The Argument

Short Play, Short Story 2 Minutes

Fang Senior: “What are you doing, son? Are you reading?”

Fang Junior: “I’ve been blocked for a week and nothing comes to my mind. What else can I do but to read?”

Fang Senior: “Show me what you are reading.”

Fang Junior: “Dad, come on. You’ve lived in Philadelphia for decades, but I’ve never seen you read a book in English. You even read your recipe book in Thai. Well, if you insist, look. This is what I’m reading.”

Fang Senior: “‘Writers are vain, selfish, and lazy.’ Hahaha. If that’s the criteria for a writer, you’ve already been one.”

Fang Junior: “I’ve learned to treat your perpetual negative opinion of me as a source of strength. Nothing encourages me more than trying to prove you are wrong.”

Fang Senior:”Look, I’m not trying to be an overbearing parent, but I have to say you need to do something. You are a college graduate. You can’t just stay at home every day, not doing a thing. How about come to ‘Thai Palace’ today and work as a waiter or do delivery? I will pay you.”

Fang Junior: “I’ll pass. Whenever I work in your restaurant, I stop having any appetite for food.”

Fang Senior: “How about go to work for your uncle? His warehouse needs a helping hand.”

Fang Junior: “He barely keeps the temperature above the freezing point in the office, and I have to wear my gloves and dress like a polar bear to type his reports on freight forwarding. I am not going there unless I want to turn myself into an icicle.”

Fang Senior: “Your mother had an idea and I think it’s a good one. Your uncle’s friend Brother Lam from Thailand is coming to visit with his wife and daughter, who’s going to apply to graduate school here. Brother Lam does good business, you know, with your uncle for a decade at least. They need someone to show them around in the city and on campuses. Since you don’t have much to do, your mother told your uncle…”

Fang Junior: “Showing people around and translating? That’s the worst job in the world. And I bet you also want me to date the daughter, marry her, and have a child right away. I’m not going to do it.”

Fang Senior: “Why not? You don’t have anything else going on in your life. Instead of sitting here, being a parasite, you might as well do something.”

Fang Junior: “I am not going to sacrifice myself in your outdated altar.”

Fang Senior: “Excuse me, am I outdated? You have no respect for your family and your parents. You are vain, selfish and lazy, which can be best cured by sending you to a tropical jungle, and let you stay with tribes of cannibals for a year. They marinate people for dinner, drinking out of your scull, making sculptures out of your bones. Are you listening to me? What are you doing? What are you writing?”

Fang Junior: “Dad, don’t stop. Continue, please. What a great idea–a cannibal is exactly what I need for my sci-fi fantasy. You are wonderful. You cured my writer’s block.”

Published by haoyando

Published

24 thoughts on “The Argument”

        2. Haha, Yup you got this — you will not be defeated by typos. You will just co-exist with the power of peace and love 😂✌️💙

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  2. WOW, I must say that your literary penning on this peace has shown you once again to be very adept and creative 🙌👍😄

    “I’ve been blocked for a week and nothing comes to my mind. What else can I do but to read?”

    Writer’s block is real; I’ve been blocked so many times that I can take each block and make a Misery Mansion 🤣.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      1. Hahaha you are welcome. I will take your assiatnce anyday buddy, we’ll join forces and triumphantly break the “blocks” tai-chi style 🤣🤣.

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        Reply

        4. That is extremely interesting lol. On WordPress.com if you make a comment on your own blog you can go back and edit it at anytime once you are logged in, and you usually see the “Reply” or “Edit” buttons at the bottom of each individual comment.

          You can usually edit your comment or another comment submitted by someone else as long as they are comments made to your site.

          I suspect that either the particular theme/layout that you are using does not show the “edit” button at the bottom of the post which could be due to a glitch, or that the particular theme that you are using is set up that way by default and you may be able to change it in the “settings” mode lol.

          Have you tried using another theme/layout?

          Liked by 1 person

        6. Haha you are so welcome 💙💙. You can also add “/wp-admin” at the end of your site’s url (haoyando.net/wp-admin) to access the WordPress admin dashboard, then look for the “comments” section and from there you can edit the comments on your profile lol

          Liked by 1 person

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