Co-translator : Jane
Chapter 12: A Present
Three months later.
Charles opened the door to his mother's house with the familiar scolding sound from across the room, her fury has been growing exponentially since her husband, Joe, lost his job and became a professional drunk.
Charles walked over a garbage bag that his mother blocked at the door preparing to throw it away and watched his father sleep.
His mom stood up and scolded his father for stealing her money to buy liquor.
Mom: “Damn, can't you hear me?”
The boy left his backpack on the dining room table filled with a box of ready-to-eat food from a convenience store.
Mom: “He found a place where I used to hide the money and took it all! Dog! You've never worried about your wife and child starving to death, have you?” The mother put the back of her hand on the unconscious father's chest. He let out a small moan before turning back into a snore. “Today our welfare aspirations and money are gone. Where are your guts, Charles?”
The mother turned and shouted at her son and the young man, frowning, answered.
Charles: “I helped with a part time job, I can't take care of your money, I have to earn mine, if you want you can keep it now.”
Mom: “It's not about the money that I want you to make, I want you to come and help your father so he can go out and earn a living, you go to work and come back late while your mother on top of working has to protect this drunk so he doesn't cause more trouble to the villagers.”
The young man rolled his eyes helplessly.
Charles: “Don't worry, dad will let you go anywhere so you can have time for yourself and be a single woman.”
Alexa approached Charles with a very irritated expression.
Mom: “Are you going to let your mom leave you and are you going to leave your real father?”
Charles sighed.
Having his father at home is like having cancer in the body, his mother loves his father too much to leave. Because of the word "family" and since he is the father of her child, she thinks that the father is like that and she must accept it even though he made them have cancer, but leaving will only worsen the situation at home, both occupationally and financially.
Charles' mother now has to quit her job to take care of her husband using the Q-positive welfare money. This money was enough to buy food and basic necessities but without progress, somehow Charles' family was blamed for living like this, without rights despite being so diligent.
Charles: “I'm not going to stop working part time. I have a new job.” Charles quickly grabbed his bag and went to his bedroom, he was too lazy to listen.
Mom: “What other job…? Where are you going Charles? Come back and talk to me first!”
The young man closed the door and let out a deep sigh. Fortunately, this mouse nest apartment also had two separate rooms so small that they could barely fit a bed but this was the room that Charles liked the most because he could isolate himself from the hectic outside world. Charles opened his own laptop for a little project he was working on, it's a hobby.
Charles, maybe he looked like a normal young man dressed as a tall, skinny and passionate teenager, has a passion for data management. He is currently working on a project with the school to analyze various fields of data collected from students and analyze it to develop an artificial intelligence program.
