Then I opened the second one, the third, until I'd watched every last video.
By the end I was drained, slumped in the chair, sunk into a silence that stretched on and on.
Bzzz. Bzzz.
My phone buzzed and broke it.
A message from my father: 【You don't want to go apologize, so I'll go for you.】
Below it, a pinned location. Winifred's neighborhood.
I rushed to ask the zoo director for time off and drove over.
The Hensons' door stood open.
A cluster of neighbors had gathered outside.
My father was bent at the waist like a child who'd done something wrong, standing there taking a lecture from the Hensons.
"My daughter's got the looks and the brains. Marrying into your family is beneath her! Never mind your son, even you, when my daughter says east, none of you had better say west."
"Never mind that they're not even married yet, even after the wedding, one word from her and it's a divorce."
"You lug over a few boxes of liquor and a few cartons of cigarettes and call that an apology? Who do you think you're insulting? Like father, like son. Poor enough to make you sick."
Reuben and Summer Henson sat there with their legs crossed, smug and lofty.
My father kept nodding. "I'm sorry, it's our fault. What will it take for you to forgive us?"
The neighbors watched him with open scorn. Someone muttered, "Look at the Hensons, training their in-law like a dog. It's a riot."
Through all of it, Winifred sat off to the side cracking sunflower seeds, sipping bubble tea.
Not saying a single word.
Enjoying every minute of it.
I clenched my fists. I should have understood long ago what the Hensons really were.
They never wanted a son-in-law.
They wanted an obedient dog!
"Then on top of the three hundred thousand bride price, we'll add one more condition. Your pension and retirement accounts, all transferred into my daughter's name."
Summer narrowed her eyes and smiled as she said it.
I was shaking with rage.
Three hundred thousand bride price, the five golds. Handing over my wages. I'd agreed to all of it.
Buying a place here near Winifred, putting her name on it, I'd agreed to that too.
And now they were coming after my dad's pension and retirement money?
This had gone too far!
They didn't see me or my father as people. We were an ATM to them.
Draining us dry.
Grabbing everything they could for themselves.
My father froze too, hesitated a few seconds, then nodded anyway. "All right, I..."
"Dad."
I rushed into the Henson home. "You can't agree to this!"
Reuben and Summer sneered in unison.
"Oh? The big rat says yes, but the little rat says no?"
"You won't even agree to a small condition like this. How are we supposed to trust my daughter will be happy after the wedding?"
My eyes swept over them, then settled on Winifred's face. "Ask yourself honestly. After all these years, how have I treated you? How could you covet my dad's pension and retirement money?"
"And you told me yourself, with your own mouth, that you'd never make an unreasonable demand like this!"
Guilt flickered in Winifred's eyes, but seeing so many people standing at the door, she hardened at once.
"So what? That money's mine sooner or later. I'm just taking it a little early."
Her chin lifted high.
"Winifred, you..."
I'd barely started when my father cut me off with a shout.
"Enough!"
"You shut your mouth! I'm handling this!"
My father raised his hand to strike me across the face.
"Dad..."
I dropped straight to my knees and kowtowed to him. "I'm not going through with this marriage."
"I know you mean well. You're scared I'll end up alone, scared Mom's spirit will blame you."
"But this relationship, even if I married her, would never make me happy!"
My father's hand hung in the air, his eyes going faintly red.
Hearing that, the Hensons flew into a rage and threw us out.
"Fine, don't marry her! The two of you get as far away as you can!"
"Not a shred of sincerity and you still want my daughter? Keep dreaming."
Winifred had her say too. "Herbert, from today, we're done. Clean cut."
"Someday you'll be the one crying, and I'll see who's willing to marry you then."
I said nothing, took my father by the arm, and turned to leave.
Down at the bottom of the building.
My father wasn't blaming me, but he sighed and sighed, unable to let it go.
"Dad, no matter what, that woman is not someone you marry."
I leaned close to his ear and said a few quiet words.
My father froze first, then sucked in a sharp breath and nodded again and again. "No, she can't be married. She can't be married."
That night.
I shouldered my hoe and went back to the hills behind the zoo. This time it took less than half an hour to hit a crate.
I held my breath and opened it.
Gold bars, one after another!
