July 21, 2006

2 floors above

Lives a bad-tempered, and bad-mannered mother with one kindergarten-going daughter. And a shy but polite maid. Must be new to the local breed of middle-class family. The father of said daughter was not involved in this incident that I am about to relate.

It was a late evening. I was heading home from tuition. The three of them were approaching the lift area as I pressed for the lift. The lift was here when the mother was still at the mail area, picking her mail. The daughter was looking at the mother, but did not mention that the lift was here.

I went into the lift. For 0.5 sec, I was deciding if I should wait for them or just enjoy the ride up alone to my level. Honestly? I was really quite beat already, cos I have yet to eat dinner. But, it's kind of mean to just close the lift doors on them and go up, especially since they were really just waiting for bad-mannered mother to finish collecting the mail, right? I mean, how long can one take to collect the mail?

I posed the question to the maid who looked like she was in as awkward a position as me. To hold or not to hold? She shyly replied that her mdm is at the mail area. Well, not much of an answer eh? Ahh, never mind. I can spare one more minute to be civic-minded and the kind of neighbour that's likeable.

Up till now, it sounds like a long time already, isn't it? It is, in fact. I would have bothered to speed it up if I knew someone was holding the lift for me while I went to collect mail. Unfortunately, I'm better-mannered than the 'mdm'.

Seeing that the mdm was going to finish her mundane chore soon, the maid came into the lift with me and smiled at me. I suppose, that's her way of saying thank you. Well, at least, she bothered to smile, right?

Soon, the mdm came in with the daughter who was getting a bit excited about the letters in her mother's hand.

Very well. I was expecting to hear a word of 'sorry' or 'thank you', if not both. Nothing. Nothing out of her petty mouth.

I'm not petty about such stuff though I think it would be a better example for the little girl to follow if her mother showed a bit of appreciation to another human being who held the lift for her.

My level. I stepped out. The doors of the lift hadn't even closed when I heard a horrible witchly voice saying, 'next time, don't go into the lift first!'

My jaw dropped. I was disgusted with that woman! Still am. And at that exact point in time after recovering from my shock, I made a vow never to hold the lift for her the next time, if misfortune should strike again for us to be waiting for the same lift.

Jeezz! What bad manners! First, instead of speeding the mail-collecting chore up, she was taking her time. Second, no 'sorry' or 'thank you'. Third, she had the cheeks to scold her maid for coming into the lift first.

It's shuddering how some parents behave in front of their children and yet, expect their children to grow up having respect for other people.

Most of all, I feel sorry for the maid.

Posted by 杏 cy （Jancy） at 15:42