The Lovely Chocolate Mob - By Richard J. Bennett Page 0,43
down at a table, with Raquel Welch, at age 27, on the other side of the table, with an electronic button between the two of them, and said to him, ‘Randall, if you’d like to marry Raquel Welch, all you’d have to do is push that button.’ That’s all he’d have to do! No tricks, no dating, no wooing, no flowers, no candy… all he’d had to do was push the button… and Randall said he wondered if he would push it.”
“What you mean?” asked Mae Ling. “Why he no push button?”
“That’s just it, Mae Ling. Randall is turned off. He’s found he’s comfortable with the way his life is now. He’s seen his peers get married and the struggles they’ve gone through. Some marriages have folded, even with people we both thought had the best chances for success.”
“Why you country have so much divorce?”
“I don’t know. Maybe we’ve had it too easy here. Maybe we work too hard to make and keep the things we’ve got, instead of focusing on one thing…”
Mae Ling looked into David’s eye.
“… the family.”
Mae Ling answered, “We no have much. We happy.”
David laughed at that. “I hope we do better one day, one day soon. I’d like to be able to give you more.”
“I have more here than in my country. Here I live like queen.”
This took a great deal off David’s mind. Being married to a contented woman, who happened to be good as well, gave him a sense of peace. One day, eventually, he’d earn more, he was sure of it. But not today.
“What you talk about?”
“With Randall?”
“Yes.”
“We talked about you! I told him all about you and your family and how you cook to make me food every day and make me happy every night.”
Mae Ling laughed at this. “No! No you not say.”
“I not say,” laughed David.
“What you say?”
“We talked about his old girlfriend, the girlfriend who has come back into his life.”
“Why she come back? She no married?”
“Yes, she’s married. She married a long, long time ago and has been gone for many years now. She’s raised a family; in fact, she’s still raising her family. Her husband has been giving her troubles at home.”
“He get drunk? He beat her up?” Mae Ling said. This must have been something quite common in her home country.
“No, he no beat her up. He have girlfriend.”
“Oh, he bad man.”
“Well, now, he may be a mixed-up man. He may be a confused man. He may be a little bad. All men are a little bad.”
“You not bad.”
“Yes, I’m bad, at times.”
“You not bad, today.” Mae Ling made a funny.
David chuckled at this. “I hope I’m not bad today. His girlfriend is very pretty.”
“His wife no pretty?”
David thought about this. “Yes, his wife is very pretty, too. She’s a few years older than the girlfriend, and the girlfriend has a lot of money.”
“But wife have children!”
“Yes, that’s true. Wife have children. Girlfriend have none, at least none that we know about.”
“Why wife want Randall? She go back to him now? Make him happy?”
“No, she just wanted to see him. She wanted to talk. She told him all her problems.”
“She should marry Randall, make him happy man, give him children.”
“She may be too old for children.”
“Why she bother Randall now?”
“She wants to keep her husband.”
“How Randall do that?”
“He’s an engineer; he can arrange things; he’ll fix it.”
“He kill husband’s girlfriend?”
David smiled to himself. “No, he no kill girlfriend. Kill girlfriend is bad. Is wrong.” David found himself speaking broken English a lot these days.
“He tell you this? What he want you to do? You kill girlfriend?” Mae Ling looked worried.
David reached out to calm Mae Ling. “No, I no kill girlfriend. That is wrong. God no like that.”
“Why he tell you this?” said Mae Ling, searching for motives.
“I think Randall was looking for someone to bounce ideas off of.” At seeing Mae Ling’s frown, he clarified, “I think he was looking for the right thing to do. He’s still looking.”
“What is right thing?”
“I don’t know what right thing is. I listened to him, mostly. I think he wants to do the proper thing, the appropriate thing. At least for now.”
“She want him fix things? Why he do that? Why he listen to her?”
“Because he loves her, Mae Ling. He still loves her, even in these bad new-new days.”
Mae Ling frowned. “He not sound very smart. You keep away from Randall Owen; you be like him. My husband smart.” This made David laugh.