She Has News (Flash Fiction #26)

Image by jplenio from Pixabay

“Yashin, you can’t stop talking, can you? Every time we chat, you have such bad news about mass shootings, Asians being attacked on the streets of New York, or some other disasters. When you exhaust the U.S. news, you talk about Mongolians’ invasion of Burma in the 13th century.” Lalin complains.

“Lalin, that’s my current history research. You know all the troubles of Burmese came from the Mongol invasion. Before that point, the Kingdom of Pagan has been flourishing for 300 years and it’s a prosperous era, but ever since the invasion, Burma has never regained their peace. Mongols, Manchus, British Empire, Japanese of WWII. They just don’t give the Burmese a breathing space.”

“Yashin, please, can we talk about something else? Something nice, fluffy, optimistic, rosy…” Lalin says.

“Lalin, human history is not rosy. Neither are current events.” Yashin insists.

“Let’s walk around and do some shopping.” Lalin tries to introduce some diversions.

They go to the grocery stores and then to the wood floor shop to look at floor samples as Lalin is considering remodeling her living room.

As Lalin is talking with the owner of the store about choosing maple or mahogany, Yashin starts to talk with the shop assistant about windows. The store also does window installation and Yashin needs to replace two windows that can’t be locked because of the misaligned bolts.

“It’s dangerous to have such windows, don’t you think? I hate it. Right now, it is not a peaceful era. I hear all these shootings, death, unrest. Just to hear the news everyday is causing me anxiety. What if there’s an intrusion and I am dead? You know I didn’t think about death so often before, but right now I think about death a lot…” Yashin says.

Suddenly the owner of the store stops talking with Lalin and turns towards Yashin, “Out. You are not welcome here. You are such bad influence. Out.”

Yashin is stunned. And momentarily she doesn’t know what to do and what has caused such a outburst. The owner grabs the soft broom behind the door and uses it as a stick to drive Yashin towards the door.

Lalin and Yashin are both scandalized and outraged by his behavior. They walk out of the door together while shouting back at the owner.

At the parking lot, the shop assistant runs out of the store and catches up with them.

“Sorry about this. The owner is quite bad tempered. The business is slow and he’s not in a good mood. You really shouldn’t mention death in his store. It is very unlucky to mention death, fall, bankrupt, down, fail. Whenever he hears such words mentioned, he is going nuts.”