“The matter is not a matter of a question. The matter is a matter of care!”

He stopped peeking at the new couple from behind a window overlooking the building facing his house, at seven in the morning, the couple left the house and headed towards the husband’s car, he rarely saw her riding her car alone. He made sure that his wife is asleep and will not see him snooping on the neighbors, generally she will not understand that he does not snoop on someone but only looks at “something beautiful.” Looks at “life as it should be”, and not the life that he lives with his wife! 

He started thinking of that beautiful young wife and how she wakes up every day before 7 and prepares to go down with her husband all elegant, with her husband holding a small bag carrying his food until he returns to the house.

The heartbreak filled his face, remembering that throughout thirty-five years of marriage his wife has never asked him whether he had eaten his breakfast or not!

“The matter is not a matter of food. The matter is a matter of care!”

He blamed himself for his marriage to that woman, who does not wake up before 10 when he had already prepared his breakfast on his own, left home and gone to work without her feeling!

He envied the fitness and the elegance of the man’s wife, and how she cared about the harmony of the colors of her clothes, so she’d look like a beautiful and simple rose. His face reddened out of rage when he remembered how he advised his wife to lose a little of her weight and what he found after that of bad treatment!

 “The matter is not a matter of overweight. The matter is a matter of care!”

Then he reprimanded himself for how he allowed himself to watch these two new couples every day, as if he was a teenager, he was ashamed of himself on that day for spotting the young wife as she looked from the balcony of her room waiting the return of her husband, So he peeked at her without her feeling his presence.

He remembered when he used to be late for hours at work, and his wife never called him, and when she calls him, she’d only ask him, “Where is he now? And what is he doing?” As a kind of control and domination, no more than that!

 “The matter is not a matter of a question, The matter is a matter of care!”

he reprimanded himself again for his childish actions, and his dark depressing thoughts, and he remembers that he should return early today, for his eldest son’s graduation party from college”, but he asked how all those years have passed? His son will be done with college today and start working. He muttered and said, “I wish I would advise him of what I have learned in my life before he does the same mistake, may his wife be as beautiful as that young woman, may she be!”

“The matter isn’t a matter of marriage, it’s a matter of choice.”

Mr. Adel came down from his home at 7:15 heading to his work and those ideas are still chasing him, with a smile leaking to his face when he remembered the graduation ceremony and started talking to himself; “This is the progress of my life, I must feel pride. Today the tree of days gave me its first fruit” and the other ideas faded from his head

“The matter is not a matter of marriage. It is a matter of happiness!”

The face of Sarah, the young wife got congested with blood while she is waiting for her husband to return from work. She knew again that his relationship with that girl had not been broken yet, and she is going crazy.  She wakes up when he wakes up, sometimes even before he wakes up, and she sleeps when he sleeps, and she says; “I don’t think I’m not beautiful for him or anyone else so he would look to another”

“The matter is not a matter of instinct. it is a matter of respect!”

She always wished for a husband with morals and love and respect for his wife as her father, but she loved him, then she asked; “why he is doing this to me! Why betray me when not a year has passed since our marriage?”

  “The matter is not a matter of respect. it is a matter of love.”

“She stood on her balcony so that she could watch him when he arrives and find out how much time he would spend in his car alone before going up to her with storming doubts attacking her mind again!

On Friday and before sunset, Mr. Adel stood in a balcony holding a cup of tea, and peeped from time to time to the balcony of the new weds and then said to himself, “I am not doing anything shameful, I do not watch that beautiful wife as a lover, there’s nothing between me and her, but she made me morn for my luck and be angry at what I have. she taught me how to choose a wife, what care is and what elegance is. I owe that girl. I undoubtedly have no feelings for her. She is as young as my daughter. I just feel joy when I see her very happy about her marriage.”

May my son have a wife like her!  I am afraid to say that her presence in my life “No, no, I didn’t mean in “my life”, I mean her presence “here” has restored the pulse of life to me and also brought back some pain with it.

 “The matter is not a matter of a successful marriage.  It is a matter of happiness.” 

He saw a car in front of the new weds apartment; a lady and a young lady of the same age as the new bride came down the car with a man of his same age. “This must be the family of the young bride or some of her relatives came to visit her!”

And talked to himself again saying;

It is very nice for a man to keep his relationships with his wife’s family after marriage, and it is nice to have this warmth and connection so that one does not feel lonely or isolated after marriage.

 ”The matter is not a matter of loneliness. It’s a matter of love”

Amr was very upset and half-hearted, his marriage hasn’t continued for a year yet he feels nostalgic for a girl who he met before his marriage, he did not find anything from his beautiful wife that justified his longness for that girl and he said to himself, “I do not understand how the relationship between me and Sara quickly fell apart ..  why does she always insists on being with me at every step I take and at every moment spend, I want a little bit of freedom.

and why doesn’t she drives her car alone every morning instead of insisting on riding with me, then returns alone every day in a taxi!  Why does she wake up when I wake up?  Why does she sleep while I sleep?  I know how tired she is yet she insists that she won’t sleep before I do! Does she enjoy watching me every moment?  Marriage is not an ownership, there must be some privacy! and generally she will not understand me and will think that I want to stay away from her until I have a chance to betray her, I have not betrayed her. I just feel bored and lethargic, I want some freedom, I want to meet my friends without getting calls from her to check on me as she says, but actually to ruin my time. But as for Dina, I feel comfortable with her. I am myself with her. I don’t do anything extra and I do not feel observed”

“The matter is not a matter of freedom, it is a matter of understanding the nature of a man!”

I did not cheat on her, and this is what I will tell her father when I meet him today. It seems that I had rushed into marriage early. I wish my wife looked like “Dina” in her character.

Fatima was also watching the new couple from afar. She lived close to them and could see them every morning, and sometimes at the weekends. Fatima was jealous of that girl, and her jealousy was neither of the new wife nor her beauty, but she was jealous of what this wife had from an elegant young husband who loves his wife and cares for her, as she sees him every day carrying her bags and a bag that may contain lunch, wondering if they even work together in the same place! He returns every day to her early and does not leave her alone in the house, and Fatima returns every day from her work late and always see the elegant young man’s car in its place.

 “The matter is not a matter of marriage, the matter is a matter of love and care.”

Fatima lives with her only daughter after she decided not to think again about marriage. It was her first and last experience – that is what she says to of people – it was a difficult experience that she did not bear, so she decided to get a divorce.

“The matter is not a matter of divorce, the matter is a matter of life!”

On Friday, when the family of the new bride arrived, Mr. Adel decided to enter from his balcony, wishing such a beautiful daughter-in-law for his son and such a life for himself!  Fatima closed the door of her room, crying her loneliness, luck, and sorrow from her marriage, now that she saw in the life of her neighbor how love and marriage must be!