The Veríssimo Project

With time, the couple developed a code to communicate from afar in social situations. When he rubbed his nose it meant "let's leave". When she tugged her left earlobe it meant "be careful," usually his cue to change the subject of conversation. Pulling at her right earlobe meant "stop drinking". If he then spun his wedding ring around his finger it meant "don't be a pain". If she then proceeded to scratch her chin, it was "you're gonna pay".
That night, there was some confusion over the signals. Later on, at home, she yelled: "Didn't you see me practically rip my left ear off?!" He was supposed to have changed the subject, but he had been drinking and confused the left ear with the right and thought the message concerned his drinking. Thus, while spinning his ring around his finger, he continued to tell the story he had heard, laughing. The one with the broom.
It happened during Carnaval. The woman came back from the beach early, in the middle of the night, and walked into her husband as he left the house, in a sarong. If he had not been wearing a sarong, he would have made up a story to justify the fact that he was leaving the house in the middle of the night. A sudden craving for a pastel, a sick friend, anything. The sarong made any excuse inviable. You can't explain a sarong, you can't deny it. The sarong is the limit of tolerance and civilized dialogue. And, seeing as dialogue was an impossibility, the wife got physical. She went inside to grab the broom. And ran her husband into the house while swinging at him with a broom. With a broom!
- Didn't you know that that story you told happened to them? With the couple that owns the house! the woman was now yelling. You moron!
- How was I supposed to know? I didn't get any names when I heard the story.
- And I was pulling on my ear like an idiot!

Later, in bed, he rationalized:
- They had it coming.
- What?
- She did. You don't hit a man with a broom.
- Oh yeah? And the sarong?
- Doesn't matter. Nothing excuses the broom.
- I don't know...
- She could hit him. But not with a broom.
Irate, as if establishing a dogma:
- Not with a broom!

So the woman said that the worst was over, the damage was done, what they had to do was go over the code, so that that kind of thing didn't happen again.