Photograph of silk scarves in Indonesia by Nafinia Putra
Aedgar's voice is written this way
Nerida's voice is like this.
You're telling me that your wife chased you with an axe once? Your sweet, innocent wife? [Laughing]
Well, she had a wrong idea about something.
Mmm, maybe she thought you were with another woman instead of with another man.
Probably.
Jealousy can be a terrible thing.
She was very sweet. Innocent. She just had issues at times. I wasn’t sure what it was about. She might have got annoyed at another point because nothing strange happened that day, except that she came out with the axe.
[Laughing]
"She just had issues sometimes." Photo by Benjamin Balázs
It was quite unexpected.
Oh dear.
But nothing happened.
Because Aiden talked to her?
He always did. She thought he was her best and probably only ally, against me. I wonder what she would have thought if she'd known that she was always talking to the one that she thought was her ally and it was the one that actually was her worst enemy, so to say. He was very diplomatic and sweet.
And charming, yes.
Of course. So she would have never thought about something like it. Jealousy can be simply terrible. I mean, she was very well cared for. She was even loved. Just in a different way.
Yes. But you had something with someone else that she could never have with you.
Indeed.
And part of her must have sensed that. There was always something missing for her.
I wouldn’t put it that way. She was always well cared for. She had a very comfortable life. She had inspirational conversations.
With Aiden?
And with me of course.
Good.
I don’t know what could be considered wrong in this relationship. We even had children. And we all loved the children. Aiden loved the children.
Of course he did. So you think it was some old issue from long ago that triggered the axe incident?
I don’t know what she had on her mind that day because specially on that day, nothing had happened at all. We were just coming back from the city. Doing business --
You and Aiden?
-- with wool. And we had been to the pub, as you would say. It was quite enjoyable. But most of the men did it when they celebrated a successful business. We even got some wonderful silk. And all we got was the axe.
[Laughing]
Didn’t seem to be very grateful at that time. There was a moment when I thought I could have bought the scratchy cotton.
The scratchy cothon?
Cotton. Cotton.
Oh, you could have bought the scratchy cotton instead of the silk. Yes, I understand.
It would have been a good match for that day.
Well, women have hormones sometimes, chemicals in our blood that make our moods a little bit overwhelming.
That’s an excuse that’s over-rated. Has been and will always be.
Okay. You never felt that when you were a woman?
I knew about medicines and how things work. And how I could make things work better. These things were quite effective. So there was actually no excuse for hormones having taken over.
Okay. Sounds like --
Maybe it’s poorly treated --
Nowadays?
-- in your times.
Yes. I believe so.
So many things are going the wrong way. We have to work on that.