Our Airbnb house gets many people and some of them are just downright weird, just like the one that we have had here for the last few days. This older Chinese lady from the north of China came here to look for her son that was apparently in Suzhou. And after meeting her I’m not surprised that her son does not want to be found. She doesn’t speak English, which was really great because it meant I did not have to engage with her in too much conversation, although from time to time she did persevere via the translator. She told me she was a brain doctor, her words. I personally think she had lost hers. She liked to tell myself and Sissi what to do, what was good and what was bad. Don’t put the bananas in the fridge, drink hot water first thing in the morn, don’t use a bike it’s bad for your knees, don’t eat to much bread and so on and so on. I ignored her of course as much as I could. Oh she said that she was a teacher and then later a normal doctor, she just couldn’t make up her mind what she was. I felt sorry for Sissi because she had to listen to her talking all the time, she could talk under water and the look on Sissi’s face said it all. I tried to take her away from the conversation and move to another room but she followed us and continued to talk, talk, talk. At one point I was talking to Sissi in the bathroom as she cleaned her teeth and the next thing the old dear joins us and just stands there.
From the moment she showed her face in the morn the jaws began to work and they did not stop until it was lights out. I sat with my ear phones in one day as I sat on the computer and she still tried to chat, I smiled and said sorry I don’t understand. After breakfast she would go out to the balcony and do all these exercises and at the same time hit different parts of her body and then she would come back into the house and pace up and down the length of the living room in a similar way a caged animal does, shoes banging on the floor as she went.
She stayed an extra day and then Sissi told her that she had to leave because there was another guest coming, she said “no I don’t want to leave, tell the other guest there is no room” I said to Sissi that I would throw her things out of the house if she didn’t go. Eventually after a lot of talking and going around in circles she decided to leave the following morning without any fuss.
I’m not sure what is going on inside her head but there is definitely turmoil and chaos which sits just under the surface, as I said she was here to find her son but I think the son does not want to be found, I know that she is not an easy person to be around for any length of time and maybe that’s why the son does not want to be found.
Oh I almost forgot, she had a shower once, yes three days one shower, she must have some English blood. She used our shower instead of the guest shower and she left the place in a hell of a mess. For one that is supposed to be so clever she is one stupid bitch for making the bathroom like a swimming pool and then trailing the water through the house back to her room.
The next day it was raining and she came home and shook the umbrella over the floor and then proceeded to open it up and leaving it on the timber floor rather than take it out to the balcony or even better, stick it in the shower, so fucking stupid and inconsiderate. Not once did she clean up any of the mess she created, brain doctor, teacher my fucking arse.