Troublemakers

'Let's get a new washing machine,' said my husband.

"I'm waiting to buy a new one, but how can I throw away the old washing machine that keeps running? It comes back to life when I think it died as if making fun of me."

The washing machine makes a loud noise and shakes. It sticks out its body forward and makes a fuss to finish the laundry.  It is proof that It is doing well in dehydration when it is as if it will explode like this. Sometimes it does the laundry without a sound. There is a lot of moisture left in the laundry. I open the small door at the bottom of the washing machine and drain. “Do your best.” muttering, tapping the washing machine and turning it again. As if to repay my comfort, It does the laundry well. I've been fighting the washing machine for a long time to see who wins.

If I do the laundry too often, it finishes with wet laundry. Leave the washing machine door open and turn it only twice a week. It drains well. When I see a washing machine struggling to do laundry well, I can't throw it away because I think of my eldest son when he was child.

When I raise the eldest child, I pull him to stay still, but the child, who was quiet for a moment, escapes from my grasp and goes around making noises like banging his butt and head. It was absurd to see the child still looking around for something to play with, as if the body he bumped into didn't hurt.

"Why is your son so fussing? How did you educate your child?"

I raised my child by hearing a lot of bitter words from people around me.

“It’s because the kid is full of energy. When he grows up, a child like that is rather quiet. Your father-in-law was also very playful when he was kid. How gentle he is now." 

As if proud of a child who resembled in-laws, my mother-in-law comforted me by saying that he was okay.

I taught him swimming because I was worried that he would make a fuss at school and give the teachers a hard time. It's because I was trying to take his energy out. The child swam almost every day. Maybe it was because he lost energy at the swimming pool, he was calm at school. The now grown-up child is as gentle as my mother-in-law said.

When the washing machine rumbles, it's trying to do the laundry well because it's full of energy like my child. It is proof that my care is needed when it is quiet. I soothe the washing machine by cleaning. The washing machine resembles my eldest child when he was young. 

When he was full of energy and ran wild, I put him in the swimming pool to drain his energy. When he was low on energy, I gently soothe and cheered him up. Like raising a child, the washing machine and I grow old together.