Half a month later, on a weekend, Allen had a sudden urge to cook himself, so we didn’t eat out. He was busy in the kitchen alone while I watched TV in the living room. Allen’s phone, which was on the coffee table, rang. I glanced at it and saw it was his ex-wife, Samantha.
I called out to him, telling him about the call. Allen put down the vegetables he was washing and came over. Seeing the caller ID, he frowned and hung up, explaining to me: “I’ve got nothing to say to her.”
I didn’t pry, just nodded understandingly. But no sooner had he returned to the kitchen than the phone rang again. He asked me to hang up, but I didn’t listen. I took the phone to the kitchen: “You’d better answer, just in case it’s something urgent.”
Allen reluctantly took the phone and answered, putting it on speaker to avoid any suspicion on my part.
Samantha’s sharp, shrill voice came through: “Allen! What the hell! The electricity bill is two thousand dollars!” Her voice was so loud it was almost a roar.
Allen’s hand trembled, nearly dropping the phone. Even Leon, who had been “hibernating” in his room, heard it. When he came out, Samantha was still cursing like a string of firecrackers on the other end:
“Allen, you spendthrift! I’ve only been gone a few days, and you’re already living it up like this! Do you want my son to drink the northwest wind in the future?! Two thousand dollars for electricity, more than our two months’ living expenses before! I’m telling you, don’t expect me to pay this! You must transfer two thousand to me!”
Samantha’s voice was grating. I had initially planned to go into the bedroom, but the last sentence made me stop. I was quite surprised. They were divorced; why was Samantha still paying the electricity bill? Judging by Allen’s expression, he had clearly forgotten about paying it.
Pale-faced, Allen shouted into the phone during a pause in Samantha’s tirade: “You don’t need to pay it! I’ll pay it myself! Unbind your auto-pay!” He hung up immediately, unsure if she’d heard. “Cathy, I really forgot about this, I’ll pay it right now…” he started to explain to me, but before he could finish, the phone rang again. He fumbled to hang up again, trying to continue his explanation, but the phone kept ringing.
I felt a bit awkward. Just standing there waiting wasn’t appropriate, and going into the room felt wrong too, as if I was angry—but I really wasn’t. Allen hung up over and over. He opened his contacts, wanting to block Samantha, but Leon was standing right there, and he couldn’t bring himself to block his son’s biological mother. The honest man was frozen in place, looking utterly shattered.
I sighed inwardly and was about to make up some excuse to step out when Leon snatched the phone from his father, answered it, and yelled back even louder: “My dad said you don’t need to pay it! Didn’t you hear?!” He hung up immediately after, blocking and deleting her contact in one smooth motion.
Having done all that, Leon said nothing, handed the phone back to his dad, and went into his room. Allen breathed a sigh of relief. He opened his mobile banking app and paid the electricity bill himself.
For me, this incident was just a small episode in life. The only positive outcome was that Leon finally learned to turn off the A/C.
Leave a Reply