– Louise, – Olivia shouted into the phone, – Louise, trouble! Victor is cheating on me!
– What?” – Louise answered businesslike on the other end of the line, and it was heard how she spat the shell from the seeds.
– “Here, see for yourself,” Olivia flexed the fingers of her left hand as if her interlocutor could see her, “He’s late at work, one. Always hungry, that’s two. All calories are spent on pleasures, apparently. I started to take care of myself. So, he walked like a scarecrow. And now he comes home from work, puts his pants in the laundry, and then iron them himself. That’s three. Previously, the main concern on weekends was to sleep and eat pies, and now he thinks of things to do, even enrolled in the library. That’s four. And today he said that he would start running in the morning. That’s five.
– Everything is clear here, – Louise said, having stopped peeling seeds, – In an hour at my place, I’ll call ours.
Forty minutes later, a stream of women of solid, in all respects, fifty years of age began to flow into the courtyard of the old two-story house. Each of them stopped at the second entrance, rubbed the soles of her shoes on a rag for a long time, and pulling the heavy iron door, disappeared into the darkness.
The kitchen was noisy. Finally, Olivia came in. And five pairs of eyes stared at the culprit of the operational meeting.
The woman, with her hands at her sides, told her friends everything she had told Louise an hour ago, this time curling her fingers at the audience. When she put an end to the monologue with a resounding “womanizer” the crowd cheered together.
– Divorce and kick her out of the apartment!” Victoria yelled, adjusting her glasses.
– “What a bad woman, but also a good divorcee. She got into the family, you know! – Rosa was noisy.
– To lock the scoundrel at home on Sunday! – Martha was taking radical measures.
Olivia, reveling in the general concern, nodded sadly and even seemed to brush away a tear.
– Quiet, girls!” – Louise shouted to everyone and five pairs of eyes were staring at her – “People say, if you haven’t caught it, you’re not a thief. So we must first expose him, and at the same time his mistress. Maybe she’s married too. And then decide what to do with him.
The crowd agreed, and Louise continued:
– You say he started running and disappears on weekends? So, we divide the territory along the perimeter. Martha, you go out in the morning to walk the dog and follow the same route where he runs. You don’t have to chase him, but meet him in a new place every time. Tomorrow near the house, trace where he ran, then meet him at the place where you lost sight of him. Most likely, he runs to the same place.
– Okay! – Marta responded, figuring out how to explain to her husband that she walks the dog herself.
– Rosa, sit down with seeds near the library and see who often sits there, sits for a long time, and so on.
– Won’t they kick you out?
– Not if you sit a little further away.
Louise distributed the tasks to the other participants of the operation. Each of them, having received her task, thought over the plan of action.
– What should I do? – Olivia asked.
– You just live as if nothing had happened. Do not show attention, do everything as usual. You can’t be followed, – she explained.
Two hours later, the friends parted, agreeing to meet on Saturday evening here, at Louise’s.
On the appointed day, each took a gift and went to the bachelorette party to report on the work done.
– I can’t find out where he is running to, – Marta complained, – he comes to the store, turns the corner, and the dog pulls me in the other direction. I can’t scream, he will notice. And when I come to the store, there is no trace of him, while I’m walking back and forth in the bushes, he is already running back from nowhere.
– Sly, – Louise hummed, – we continue the observation. What’s up with you?
– He did not come to the library himself, but maybe tomorrow he will show up. But Julia, my neighbor, is always there, every day she comes at lunchtime and leaves in the evening.
– She works there part-time.
– “Ah, – Rosa stretched.
– “What do you have?” – Louise asked everyone, both those who were driving the object from work to home, and those who called colleagues, and reported on her own point.
No one had any results.
Victor turned out to be a cunning and clever traitor. And five (Olivia not included) women failed to catch him red-handed. The deceived woman brushed away a tear, complained about life and took up the pie, which had long been beckoning her with its ruddy side.
On Tuesday, the result was the same and Louise realized that it was necessary to change the strategy, promised to develop a new plan and share it on Thursday. Any enemy can be outsmarted!
And on Wednesday, Olivia went to the store. She was about a hundred meters away from the store when she noticed a familiar sweater. The woman stopped, looked around, covered her face with her hair and slowly walked to the store. At the moment when the man disappeared around the corner, she ran after him with all the speed available to her.
She was lucky! She saw an orange shirt collar flashing in the bush and now, slowing down, she slowly walked to the love bed of the traitor.
With the utmost caution, stepping over the branches, she reached the bushes and listened. The man was cooing with his mistress:
– Sunny, my darling, did you miss me? Oh, you are my darling.
Olivia’s eyes welled up with tears – he called his mistress by her pet nickname – Sunny. Isn’t he a bastard?
– Stop kissing, wait. Look what I brought you, – the traitor cooed, – Look, the best ones, I chose them myself!
Oh, he even gives her gifts! He himself said that his salary is not due for another week, and he can not buy her, his legal wife, a terry bathrobe yet.
– How are my babies, let me see, – the traitor said languidly.
“He’s talking about the place where decent ladies hide money” – Olivia thought and, unable to stand this love chatter any longer, she pushed the bushes apart with her mighty hand and stepped inside:
– “What did you give this bitch?” the bass thundered.
Victor, having put a newspaper under his skinny ass, was sitting right on the ground. Next to him was a transparent bag with something the color of meat in it. The look of big eyes with blond eyelashes became frightened, like a child who stole a pie. The lips trembled slightly. And thin fingers continued to stroke the big black cat, attached to his skinny lap. The cat rubbed its face against his smooth chin.
– Who is it?” Olivia asked in surprise.
– Sunny, don’t swear. This is my cat, Sunny.
– How is your cat? Who allowed you?
– No one, Sunny. I went to buy gingerbread this afternoon and there she was. The seller said she was going to give birth soon and her owners were away. I took pity, fed her. And then she ran to meet me every time. I made her a bed from an old box, see? Her kittens were born recently, she does not come to meet me now, I come and feed them myself.
– So you go out in the morning and run to her?
– Well…
– And here instead of the library?
– Olivia, I go to the library too.
– Why are you doing the laundry and ironing by yourself?
– I’m afraid you’ll get angry if you see the wool.
Olivia’s face softened and became dreamy and thoughtful.
– Well, take your cat home, it’s going to get colder soon, why will she live under the bush with the children? She’ll catch a cold.
Viktor jumped up:
– Sunny, did you hear? We’ll take you home. I told you, my Olivia is the best.
– You said that directly to the cat?
– Of course you did! I wouldn’t lie to her.
That same day, Olivia told her friends the news. They were happy for Olivia, congratulated on the replenishment, and only Louise sighed sadly: such a plan to detain her failed … After all, these men can not even go to the left normally!