Parenting

“Mommy! We’re done brushing our teeth”

excitedly cried out the two little girls in their pajamas.

“You sure?”

asked the mother with a suspicious look.

The four little eyes trembled for half a second but once again they answered

“Yes. We did!”

back at their suspecting mother. The two girls happily went to bed with a victorious satisfaction from having fooled their mother to think they actually brushed their teeth. When actually, all they did was vigorously scrub the tiles for 3 minutes with their strawberry flavored toothpaste.

After tucking in her girls, the tired mother let out a silent sigh and turned on the bathroom light, trying not to make any noise. It was a matter of seconds before she spotted what she was searching for. Another sigh came out as she started cleaning up the “strawberry scented” bubbles off the floor.

 

‘Oh my gosh, I didn’t know she knew’

I thought to myself with my eyes widened. Then a second later, my eyes got even bigger as I thought,

‘Oh yeah! A few days after that, my sister and I got brand new electric toothbrushes!’

It was true. The new toothbrushes with colorful Disney characters printed, that made us brush out teeth three times a day.

‘But what is going on? Why are they showing me my childhood here?’

I thought, since I was there to watch a movie. I decided to wait a little longer with patience for the “real thing” to start.

 

“I DID NOT STEAL IT!!”

Cried out of a furious rage, so loudly that it almost echoed throughout the office.

“Five of your classmates accused you of the same thing. All of them came to me and told me that YOU sneaked Jerry’s pen from his pencil case.”

The teacher now seemed annoyed; it was half-an-hour past her work time.

 “Never mind, I don’t think this quarrel with you is worth anything Sue. I’ll have to call your mom and have her come over to school tomorrow. Go home, have a good nights sleep before the parent-teacher meeting tomorrow.”

Listening to her teacher say her last words, Sue’s face now went red to purple. Sue couldn’t breathe because she felt that every breath she lets out would consist of “F-words.”

“Oh. One more question before you leave. Does your mom even speak English? Because if she doesn’t, I….”

“Goodnight Ms’Ruckert”

Then she slammed the door behind her as she heard her mother’s voice over the phone of her “so-called” teacher.

 

The girl arrived at home. She locked the door, she didn’t think about anything not talk to anybody. She just went to sleep when the clock read 6p.m. and woke up when it read 12 p.m. She burst out of bed to see if it really was 12 “P.M.” The living-room clock blinked the same number 12p.m. and the sunlight was bright behind the curtains. Her mothers’ bag was gone along with her sneakers. Obviously, she went to see the teacher.

 

Nothing happened that night. Just that the next day, all my friends came to me and apologized as well as Ms.Ruckert. I didn’t know what was going on until Ms.Ruckert called me after class.

 

“Sue. We found the real theft.”

The girl didn’t say anything.

“We are all so sorry as we said. By the way, you should really love your mom. I almost got moved by the trust your mom has upon you.”

 

Oh that teacher. She hated me for being a Korean, and I hated her for hating me as a Korean. But then again I remembered. That incident never appeared ever again in your life. Not in our supper tables or Sunday mornings.

 

Rrrrrrrr…

I burst my eyes open. It was so clear that it didn’t feel like a dream at all. In front of me, the movie was still running. A man and an woman kissing away. I paused the movie. The movie that I put on to calm down my anger. Then I remembered, I was in a fight with Jenny. Jenny, my first daughter who got grounded for having skipped her academy today. She obviously went to play with her first boyfriend. I felt so betrayed that I couldn’t think of anything else. But now having realized what a relationship of a “mother and daughter” should be like. A relationship full of suspicion, betrayal, disappointment, forgiveness, and promises. But in the end, all those were what gave tons of trust between a mother and her daughter too.

I slowly walked to Jenny’s room. I saw her sleeping on her bed frowning. I straightened her face and gave her a gentle kiss on her forehead. On my way out, I found her diary wide open. A sharp temptation pierced through me. A devil whispered in my ears

‘Pick it up…Read it’

But right before I picked it up, the “strawberry bubbles” and Ms.Ruckert stopped me.

I decided to let her off the hook this time although I thought I saw, no I knew there were, some inappropriate words scribbled on there.

 

As I walked out of the pink door I thought,

 

Jenny would get over this time.

 

Then Jenny and I would share the love.

The love that my mom and I had built upon my darkest days of puberty.