by Drew Briney
“I will not take part in teaching him anything that will harm others. It is already shameful enough that he makes money stealing and begging. He …”
“Kan!” Marie interrupted. “Be reasonable. The boy has no means of getting a job – you yourself turned him down for a job – and surely you know your own children beg and steal to survive …”
Kan yelled something unintelligible and stormed off into the other room, knocking chairs aside and swearing words in Japanese that even Marie wasn’t familiar with.
Being the Australian wife of a severely handicapped husband was rarely easy. Being dependent upon the mercies of a quasi-traditional, quasi-dysfunctional Japanese family was even worse. She enjoyed Asian cultures but this family seemed to have forgotten its heritage altogether. Hypocrite, she all but screamed in her own mind as she watched him leave. Uuuooohh, she silently grunted. You couldn’t at least teach him some self defense? she sarcastically complained. Reasoning with Kan was as profitable as betting on race turtles but motherly instinct had required the attempt. Then again, Marie tacitly understood that Kan only allowed her and her crippled husband to stay so that he could publicly protect his honor. The time would come when Kan would look for a good excuse to kick Marie, Ba Tu, and Tzun out of the house so she had to be careful not to push issues too hard. At the same time, it was becoming unbearably difficult to watch Tzun continually take beatings while roaming the streets just so he could put food on the table for her. The whole situation was one continual vicious cycle and she didn’t know how to get out of it.
Bursting with energy, Tzun nearly felt out of control. …
