Marrying Amy. Part 4
The story of an English guy trying to sort out marrying a Taiwanese girl. A true account of marriage and colliding cultures.
I had fallen in love with a Taiwanese girl (Amy Hsu) and we had decided to get married. Clearly, for her parents, this would be a big deal (they had been initially opposed to the idea of their daughter going out with an older, English, none-Christian). I decided that I should do things properly and ask her father for her hand in marriage. We went over to Taiwan for a few weeks, specifically so I could do this.
Having plucked up the courage to ask her father for her hand on several occasions, events conspired to foul up my plans, but I would persist…..
Part 4
Ever since I was a child, animals and children have always reacted really badly to me; babies and toddlers see me and cry, dogs bark at me, animals try to attack me. After seeing that movie The Omen, and adding a mix of self importance and imagination, my adolescent mind started to think that maybe I was evil, or even Satan.
So, the minute I walked into Amy's parents’ home for the first time, their sweet little kitten of a cat, Kiki, went mental and started trying to claw at me, actually running after me to try to scratch me.
As our visit to Taiwan progressed I learnt to stay away from the cat. I’m vegetarian out of a hatred of animals, so didn’t want to go near the thing anyway. Sure, Kiki managed to claw me a few times, but nothing serious. The parents, Amy, and me too, all just laughed about how much Kiki seemed to hate me.
And so it came to our last day in Taiwan, with only an afternoon to go before we left. We had been out for breakfast at a local street cafe and came home to pack. The girls were in Amy's room. I was in the living room with Amy’s Dad. It was another perfect opportunity to ask Dad for his daughter’s hand in marriage. I spoke, “Not long now. I’ve had a really lovely time, thanks to you and your wife........Err, I wanted to...”
At that moment Kiki jumped up on the Sofa next to me and clawed at my wrist, drawing blood.
Amy's Dad (in a deadly serious tone): “They can tell things that we can’t”
Me: “Yes”
Dad: “They are more sensitive to spirits and feelings than humans.”
Me: “Ha, Yeah”
Dad: “They can spot things we cannot.”
Ah, what could I do? I’m pretty sure he was only joking, but he seemed so serious, and the implication seemed to be that he now thought there was something not quite right about me, something spiritually wrong with me. He wasn’t quite sure what it was, but the cat could sense it. How could I ask now? How could I believe that he would say 'yes' when he seemed to suspect that there was something just wrong about me? Did he too suspect that I might be evil? He's a Christian; he's not going to let his daughter marry someone he even vaguely suspects might be Satan.
And so I went back to my room and finished packing.
To be continued………
