On my way to school and back home, I usually take the train and bus alone. As the journey is long, I sometimes see certain strange happenings and funny events. I’ve decided to record down my observations and thoughts about these events.
"I want my handbag back!" a shrill, childish voice shrieked in anger.
The voice belonged to a young girl in a plain lemon yellow dress chasing after a small boy in grey checkered shirt and shorts.
The boy was clutching a shiny pink handbag and he seemed very reluctant to give it up to the girl even though she was chasing him around the train, to the amusement of the other passengers.
It only became apparent that their parents were with them when the girl went up to one of the ladies seated on the train and started complaining to her in a tearful voice that 'Di di does not want to give me back my handbag'.
This particular lady had been so busy scribbling something into a leather-bound book that she did not seem to notice what was going on around her.
Still, when the girl demanded her attention, she sighed and finally put down her pen. But before she could respond, the man seated next to her suddenly scolded the girl sharply.
"Girl, I already told you not to bring that handbag filled with all those kind of nonsense you always carry around! See what happened!"
Dressed in a scruffy white collar shirt and worn out jeans, his outfit contrasted starkly against his wife’s silk blouse and well-cut black pants.
As I continued to observe the way the lady treated her husband, it seemed pretty obvious to me who held the reins of the household.
The girl, with tear-filled eyes, continued to whine and complain incessantly. Yet, one could see that she was not really crying. She just wanted to get her own way, and she seemed to think that tears could help to achieve her goal.
The lady pressed her lips tightly in a thin line of patience. She turned to look at her husband and getting the silent message, he leant forward.
"I'll give you a tight slap if you don't shut up," he hissed.
Though he tried to say this as softly as possible, I could still hear every word uttered and was shocked to detect the venom in the tone of his voice.
The girl fell silent almost immediately, but she continued to look at him with a hint of reproach in her eyes.
Then, unable to bear the injustice of it all, she started up again.
"But Daddy ... he took my handbag!"
Sighing in exasperation, he stood up and went over to the boy, who had been prancing around the train with his sister’s pink handbag.
"Boy, give me the handbag."
"I don’t wanna," the boy said stubbornly, clutching the bag close to him.
The father stood there, silent for a moment, but the frustration in his eyes was unmistakable. The girl, on the other hand, was watching the scene that was unfolding in front of her with a faint, satisfied smirk on her lips.
"Stop playing already. Give Jie jie back her handbag," he said softly.
"No!" the boy slowly backed away, his lower lip jutted out and trembling. Now he too, started to have tears in his eyes. He did not want to give up the handbag.
Losing his patience, the father strode over to his son and forcefully took the handbag away. The boy promptly burst into tears and ran to his mother.
Half expecting the lady to give him the cold treatment, I was thus, surprised when she gathered him into her arms and settled him on his lap.
"Yes darling, tell me what's wrong?" she said soothingly, displaying all the motherly affection that I had not seen previously.
"I ... I want ... the handbag," he said, hiccupping through his tears. "Daddy ... Daddy won't let me have the handbag."
"Now, now, don't cry," the lady continued to coo into her son's ear. "Mommy will get you a new handbag, I promise."
The boy looked up at her and smiled happily. The tears automatically stopped.
But I was baffled. I had assumed that the boy had only taken the pink handbag away from his sister to antagonize her and make her angry, as all little brothers normally did.
Instead, he had taken the handbag away because he’d really wanted it for himself.
However, his own mother did not seem to find this strange at all. In fact, she seemed to be encouraging this girlish tendency in him.
Was it blind maternal love or true ignorance?
I'll leave it to you, the reader, to decide.
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