Bellyacher

“For god’s sake, I can’t put up with my wife anymore! She is such a bellyacher!” Tim said fiercely at lunch time.

“Easy, easy,” I tried to placate my friend as I usually did when he grumbled about his marriage, “Tell me what happened? What do you mean by saying ‘bellyacher’?”

“Oh man, she’s that kind of woman who is complaining all the time! I should have noticed that before we got married!” My friend now seemed to be very regretful.

“Then what did she complain about?” I asked.

“Just about little things! Pointless! Yesterday I forgot to lay down the toilet seat and she kept talking about that for half an hour! Jesus, how long would it take her to lift that damn thing up on herself? Maybe 0.3 seconds! And the day before yesterday, she phoned me during the work time just to complain about her boss. Can you believe that? Accusing your boss for not responding to your greeting! That’s her, the bellyacher, who always gets annoyed by those trivial matters no one will ever pay attention to!”

Tim paused for a second, and then he hurried on without giving me the chance to speak.

“Another thing I can’t bear is the way she talks. It’s so unbearable. She always put herself at a position where she’s always suffering –sometimes she even bursts out tears because she thinks I am the one who should be blamed for everything. Well, to tell you the truth, I am quite used to this now, because people in the world are all the same –I never do wrong and it’s all YOUR fault! What’s more, as long as they start, you’ll never have the chance to speak for yourself. They can keep criticizing nonstop. The most terrible thing is that you have to listen to those ridiculous words till they drive you crazy, since if you show any impatience, you will be bothered to death!”

By the time he stopped for water, I asked him if he had ever talked to his wife. However, he cut me off rudely.

“Do you know why those people act like this? Not only because they are living a life full of failure or they are easy to be envious, the essential reason is that they have no empathy for others. They are too selfish to think about other people’s feelings. And I really hate selfish people! I really hate those bellyachers!” Tim ended his talk with his cup hit the table heavily.

The whole cetin was in silence. Everyone was looking directly at us. “Listen dude, I really feel sorry for you.” I was supposed to console him but I wasn’t able to control myself at that moment, I stood up and proceeded, “And I really appreciate your great elaboration on the definition of those bellyachers. Fortunately, we have reached an agreement at least–we all hate bellyachers.”