Life Ain't A Fairy Tale (9 page)

"Oh, great. How is work today?"

"It's good."

"No problems of any kind?"

"Nope."

"No angry students or problem with any
students you are tutoring?"

"No, the students are fine."

"What were you tutoring about today?"

"Oh, it was about Biology and stuff."

"Okay. Your father wants to talk to you. I
love you and miss you so much. God bless you. Always pray to
God."

"Thank you, me too. I will. Okay.
Goorbyes."

"Okay, Goorbyes." My mother passes the phone
to my father.

"Hello, son."

"Hi, dad."

"How is it going?"

"I am fine, dad. Thank you."

"Are you going to watch prowrestling
tonight?"

"Yes, dad. It's going to be fun. I will watch
it." I lie to my father. My father is a very old school type of
man. He still thinks the man should call the shots in the house. It
is probable Sara will not want to watch prowrestling.

"I am going to miss you tonight. I am so used
to watching prowrestling together."

"Yes, dad. I will miss watching TV together
too."

"Is everything going well over there?"

"Yes, everything is fine with Sara."

"Son, you make sure that you are the man of
the house. You can't let a woman stomp over you like a
doormat."

"Oh, no. I will not be a doormat. Don't
worry." I lie to my father again. He is stuck in the past thinking
men are in charge and tell women what to do. I will not be like
that. I am a big advocate of women's equality.

"Yes. You can't do the dishes or clean the
house. That's a woman's job."

"Don't worry. I won't do that. I will do what
I am supposed to do." I continue to lie. I will probably end up
doing the dishes or cleaning the house many times.

"Okay. Son, I am so proud of you for having a
beautiful girlfriend."

"Thank you father. I have to finish eating my
food to start to tutor again. Is everything fine at the house?"

"Yes, son. Everything is fine, but we miss
you very much. We love you."

"Thank you, me too."

"Okay, it was nice talking to you. Have a
great day, son."

"Thank you. You too. Bye."

"Okay, bye."

After I finish eating my chicken sandwich,
meatballs, and drinking my soda for lunch, I will tutor students in
Algebra the rest of the afternoon. This is a simpler topic for me.
Many of the questions I will help students with are finding the
x
and
y
values based on two different "
x
+
y
=
number
" equations. The key to solving these
equations is canceling out the
x
from the two equations so
you can solve for
y
. Once you know what
y
is, you can
plug in
y
into any of the two equations to find the value of
x
. The complication occurs because, for example, one
equation has
3x
and the other has plain
x
. In order
to cancel out the
x
variables, you have to multiply the
entire equation with
x
by -3. After multiplying by 3, when
you add the equations together on top of each other, the
3x
and
-3x
cancel out. This makes it easy to solve for
y
.

By the end of my afternoon tutoring session,
I did this explanation for many groups of students, but one group
of students made me envious of what they have. They were three
white guys wearing hoodies and baggy jeans. Their names are Alex,
Bruce, and Clark. Their bond to each other makes me think they are
brothers. When one of them understood what my explanation
concerning algebraic equations, he spent the entire time trying to
make the other guys understand. I became a spectator, looking at
the camaraderie between them.

Later in the session with these three guys, I
discover they are just best friends since elementary school. In my
entire life, I never had someone who I could call my best friend. I
never really clicked with anybody. Luis, Juan, and Justin were
friends of mine because we lived on the same block. I never felt
that I could fully trust them enough to share my personal worries
or concerns. None of them are best friend material. I could be
wrong about them, but it was a risk I wasn't willing to take. They
always were too crazy for me. On the contrary, these guys were
different. They truly trusted each other and are very mature for
their age.

"Look, guys. I am having a hard time with my
girlfriend, now." Alex commented his problem to the other two
guys.

"Really? What's up?" Bruce asked.

"Her mother passed away, and she has been in
this deep sadness that I just can't get her out of."

"You got to understand that a mother is a
very important person. Seems pretty normal to me." Clark tried to
put things in perspective.

