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The Best Way To Stop Her Husband Loving Another Lady
by David Smith

Mr. Brown was chief director of a company. At the age of fifty he had a new lover called Jilly, who worked as a secretary in one of his branch factories. She was just in her early thirties, beautiful, tender, and took good care of him. He had never had been loved as much as Jilly loved him. Therefore, he would never go away from her. However, Mr. Brown was very careful that their relationship didn’t have a bad effect on his workers though he loved her dearly. Consequently he would take his wife with him at some formal banquets while for some informal or secret ones he would take Jilly with him. Sometimes if he wanted to spend a night in Jilly’s house, he would telephone his wife saying he was having to stay in the office because of extra work. At the end of the year there were so many banquets that at times Mr. Brown had to meet his wife and at times he had to see Jilly. Naturally, his driver felt too busy!

At five o’clock one afternoon, Jilly called to go to have her hair done. When he had just driven her to the hairdresser’s, his wife made a call to him, saying that she had just bought some things in the supermarket and asked him to pick her up.

“Oh, dear, I would not like you to go.” Jilly said to Mr. Brown, putting her arm into his.

“Oh, no, I would not leave you alone.” he replied.

“Will you go and pick her up, Jack?” He turned to his driver. “Please tell her that I have something urgent to do so I can’t come to pick her up myself.”

So Jack drove directly towards the supermarket, where Mr. Brown’s wife had been waiting. The moment she got in the car, she smelt the scent she had often noticed on her husband. What increased her worries was the discovery of a long hair on the seat, which clearly came from a lady. So she glanced at Jack.

“What is this? Tell me the truth!” she spoke abruptly.

He knew this time he could not keep his secret, but he thought he must find a suitable way to break the news. Then he told her all about it. At last he reminded her that she mustn’t let Mr. Brown know it was he that breathed the secret. To his great satisfaction, she promised him.

For days all was well. While Jack was wondering at this, Mr. Brown’s wife called him.

“Hi, Jack, will you please come over and send a present to Jilly for me?” she cackled.

“Ok. I will come soon.” Jack replied in a trembling voice, thinking it was poison or some other killing method....

To his great surprise, when he got there, it was a cage covered with a black cloth, inside which was a parrot. She reminded him to tell Jilly that an unknown person had sent it.

When he had taken it to Jilly’s, he uncovered it.

“Oh, how beautiful you are! How beautiful you are!” it shouted.

Jilly was very pleased to hear it. However, Jack was a little puzzled. He could not guess what Mr. Brown’s wife’s plans were.

That night, Mr. Brown decided to spend the night at Jilly’s, so he told Jack to drive him there. Half an hour later, he rang Jack to come to pick him up. When Jack arrived, he was already at the door, looking very angry. Since then, he has never been there again. Jack had a lot of theories but he didn’t dare ask Mr. Brown.

Later he was able to ask Jilly for some information. She told him it was all because of the parrot. In fact, Mr. Brown’s wife had taught the parrot only two sentences. When it saw a female, it would say, “Oh, how beautiful you are!” When it saw a male, it would say, “Hurry off, Mr. Brown is coming!”