It's Monday, it's my turn to pick up the girls at school. Sixteen years ago I married the woman of my dreams. I met her in high school, she was beautiful. She still is. Julieta and Marie look a lot like her. They are 12 and 14, but I think that as time goes by they will look more and more like their mother. That's wonderful. It's also painful.

Six or seven months ago the love of my life started eastern dances. She was very happy, and so was I. The effects of the training and the activity were remarkable in her body and in her attitude, much more joyful than usual. A couple of months ago something changed, she started to be more distant. She was still full of plans but I realised she was more introspective. It was herself that proposed for us to have "a talk". Six weeks ago she prepared a special meal, the girls were to stay the night at my in-law's place.

I was prepared for one of those romantic dinners, out of that calendar that includes the anniversary of the first kiss, the one of the wedding day and our birthdays. I have to admit that something weird could be perceived in the air of the room, something I couldn't identify but that didn't get to perturb me. At one point, Euge took a deep breath and what she said sounded approximately like this:
"I never loved you. I married you because, as a young girl, you seemed to me the only road to some kind of independence and a escape way to leave my parent's place. Having danced all this time, under a different enlightenment, has helped me to let my soul express itself. First, through my body and the dance. Then, it gave room for my mind to understand what my soul meant and to be able, now, to express it with words."

I made no comment. I didn't even have the strength to cry. My wife is not one of those persons who makes jokes. In fact, sometimes she makes some funny comments, but I'm sure she would have never made the mistake of thinking this was one of those comments. So I couldn't even hope for a release of the situation in that direction. Several things went through my head: what would be the string of events that follow after such statement, the feeling of a broken heart or the physical symptoms that I experienced as I felt that a world (part of which, I built with someone) was coming down.

But she had already taken taken care of solving most of my concerns. She had an action plan and had already queried some lawyers who advised her. That same night she was leaving home, the next day there was a mediation hearing in court, but she was already letting me know that in a week's time my girls will leave home to go with her, because after myself being notified, there was no home abandonment nor desertion. She also said that it suited me accepting her terms, that way it would be easier for me to keep seeing my daughters.

I felt like a boxer who throws in the towel, he continues being punched, they knock him out and before he touches the floor he receives a couple of kicks. In less than a week I was losing the woman of my life, the greatest treasures I ever had and as a consolation I had for myself a giant house, that I struggled to build thinking of the 3 of them, where from now on, I would live alone.

Today is Monday, it's my turn to pick up the girls at school. My boss has been very supportive and I start working at 7 am on Mondays, so I have time to get everything ready and done by 5 pm and, at half past 5, I to go to the school. My work doesn't make me happy, it never did. But I remember that I always went to work happy, because despite not enjoying what I was doing, the activity I carried on was paid and that support helped me to dream of a better future for my family, for the girls. One day I found out that the only thing that made every day at work endurable was knowing that at one point I was going to have to leave the office, go through half a city by car and arrive to a house where 3 pairs of brown eyes would wait for me, and at least two pairs of arms would hug me, if my wife was still working in the studio.
Euge paints and makes pottery. Before the library, which is my place, I took care of the house having a studio so she could develop her creativity. My impression is that when she moved out of our house some of her half-done paintings remained in the studio, but the idea of checking if that's so, hurts me, so for a month and a half that room has remained locked.

I don't feel like roaming around the house and I don't feel like going to work either. The only reasons that lead me to keep doing it are some kind of inertia, a dream and a particular fact. The inertia is the one I created after these 16 years of roaming around the house (which was originally much easier to rove, because it was much smaller when we started). The dream is to see my daughters transformed into developed women, without any trauma or pain caused directly or indirectly by what their parents could do. And the particular fact is that every Monday I'm happy. Every Monday I see the lovely smiles of two beautiful, young and full-of-dreams girls. They are aware of what's going on, and they suffer it, but when they are with me their only concern is making me happy, showing me their smiles and giving me their hugs. They tell me how they are doing in school and how they get along with their friends. That, which for them is all their universe, transforms for me into all that there is in it for all the hours in which I am with them. I hear them, I tell them stories and sometimes, when they can't tell, I even I give them advice.

Today is Monday, early morning, I wake up before the alarm goes off. I had the strangest dream ever, as far as I can remember. Dream, or nightmare. The girl with whom I came to the hotel room last night has left. I try to remember the name, but I drank one or two extra martinis at that meeting with Chinese businessmen, so it is a privilege to remember that she was quite pretty and even smart, I believe. I'm considering if I have enough time for a swim in the olympic pool of the hotel before the flight to Beijing. The meeting on the price agreement is crucial to wrap up a strategic plan, on which I have been working for months, and which keeps me constantly excited. But I think that a visit to the gym and a good breakfast can help me to clear up my head of that dream, which was so sad, disturbing. Wife, 16 years, girls, disappointment, abandonment, house, library, studio. Daughters, school, smiles, hugs, happiness.
A taxi, from the hotel, takes me to the airport in half an hour. I set the alarm clock for two hours before the flight. I lean back and try to relax. I close my eyes.
Today is Monday, it'd be my turn to pick up the girls at school.