Title: Close Proximity

Author: Journal Kyaw Ma Ma Lay

Literary type: Short Story

Country of origin: Myanmar

Characters:

U Po Sein – father (75 years old)

Daw Pan U – mother (75 years old)

Mathaw – daughter (35 years old)

Summary:

It was the 75th birthday of U Po Sein. Ma Thaw, his daughter get up early to prepare the cooked
rice to be offered to the temple for his father’s birthday. She has a hard time making the stove
hot because of the damped firewood. Just then, her mother, Daw Pan U came rushing to the
house to cook her own food in the stove opposite the one that Ma Thaw has been using. Daw
Pan U’s stove refused to light up and so Ma Thaw brought a flaming branch from the other
stove to put on her mother’s but Daw Pan U rejected it with distaste saying she would never use
anything from that other stove.

It turned out that Ma Thaw’s parents are already separated but still living in the same house.
They each have their own stove to cook their meals separately and have separate earnings.
They have not spoken to each other for 25 years and Ma Thaw already became an old maid at
age of 35. Ma Thaw cooked for her father and helped her mother in the kitchen. In their small
two-storey wooden house, her mother has a small grocery in a room downstairs and Ma Thaw
worked as a seamstress.

The story of her parents relationship began when U Po Sein from the up country had arrived to
treat a small-pox patient. The disease spread quickly so U Po Sein had no choice but to stay for
a longer time to treat the whole village. To not make him leave anymore, the villagers made a
match for him with the 40 year old seamstress Dan Paw U, so Ma Thaw was born when her
mother was already past forty. When Ma Thaw was 3 years old, she still did not know that her
father was U Po Sein because he would be away treating patients in other villages and be home
only for three to six months at most. the marriage did not work out well; first out of shyness they
refuse to go together to the pagoda or monastery like the other couples. Even after Ma Thaw’s
birth, they are still shy with one another. However, when she was toddler, the shyness turned to
bickering. Dan Paw U was frustrated with her husband that he always spoke abruptly, that he
thought too much of himself, that he was selfish, fussy, unforgiving and contrary. On the other
hand, U Po Sein was frustrated with his wife that she was stingy did not get along with anyone,
had too many things going on and was stubborn, ungrateful, self-centered and unhelpful. It was
when Ma Thaw was 10 years old that everything exploded. It was the day that U Po Sein
returned home after about three months of treating patients from the countryside.

Early one morning, he returned home carrying a wooden box with his clothes and stuff, two
baskets he had bought to use at home and a whole bunch of bananas. Upon arriving home, he
expected that his wife would help him carry the things inside the house. As soon as Daw Pan U
saw his husband, she went into the bedroom. When UPo Sein saw that, he dropped everything
in the door. While resting, he got up from the chair and shouted loud enough for Daw Pan U, still
in her room to hear, “Hey box, hey baskets and bananas, go into the house now, get inside!” He
was speaking as if these things were live entities. Dan Paw U knew that as long as she did not
go out and take things in, he would go on being sarcastic and was determined to see who would
give up first. Just then, two customers came and they heard the shouting of the doctor, they
hurried to the monastery to fetch Ma Thaw and told her the happenings in the house. Ma Thaw
ran like the wind back to her house.

U Po Sein was still shouting the moment Ma Thaw arrived in the house. She quickly gathered
her father’s things inside the house. He father, exhausted from all the shouting got up and
proceeded to the village. Ma Thaw looked for her mother and finally found her in bed with a
blanket pulled over her head. When U Po Sein came back, he was carrying pots and pans
together with rice, salt, fish, dried chillies, onions and bottle of oil. That was the day that U Po
Sein, with deep bitterness against his wife, declared himself no longer married to her and set up
a separate kitchen. He cooked for himself until Ma Thaw was old enough to do it for him.

Back to the present day, Ma Thaw is now ready to bring the offering to her father, she noticed
that there is no more sugar pellets left in his father’s tin, she asked her mother. Dan Paw U
began telling Ma Thaw the story of her hardship with his husband, a story that her daughter has
heard a thousand times before. Ma Thaw only half heard his mother. She was fed up with her
life being the buffer between her parents, not even getting married and she no longer wanted to
listen to the same things over and over again.

Ma Thaw hurried to bring the offering tray to his father. U Po Sein noticed the sugar slabs. Ma
Thaw admitted she got it from her mother but insisted that she paid for it and did not get them
for free. U Po Sein is still adamant not to receive anything from his wife and ordered Ma Thaw to
throw it away.

U Po Sein had his own story of hardship with his wife but Ma Thaw is too busy counting and
making sure that she has 75 spoonfuls of water. She had also heard the same story over a
hundred times and they were nothing new. Living as a spinster in consideration of her battling
parent, she felt more wretched whenever she heard these words.

Ma Thaw hurriedly came downstairs because she must prepare her mother’s offering tray. She
was surprised when U Po Sein appeared in the doorway looking for his Zatar. He was going to
place the Zatar in front of the image before he can begin praying as he has done on every
birthday but had failed to find out this morning. Ma Thaw reminded him that he always keep the
Zatar in the empty biscuit tin by his bed. U Po Sein then remembered that the biscuit tin is not
on its own place either.

It turned out that there was a storm the day before and Dan Pan U moved some things including
the tin can because the roofs were leaking. U Po Sein insisted that the things that were moved
should have been returned in its proper place. They went on saying their opinions but not direcly
saying it to one another but through Ma Thaw. Not long after, U Po Sein found the Zatar on the
bookcase. Her mother kept on nagging about the whole thing when Ma Thaw heard his father
began his prayer. One line that made her tears welled up is this “may all creatures have neither
hatred nor enmity, may they have neither anxieties, nor fears, may they keep themselves in
well-being and prosperity.
Meanwhile, her mother began praying herself. Her voice was so good and Ma Thaw, like on her
father, felt a piercing on her heart while hearing the last part of Dan Pan U’s prayer. “Those who
live far; those who live near, all these creatures of the world may they be well, body and mind,
may they be free of danger, anxiety and suffering. MA Thaw is crying now, she was highly
doubtful about her parents’ goodwill. She understood their prayer so well, “May all creatures be
blessed, but not that person in my house.”

The End

Guide Questions: Please ponder on these questions to better understand the story.

1. How was Ma Thaw as a daughter?

2. What matters most to Dan Pan U and U Po Sein?
3. What do you think is missing from the relationship of U Po Sein and Dan Pan U?
4. What is the effect of her parents’ separation but complicated relationship to Ma Thaw?
5. What can you say about their prayers in comparison to their relationship?
6. What was Ma Thaw crying about in the last part of the story?
7. What reality is shown in the story?
8. Why do you think “Close Proximity” is the tile of the story?