"I feel hopeless. I want her to go out and
have fun. In every conversation, she breaks down in tears. I am
starting to get depressed. This isn't the girl I fell in love with
madly."

"I saw how this girl changed your life. I
have seen the joy she brought to you. She is going through the most
difficult thing a person can ever go through. My cousin went
through something similar with her grandma's death. You have to be
there for her, dude." Bruce advised Alex.

"I don't know. This is hard for me. To see
her cry tortures me, and I can't do anything to fix it. Maybe, I am
not the guy for her."

"This isn't about fixing a problem, Alex.
Sometimes in life, there aren't any solutions. Your girl needs you
more than ever. The best thing to do is to be with her. Stand by
her side. This is not something you have to fix, Alex. You only
have to keep her company. Your companionship will help her bear the
burden. Now, if you don't love the girl, I guess dumping her is the
option. That is not the vibe I'm getting from you. I know you love
this girl a lot." Clark advised Alex.

"Yeah. I see what you mean, Clark. I do love
this girl a lot. She is very special to me. There are so many
things in this world that can't be fixed. I'm being too impatient,
man. It's only been 4 months since her mother died. I will stop
forcing and pressuring her to go out, but I will keep her company
and make her feel as calm as she needs to be. This isn't about me;
this is about her. That has been my mistake all along." Alex became
resolute. He changed his view of the situation. He will help his
girlfriend.

It is amazing how open Alex was with his
friends. This is in stark contrast to how I relate to my friends.
That is something I will never do. Quite frankly, I don't think
anyone would even care how I feel. Bruce and Clark are different
from Luis, Juan, or Justin. Bruce and Clark gave Alex good advice
too. My mother went through the exact same thing when many of her
family members passed away. Death is very difficult to accept. I
can imagine what kind of advice I my friends would give me. They
would say something stupid like advise me that she needs more
sex.

After a long day's work, Sara picks me up at
the college, and we will talk about what happened during the day. I
am a person who does not like to talk much about work. This is
something very difficult for my parents to understand. I imagine it
will be hard for Sara as well. After I came back from school when I
was young, my parents would ask how my day was to receive my
response of "fine," "good," or "okay." Sara won't be happy with my
short answers either. Also, she will probably give me a very long
synopsis of her work today.

"How was your day, Jimmy?"

"It was fine. It went well today."

"Nothing special happened today?"

"No. All I did was tutor students about
Biology and Math stuff. I helped them study."

"What kind of questions they ask?"

"The usual questions kids ask; cell division,
solving for
x
, and stuff. How was your day, Sara?"

"Okay. I had a hard day. The HPLC-MS/MS
instrument that Chad operates was not working properly. I am Chad's
supervisor, and I have another supervisor that I report to
concerning the MS analysis of the experimental medicine being taken
by cancer patients. I spent a good portion of the morning trying to
fix it, and making sure it was working properly. I helped Chad test
it with known compounds. Lucky for me, I managed to fix it because
there was a deadline in analyzing the experimental medicine used in
cancer patients during their clinical trials. I spent the day
working with Chad to analyze the medicine's MS spectra." I must
admit she kept on talking further about everything she did, but I
zoned out. Unfortunately, I got lost in the complexity of the
medicine's different metabolites, the medicine's active ingredient,
the level of toxicity, and the electronic lab notebook where she
reports everything to the lead principal scientists supervising
her.

We stop at a restaurant. We are taking out an
order of chicken, rice, and mashed potatoes. During the morning,
she previously asked me what kind of food I like for dinner. I told
her chicken and rice. She knew beforehand of this restaurant that
has this kind of food.

When we arrive home, I am startled to hear
that we have to clean the house. Yes. I have to help her clean the
entire house on both floors. This is so unnecessary. Cleaning the
house should be left to once every two weeks. I wanted to watch TV
and relax like I normally did.

"Clean everything? When is the last time the
house was cleaned, Sara?"

