My mother stomped over and yanked me by the ear. “All you do is wander around outside all day! You never help your sister take care of her son, never cook, just eat what’s already made! You’ve got some nerve!”
My father chimed in, “You can’t live here for free. You need to pay living expenses. We’re not asking for much—just ten grand.”
I had only been home for three days, yet every morning my mother had me up at dawn to do farm work.
The only reason I didn’t cook was because the one time I did, they said my food was terrible and told me never to touch the stove again.
And as soon as I came home, I handed each of them an envelope with a thousand dollars in cash. How could they say I was freeloading?
But the memory of my previous life still haunted me.
I could still feel the tree bark digging into my back, my sister’s smug face as she and my nephew lit firecrackers and hurled them at me.
The flames caught my down jacket in an instant. I was so terrified I couldn’t even scream at first. My parents and sister just stood there watching with cold expressions, while my nephew jumped up and down, clapping and laughing.
“Great! Burn Auntie to death! Burn Auntie to death!”