If you have read this story, you would agree with the title: remember how Solomon gave the judgement to cut a living child into two to divide it to give to two contesting mothers?
Instead of Bob, in real (happen to be mine) life the soft brain one was a great friend of mine: Serene. Just like Bob was in his forties as a man when his brain turned soft, Serene was in her early thirties when her biological clock struck.
In place of Fiona, we have John the male version of a gold digger. Interestingly, John was not handsome and tall. In fact he was thin and below average height. There is nothing in his physical build, looks and demeanour that recommended him to be the ideal husband of my friend, Serene.
I am a woman who is straight forward and would call a spade a spade. Because of my wise husband, I was more than civil in my exchanges with Serene's prospective husband. In a way, I was glad that after a parade of accountants, engineers and managers for close to ten years, Serene has finally chosen a male that could provide her with legitimate heirs. By that time, my eldest child was seven and I was quite impatient with my friend's series of failed romances.
One day Serene was complaining about all her family members and relations because they objected to her lover boy. I made it very clear to her that I personally have nothing against her intended. But I brought up the possible points of contention:
1. educational - she has a foreign degree but he might not even have a High School Equivalency
2. station in life - she is a fully qualified accountant but he is not even an executive in construction line
3. back ground - she is a city girl but he was from a village I have never heard of
4. exposure - she is well traveled but he has only been to Singapore and Thailand
5. age - he is a good 14 years older than her
6. Culture - her father went by boat to Australia for his Masters, he used to have 32,000 subordinates before he retired but his father died early leaving a few acres of rubber estate
To every point I stated calmly, she had a clear rebuttal. I chose to keep a few minor points unsaid and wished her the best.
Fast forward 10 years and Serene told me that until her husband joined EE (Evangelistic Explosion), she thought he was a non-believer going to the church as a country club for more than 20 years. I was aghast at that estimation. Well, thank God for EE, we now know that he is a genuine believer from that point on.
They came to visit us in Silver City and I had problem ridding my downstairs toilet of cigarette smell for almost two weeks. I searched the entire house and could not find a single cigarette. My husband and each child had a good laugh at me. Finally I found cigarette butts caught between the sieve and the water outlet. The next time I visited Serene, I asked her maid in confidence. She whispered that she had the very same suspicion as she too had to clean the downstairs toilet many times because of the same complaint. It is amazing that an impostor (John pretended to be a born again Christian) could keep such a fact (he has been a long standing smoker) from his wife for at least 20 years. Either he was darn good at deceiving or she has been really blur. I certainly hope that Serene would meet her Mrs Justice Butler in some form, I wonder if her punishment for disobeying all her near and dear folks (prior to marriage) would have to last until the moment she breathed her last!?
In this case, the gold digger wanted respectability. There would be no divorce. It looks like Serene would just have to tolerate him until one of them passes on. In spite of the many years of difference in age, he looks younger than her and he is fitter than her. She has been supporting him in financial terms practically from month 14 (after marriage) onward. While she gets stressed at work and still comes home to a second shift, he reads newspaper whole day long and has plenty of time to exercise. It really looks like he would out live her and then enjoy her vast fortune that came down from her parents.
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