Still Life in Front of the Kitchen Window

In my family, it is usually my dad who cooks. On weekday afternoons, the first thing he does after getting off work is take the bus home and go to the nearby market to buy groceries. After returning home, he heads straight to the kitchen, starts washing and picking vegetables, prepares the ingredients for each dish, and begins cooking when my mother is about half an hour away from home.

In the spare time while waiting for my mother, he smokes in the kitchen, standing and leaning against the workbench, looking at his phone. I don’t know what he’s reading—most of the time it’s online novels. Sometimes, he calls his friends to chat about stocks.

After dinner, he clears the table and washes the dishes. Then, he sits by the sink again, smoking and looking at his phone. It seems like he isolates himself from the family, yet he cooks for us every day.