Deeds of a Careless Husband
Author: Refioe Billy Mooi
Editor: Thandi Mooi
Deeds of a Careless Husband
What qualifies a man to be regarded as a good husband? One might say: Love, compassion and the desire to go above and beyond for his wife, let alone the kids. Dyson McCoy was all those things upon getting married to his beautiful wife Lydia and I dare-say that he certainly loved her with all his might.
What went wrong? Things began to rain on their parade when Dyson voluntarily gave in to making poor decisions and without communicating with his wife. He was a passionate non-fiction novelist, yet that very passion of his eventually caused him to disown his duties as a husband. Dyson McCoy had tried countless times to have his work published, yet a cloud of failure kept itself suspended upon him.
The McCoys were not rich but they led a very decent life, Dyson worked as a carpenter and he was very good at his work. The amount of money he earned monthly was enough to maintain their lifestyle, and to keep poverty at arm’s length. Lydia on the other hand was a self-employed seamstress, so she was able to lend a hand where need be.
They had been married for more than fifteen years, and a lot of people admired their marriage, some envied them. What’s more, Dyson McCoy made sure to keep their love set alight by exercising small yet heart-warming acts of love towards his wife, and Lydia McCoy found so much delight in those acts.
Lydia was very happy with the life they had achieved, they had a small apartment in Cape Town, and a simple car, one that could easily move them from one point to another without troubling them, and that was wealth to Lydia, but her husband wanted more, he wanted to become a well-known novelist and he believed that he would make a large amount of money from his novel because it was a great novel, one that had taken him an approximate of thirteen years to complete.
One day, Dyson McCoy received an email from a publishing house, declaring that they loved his novel and the nice part is that those publishers were based in Cape Town. Both Dyson and Lydia were very happy about the news, one could readily say that they were both bright-eyed and bushy-tailed about the matter. Dyson was very blessed to have a tender-minded wife like Lydia, merely because she had always believed in him, and when he was down-hearted, Lydia would make it her duty to uplift his mood.
Dyson went on to meet up with the publisher to further discuss what lay ahead regarding his novel. The publisher’s name was Richard and he was known to have published a lot of renowned authors, yet this time around, his intentions were not genuine. Upon submitting his manuscript (Novel), Dyson was also asked to write a motivational letter, and in that very letter, he had disclosed just how happy he would be should his novel be published, his words leaned on desperation.
Richard saw an opportunity to prey on Dyson McCoy since he was obviously desperate, he made him an offer and one that went against morality. He set the contract in front of him and listed all the benefits Dyson would get should he uphold his end of the bargain, including a large amount of money he would get as an advance.
He then told Dyson that he can only sign the contract if he gives him permission to have relations with his wife. Richard’s request was ungodly and immoral, what’s more, Dyson was meant to dismiss everything at hand, but he agreed to it.
Fortunately; despite having fondness for her husband, Lydia refused to have relations with Richard merely to have Dyson's novel published. If anything, her husband’s impulsive decision-making clearly showed her that he was more in love with his ambitions than their marriage and with that reality at hand, she requested that they separate, and no one could blame her, Dyson had surely lost his mind.
His novel was brilliant but it was not worth putting his marriage in danger, all he needed was patience. Sadly, his impulsive thinking destroyed his marriage and he lost the contract as well since it was initially not founded on sensible grounds. His “Deeds” were surely “Careless”.
Author: Refioe Billy mooi
Editor: Thandi mooi
Copyright: © 2026 Refioe Billy Mooi
