The Vote Tally
🦋🦋🦋
“Here is the result of the first ballot, and it’s Aye,” Hyung read aloud, shattering the hitherto tense silence of the living room, and then held up the paper for all of us to see. It seemed, out of all the ballots in the box, he had drawn mine before any others. I discreetly cast a sidelong glance at Mom. Unsurprisingly, the honcho remained as cool as the other side of the pillow, her face not revealing a shred of concern.
“The second ballot reads, Nay.” This time, a self-satisfied grin curled on her lips as if she knew this was just the beginning of a cascade of Nay votes yet to come.
“The next one is Aye.” The room inhaled sharply at Hyung’s announcement, everyone taking a second look at the paper held aloft by the moderator. A jolt of pleasant surprise surged through me. After all, I’d been bracing for an emphatic 5-1 triumph for Mom. This unexpected vote indicated that someone other than myself had intrepidly cast their vote for me. In some way, this Aye ballot felt like a good coup d’état, a bold defiance against the honcho and her menacing tactics.
There was no doubt in my mind about the plotter of this most welcome coup: my sweet Hyung. I shot him a quick wink, then lifted up my pinky and index fingers while extending my thumb, silently conveying “I love you” in American Sign Language.
As for Mom, if she knew ASL, oh, I assure you, she’d have utilized all her fingers like a Shaolin Temple kung fu master to aggressively communicate “just wait till I get my hands on you” to Hyung. And later, she’d have used those same fingers to inflict some physical pain on his back. Still, her expression remained unfazed. The honcho appeared to be convinced that the two Aye ballots were merely seditious acts of her two sons, drawn early by chance from the tissue box, and that there would be no more…
“Aye.”
Hyung’s announcement of the fourth ballot’s outcome sent shockwaves through the living room. Audible gasps, heavy with disbelief, echoed around, and stunned eyes darted from one face to another. It was as clear as the still surface of Lake Rotomairewhenua in New Zealand that my immediate younger sister had voted for me.
On the verge of delirious euphoria, my soul about to soar over the moon, I turned toward my sister sitting next to me. Clasping my hands tightly together, I mega-tenderly looked at her, my eyes drenched in profound gratitude. I dare say, no other sentient being throughout the extensive timelines of the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies has ever worn an expression of such immense gratitude. But she was looking away, her eyes fixed blankly on the ceiling.
The hero of the hour wasn’t avoiding my intense gaze, mind you, but rather Mom’s. When I turned my head to eye the honcho, I found her glaring at my sister, eyes blazing like Cyclops from The X-Men, poised to unleash a torrent of searing energy beams. And her quivering lips seemed to grumble, “Just wait till I get my hands on you.”
My sister’s decision wasn’t merely bold; it was her first open act of defiance against Mom. To honor my sister’s bravery, I now needed to expand my business into additional neighborhoods, mowing more lawns and raking more leaves to earn more money necessary to purchase more classical music CDs and the latest Anne Rice, Joyce Carol Oates, or Kurt Vonnegut novel she fancied. But I didn’t mind in the slightest, for I was more than ready to embrace the challenge for my hero.
🦋
Ever since I took my seat at the unsettlingly silent dining table, I had steeled myself for the inevitable defeat. However, with three votes now under my belt, two of which were entirely unexpected, my heart started to throb so fiercely that I found myself clutching my chest, as though this action could somehow still the heart’s prestissimo pounding.
From the moment Hyung revealed the outcome of the fourth ballot and then reached his hand back into the tissue box to draw the fifth one, time seemed to slow to a crawl, second by stubborn second, allowing for a whirlwind of thoughts and scenarios to race through my mind at breakneck speed.
Is fate playing a cruel joke on me? Did it arrange for Hyung to draw the three votes cast for me in the first four ballots, only to laugh at my expense by dealing me an agonizing defeat with the last two ballots? Am I destined to, much like the perennially unfortunate Falcons, snatch defeat from the jaws of victory? Oh, heaven forfend!
Will the denouement of this morning’s saga ultimately spell gloom for the little calico and moi? Surely there’s no way that Machiavellian Maknae, my domestic nemesis, despite a candy-coated deal from Mom, would inexplicably cast her vote in my favor, would she? Miracles are only for biblical tales, aren’t they? Oh, heaven help me!
“The result of the next ballot is…”
By this point, I was hyperventilating, my heart lodged in my throat and my stomach twisted up in knots, causing me to feel light-headed and my knees to wobble. I lowered my head, nearly touching the floor as I tightly gripped my perspiring temples. To calm myself, I shut my eyes and pictured a serene image of the kitten blissfully napping atop my warm belly.