Writing Practice 38: Eddie

Sarah said: "Eddie seems upset tonight. Have you noticed that?"

HE said: "Yeah, I've noticed that."

She said: "Why do you think he's upset?"

Now, maybe HE should have been a little more gentle in how he put it. HE had had a few drinks, HE had been philosophizing about the nature of honesty in his head during all the boring parts of the evening and HE, in one way or another, felt no risk in being brutally honest.

So, HE said: "Eddie's from Haiti. He's the only member of his family who got out of there and tonight we're celebrating his birthday. Haiti's just been struck with a horrific natural disaster and people are being shot in the streets by the police for trying to carry bags of rice from the store to their families. They're being shot for trying to survive. His mother's sleeping in a tent and everybody's asking about his family. He's in slippers and he's being served cake while we sing to him, and he's worried about whether or not his brothers and sisters will, you know, still be alive next month. Do you really think this guy wants to be celebrating? His family might die. And we're not being very good at giving him a distraction, either. Because all anybody keeps asking him is: "What's Haiti like?" And "How's you're family?" We're treating him like he's an information booth in a museum. "Oooo, look, a man from Haiti is at our party. Where's your family? In tents? Why? It's dangerous? Go on, keep talking about the things that are worrying you more. And have some more cake and get fat off it while you do it."

HE knew he was going off on a rant, getting angrier and angrier. And HE knew that Sarah must feel like she'd just been hit in the face with a social sock full of quarters. He figured that she must have been terrified to hear what he had just said. This wasn't her usual chit chat, someone was actually saying something and she was not accumstomed to dealing with reality.

Before he even checked her expression, he said: "Look. It's a cultural thing, that's all. What we do in this culture is ask about family. That's a pretty common way we show that we care. "How's your mother? How you're father?" You know? But in this case, that's the worst way we can show this guy kindness because that's the last thing he wants to be thinking about. And he sure as shit doesn't want to be celebrating the good life while he's thinking about it, you know? You asking him about his culture and his family was polite and kind in nature. What you were doing was demonstrating, in the way that you're used to, that you're interested in who he is as a person. You were being nice. You're a nice person. It's just - you know. I just think we should talk about something else."

(HE is Richard's ex-friend)