Kathryn
Brooker made me wonder is this actually what every mother and wife had felt? It
made me reflect on what my mom had been through and what exactly has she felt.
And most importantly on what will I go through in the future.
She is
either tough enough to bear all the suffering and pain she didn’t deserve to
get or she is just that stupid letting herself being hurt by not fighting back.
That’s
frustrating moment when she got cut by her husband and I literally go, bapaklah
hentak jelah kepala dia dengan stick hockey ke baseball!
Lucky me I
have both in my room. Just in case.
Sometimes, I
don’t understand what power men have over women that made them think that it’s
okay to hurt women. Physically or verbally. No. I can’t understand more why
women letting themselves to be hurt in the first place.
“Are you mad, Mark? Is this where this comes
from? Are you insane? Do you know that you are mad, or do you think that you
are not? It surely has to be madness that drives you. It has to be an unsound
mind, a cruel and mad disposition that drives you to do those unspeakable
things to me.
Where does it come from, Mark? Did someone
do bad things to you? Where does the idea germinate? Does your behavior bring
you joy or sadness? It brings me sadness, Mark; it brings me great sadness. You
have taken the person that I was and you have slowly dismantle me over the
years until this is all that is left, this shell, this casing, that used to
house a person. It used to house me, but me is gone and the husk that is left.”
Kathryn is
an ambitious woman. She knows what to do in her life. She has plans. Having met
and married to Mark Brooker, her life turns to hell. She had to complete a round of chores every day, often pointless and
repetitive chores that were designed to exhaust and break her spirit. Then,
later at night Mark would allocate her
points according to how badly he thought she had executed the chores. These
points on a scale of one to ten would determine what came next.
The deepness
of the cut.
After a long
sixteen years, she killed him. Knifed him in the gut and called the police to
report the crime she unapologetically commits.
This story
reminds me to KL Noir Short Stories, on how a man got arrest for beating up a
guy that harass her mother. Or when a man beat up a guy that killed a cat at
pasar malam and on how a man got lock up for stealing RM5 from the tabung
masjid to buy a lunch.
Those
stories might only be just a fiction. But the message that it brought are so
clear.
Crime is Oxford-dictionarily defined as:
1. Activities
that involve breaking the law.
2. An
illegal act or activity that can be punished by law.
3. An act
that you think is immoral or is a big mistake.
None of the
above definition mentioned the relatedness of justice with crime. Crime is not an
act of injustice but it’s an act of breaking the law. But, whose law? You see, these
man-made laws aren’t always able to bring out justice. It’s only flaws are that
they are made and carry out by us; human.
Law had
always works on the equality term. Never on the equity term. That’s why we
still have crimes even with thousand of laws and decree established.
That’s the
reason why I failed to see that Kathryn is guilty. She’d been sentenced for
five years in jail for the crime of law that she breaks. Killing is a crime.
But, when her life is at stake, it would be more sinful just letting it go.
Because then there’ll be no different than to just commit a ‘suicide’.
I like Kathryn.
She acts so indifferent by not shamefully admits about her past. The facts that
she is innocent and a victim even didn’t have to be acknowledge by others,
because they didn’t know what she had suffered.
Her fight is
so inspiring and beautiful. But her loves for her children are not. It had
weakened and paralyzed her completely. Besides, they can’t be consider as
children. Not anymore. They are young adults with mentally-rude behaviours. Should
have just tossed them in the mental ward to fix that loose wire in their brain.
Tchhh those kids.