Sam Meets his Mother-in-Law

Sam Meets His Mother-in Law

942 words

         It was a big day for Sam Adams. He was going to meet his fiancé’s parents for the first time that day. She had told him to bring a bottle of Whiskey from the US Army base and gave him directions. He was to call when he arrived, and she would meet him. They had met one month ago and had proposed on their second date.

         Sam was teaching ESL for the US Army in Korea. He had taken the job after finishing his Peace Corps Service in a rural Korean town. The reason he was in Korea was because he was following his dreams. He had met his wife in a dream in 1974 while in high school.

         A beautiful Asian woman was standing next to him talking in a strange language. She was stunning – the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. She was in her early twenties, with long black hair, and piercing black eyes. She had the look of royalty. She looked at him and then disappeared, beaming out of his dream-like in "Star Trek."

         He fell out of his chair, screaming, "Who are you?" She did not answer.

         About a month went by. and then Sam started having “the dream” as he called it, repeatedly. It was always the same pattern – early in the morning, she would stand next to me talking, I would ask who she was, and she would disappear. She was the most beautiful, alluring woman he had ever seen, and he was struck speechless every time he had the dream.

         One day in late May, about a week before Sam graduated from college, he had been accepted into the Peace Corps. On May 18, 1979, at 5:30 Sam had a slightly different dream. In the dream, she told him when he asked where she was, “Seoul, Korea.” And smiled at him. And disappeared as she usually did.”

         He called the Peace Corps and arrived in Korea. He looks around and sees thousands of women who look like the girl in the dream, but none of them are her. He knew he was going to meet her. He started having that dream monthly. Usually near the end of the month and always first thing in the morning.

         After the Peace Corps, Sam took a job in Korea teaching and decided that he would give it one more year. He kept having the dream though. One morning he had the last dream. And somehow felt that he was about to meet the girl in the dream. In the dream,
She said, "Don't worry, we will be together soon and once we are together, we will be together forever. I have been waiting for our last life together. And now I have found you.”

         That night, Sam got off the bus in front of Camp Red Cloud where he was teaching. Sam got off the bus and the girl in the dream walked off the bus, out of his dreams, and into his life. It was the moment he had been waiting for all his life.

          The next night she was waiting for him at the army base where he was to teach a class. She told him that she had to see him as she had something to tell him. Sam signed her on to the base and left her at the library to study. She was a college senior, she told him. They went out for coffee after class at a classical music cafe. She told him she was madly in love with him and that he was the man for her. He told her not to worry as he felt the same.

         Maria looked at Sam and spoke.

         Sam, it is obvious we belong together. You are mine and I am yours.”

         Maria, I agree. Let us get married, October 29th is my legal birthday. We can do the paperwork then and have a wedding later. What do you think?”

         “Sure. That will work. You have to meet my parents though soon.”

         Okay”

         He met her father, uncle, and two siblings and they drank a full bottle of Jack Daniels at the end of the afternoon, her father said to him,

“          You are okay, I have no problems with you marrying my daughter, but you have to convince her mother.”

         She glared at him, and he left.
         Mrs. Kal was furious at her daughter for dating a foreigner, which was a big taboo in those days, just not done in upper-class families.          She went to her Buddhist Temple and consulted with Monk Kim. Monk Kim looked at their birthdates and told Mrs. Kal,
“          This is a perfect astrological combination. It shows that they are fated to be together.”
         “But he is a foreigner.”
         “Yeah, that may be so, but the gods want this marriage to go forward.”
         Mrs. Kal went to another temple, and the monk told her the same thing.
         Maria told him her mother wanted to meet him. When he came, she told him what the monks had told her and said,
         “Who am I to go against the will of heaven? Welcome to the family.”
         Two months later they had their marriage ceremony at the Korean Army base where he had taken a job teaching Korean Army officers ESL before they went to the States for military training. They lived on the base. It was the first international marriage to take place on a Korean Army base. His father, a former Undersecretary of Labor for LBJ came to the wedding. It was a celebrity marriage covered on the National News.

Based on my true love story.


NEW PROMPT


So, speaking of grim tales, September 15th is the feast day of Saint Saint Ludmilla , patron saint of Bohemia. Also the grandmother of "Good King Wenceslaus," is familiar with the Christmas carol.

Ludmilla was, it is believed, murdered by her daughter-in-law, Drahomira, shortly after Wenceslaus' ascension to the throne. Probably because Drahomira (who had been regent during Wenceslaus' minority) resisted Ludmilla's controversial attempts to convert Bohemia to Christianity.

Accordingly, Ludmilla is also the patron saint of problems with in-laws!!

For tomorrow, write a poem or story that centers on the conflict between someone and his or her inlaws. Tell us what the conflict is, what both 'sides' want, and how the conflict is resolved. (And, no, it needn't be by murder.)