In Continuum.

Lady Vengeance

This is the second time Deuel has done this to me. The first time it happened, it was somewhere in the middle of September, and even his neighbor's dogs were reluctant to unleash their fury on me. That was because on September afternoons, everything is just a degree or two higher than usual. There I was standing outside the gates of his house, subliming to the excruciating heat of the late autumn morning. His family was out at a church service of some kind, and they apparently forgot all about the bunch of friends who were supposed to visit his house for our weekly study sessions. I was stuck outside his house to count dog barks in the neighborhood, and I did single-handedly stir up quite an uproar in the canine community because I was a stranger sitting outside Deuel's gates like an idiot most of the time. There was nothing I could have done at that time, so I waited outside his house for the family to come home. They returned after about twenty minutes, and I was allowed into the house finally. Just when you think such things won't happen again, it happened again about half an hour ago.

As planned, we were supposed to meet at Deuel's place at noon and after his gym session in town with Jonno. Kania and Sherry were supposed to join us as well, but they were still in school when I arrived. So I got off the cab, paid the driver and he drove off without even turning back - though he could have done so to save me from the predicament that was looming above my head. I pressed on the doorbell outside his house, and the familiar voice of his maid answered the intercom. Here's the conversation that ensued.

Lady Vengeance," Who is this."
Me," Hi, I'm Deuel's friend?"
Lady Vengeance," Deuel is not in!"
Me," Oh, OK..."
Lady Vengeance," You call him!"
[Lady Vengeance hangs up]

To say that I was shell shocked would be an understatement of some kind. After all, being shell shocked would mean that you have survived a certain traumatic experience, to have avoided the bomb exploding in your face during the war, and live to tell about it. I don't think I am shell shocked, because I think I am the direct victim of Lady Vengeance's ferocity, her ugly attitude towards myself and myself only. She has this thing against me, something which I am not so sure of. I don't think anybody in this world has as much unknown hatred for me as her, because I haven't spoken to her for more than five lines in my entire life. To despise a person with so little words being exchanged is beyond me. Anyway, so there I was standing outside his gates, bewildered that the maid just left me out in the sun like that, left me standing there like a complete idiot like the other time when the family was out for the church service. So I called Deuel, and he in turn scolded his maid for putting me outside. A few seconds later, the gates opened and I was allowed into the house. She was there at the front door as I came through, and she cursed under her breath at something which I did not catch. Of course, I did not put too much attention to her, because I couldn't care less about her any longer.

I came into the familiar living room and went upstairs where we would usually study as a group. Nobody was there yet, and only his maid and his mother were on that floor when I arrived. His mother was on the phone talking to a lady called Cynthia or something like that, and the strange thing was how his mother was talking to her with the loudspeakers of the phone turned on, while pressing the phone to her ears. I wonder if that is going to cause any permanent damage to her hearing, but at the same time I wanted to say 'Hi' to the lady of the house. So I waited for the conversation on the phone to end while his maid busied herself around the workspace. However, as I stood there like an idiot, it was clear that the phone conversation wasn't going to end anytime soon. His mother started talking really loudly on the phone, saying something about going somewhere in a hurry, and that she didn't have time to talk. Hanging up the phone, she cursed - for the first time in front of me - and slammed the phone down on the table. In between her fury, she managed to squeeze in a hasty greeting to me, which I answered with a smile on my face. Lady Vengeance on the other, stood in the corner with the same fire burning in her eyes for no apparent reason at all.

The situation was awkward, terribly uncomfortable at that. I mean, his mother was screaming into the receiver about running out of time, the top of head blowing through the roof. Then there was Lady Vengeance, pulling up the curtains and setting up the tables as if I just ordered the quartering of her entire family, or raped her daughter or something like that. She was pulling the curtains so hard that she could have tore down the whole window, and there I was waiting like a fool. I needed a hole to bury myself, I needed a room to lock myself in the whole day. So I helped myself into the guest room and pretty much locked myself inside until Lady Vengeance came and knocked on my door. I opened it and asked her what it was that she wanted, and here's what took place in the doorway of the guest room.

Lady Vengeance," OI! DON'T EAT HERE!"
Me," Erm, what?"
Lady Vengeance," DON'T EAT HERE!"
Me," I don't have food."
Lady Vengeance," YOU ALWAYS EAT HERE!"
Me," No, I don't."

But what I really wanted to say was.

Me," I don't always eat here, because you don't provide anything for the lot of us. Not once have you served us any food, or any drinks, or even tree barks from your fancy garden. We live worse than some North Korean children starving their intestines out. You treat us like some prisoners of war, or some stray dogs in a third world country, or even Jewish workers in Auschwitz. I try to be a good person, and I try to be a good guest. I try to put up a smile every single time we come to your house, and you are the one who always shows up at the front door with that fat ugly face of yours just because you don't like me for some unknown reasons. I take a cab to your house every weekend, and every one of those cab rides costs money. If those money were actually saved up for something else, I could have bought your whole family over to my house, that is where I stand in the society and this is where you stand.

You don't treat me like some insolent teenager just because you are older, and have worked in the same house for over ten years. Age is just a number, and everything is only relative. If you are going to show me your fucked up attitude, you are not speaking much about both your maturity and your intelligence. I could have said the above paragraph a million times to you because of how you have treated me and some of my friends, but I haven't because I try to be nice, I try to be good to people. I'm not like you, and you should have the basic decency to keep your opinions to yourself, or blog it if you know how to type at all. It's pathetic how you have been here for more than ten years and you can barely speak anything that I can understand. If a person is hated by her dogs, it speaks a lot about that person's character and personality. I have seen dogs shunning away from dog shit and rotten food, and that also means that you have a rotten attitude and shit for brains. Don't come and judge who I am and who I am not, because I am not judging you as the maid of the house. But you are forcing me to make these assumptions about you, and that is just too bad on your part. If you are not happy about it, swim your way back to your hometown because you won't even be getting the cheapest sampan from the Wong family once they hear what I have to say about your rotten attitude. By the way, your home-made bread SUCKED - big time. I won't even eat it UPSTAIRS even if you SERVE it to me. Those are the kind of bread they serve in HELL. So fuck you, you pathetic maid. And to hell with your disgusting bread."

So that's that, that would have been my speech to Lady Vengeance, if she were to accuse me of spilling food all over the guest room the next time around. I mean, I like Deuel, and I do think that his house is a great place to study. The guest rooms are nice, the giant entertainment system is nice, his mother is nice - when she is not pissed off. Lady Vengeance is the only reason why I would want to stay away from that place for the rest of my life. It is either she goes, or I leave the house forever, no questions asked. The next time she throws me one of her tantrums, I am going to retaliate like no one in the house ever did before. Pick on someone who actually has the ability to fight back, and not just Deuel's grandfather. He is old, give him a break. If you want to confront me, don't curse in a language I don't understand. Learn your language before you start judging me, mindless prick.

P.S. You smell like rotten socks and dog saliva.