La Quimera

Writer reflects on his unhappy marriage. It is only because they have three children that he & his wife, Zena, do not separate. Zena has a terrible disposition & is never satisfied with anything he does, even when he serves her breakfast in bed & cooks dinner. She says he is inconsiderate of her and claims he has wasted her life. It occurred to him that her sister's husbands all died suspiciously & he wondered if he had married into a family of murderers. He attempted to find a mistress, but failed, so he invented one in his mind named Olga, who was having trouble with her husband. She visited him several times & each time his wife scolded him for talking to himself. He was going to run away with Olga, but by coincidence finds a note from his daughter asking him not to leave. Olga gets drunk & is seduced by a co-worker at the office, after which she decides to go back to her husband. Writer realizes he can invent more like her.