Day: May 19, 2008

I arrived home in the evening to the sound of my daughter Fazira and stepdaughter Iqa quarreling with the maid. The two girls were pointing out how stupid it was for her to agree to the price of the durians she’d bought for my stepson. Apparently, a lorry laden with durian came by the house and offered to sell some durians. My stepson, Alim, immediately jumped with joy and called for my maid. She asked for three. The guy on the lorry took the opportunity to con her by charging, what was it? RM170 for all three durians supposedly based on his weigh? I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard of the ridiculous amount she had paid for the durians. The problem was, she herself felt that it was overpriced, but paid anyhow.

When asked why did she pay that much when she knew it was overpriced, she gave Alim’s craving for the durian as a reason. I told her that she could have waited for me to come back home before making stupid decisions like that. I also told her how dangerous it was for her to even go out for a peek; the man could have held Alim at knifepoint and his cohorts could have rushed into the house to do harm, and that is not something that has never been experienced by this family. It was only 3 years ago this month that our previous house was broken into by 4 Indonesian men armed with a crowbar, parangs and knives at around 5.45am. Has she forgotten that experience? Furthermore, just three nights ago there was an attempt to break into my daughter’s friend’s house.

She knew these.

Bloody simple common sense, and even that she was not capable of thinking.

How can I ever leave my children alone and not worry?