned into a thin line of indefinite color.
    “Good evening,” he said, wearily thinking she was upset because he was too late, later than usual. “I’m sorry, I’ve got caught up in a million of things at the office. Piles of paper to sort out, this kind of stuff…”
    “Stop!” she replied in a dry voice. “I know!” she added heading for the living room and sitting on the couch. The man followed her, puzzled. What on earth could she know?
    “You were seen today. I mean, you two were seen. Now, I understand why you have been hiding this from me,” she added by pulling out of a pocket a