The car rolled into the driveway. It was Saturday afternoon. Dick had not seen her for several days and he jumped happily to greet her. But one look at Serene’s face and his tail stopped wagging.

She marched right into the bedroom without a word to anyone. Danny watched her apprehensively. Dick shivered at the chill of human emotions. His shiny fur looked fluffy and uneven. After a moment Danny folded his newspapers gingerly and tiptoed into the bedroom. He closed the door, leaving Dick to tread around impatiently in the living room like an expectant father.

For a while, the quiet was heartening. Dick could imagine the two of them hugging and kissing and making up for all the fuss and unhappiness that they had caused each other. Then, Serene would whip up a great dinner, and it would be like old times again. Just the three of them.

But no. His ears pricked up. He could hear Serene’s voice. Her voice was harsh. Trust. She was speaking of trust. Intermission. Dick could not hear Danny’s reply. Serene’s voice again. But louder. She was almost yelling. The anger lashed out like tongues of fire. The door reverberated with her anger. Dick could feel the whole house shaking. Or perhaps the tremor came from within. His canine feet were wobbly. Smash! The sound of glass breaking. Was this The Taming Of The Shrew? Or Thelma’s revenge in some mid-Western American car park?

He whined at the door. But they could not hear him. He pawed at the door. But it would not budge. Look what he had done! They were fighting inside the bedroom. He wished he had not played with the briefcase. He swore never to sniff at its fragrance again. The skeletons in it were too terrifying!

Suddenly the door was flung open.

‘Boy, was I taken for a ride!’ Serene yelled hotly.

At a glance, Dick could not tell whether her eyes were glittering with hatred or glistening with tears. She marched out with her head held high on her moral pedestal. She had been a good wife. She had performed all her duties. She had been wronged.

‘I thought such things might happen to others, but not to me. I thought I could trust you.’ Her eyes flashed accusingly. Men! Men were deceitful. Men could not be trusted. Her eyes seemed to say.

‘It must have been going on for sometime,' she spat out the words bitterly.

‘I was a fool not to have noticed. The video tape… this is what it was all about isn’t it? That woman’s idea…’ and her hard, brittle voice broke – somewhere deep in her heart a river of self pity broke through the barricades of self restraint. Her image of her self, her family, her career and her security was collapsing around her. And the tears flowed down her cheeks. ‘How?’ she cried at the trembling walls, ‘how can I ever trust you again?’

She brushed away her tears angrily and marched off to her car.

Dick recoiled from the torment of anger and pain. When Serene marched out of the house, he was frantic. Hey, don’t just walk out! It was only one affair. His canine mind could not understand why these humans made such a big fuss out of an affair. He jumped about the living room, whined when he heard the footsteps at the driveway, and barked at the motionless man crouching at the bedroom doorway. Do something! Call her back! Plead, beg. Don’t just stand there! But it was futile, of course. The man had too much pride to plead and beg.

‘Stop it!’ Danny unleashed his frustrations at the barking dog. ‘Can’t you see that my marriage is falling apart?’ He went to the window and stood for a long time contemplating his empty driveway.

Presently he sat on the floor and threw his head back against the wall. He closed his eyes fiercely to fight the tears welling in his eyes. He was such a miserable sight that Dick whined woefully. Danny reached out and stroked the furry neck absent-mindedly while he sat and mulled over his marital woes.

Presently, the man stirred and glared grimly into the doggy eyes. ‘I don’t know what to do. Tell me what to do.’

Dick pondered for a moment. Can’t help you there, buddy, he wanted to reply. Canines just screw around. It’s our God-given right. If humans think there’s something wrong with that, only humans can tell you what to do.

‘I don’t even know whether I can stop seeing this… this friend… this acquaintance.’ Danny shook his head sadly. ‘I should call her my lover… but I’m not even in love with her!’

Gee, that sounds like a linguistic paradox. Dick shook his head vigorously. Probably a symptom of how confused humans were about their sexual and romantic relationships.

‘I have a wife who is intelligent,’ Danny continued his self examination. ‘She’s sober and responsible. She can share the burden and joy of raising a family. And I can be proud to present her to my friends and colleaques at dinner functions and parties. She’s great, isn’t she?’

Danny gave a hollow laugh. It was the laugh of irony. The laugh of resignation. It was a terrible laugh.

‘But I also need someone who is wild and unrestrained in bed,’ Danny declared passionately, ‘who is fun-loving enough to try new things and initiate new games.’

Dick pricked up his ears at the sudden lift in the other’s voice. But it was short-lived. The spark in the other’s eyes died and Dick readjusted his ears to the monotone.

‘Unfortunately, sobriety and responsibility in the day carry over into more of the same at night.’ Danny sighed. ‘For a long time, I thought that all women were shy and reticent in bed. Until this… this woman came along. She opened a Pandora’s box of fantasies in me. Fantasies which have been suppressed for a long time.’

Ah! Dick lifted his head off the floor to look at Danny with renewed interest. That’s interesting. Dick had, of course, never witnessed any other couple in the act of copulation. He had only seen Danny and Serene together and assumed that all humans performed in like manner. Except for the video tape, of course. He had almost forgotten about the video tape. But it was just a movie. Contrived. Unreal. Dick did not think it was a serious representation of real women!

‘You don’t believe me?’ Danny looked indignant.

Dick stuck out his tongue and wagged his tail.

‘It’s true!’ Danny protested. ‘She has exalted lovemaking into an art form. A dance. A song. You never knew what she was going to do.’

Danny was pouting now. His exhilaration was like a candle flickering in the wind. It burned brilliantly in his heart for a moment but was soon snuffed out by the cold cerebral currents.

‘If I chucked this Pandora’s box out of my life and reverted to the dutiful husband and father that I should be, I think I’d shrivel up and die.’

A pause.

‘Am I asking too much out of life?’

Dick cocked his head to one side. There was a hundred thoughts flashing through his mind. There were questions he wanted to ask. If you keep your Pandora’s box and lose your intelligent, sober and responsible wife, would you be happy? He wanted to ask.

Danny sighed. It was a long, deep sigh as he pondered the same question.

Dick sat upright. He had many more questions. If you have fantasies, he wanted to ask Danny, what about Serene? Does she have fantasies too? How was it that Dick had never heard them talk about such things? If these fantasies were so important, how could they talk about the most mundane things in life and yet be secretive about their fantasies? And what if Serene could learn to be more active? Wow! That would open up a whole new Garden of Eden more rewarding than a Pandora’s box.

Dick was getting excited with his ideas now. He was panting. He licked his lips and wagged his tail vigorously.

‘Woof!’

He barked at the man sitting beside him with an air of resignation.

‘Woof!’

He barked at the face of helplessness slouching on the floor.

Danny was bewildered. He looked at his companion. There was enthusiasm in those alert ears and hope in those doggy eyes.

‘You think I should make another try with Serene?’

‘Woof! Woof!’

‘You think I should talk to her about my fantasies?’

‘Woof! Woof!’

Danny sighed. That was easy for a dog to say.

H