Opening paragraphs #004: Help NOT wanted!

          Have you ever been in a situation where you want to help someone, but they don’t want to be helped? Take a look at this opening by Jess Row in “The Call of Blood“:

Mornings he finds Mrs. Kang upright in bed, peeling invisible ginger with an invisible knife. She watches her hands with rapt attention, picking up the stalks from a pile at her right and dropping the peeled pieces into a bowl on her lap. A cloud of white hair rises from her scalp, fine as spun sugar. The first time he tries to raise her, putting his hands gently beneath her armpits, she bats them away; the second time she forgets to resist. She weighs eighty-eight pounds on a good day. In the wheelchair she sits up, ramrod-straight, and waves a finger at him. E na pun no ma! Her voice like a wind in a crevasse. You are a bad boy!

          The woman here finds herself in a sad situation that’s likely brought on by old age. It’s made worse by the fact that the woman can’t recognize that she does need help and should accept any help she can get. But she’s a fighter, all eighty-eight pounds of her, and she most certainly has her pride intact.

Try this:

Show two people in a very different situation (no dementia, no Alzheimer’s), where one very clearly wants to help and the other very clearly does not want to be helped.

Coming tomorrow: a SUPER CHALLENGE…sleep well and get ready for this one!