It was Saturday again. Dick knew because Serene arrived to pick them up soon after lunch. Things always happened on Saturdays. After the usual farewells, they rolled out onto the streets in Serene’s car.

‘So how’s my baby doing today?’ She cooed as she slipped into fifth gear.

The baby ignored the question. It was too content in its baby seat to engage in small talk.

‘Why, you think I’m being mean to your daddy, don’t you?’ Serene continued. She obviously needed to talk. But the baby pointed to a car flashing by beyond the speed limit and gurgled.

‘Your grandmother certainly thinks so.’

Ah! Dick pricked up his ears from the back seat. Some independent counsel from the grand old lady.

‘But you know how your grandmother is,’ Serene soliloquised. ‘She’s old-fashioned. She thinks a wife has to take whatever shit a man throws at her. No way!’

There was a pause as she eased the car onto the expressway. The lanes were full. A tribute to the market economy’s triumph over the Government’s taxes and quotas.

‘The man says he’s sorry. He says he still loves me. He’s sorry for hurting me. How do I know whether he means it?’

Yelp! Dick wanted to speak up. He means it, all right, he wanted to say. But like Tolstoy’s Oblonsky, no one could vouch whether he’d repeat the mistake anyway.

‘He has not said that he’s sorry for having an affair – only for the fact that it hurts me. You see, he doesn’t think it was wrong of him to have an affair. His only regret is that it hurt me! So the next time, when he thinks he can get away without hurting me, he will have another affair!’

Serene stepped on the brakes a little harder than necessary, throwing a startled, whining Dick against the back of the front seats. The baby was, of course, secure against the baby straps.

‘I’m not even sure whether he loves me any more.’

The car had stopped behind a queue. Serene had time to look into the past to find the future.

‘When we first married, he was always gentle and caring. In bed, he paid attention to every part of me from head to toe. I felt as if I were the center of his universe. I felt secure. But that didn’t last long, did it?’ she snorted.

‘Soon he became less and less attentive. I became the planet Pluto orbiting far out in space. I thought it was a natural phenomenon that happens in every marriage. Now I realise that he was already falling out of love then.’

Huh! Dick shifted his weight restlessly. The lady was equating great sex with great love. But it takes two to nurture the one and two to play the other. If Danny had fallen out of love, why did he come home early these past few days to conjure his peace offerings? Dick wished he could understand her logic.

‘Now look at me,’ the woman continued. ‘Older. Less attractive. I’ve wasted my youth in a loveless marriage. Now, when he touches me, I just freeze. I can’t help thinking of the other woman. I feel so insecure and unloved. Do you understand that?’

She reached out and touched the baby’s arm anxiously.

Of course. Dick growled in jealousy. Of course the baby understood. The narcissistic little devil. It had been cuddled and fed and kissed and hugged by all the grandmothers and grandaunts on the entire planet. The baby might think it was the center of the universe. And that delusion would linger on much longer because it was a baby girl. Humans and their beauty culture would see to that! He would not be surprised if the baby grew up to be a narcissistic woman. Dick licked his lips smugly. Perhaps the woman and her baby were chips of the same block.

Someone sounded his horn. Dick turned and stuck out his tongue at the nuisance. The car lurched forward as Serene redirected her attention to the traffic, mindful of the recent spate of road bullies rearing their ugly heads. Apart from the shuffling of the baby in its seat, the trio was quiet for a while.

‘But you know what the most awful thing is?’ Serene broke the silence angrily. ‘It’s what your grandmother said. She said that your grandfather had been unfaithful too. Can you beat that? My daddy! who has always been so kind, so gentle, so loving. I find that so hard to believe! My daddy -- the bastion of moral authority, the man who lectured me on pre-marital kiss, and I'm not even talking about sex, just a kiss! The man who glared disapprovingly at all my boyfriends when they came to pick me up for a date! That was my daddy?  Is there no faithful men left on this planet?’

She raised her hands in perplexity. Momentarily, her wheels were rudderless, lost in the web of marital deceit and betrayal. Dick nodded sympathetically. Yes, humans were complicated with double, nay, triple standards. One standard for guys and another for girls, one for the elderly and another for the young, one for politics and another for the masses! Dick nodded knowingly. Canine morality was far more egalitarian : one standard for all.

 But even as Serene nodded her head in sync with Dick, the mundane demands of the traffic interrupted her eloquence and she seized the wheels resolutely to regain control of her destiny. The cars whizzed by. Some drivers weaved in and out of Serene’s lane impatiently and gave her a dirty look. But she was too upset to notice.

‘And the thing is, she never told me about it!’ Serene swerved the car off the expressway and Dick found himself sliding up against the right window. 'She never said anything about it to me or to dad!'

‘Woof! Woof!’ Dick exerted his presence. Serene glanced at him.

‘Why, have you been listening too?’

What an absurd question! Dick thought to himself. He turned his head indignantly towards the window. He turned his head emphatically the way dogs do. The upper third of his body, comprising his whole head and neck, turned. Like a primary school kid rebuffing another by turning away his whole body seat and all, to face the other way, Dick achieved the same effect by just turning his head and neck.

Serene pulled the car to the side to talk to her backseat passenger. Dick was surprised. They were not home yet. Why had she stopped? He turned back to look at Serene.

‘You think I’ve been too mean, don’t you?’

Dick was caught off-guard by the question. He did not know what to say. He shook his head so emphatically that his entire body shook. He remembered the shock on Serene’s face when she picked up the hotel bills and photograph. He remembered the tears in Serene’s eyes when she marched out of the door. No. Punish the man. Chastise him. He has hurt your ego, your pride and your self-esteem.

Had Serene been the one who had been unfaithful, Dick was quite sure that Danny would have been equally furious. And Danny might have beaten and battered the unfaithful wife too. It was, of course, physically impossible for Serene to do the same to an unfaithful husband. All she could do was lock him out of her bedroom. The man was charged, convicted and sentenced by her. But for how long? She was a judge in her own cause. Could she pass an unbiased sentence?

‘You think I should listen to my mother’s advice?’

That was independent and unbiased advice! Bless the old lay’s heart. Dick nodded his head, but was not sure whether Serene understood. She made no response. She simply turned back to the wheel and they continued on their journey thoughtfully.

H