Chronicles Revealed

Chapter 13: All Is Well......

I should have seen it coming.  It was there for me to see but I did not.  Only an insensitive moron like me could have failed to read the tell-tale signs of repressed emotions screaming for release. She seemed always adversarial.  The sharp words, the spiteful language, the cold look, the nitpicking, the icy air of indifference, the glare in the stare: I saw all these and more but I just dismissed them as consequences of unmitigated suffering resulting from the loss of a son, the fruitlessness of police investigation, the insufferable pace of justice.

What was worse is that she saw the same body language in me.  Sarcasm punctuated our conversation and clawed at every opportunity.  Little by little we became more intolerant of each other without noticing it, getting estranged without realizing it, raising our voices so quickly instead of communicating like we always did before.   I became forgetful and in many ways numb and thoughtless which she interpreted as seeing someone she didn't know anymore.  What she saw appalled her and would be doubly relieved to see me go.

I don't know how it all began. Somebody pushed the button and the third world war erupted in all its horrific fury.  It all happened so fast I was not able to duck for cover.  A fragmentation grenade had been thrown right in from of me and the splinters hit me in all parts of my body, as if it was a magnet of damnation. Was I going to die? Or, am I dead already?

Was it because of the printer ink I did not monitor closely to make sure the printer had enough ink all the time? Because I took it for granted, the children would have to go to an internet cafe to print their school projects after they finish working on them in the computer.  I had told her the cartridges for the printer were hard to find, not even in the malls.  Wouldn't that be a silly way to start a war?

Excuses!  I don't think you tried hard enough.  How can the ink be out of supply? You just want me to look for the ink , myself, while you sit around in the house listening to your noisy, old music.  Do you know how expensive it is to print in the internet cafe? Are you overflowing with money? Huh!  It might just be fifty meters always but don't you realize how dangerous it can be for the children to go to the internet cafe in our dimly-lighted street to have their projects printed?  You never know who lurks in that darkness. There are so many crazy people out there. Do you understand, do you see the risks?  Unspeakable things happen to people because they are careless, if not idiots!

She was very angry with me and made me feel I was useless to her, to everyone, a total dependent of hers she could kick anytime, anywhere.  The virulent verbal barrage was something I never thought I would hear from her and I was, therefore, entirely unprepared for it, defenseless against it.  She had the element of surprise, the high ground, to crush me.  Strong, painful words decimated my resolve to put sanity at work again.

And I was as angry, too. How would I know the printer was running out of ink. I don't use it everyday, not even once a month. Why should I be made responsible for how much ink it had.  

Alright, alright. I'll look for the printer ink. If I don't find any, I'll accompany the children to the internet cafe.

To avoid adding more fuel to the fire, I left to look for 706 and 705 ink cartridges for our printer. I went to big and small stores selling printer ink but there was simply no supply of 705, though there were plenty of 706. One is useless without the other. How come there are so many 706? They are supposed to come in pairs. We would have to wait for the following day to check with other stores that were close since it was a Sunday. The stars were all simply aligned against me. It was already dark when I arrived home to tell the kids there was no ink available and that we had to go to an internet cafe to print their assignments.

Back in the house, I found out that she had just flared up due to the hardheadedness and  disobedience of her granddaughter.  She was still outside when it was dark already and she had made it very clear to them that they should be in the house before it got dark, regardless of whether they are just at the gate talking to a neighbor. Moreover, the granddaughter did not do again the simple household chores she had assigned to her. The brother was not spared. She berated him for spending too much time playing computer games, instead of studying to improve his bad grades in the next periodical exam.   At the door, I heard her shout at the children::