Letter to Father No.1 - Thanks Mosquito 父への手紙１－蚊

Japanese follows English.　英語の後に日本語が続きます。

Keiko was not married and still lived with her parents. Her father had retired and finally started to do some household chores for the first time in his life. The incident happened when they heard mosquito buzzing in their ears while folding clothes side by side without conversation.

"Dad, is it a mosquito?"
"Yeah, I guess so. Let it bite you."

It has nothing to with West Nile virus. And one more thing to note. Keiko's father is a lovely guy, but he believes that the end justifies the means. Back then, he was worried about his single daughter, who was a so-called "parasite," meaning an unmarried adult child living with their parents.

"Keiko, as you don’t seem to understand, I’m going to tell you. You aren't wanted by any men, so you should be grateful to the mosquito for its wanting you..."
"Dad, that would be sexual harassment if it'd been said in the workplace!"
"I know, but everyone is harassed these days everyday everywhere. I'm your father, so helping you make an antibody against it so that you can survive this survival of the fittest society."

A few years later, when Keiko asked him if he remembered this, he said not, but he also said with a smug look on his face, "You are now a grown-up thanks to me!"

Keiko has recently found that she has an antibody against sexual harassment, but not in the way that was meant by her father. When being harassed, she always remembers her father and cannot help but think that people harass her with good intentions like her father did. Things often turn out to be different from what they were expected to be...

圭子の話である。

退職するまで専業主婦の母に任せ切りで、一切家事をしなかった父親と、どういう経緯でタンスの洋服整理をすることになったのか、圭子は覚えていないし、さして重要でもない。肝心なのは、その際中にプーンという音がしてきたことだ。

「お父さん、蚊じゃない？」
「そうだな。咬まれろ」

当時、圭子はパラサイト。父親はそんな娘を心配していただけなのだが、彼の愛情表現の仕方は少々変わっていた。

「何で蚊に咬まれなくちゃいけないの。いやよ」
「何言ってんだ。男が寄ってこないなら、蚊ぐらいには寄って来てもらわないとな」
「それセクハラっていうのよ。会社の女の子にそんなこと言ったらやばいよ」
「そんなことは分かってる。ただな、セクハラなんて当たり前の世の中だ。お父さんはお前に社会で力強く生きていってほしいから、免疫を付けてやろうと思ってるんだ」

そのおかげか。彼女は少々のセクハラ発言にはへこたれない。ちなみに、このことを先日話したところ、父親は全く覚えていなかったそうだが、「お前も成長したな」と誇らしげな顔をしていたらしい。

ただ、物事は往々にして意図した通りには運ばない。現在、圭子は、上司からセクハラを受けても、上司が自分を教育するためによかれと思ってやっているのだと思えてならない。