"Last Saturday, I cleaned the house. Sunday,
I spent the whole day at Gina's apartment. The house needs to be
cleaned." Sara insists with a serious and determined look on her
face as I playfully hug and give her cheek multiple kisses.

"You cleaned last Saturday? We can skip
today."

"No. We are going to start cleaning right
now."

"We?" I could not get her to postpone the
cleaning. I keep harassing her with kisses on the cheek as she
turns her face away from me.

"Yes. It will be much easier and faster
between the two of us." Sara goes for the brooms and mops in the
closet as I follow her around with my hands on her hips.

"Aren't we going to relax for an hour or two?
I am tired." I sit down on the couch. I need to take a
breather.

"You are tired. Are you serious? You did not
do anything today." Sara looks irritated. She dislikes my
unwillingness to clean today.

"Yes. I did do something. I spent the whole
day tutoring people." I defend myself in a losing battle.

"Yeah? So what? You sat there the whole day.
You didn't do any physical activity. You should be ready to roll."
Sara's frustration increases. I don't understand how she has the
energy to even want to clean the entire house. Especially after the
rough day she described to me.

"Look. You had a hard day at work today. You
told me the HPLC-MS/MS instrument was not working, and you had to
fix it. Aren't you tired? Let's relax today and recover for
tomorrow." I signal her to sit down on the couch.

"No. We have to do it now. Grab a broom. I
will clean the second floor while you clean the first floor."

"Sara. Are you serious?" I start laughing.
She will not budge on postponing cleaning the house.

"Do you see me laughing, Jimmy? No. Let's
go." Sara grabs me by the arms. She drags me away from the
couch.

"I did not know you were obsessed with
cleaning." I stretch my legs out to sweep.

"I did imagine you would start complaining.
You are used to doing nothing. Why are you stretching? All you are
going to do is sweep the floor." Sara looks at me shocked. Her
hands are on her waist.

"I am injury prone. I got a terrible back
pain once for not stretching. Better safe than to be sorry. We can
postpone the cleaning for tomorrow. It is not like anyone is going
to visit us these days." This is my last pitch to prevent this
madness.

"Are you going to help or not?" Sara rolls
her eyes at me.

"Okay. Give me the broom." I extend my hand
to receive the broom.

"The broom is right behind you. Are you
blind?" Sara walks past by me. My lips are puckered up, and she
doesn't even kiss them. She gets her broom and walks upstairs to
start cleaning.

I am obligated to clean the floor. It upsets
me that I have to sweep the floor. There are good TV shows on now.
Later, there will be prowrestling. I won't see any of them now.
Watching TV is the highlight of my day. I sweep the dust from all
corners of the first floor and place it all together. I am sweating
and hot. I search for the dustpan and don't find it. Since I am
desperate to sit back down, I pick up the dust with my hands. I
place it in the garbage can.

As I sit down on the couch and watch TV, Sara
asks me, "Wow, are you done already? Even with mopping?"

"Mopping? No, I just swept the floor with the
broom."

"What? Get back up again. Here's the mop and
the bucket filled with water."

I get back up again to mop the floor. My
hands, arms, legs, and shoulders are feeling strained from the
sweeping I did previously. I am too embarrassed to tell her that. I
keep the pain to myself. I carry the bucket around to keep it near
me. Every part of the floor is wet and clean after my mopping
session.

After I am done, Sara gives me a small cloth.
She instructs me to clean the dust off the furniture and the TV.
First, I dust off the table in the middle of the living room.
Second, I move the cushions off the sofa and the couch to clean
them as well. Last, I clean the TV. The dust wasn't that bad. Sara
is so obsessive. It is rare to have a guest who comes with a
magnifying glass inspecting the house's cleanliness. I think this
will be my last errand.

We sit down to eat in the dining room. I want
to eat in the living room. I want to watch TV, but Sara insists to
eat it in the dining room because she doesn't want her furniture
dirty with food. We eat placidly all the food down with drink
ginger ale. Playfully, my feet massage her leg, and she hits my
legs to leave her alone.