Opening the trapdoor with one hand and pulling Mai's hair with the other, Bob descended the ladder into the cellar whilst dragging Mai behind him and they arrived at a cell with a metal door and a lock. Before Mai could come to her senses, Bob pushed her into the cell and locked the metal door behind her.
After falling on the cold, stone floor of the cellar, Mai quickly got up and dashed to the metal door. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she said as she sobbed violently, using her eyes to beg her husband to let her out.
"That'll teach ya how to be a good wife, dammit!" sneered Bob as he ascended the ladder and closed the trapdoor behind him, leaving Mai in complete darkness. Suddenly, she heard the scurrying feet of rats behind her.
From that day on, Mai's life was spent in that dark and humid basement. Everyday, Bob would visit Mai and give her food. As time wore on, Mai no longer shrank from Bob's caresses; instead, she acted like a robot with no human feelings. After about a month, Bob began to let Mai out of the cellar in the evenings after arriving home from work.
One evening, Mai asked her husband's permission to call home, as it had been several months since she had talked to her family. Mai's mother answered the phone, and was extremely shocked to hear her daughter's voice.
"Mother, how are you?" said Mai, who was trying to act calm in order to conceal her trembling voice.
"We are very busy," answered Mai's mother as she moved on to talk about how her brother Thanh was struggling with school work and how he was bullied at school due to his incompetency in English. Mai listened to her mother's complaints without saying anything about her own situation, like the good, obedient girl her mother disciplined her to be.
"Well, I can't talk to you anymore," said Mai's mother after she had finished complaining. "I need to go and cook some spaghetti for Thanh's packed lunch tomorrow. Can you believe it? He was laughed at for bringing the spring rolls I made for him! They said the fish sauce smelled disgusting. I don't understand what these Westerners are thinking, but we have to conform to their tastes if Thanh wants to fit in."
"How is father?" asked Mai as she caught a glimpse of her husband's irritated glare from the dining table, signaling that she was on the phone for longer than he pleased.
"Your father is busy teaching Thanh mathematics, it is the only subject he is doing well at school, as it does not need any English," answered Mai's mother. "I really have to go, goodbye."
"Goodbye, mother," replied Mai as she hung up. Immediately, she broke into tears as she couldn't believe that her mother had not asked her how she was and centered their conversation solely on her brother. What she didn't know was that after they hung up, Mai's mother burst into tears beside the telephone table. In fact, she was by no means unworried for her daughter and judging from Mai's voice, she could somehow sense that something was not well with Mai. However, she deliberately avoided the subject, as she felt that she could do nothing for Mai, now that the latter is married.
Bob, who was suspicious that Mai had been tattletaling on him, grabbed Mai's hair angrily and violently sent her back into the basement.
~To be Continued~
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