The piece de resistance was arriving at Mandy’s apartment with armloads of groceries early one Saturday evening. Mandy and I had planned to see a movie at the local Cineplex, but since there wasn’t anything playing that interested us, she suggested buying some groceries and heading back to her place to make Samuel’s favourite Korean dish, bulgogi (BBQ beef) with rice and pickled vegetables.
We entered the apartment quietly, as Samuel usually took his teenage nap just before dinner (“he is a growing boy, after all,” she commented). While I removed the groceries from their bags, Mandy headed to the washroom. As I was trying to figure out where they stored their rice, I heard a piercing shriek from the rear of the apartment.
Running towards the source of the shriek, which turned out to be Mandy, I saw her standing, frozen in shock, in the doorway to her bedroom. Upon closer inspection, I saw that she was staring at her bed, and that there were two people in it: Samuel and a large bump beneath the covers which was later revealed to be a woman with long, blonde hair and very little, if any, clothing on. I had never seen the woman before, but her identity was soon revealed.
Long story short? Said blonde lady was Mandy’s older sister, Mabel, who apparently was in town for a bartender’s convention. Much was said that night, from accusations by Mandy that Mabel was a “cougar” and that she was breaking at least one law, maybe two, to exhortations from Mabel that Mandy was “the queen of denial” who “couldn’t see her nose despite her face”, and so on. Samuel remained quiet during their prolonged argument, as he leaned rather calmly against the bed's headboard and twiddled his thumbs, preferring to listen respectfully and not appearing to take sides.
Faithful to my OSIJ training, I too remained quiet, preferring to take copious notes and the occasional surreptitious photograph while pretending to push numbers on my cell phone.
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