Ficorpio
Chapter 1
My daughter, living overseas, had gone out of her way to send me a box of strawberries that were supposedly very expensive.
Happily, I followed her instructions and washed them three times in a saltwater rinse. I was just about to eat one when my grandson, not even a year old, started crying.
By the time I finished feeding him and came back out, only a few strawberry leaves remained on the coffee table.
My husband of thirty-five years, Richard Bennett, immediately blamed me for being careless and washing the strawberries in a colander.
“I honestly don’t know what you do all day. Look at this coffee table. It’s covered in water.”
Our son swallowed the last strawberry and kept his eyes on his game.
“Mom, these strawberries are great. Ask Emily where she bought them. I want to get some for Sophie. She’s been working hard lately. I should treat her to something nice.”
I stared at the puddle spreading across the coffee table and suddenly felt that my life was unbearably pointless.
So I turned around and called my daughter.
“That visa you mentioned before… Can you still help me get one?”
Later, my daughter posted a video of me picking enormous strawberries overseas. I was laughing, and I looked ten years younger.
The father and son watched it with red-rimmed eyes.
“It was only one strawberry. How could she really never come back?”
“You’re both old enough to know better, and you’re still so careless. I don’t know how you ever managed to be a grandmother.”
Richard sat back in the recliner with one leg crossed over the other, taking a deep drag from his cigarette as he continued lecturing me through a cloud of smoke.
“And now you’re thinking of going off to work as someone’s housekeeper? You should be grateful if they don’t throw you out.”
I looked at the face I had seen for thirty-five years, and for some reason my stomach turned. It was like looking at a pile of rotting manure in the vegetable garden back home.
I walked over and snatched the cigarette from his fingers, crushing it out.
The sudden movement left Richard stunned for several seconds.
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
I picked up a rag and wiped the water from the coffee table.
“Sophie said you shouldn’t smoke in the house. Ben is still so young. He can’t be breathing secondhand smoke.”
Richard glared at me.
“I wasn’t smoking right next to him! Why are you making such a fuss? The smoke will clear in a minute!”
When he reached for another cigarette, I threw the rag onto the table.
“You still can’t smoke!”
My sudden shout finally caught Daniel’s attention. He lifted his head from his phone, looking blankly from me to his father. Without saying a word, he got up and headed for the bedroom, shouting as he went.
“Push! Push! I’m tanking the tower!”
Chapter 2
I had always been known for my gentle temper. In all the years I’d been married, I rarely raised my voice at Richard. Whenever I showed the slightest bit of anger, he would snap:
“Claire Bennett! You think you’re so independent now? Have you forgotten how I’ve worked from dawn to dusk all these years to support you? A person should know when they have enough!”
Just like now, after I shouted at him, Richard straightened his neck and started making threats.
“You’ve got dementia or something. Why else would you suddenly start acting crazy? If you hate the smoke so much, then don’t stay in this house. If you’ve got the guts, go ahead and leave my home!”
“This is my home too! It’s marital property. What gives you the right to throw me out?”
Those were Emily’s words, not mine.
Ever since she had become independent, she was always telling me I was too passive, that I had let her father push me around for decades. She wanted me to stand up for myself.
“Women can hold up half the sky, Mom. Are you really planning to indulge them for the rest of your life? You’re only in your fifties. Why waste your later years serving as their housekeeper? Come see the world with me instead.”
I had only mumbled helplessly, unable to argue with her.
For decades, I had lived exactly as I was expected to live. No one had ever told me there was anything wrong with it. My mother, who died young, and Richard’s mother had both taught me that a man was the sky and a woman had to yield, endure, and keep the peace.
But Emily said that was wrong.
A household was built by both spouses. A man who earned money was no more valuable than a woman who raised the children and cared for the family. No one had the right to demand that a woman spend her life serving a man.
She had said it so many times that I had absorbed a little of it myself. Now, at last, I found a use for it.
He shouted, and I shouted back.
Richard had never seen me stand up to him so firmly. For once, he was left speechless. He sat there huffing like an old draft horse, but he did not light another cigarette.
I lowered my eyes to the empty basket where the strawberries had been and said quietly, “Emily bought those strawberries for me. I haven’t even had one.”
“What?”
Richard looked as if he genuinely didn’t understand.
I repeated myself.
He stared at me in disbelief.
“You’re picking a fight with me over a strawberry? At your age, and you’re still so greedy?”
Yes. Over a strawberry.
I had cared for his parents, managed the household, and raised our two children. In all those years, I had never eaten a strawberry. When I was young, we couldn’t afford them. Now that I was old, wanting one made me greedy.
“Fine. If you want strawberries so badly, go buy yourself half a pound. I’ve never seen a woman your age act so gluttonous.”
Richard’s face darkened, and he wore the self-satisfied expression of a man granting forgiveness.
He was waiting for me to apologize as I always had.
Chapter 3
But I had no desire to respond to him. I didn’t even want to take care of my grandson.
Slowly, I went into the bedroom, retrieved my national ID card and passport, and walked out of the house.
Emily had arranged my passport six months earlier because she wanted me to visit her in Australia. But Sophie had just given birth then, and I hadn’t been able to get away.
When Emily heard that I had finally decided to come, she was overjoyed. She asked her friend Natalie to help me apply for a visa.
Natalie was a lovely young woman. She guided me through every step without once showing impatience when I became confused.
“Mrs. Bennett, it shouldn’t take more than a week. As soon as your application is approved, I’ll let you know.”
A week. That wasn’t long at all.
On the way home, even the air seemed sweeter than usual. I found myself smiling at the dog in the elevator.
I had been afraid of dogs since childhood, but for some reason, I gathered the courage to stroke the big golden retriever’s head. It wasn’t nearly as frightening as I had imagined. It even wagged its tail at me.
My good mood lasted until I reached my front door.
Before I could enter, I heard Sophie shouting inside.
“Isn’t he your son too? You haven’t even looked at him! How could you let a baby this young go hungry? Are all of you completely useless?”
My hand paused on the door.
Then I opened it and walked in as though I hadn’t heard a thing.
Daniel had been sitting there with his head bowed, enduring his wife’s anger. The moment he saw me, however, his face changed. He looked as if he had finally found the person responsible for everything.
“Mom! Where have you been all afternoon? Ben was so hungry he wouldn’t stop crying!”
Richard seemed to come back to life as well. He emerged from the bedroom with his hands clasped behind his back, his expression dark.
“If you had to go out, why didn’t you take Ben with you?
“None of us knows how to settle him. The poor boy cried all afternoon.
“And couldn’t you at least have told us you were leaving? Now you’re back this late, and dinner isn’t ready. I suppose the whole family can live on fresh air tonight…”
I would be leaving to see my daughter in a few days, so I hadn’t wanted another argument with him.
I tried to hold my tongue.
I truly did.
But in the end, I couldn’t.
“If you don’t know how to soothe him, learn.”
Emily had told me that no one was born knowing how to cook, do laundry, or care for a child. Richard had gone his entire life without washing a single piece of clothing or cleaning a single dish.
Starting today, I wouldn’t do those things either.
If they didn’t know how to cook, they could learn. If they refused to learn, they could go hungry.
Richard and I had already argued that afternoon. Realizing I was still angry, he finally closed his mouth.
Daniel, on the other hand, had just taken a scolding from his wife and was desperate for somewhere to vent his frustration.