Calgary, January 2021
The title of this story is a presumed translation of a traditional Chinese curse. While seemingly a blessing, the expression is normally used ironically; life is better in "uninteresting times" of peace and tranquility than in "interesting" ones, which are usually times of trouble. History offers countless examples of “interesting times.” Considering just the twenties century, there were two World Wars, the 1918 – 1920 Spanish flu pandemic which killed more than 20 million people, famines like the one in Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 claiming over 3 million victims, political persecutions by Fascist, Nazi and Communist dictatorships, government sponsored racism… The list goes on. There was no shortage of “interesting times” in twentieth century, and I have a wide selection of those times for the following story. Its place and time don’t matter, it could have happened anywhere, anytime.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith were a typical family. They had two children, the older Mary of 17 years and her 14 years old brother John. Mr. Smith owned a hardware store and the whole family was helping in running it. Mrs. Smith worked as a shop assistant and also did the accounting; Mary did the daily sales summaries and helped her mom with calculating the tax returns. The income claimed in those forms was usually less than actual yearly sales and the expenses were bit exaggerated, but Mary knew that a little cheating on taxes is a God-giver right to the shop owners, so she did not mention it to her parents. John did the various errands as needed. The business was prospering, and Mr. Smith had no reason to complain, but he was bit worried about Mary. She was, as most teenagers are, rebellious and disobedient. Even worse, she started to be interested in boys and Mr. Smith was terrified that she could get pregnant. That would not only ruin her prospect for a respectable marriage but would also cast a shadow on the family reputation and possibly destroy the business. To prevent such a disaster, Mr. Smith asked John to do a little spying on Mary. “It is not really spying, I just want to know if she has a boyfriend,” explained Mr. Smith to his son, and John was happy to oblige. He thought it will be a great fun to spy on his sister.
One day John found out something interesting. He saw his sister with a man and the man was black! (At this point of the story I can replace a black man with a Jew or Muslim or any other member of a racial or religious minority, it wouldn’t make any difference). John immediately reported his finding to his father, hoping for a reward, but there was no reward. His father was furious. This was the worst of his nightmares. He knew that the interracial sexual relationships were prohibited by law and if somebody would see his daughter with a black man and report it to the police, there would be no end of troubles. It would be the end of his business. When Mary came home, Mr. Smith started the interrogation.
“John said that he saw you with a black man. I that true?”
“Yes, I talked to him after a basketball game.”
“What basketball game?”
“There is a college tournament, and he plays for our team.”
“He attends a college?”
“Yes, he wants to be a teacher.”
“Did somebody see you talking to him?”
“Of cause, there were spectators at the game.”
“Do you realize what that means? You know that the relationships between white woman and black man are against the law and if somebody reports seeing you with him, we would be ruined.”
“I have no relationship with him, we just talked.”
“It does not matter. I absolutely prohibit you to talk to him again. If I find out that you disobeyed me, I myself will call the police.”
That should have solved the problem, but it didn’t. As I have mentioned, Mary was rebellious and would not listen to any prohibitions about to whom she can or cannot talk. Definitively not if that particular person was a tall, athletic young man, way more interesting than the clumsy 17 years old boys of her class. So, Mary talked to the coach of the basketball team, found out that his name was Tom, and after the next match, she waited for him. They talked some more, but Tom knew that it was dangerous, he was well aware of the racial laws. Still, he was young, and it was hard to reject the advances of a nice 17-year-old girl. They met few more times, but then the disaster struck. As they walked towards his apartment, Mary noticed that her brother was following them. That was bad. She knew that John would betray them to her father and that he will call the police, just as he threatened to do.
“Tom, I am really sorry, but you have to run. My brother saw us, and my father will call the police. They might charge you with attempted rape or something like that. You have to disappear!” Marry was almost crying. Tom knew that she was right, but he also knew that there were aid groups which were helping black men in similar situations. He run to his apartment, got few essentials and took a bus out of town. Therefore, when the police came the next day, they did not find him, and the few inquiries about his whereabouts did not reveal anything. In this neighborhood the police was the enemy and Mary denied everything.
When Mary came home after her walk with Tom, her father was waiting for her.
“You disobeyed my order!”
“Yes, I did.”
“OK, from now on you are not going to leave your room except to go to school. No friends, no parties, no nothing. Also, as soon as you graduate, you are out of this house.”
Therefore, Mary was spending a lot of time in her room, and that gave her a lot of time to think. She got hold of the telephone book, found a number of the Internal Revenue Service and on the way home from school she gave them a call.
“Hello, I want to report a tax fraud.”
They connected her to the right person, and she repeated:
“Hello, I want to report a tax fraud.”
“What type of tax fraud?”
“Falsifying the tax returns.”
“How do you know that the tax returns were falsified?”
“I was doing the accounting for them.”
“OK, and what is the business?”
“It is a hardware store of Mr. Smith at …”, and Mary gave him her home address.
“And what is your name and address?”
“Mary Smith, at the same address.”
“Are you related to the owner?”
“Yes, I am his daughter.”
“Are you reporting on your own father? Why?”
“They told us at school that it is our duty to report crimes.”
“Do you realize that you would be causing a great deal of trouble to your father?”
“Yes.”
“And you still want to do it?”
“Yes.”
“OK, you have to write us a letter with the details of the fraud, and we will send an inspection to investigate.”
Mary wrote the letter, and the inspectors came. They went through the inventory, checked the bookkeeping and found some discrepancies. Not enough for a criminal charge, but sufficient for a hefty fine. My story ends by Tom hiding from the police, Mary hating her brother for spying on her, hating her father for calling cops and hating her mother for allowing all that to happen. She can’t wait to leave home. The family hates Mary for reporting them to IRS. They all live in “interesting times.”