Sharing

The man and the woman took their usual table in the restaurant. The head waiter greeted them cordially and placed the menu cards before them. Without looking at the cards, the couple placed their order. The head waiter nodded with an approving smile.

The couple sat silently. They sipped from the small cups of complimentary Chinese tea. When their actions seemed synchronous, they took turns to lag and wait for the other. A waiter brought the appetizer and they shared the plate of fried prawns. Later, when they had soup, they could have been mistaken for twins or deeply attached siblings. Both of them added roughly the same amount of pepper, soya sauce and vinegar with chilly to the shark fins’ soup. They talked only after that, while they waited for the main courses.

‘Why can’t we try joint custody of our daughter?’ the man asked.

‘There will be no ‘our’ anymore,’ the woman said.

‘But she is my child too?’

‘If you want her, you can keep her – totally. I won’t be in your lives, ever.’

‘But she needs her mother,’ he paused before adding, ‘and her father, too.’

‘I know she needs me. But if she is in my custody, you should never come into our lives.’

‘But that’s not fair,’ the man protested. ‘You and your emotional blackmail, your threats of killing yourself…’

‘Well, you won’t have to endure that any longer.’

The head waiter brought the main courses of keow teow and steamed fish. He offered to serve. The couple indicated that they would do it themselves. The man served the keow teow making sure that her portion had more of the prawns than the meat as she preferred. The woman carefully cut the fish and gave him the larger portion. They ate quietly. The head waiter came to their table when they were done and removed the dishes. The couple complimented him for the fine food. They had ice-cream with lychee for dessert and then asked for the bill.

The man paid the bill and left a handsome tip. The head waiter escorted them to the door. There, he bowed with a pleasant smile, wished them a wonderful life and opened the door for them. The couple thanked him. The head waiter watched them leave. His smile did not fade even when he saw them parting at the main road.