Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 4567 | Page 361

‘What did you raise her with? Dust? We could barely pay the rent back then. And if I could’ve found a
job—‘
‘You’re a woman! Who do you think you are? All you had to do was take care of the children and
you—“
‘And watch our family lose the apartment? Because you couldn’t work hard enough? No. So I had to
carry the burden. I had to find ways around your stupid rules and support my daughter to get educa—‘
‘Those were innocent people! Did you know how shameful it was? Neighbours wont even come
close to us because we looked like thieves. everything could’ve all been fine if you stayed at home and
took care of Mei.’ Ping Ann sighed heavily as she looked away from her useless husband and to the
small tiny windows near the ceilings on the other side of the glass. She twisted the dirty orange
telephone wire around in her bony freezing fingers and then looked down on her hands
This all felt very familiar. But not the good type of familiarity but the type which makes her happy that
it was in the past. She was tired of explaining herself to him. Tired of trying to make him understand.
She was not a great mother, but she provided when her daughter dreamed big about prosperous
futures. She was not a great wife, but she tried to love him unconditionally, took the time and effort.
‘I am a woman and I found a way to earn more then you back then. So what? Deal with it. It was
illegal, I know, but I hear you had no issue spending it.’
‘Who told you that?’ He demanded.
‘Getting out in a few weeks, staying at one of my friend’s place since she agreed to take me in for a
while. We’ve been writing to each other.’ It made him shiver with contempt and hatred, he wanted to
kill her, stab her to death, and all that held him back was the thick glass between them. He couldn’t
comprehend how his obedient wife has turned into this atrocious monster. ‘You tell your goons to stay
away from my daughter, you hear me?! Don’t let this filth take her away from me!’
‘The filth that also stained the money you used to raise our daughter? You’re ridiculous!’ she laughed
coldly.
‘And you’re a criminal!’ He snickered boisterously ‘She is never going to call you her mother. And
your letters, I threw everyone of them in the trash because I was worried that they carried bad luck!’
There was a long awkward pause. He wanted to hurt her. For everything. For the embarrassment she
brought to him, for all the times he had to braid little Mei’s hair in the morning because the women
who was in charged of all this nonsense was locked up.
She just looked bored and tired. Like this dark and nasty place have devoured her soul, her energy. It
irritated him that she didn’t flinch a bit, alongside the fact that he was irritated which annoyed him even
more.
‘I’m sure you didn’t transfer god knows how many bus stations just to come here and insult me.’ She
whispered over the phone.
‘ Stay away from my daughter.’ His grasp on the telephone loosened, as he slammed it back onto the
beam next to him. He left Ping Ann siting on the other side, bitter. It spread inside of her, like a virus,
as vivid and ethereal moments that she shared with little Mei played again and again inside her head.
She was bitter not because her husband tried to insult her, but because he chastised her effectively by
not letting her see their daughter. She could never finish paying her penance, to him, to the
government, to those people that trusted her, but since when was trying to support her own family a
crime?