Friday, October 21, 2011

(548) Permanent Tiredness

Last night I went to have Cantonese Fried Yee Mee as dinner. The cook deep fried the coiled dried noodle. The he poured a thick transparent sauce with egg drops, green vege, fish cake, pork pieces, and two prawns onto the crispy noodles. It was delicious!

The stall owner cooks. His wife prepares the ingredients for him to work on and the foreign maid serves. I must have either ordered from them or walked past them a hundred times in the last ten years. Last night I really looked at the wife. She moved around like a robot. Her face betrayed no emotions. She must have been tired for years.

While I was enjoying my meal, I thought of Aurora's mother. From day to day, the latter also went about her business like an automaton. Both a cook's wife and a fruit shop owner work long hours and hardly take a day off. Apart from the long and tiring work day, these ladies are mothers. They are wives too. There are things they need to do for their children at home. Late at night, they still have to reserve time and energy for their husbands.

No wonder Aurora used to love coming to visit Elizabeth. She soaked up all the attention I lavished on Elizabeth and her. While it is good to have one's parents in business, the steady flow of cash eases one's way in life. But a child that grows up in such families tend to feel neglected and unloved. I wonder how such a background would affect Aurora's relationship with her future children?

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