Behind Closed Doors

Chapter 14

Emily diced the carrots, occasionally glancing at Ma, who was cleaning the fish. She admired the older woman's cooking skills, hoping to be as good someday.

"Ma..." she called.

"I can hear ya," Ma said, still cleaning the scales off the fish.

"Sorry if I'm intruding, but... how long have you and Jay been married?" Emily asked, gently pausing her carrot dicing.

"Oh, my darling, you're not intruding," Ma laughed. "You're so formal," she joked. "Well, we've been married for over thirty-six years now,"

Emily looked at her in amazement, seeing the old woman blush as she spoke. Thirty-six years? Wow.

"Wow," Emily said, carefully placing her knife on the chopping board. "Thirty-six, that's older than I am," she remarked.

"Well, we are in our sixties, so..." Ma said, smiling at Emily. "We have three children, but they're all out of the state. One is in the US army, one is a wildlife researcher, and our only baby girl is a registered nurse," she said.

Emily watched Ma smile ear to ear. She was genuinely happy, and this must be what a normal, happy family was like. Unfortunately, she would never have it. But she was genuinely happy for them—they were very nice people and deserved every good thing they could get. She wondered what it would have been like if she had grown up with her real family.

"Your home is blessed, Ma," Emily said, laughing.

"You're so kind, Emily, thank you..." Ma said. They both returned to what they were preparing.

Ma stopped cleaning the fish and looked at Emily dicing the carrots. She caught a glimpse of her ring again. She couldn't control the urge to ask,

"Are you married, Emily?" she asked.

Emily stopped dicing the carrots and looked at the old woman, who stared at her, waiting for an answer. She couldn't bring herself to say anything. She lowered her eyes back to the chopping board before replying in a small voice.

"I was," she replied sadly, hoping Ma would not be judgmental. "Not anymore..."

There was silence as Ma stared at her, and Emily tried her best to look away.

"You're divorced?" Ma asked curiously, dropping the clean fish into a bowl.

"Not exactly, I..." she moved her right hand to her head to scratch it. "I ran away..." she said.

Ma was quiet once again.

"Is that why you have refused to eat or sleep properly since you came here?" Ma asked. "Was that the reason?"

Emily was quiet, staring at the chopping board with sadness in her eyes.

"I guess you don't want to talk about it," Ma said. "It's fine if you don't want to, maybe another time," she turned on the tap and let it run in the fish bowl.

"It's going to be lightly seasoned as Jay doesn't like many spices," Ma said, diverting the topic of conversation.

"Alright," Emily replied. "What spices will we be using?"

"Just salt and paprika pepper," Ma said.

"Alright, I'll go get them," Emily said, walking to the cabinet to bring out the salt and paprika pepper from the different variety of spices.

"It's quite confusing to identify which is which," Emily said, looking at the writing on the body of the jars. "How do you know how to cook so much?"

Ma smiled. "I used to live with Indians and some black people in college then, it was a burst of flavors!" She snapped her fingers.