Mom-in-Law Loves the Foreign Devil!

I really have been working hard since I’ve come back. I am outside every single day at least for a few hours if not all day. I am also more than happy to help out obachan when she needs it. What a relief to her since her live-in daughter complains constantly about being bothered to do chores. Little gifts of plants and pickles or wise advice as to how to trim a branch - this is really special from a woman who once determined that I was the devil.

The whole family once thought I was the embodiment of all things evil; however, it seems that while I was gone, it become clearer that it is the spoiled daughter who contributes to the family ills, not the foreigner. This is the 56 year old daughter who hasn’t worked for 15 years and lives off of obachan’s pension along with her teenage son. Leech is too kind of a word to describe her. She left her marriage after a few months because she didn’t like taking care of her husband but she continues to use his name, she refuses to divorce him, she accepts his child support and health insurance but she has never allowed him to meet his only child. I think she’s crackers. It isn’t my problem except that if she is going to be supported by her mother and indirectly by us (she gets the benefits of our labor, the food we grow, the work we do on the parents’ house), she ought to help out without throwing a fit.

I think my mother-in-law missed me. I’m glad that I was gone long enough to be missed. Ever since that sister returned home, there has been bitterness and tension in the family and for some reason, she directed it all towards me. The foreigner brought all this bad karma to the family. The foreigner disrupted the bloodlines and corrupted the traditions and she loses the tools and throws things away. When my daughter was sick and not getting well, they went so far as to consult – not a doctor, not a priest – a fortune teller. This wise old seeker determined that my daughter’s illness had been caused by an evil demon- and not just any demon – but, it was too awful to even say, so she drew a picture: a blue-eyed, blond haired demon! It didn’t look like me but the message was clear, that was a foreign demon and the only foreigner around was, who? Me! So my mother-in-law, guided by my dearest sister-in-law, took the drawing to the river and put it in a little boat, set it afire and let it float away to wherever evil foreign demons go. Weren’t they surprised when I came back! So, getting an approving nod or smile or little conversation from mom-in-law these days….priceless. (My sister-in-law is less than pleased that I’m here because I make her look even lazier than she is!)