DV in Dili

I just went out to get a bite to eat for lunch at a busy little cafeteria around the corner. I took my uni readings with me because I was sans company.

I ordered my food, chose a seat in a nice quiet corner and got down to business: eating and reading. I didn’t immediately notice the couple sitting at the table directly to the left of me.

I successfully entered the Zone of Academic Consciousness, but shortly after, was diverted off course by something happening at said table on my left.

The woman (just beyond my peripheral vision) had begun continuously whacking the man (just within my peripheral vision) with an empty water bottle. The man was feebly defending himself, both in word (by softly trying to placate the woman in a language I couldn’t understand) and deed (by blocking the blows with his forearm while looking embarrassingly around at the people in the restaurant). The woman scolding him was doing so with lowered voice, but she was very obviously unconcerned about the scene she was creating with the bottle.

I didn’t feel it was my place to stare, so I kept my eyes on my reading, pretending not to notice. But in my mind I was secretly scandalising about what it could all be about.

After a little while, I couldn’t bear it any longer. I looked up. But I didn’t look directly at them. I just kept them in my peripheral vision, pretending to be looking at a picture on the wall near them.

They both looked at me and the woman stopped the whacking, momentarily.

I went back to pretending to read. The woman went back to whacking and scolding.

A short time later, I looked up and stared innocently at the wall again, as if considering something very intellectual from the reading I’d just been doing. They both looked at me and again the whacking stopped. I noticed that other people in the restaurant were also pretending not to notice, looking at their own parts of wall.

I resumed “reading”, the whacking continued.

I wasn’t getting any work done, so I decided to pack up and leave. As I was pushing my chair in, I turned and looked directly at the couple, and gave them a big smile. I’m not sure why. I guess I thought I’d be the first to acknowledge the elephant in the room by making light of the situation.

The woman didn’t see the funny side of it. When I met her gaze, I was greeted with the most unpleasant of death stares, looking out from heavily lined eyes, punctuated by an intimidating scowl.

Whoops!

I walked out, to the beat of plastic against skull.