A winter evening like many others. Tired after an intense day's work, he parked the car, got out of the passenger compartment, closed it, put the keys in his pocket and walked towards the front door of his terraced house, bought just a year ago. He rang the bell. A metallic click. He pushed the gate and closed it behind him, entering the small garden. The front door was opening. He was faced with a woman he had never seen in her entire life.
Shit, he thought, I knew this would happen to me sooner or later. These terraced houses are all the same. I rang the wrong door."
"Excuse me, but..."
"Love, bye!" Smiling, the woman threw herself towards him, embracing him.
"But look at that..."
"Daddy's here, boys."
He had no children. They had decided to wait, just to be sure of being able to pay the mortgage payments before expanding the family.
"Hi Dad!"
"HI!"
Two children, a boy and a girl, had come to meet him.
"What did you bring us tonight?"
«But... at least let him in, poor daddy, in this cold! Come on, dear, give me your coat.'
"No, no, look, I..."
The woman took off his jacket and hung it on the coat rack. The man looked around. The house was tastefully decorated, but it wasn't his. The structure was identical, all the terraced houses on that street were the same, but otherwise it was very clear that it was not his. Besides, heck, he might have been tired, but his wife was still able to recognize her! He walked decisively towards the coat rack to pick up his coat and get out of that situation, which was becoming rather embarrassing.
"Honey, what are you doing?" the woman stopped him. "But the children were joking, you don't have to bring them something every night, otherwise you spoil them".
"Lady, I..."
«What are you doing, you call me lei, now? Do you want to play the game of two strangers?” said the woman rubbing against him. "At least wait till we put the kids to bed, you piggy!"
But it wasn't bad, actually. In her thirties, her body still firm despite her two pregnancies, her breasts full, just the way he liked it, her mouth sensual. No, it wasn't bad at all.
“Dad, Dad, look what I did at school today.”
«Dad, come and play with the Playstation!»
«Nothing doing, now we're all going to the table! I don't want to hear arguments » ordered her mother with authority.
“Well, I'll talk to her later. No one dies here even if I stay for dinner” the man thought as he sat down at the table.
After dinner he couldn't resist the woman's effusions. He planned to leave soon after but she fell asleep.
The next morning he woke up at six, as always.
"Your clothes are ready in the closet," whispered the woman next to him, still sleepy. She kissed him passionately. "Last night was amazing, like we haven't done it in years."
In the closet he found a gray suit, with shirt and tie. It was his size. He left the house at seven, parked the car at the station and took the train.
That evening he returned home at the usual time. He parked the car, got out of the passenger compartment, closed it, put the keys in his pocket and walked towards the front door of his terraced house. This time he checked the house number: 36. It was her number. Slightly more relaxed she rang the bell.
Suddenly he froze. From behind the still closed door she had heard the cries of two children.
The author
Pierluigi Porazzi was born in 1966 and as a teenager he began writing short stories, often very short, of a symbolic-existential genre. He holds the title of lawyer. Some stories of him have been published collected by Campanotto Editore in the volume The Scorpion Syndrome. His first novel The shadow of the hawk, was among the finalists of the 2009 Tedeschi Prize and published in 2010 by Marsilio Editori, with a second edition a month after its release. His latest published work is The girl who asked for vengeancea (La Corte Editore, 2018).
