News Flash
Thursday, May 22, 2008
News Flash
So much for a boring neighborhood.
You would think that when your neighborhood is dominated by old people and young children, it'd leave very little room for any form of excitement or thrills. That has been the case for the most part of my stay in this neighbor, although there was a minor episode a couple of years ago when a maid decided to jump down from the 16th floor of my condominium because she was pregnant with her employer's baby, or something like that. She fell to her death, there was a police investigation done to the residences of this block, and that was the end of it as far as I was concerned. My mother only told me about the incident about five years after it happened because she thought that I was too young to handle the mental image of a maid lying in a pool of her own blood and other bodily fluids downstairs in the parking lot. She was there when the police closed off the area and she said that it wasn't exactly a pretty sight to behold. Let's be honest here, throw anything off the edge of a 16th story window and it is not going to be a pretty sight.
Anyway, it has been a boring neighborhood for the most part, but I guess one shouldn't ask for more when it comes to such things. It is a safe and comfortable place, and I guess no one is really complaining about the uneventful way of things. We do have the occasional festive celebrations downstairs by the swimming pool, but the horrendous music that they play are usually not to my liking very much. There was one year when they played uncensored Eminem lyrics to little children as well, something which the parents failed to notice for one reason or another. Anyway, I think things have changed over the past few years, with the new Thai restaurant's opening. That drew in hordes of residences every evening, and that little area between the restaurant and the swimming pool has been suddenly turned into some sort of bar - it's pretty interesting I must say.
Reading that little newspaper article above gave me the chills somehow, because I think I know who that Australian man is. There aren't a lot of short and plump Caucasian men around with curly hair to boot, and I have seen him around with his daughter and wife every once in a while. His wife owns the restaurant downstairs with his sisters or something, and he can be seen hanging around the restaurant with his daughter or just with some friends over a few cups of cold beer. He's always been a really nice person to me, be it in the restaurant itself or just inside the claustrophobic elevator in our block. I've seen him around children, he does seem to be the kind of fun uncle you'd like your children to have, and the thought of him doing such a thing never actually crossed my mind before. It's a little disconcerting at times if you think about it, the way the most ordinary people that you know are also capable or horrible things like that. Who could have thought that that same man we've seen around the neighborhood was the same guy that pushed his wife out of the window? It was unthinkable, and it's still a little hard to stomach even after my sister told me the story.
I was having breakfast this morning when she told me, and the food just somehow got stuck midway between the plate and my mouth. I thought to myself at that very moment, just how many times I have personally conversed with that man and thought him to be a nice person. I guess, when it comes down to it, nobody is going to remain the same. People change, under different circumstances, and he must have had his reasons to push her out of the window - as much as we condemn the act of doing so. It just makes you wonder about the people around you at times, the possibilities of them being pushed over the edge. It's just so easy to snap these days, anything could be the catalyst of a string of events that could possible spin out of control. I am sure that man never meant for things to turn out the way it did, it was probably a momentary mistake. Still, I've always liked the Thai ladies at the restaurant, they've always been so nice to me. I guess for that, I have to be biased about things and be on the side of the ladies.
People change, and it is scary to think that they can do so with so little conditions involved. You don't need a lot of reasons to snap, just a cumulation of bad news and a very hot day, perhaps. I blame it on the weather partially, but mostly just what went through his mind when he decided that pushing his wife out of the window was the best way to solve the problem. In a way, I guess when you have a family conflict of sorts, the victim is always going to be the children even if they are not directly a part of things. His daughter is cute, a little plump around the waist and always trotting around the estate in her swimming suit. I guess the sight of him carrying her on his shoulders is not going to be very common around here any longer, which is just a pity because nobody likes a broken family, not even when the family isn't your own.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, May 22, 2008 at 1:31 AM.
You can skip to the end and leave a response.
