Translated…
My older sister and I were raised by my maternal grandfather. But, technically, that, wouldn’t be exactly correct, we’d still lived with our parents, it’s just, that we have separate hours. In the morning, it was my maternal grandfather who squeezed the toothpaste onto our toothbrushes, lined them up on the sink, and, for breakfast, my grandfather always cooked yam with rice, and, for lunches, we may have the same things served to us for days in a row. Only at supper, would we get the chance to eat with our parents, maybe. They work at the marketplace stand in Huannan Marketplace in Wanhua, from midnight to noon to even, the afternoons, after they’d drained their energies completely, they return home, with nothing more to do, but sleep it all off.
As for the nightly supper get-together, after seven, my mother jokingly told her relatives and friends who are all there, “I’m going home to sleep, take a short rest, then, I’m up and running, to Menjia to make more money again!”, she’d smiled that playful smile, and that, is when some of the folks would don’t know any better, with their eyes, opened up wide, kept their mouths shut tight, fearing, that they might blurt out something, and they’d all wondered, how she could be so blunt about what she did for a living.
“Ah, I am, selling in Menjia!”, and I did see, those ladies who sold in Menjia too. Young men! Come on in! Underneath those resting areas, the ladies wore low-rise, colorful dresses, or, they’d, sat still, on a parked motorcycle, with their gazes, into the distance, like they’re waiting for someone, or not, wasting their lives away, with thickly powdered face, but not manage to cover up the years that’s left their faces skewed! Oh, come on, think about it! Do you want some? She looked at how I still walked straight, ignoring her, actually, I was afraid of disappointing the ladies, because I was merely, passing by.
And, how would grandpa look upon them?
My grandfather kept a pair of his dress shoes on the lanai, he didn’t wear it normally, he’d only put them on, during some times when I don’t get in my childhood years.
That would be when after noon, when my parents returned from the marketplaces and hollered out to us, “Where’s grandpa?”, we’d tell them that he’s out, hadn’t come back yet, might be shopping, or, gone to chit chat with his friends. My mother would turn her head, and looked over at the lanai, without the shoes. She said, he’d gone to see the whores in Menjia! I thought she’d meant like the television, drifters who just, hung around out, and, the truth is exactly like so, without burdens of making a living for him. My mother would head into the kitchens, to prepare the meals, and, lunch would be served then.
Only at this time, no matter how tired my mother was, she’d prepared a full meal, which nothing was spared by the family, not waiting for my maternal grandfather to come home, after the four of us finishes, she’d ordered us to go take our naps, and, after our naps, grandpa would be home again. My mother had the rare chances to accompany us for nap, there was a picture of my grandmother next to the bed, once she’d said, mom, you’d died for so very long now, your grandchild is getting older, you know?
And so, would grandma know, how grandpa is treating mom and her siblings?
Supposedly, he’d found one of them, afterwards, he’d shown her a finger, then, she’d pointed he’d lifted up his thumb and pinky then, and, after they’d weighed everything, they’d acknowledged one another, then, entered into the alley, into some old apartment, upstairs, and maybe, he would, put his arms around her shoulders, and be a fitting boyfriend to her.
At the moment when my grandfather was acting as someone else’s temporary boyfriend, only my mother waited for him, not sleeping. At around three in the afternoon, my older sister and I are both awake from our naps, and, grandpa came back in, took off his dress shoes, put them back onto the lanai.
“Pop, you’re home, time to eat!”, the daughter spoke in an understanding tone of voice.
Then, my grandfather would head into his bedroom, take his dress shirt off, then, returned, in a boxer and undergarment, ate his lunch alone on the tables, gulfing the food down, like he hadn’t eaten for days.
And, a very long time afterwards, my middle school classmates and I passed a porn around, about how a husband who came home from work found out that his wife was cheating, how they’d ripped up each other’s clothes, and, they’d had sex like it was a form of punishment, the husband glanced over at the supper table, saw the fried rice she’d made for him, then, sat down, naked, next to the walls, like an animal, used his hands, and ate his meal.
Like he was, so very famished, and, I’d felt, that it looked like my grandfather back then.
And so, maybe, it is the way of things, how the wives are just supposed to turn a blind eye to the husband’s whoring around, and that, just shows, how the sexes are so unequal back then, and, we’d advanced very far already, comparing to the past times…
Life, the Obstacle Course 