The Nephew

“This girl has such a bad temper. She should get punished. Only then would she understand the difficulties that parents go through,” Landlady grumbled about her daughter early this morning as I was about to go to work.

Mother and daughter had yet another shouting match this morning.

Anyway, the daughter had already been punished enough when her parents decided to divorce many years back. So there......

“I hope you don't mind me giving your phone number to my nephew. Has my nephew contacted you?” Landlady asked me, hiding her enthusiasm and curiosity without much success.

“Yes. We went out for dinner two days ago,” I answered in a non-committal voice.

Then came that annoying question: “So what do you think about him?”

“Well…” I shrugged, looked at the kitchen sink and kept quiet because I really didn’t know what I should say.

In just one hour over dinner two days ago, I managed to get Nephew Dude to tell me the story of his life. I had said we could have dinner at any place that's not too fanciful. But Nephew Dude opted for one particular expensive eatery.

Nephew Dude just started working in the Sales Department of Company XYZ about a year ago. He said he’s managed ten businesses before- a series of entrepreneurial endeavours that opened and then closed, like various books that got thumbed through and then thrown aside. Like how I got used and dumped by (in)famous M.

His dad just had a surgery. And he has two kids to take care of. Let’s just call these two kids Christopher and Melissa.

On a typical school day, Nephew Dude would wake up real early to fetch his kids to school. Then he’d spend some time sleeping at his office car-park before heading to his office just when work is about to start for the day.

“I’ve been through some really difficult times previously… Gone through some counselling,” he mentioned, and then quickly added, “but I’m OK now.”

“My two kids aren’t that good in their studies. So I make sure they do well in at least something. Both of them love sports. At least they’re doing something to keep them off the streets. At one time, my son went through a tough time. He’d hang out with all those bad street kids. Once, he stole $600 from his grandfather to go buy anime collectibles…”

I suddenly felt this strong urge to ask one strange question: How did you meet your ex-wife?

And so I got my answer. Nephew Dude used to teach in a language school. He met his ex-wife there. His ex-wife was from Vietnam.

“A few months after Melissa was born, my wife walked away from the family. She stayed with another man. Always got herself drunk and took drugs,” Nephew Dude said.

“At one time, me and my kids together with my dad had stayed with my elder sister. My sister and I are no longer on talking terms. When she sold the apartment we were staying in, me , my kids and my father had to stay in a small room. We had nowhere to go……”

“I just got a new place for my kids and father. I’ve been so busy with my work I’ve not had time to unpack all my things. My sister is an interesting person. She divorced her husband and stayed with another man. They fought a lot. She had two kids with this man but didn’t get married until recently.”

Then came this other strong urge in me to ask him one other personal question: How did your ex-wife die?

“I really don’t know how she died. She probably got high and jumped off a building,” Nephew Dude answered.

“My son was very sad because he was quite close to his mother. Melissa didn’t really feel anything when her mother died. Her mother walked out on us when she was only a baby.”

Yeah. Same as to how M had walked out on his wife and family about 4 years ago, dragged me into his life along the way and then dumped me. Which silly girl could resist the charm of this piece of shit who had enthralled a nation or two with his amazing story-telling skills?

On the day before I had gone out with Nephew Dude, I had called Madam Professional Counsellor to seek her advice on this whole dating business because this is happening not too long after my bad experience with M.

Madam Professional Counsellor had already kinda forgotten about me. I really can’t fathom as to how she ended up as a “professional counsellor” when she’s obviously as full of shit as any other shitty person out there on the streets.

This “professional counsellor” is so full of shit that she actually said “Oh, that’s wonderful news” when I told her that my Landlady is trying to matchmake me with her nephew who already has two kids and a dead ex-wife whom he sometimes still refers to as “my wife”.  

So-called pro counsellor probably only managed to hear, “My Landlady is trying to matchmake me with her nephew,” and simply interpreted the rest of my sentence as unimportant gibberish that should just be ignored.

Anyway, I didn’t bother to ask Nephew Dude if I could pay for my share of dinner that night. The bill came to almost $100 for the types of food you could get from any other restaurant for about half that price, or even lesser.

When he drove me back to my apartment, Nephew Dude said he’d like to see me again. When I got out from his car, he said “see you” but I said “bye”.

I’m already too tired to be considerate to men.

Damn you, M. Bet you’re happy there’s a strange man out there who’s suddenly thrown into the story of my stupid life.  Now go ahead and keep telling the world how passionate you are about helping the poor and downtrodden.