Merry Christmas.

Tonight, like any christmas eve was a night spent in Church.
The children of our family, youngest being me, have a tradition of going out for drinks and food to any food join we find that is open. Last christmas was a de-bockle at the Green Room, where we found ourselves and some family friends 6 shots deep at 2am wondering who the DD was at the beginning. This year was different.

The crew was shaved down, as many of the usual suspects were off and way on other family ventures around the globe. Myself, My brothers Mike and TIm and my Sister in law, Yuko, went on a mission to seek out a new place. We found a little korean BBQ that happens to be open on christmas eve... little Korea is a safe bet on Christmas and easter because they do not usually celebrate the holidays.
The place seemed nice enough to walk into... really exciting tables with the stove top in the middle. The man came and served us immediately. He told us 4 people had to order 4 dinners, which was okay because we were hungry.

As we were waiting for our food we heard a ruckus in the kitchen... yelling... then a woman ran out and yelled in broken english for us to call the police...
we were suddenly sober.
She was immediately followed by the man who served us, telling us that the restaurant was closed, he was so sorry, merry christmas. We all stopped for a minute and asked the woman if she did indeed want us to call the cops and she didn't answer.
We walked out and stood outside wondering what to do next.
Tim then saw the man push the woman into a chair and that spurred our re entry to the restaurant... this time Tim was yelling.

We asked the woman is we should still call the cops and she did not answer. It seemed she was weighing it out... perhaps he was her financial support, perhaps she was not a legal immigrant, perhaps she had no one else...

We stood between her and her partner... him now sitting down and eating a meal at the front window, still yelling at her in Korean. Eventually she held my hands and told me it was okay, we could go.

What a tough situation.
If you leave... you risk letting her take more abuse... or even worse.
If you stay... you just prolong it.
If you call the police... you blindly involve the law in business that is not yours to get into.
We did not in fact see him "hurt" her. Everyone fights...
What is the gut feeling here?


As we walked out I walked up to the man and put my hand on his shoulder and tried so damn hard to look straight through his eyes and see what he was feeling... but i couldn't do it. I couldn't read her either.

I hope they are OK tonight.
Last words exchanged as we left the building were " Merry Christmas".