|
“Why were you so rude to your brother?” Gladys asked. “He drove all the way
over here to deliver that package to you. But you didn’t invite him inside your
apartment. You didn’t offer him anything to drink or eat. Then, when he was
talking to me, you kept telling him to speak faster. He was speaking slowly
because he knows my English isn’t that good—he was just being polite. Finally,
when he and I sat down in the living room, you just went to your computer and
started typing away.”
William tried to explain to Gladys that what she saw between him and his
brother was their normal interaction. Roland was simply delivering a package;
there was nothing for the two of them to chat about. Further, Roland felt that
William's apartment had an odor; he usually didn’t even come inside the
apartment when he visited. In addition, Roland was very picky about what he
drank and ate—he wasn’t interested in eating William’s “junk food.”
Finally, William argued, he had told Roland many times not to “talk down”
to Gladys. “He talks to you like you’re a two-year-old,” William said.
She said she didn’t mind; Roland was just trying to communicate. She just
wished that William would be more polite to him. “When my sister visits me,” she
said, “I hug her, I invite her inside, we eat and drink and talk, and we just
have a good time with each other.”
Well, William told her, he and his brother were different. “No,” she
corrected him, “maybe you and I are different.” |
|