A nice night out

Even though it had started all wrong with a big fight with her husband Joseph, it had been a wonderful night. He had promised to take her dancing, but at the last moment a business-related thing had come up. She went out alone in a fury, which in those times was uncommon for a married woman. But then again, she wasn’t a normal woman. She was a woman married to a man who wouldn’t sleep with her, let alone dance with her. In the end, going alone had been a blast.

She had danced with the husbands of friends and some faint acquaintances when a charming young lad asked her to dance. His name was António, the owner of a cute local bar. António told her that he never left his bar, always enjoying life behind the counter, growing roots in the floor, moist with alcohol. But tonight, the full moon had called him out to dance as if it was the demand of some greater power. 
António was a great dancer, and they were having a ball together, so much so that people started whispering. “Isn’t that Joseph’s wife? She’s been dancing with António for five songs straight!” She had to decline the next song to silence the gossip.

After more boogies and mediocre dancing partners, she leaned against a tree, looking over the square where the dance was hosted. She dreamily thought of ways to rid herself of her husband when she heard muffled footsteps behind her. She turned around to find António beckoning her to go for a midnight stroll with him. There was only a minor hesitation before she followed him. 

She was walking with a stranger through an orchard of olives! It was the most exciting thing she had done in years. 
Joseph never wanted to go on walks, as he judged them to be a waste of time, except if he had to walk his sheep. António talked about the beauty of the trees at night and the special time of the full moon, which, according to António, was a time in which the trees opened their souls to allow their mother to converse easily with her beloved smaller sister. Spring had only started a few days before, but the evening was still tender, soothing, and warm. She didn’t know what it was, the orange sky, spring’s smell of olives, António’s poetic thoughts, his cheeky smile, or his deep voice, but in a rush of passion, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. 

Not before long, they were rolling down the hill, laughing, shrieking, pinching each other’s butt. At the bottom of the hill, they found a soft spot along a full and flowing river. There, they talked, caressed, and told each other of their dreams,  but mostly explored each other’s bodies. It had been lovely, with a lot of pleasure and ecstasy and a finale of jumping in the river to clean away their so-called sins.

Coming home, she’d been extra careful to be quiet when she slipped next to Joseph in bed, and in the morning, she woke up early to make him breakfast and clear his suspicions. She had done well, but a little voice told her of other ways her joyous night could be exposed. She hoped that António’s seed hadn’t caught hold but would be wasted in her body.

Six months later, she still felt the tongue of António ringing in her ears. Her belly had started to swell, and soon she would need to tell Joseph an exceptional excuse for him not to drag her before court and let her be stoned. She had been brewing the excuse since that explosive night at the beginning of Spring and had built upon António’s poetry. She had decided to tell her husband she had been impregnated by a divine being, a greater power. How else could her immaculate conception be explained? 

She took the initiative to tell Joseph but found him hard to convince. Only by telling him that such a child must be a son and that he would become a great shepherd, or even more, was he convinced. 

And so, a few days after the beginning of Winter, her son was born. A boy who was raised believing he was the son of God. No wonder he grew up arrogant and entitled. So much that he thought he could lead the world. With his and his father’s firm belief and the loving care of his mother, he ended up starting a religious revolution, one of the largest disasters to humanity. All because a lady didn’t feel free to have a nice night out.