The Robot Translator (Flash Fiction Part 9)

Image by kiquebg from Pixabay

This is the 9th part of the story. The previous 8 parts are here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

“Your husband Tram is the best. You told me so and I think so too, although I have only met him several times when he came to pick up Andy after his class. I mean according to what you said, Tram is simple, honest, straightforward, smart. Have a stable job. Earn an engineer’s salary. Easy to be managed by you. None of those narcissistic traits like perpetual lying, bad temper, selfishness etc.” Lulan says.

“Yes, you are right. Now listen to this. I will tell you what it is. He is the best husband among all these husbands I’ve met, but still …” Ayun says.

“Oh, my goodness. Ayun, you can’t expect too much. I have to tell you. Life is all about…” Lulan says.

“For myself, I don’t expect too much. But for my son, I have to expect more. I just realized that. Now let me tell you what it is. Two weeks ago, Andy’s primary school had a bomb and gun scare–it was said a kid brought in a gun and a bomb like object just to show off to his peers. Anyway, to be on the safe side, parents were alerted and kids were sent home early and some kind of bomb squad or safety squad was called in to sweep the school for hidden weapons. Anyway, I had already learned how to deal with such a situation since the school had written and audio material for parents to learn how to talk with their children and help them deal with fear and anxiety. I think the school was just doing the basic stuff–Edison schools are all insufficiently staffed and everybody is overworked there. One can’t expect the school to do more. Anyway, I was talking with Andy about safety and anxiety etc. at night, and having a dialog with him. You know he’s only ten and one has to be very patient while talking with Andy since he has his little quirks and his mild drawls in expressing himself. And out of nowhere, Tram suddenly got excited–he ranted about the doomed world and the violence. Then he started to call his friends to inquire how to purchase a gun. The next day, he went out and got a gun.” Ayun says.

“Well, it just shows Tram wants to be a good father. What’s wrong with that? Ayun, you should relax and let Tram be Tram. Men are like that. They want to be a powerful figure who can solve problems and protect their family.” Lulan says.

“You are right, Lulan. That’s common sense. And it suddenly dawned on me that Tram has been doing this all the time. He uses his logical and expedient thoughts and actions to shut down all the conversations and dialogs. He doesn’t understand that a lot of things require a process rather than a decision. He is sort of saying, ‘now we have a gun. So you should stop complaining about safety issues.’ It’s totally ridiculous. How can Tram’s gun purchase help Andy feel safe at school? It can’t help. What it does is to shut down our talk about it. It seems to me that he is changing this issue about Andy to an issue about himself. He seems to think that if me and Andy are talking about this problem and processing this problem, we are in reality complaining about his inability to defend us… He made me feel that we shouldn’t talk and process this issue anymore.” Ayun says.

“I guess conversation or communication is not Tram’s strong point.” Lulan says.

“You are right again, Lulan. He is not good at conversations, but I am not complaining about this. I am complaining that he doesn’t trust me enough to let me converse and communicate with Andy. And I suddenly realized that he has been doing this all the time, but I have always let him do it and indulged him. For example, what can we do if we face racist remarks or behaviors? You know Tram’s idea of dealing with racism is that other people are wrong and they are racists and we are victims and there are so many injustice in this world. He would just vent his vexation and give an opinion: we are long suffering good guys and other people are oppressive bad guys. That’s it and case closed. However that’s not the way to handle this. A lot of times racism is subtle. Also even if it is not subtle, we have to know how to deal with it, rather than just venting our frustrations. We are minorities, immigrants, Asians, who are under pressure from many different directions. We have to know how to protect ourselves, how to deal with different situations, how to talk in a way that doesn’t cause unnecessary hostilities, how to be mellow and flexible without being too mellow and too flexible, how to stand up for ourselves when it is necessary. There are like 1000 shades in this issue and there are 1000 ways of dealing with it. Andy needs all the help I can give him. How can we know what to do if we don’t constantly learn, improve, talk, share on this very important issue? I want to talk with Andy about this issue and I want him to be open to me if he has ever experienced it. I don’t want him to pretend to me that he is strong–I want him to admit the reality and find the best way to deal with the reality. But I think I have failed Andy because I have for so long caved in to Tram’s pride and inflexibility. I am sure Tram means well, but still he is actually doing harm to Andy. Do you agree with me? What do you do with your son? How about your husband? What does he usually do?” Ayun says.

And what Lulan says really shocks Ayun. Hearing such an account of Lulan’s husband, Ayun decides to stand up to Tram, but little does she know what will transpire. Also Fifi comes back to haunt Ayun and once again Ayun has to fight for her security and well being.

(To Be Continued)