"This will be our bedroom," said Bob Summerton as Mai followed him up the narrow flight of squeaky, wooden stairs, dragging her cumbersome suitcase behind. The small bedroom on the second floor of the house could barely fit a double bed.
"Look! This is the dressing table my late wife used to use. Now it's all yours. Do you like it?" asked Bob with the unfathomable smile still on his face whilst pointing to a dilapidated, termite-bitten dressing table squeezed into the far end of the room.
Without any knowledge of the English language, Mai was unable to understand what Bob was saying, but could just about guess their meaning by observing closely his body language and gestures. In reply to his query, Mai put on her forced smile and nodded, trying to stop her tears from trickling down her cheek.
After the house tour, the couple sat down at the round table. Bob glanced at his watch and realized that it was already past dinner time. Without warning, he picked up the newspaper irritably and shouted, "Go cook some dinner, you lazy woman! I didn't marry you so you can be a lady, dammit!"
At first, Mai could neither understand what her husband was saying nor comprehend his sudden rise in temper. However, after seeing Bob pointing at the rusty stove, she immediately understood and hurried over to cook some food.
Mai, beautiful, wealthy and intelligent, who was the daughter of a wealthy Vietnamese merchant, had lived in the world for eighteen years with very little to vex her. She had never cooked at home, neither had her mother, as they used to have a maid to do all the house chores. Therefore, standing in front of the rusty kitchen stove, she was clueless what to do. After Mai had taken ages to cook, Bob has finally lost his patience. He stormed towards the stove, and after seeing that Mai had accidentally burnt his pot, slapped her violently on the face, causing Mai to fall on the floor, crying.
"You useless woman, you don't even know how to cook!" bellowed Bob furiously. "Then what do I need you here for? You can't even do what a wife's supposed to do!"
"Wait a minute, there is something that you can do," said Bob as he smiled a sinister smile whilst slowly advancing towards Mai.
~To be Continued~
No comments:
Post a Comment