A couple of months ago, an older white man was sitting at the St. Paul Student Center with two young Asian children. I was sitting nearby trying to study, when a couple of things broke my concentration. One child was an infant, and was in a stroller that the old man was pushing lightly back and forth (for those of us who are "difficult", replace that with to and fro), the other was a young boy age 6-10 (I'm really bad at judging age), who was grating on the older man's nerves by running around. The old man would whisperingly yell at the child to sit down and behave. Normally, I would pay this no mind, but then I thought I heard him swear at the child. I forget exactly what he cursed, but I was pretty sure that he was yelling obscenities at this young kid. I watched silently, at a loss as to what to do. I wondered if it was a form of verbal/emotional abuse, but I've seen parents yell at their kids before, but this was a weird case because this white man appeared to be their guardian. I then started wondering if he had kidnapped these children and was trying to get them to behave. Then I thought that I was probably wrong. Why would he bring them to such a public place and run the risk of getting caught? Well, eventually the older child got hungry and he wanted some money for some chicken strips. The man gave the child money, with strict instructions to bring back every penny, because he was going to count it and make sure the kid was honest. After a moment, the child came running back and inquisitioned the old man for more hard currency because he didn't give the kid enough. The old man got all flustered and asks how much the chicken was? The kid departed with the information the old man sought, and the old man stood up and asked the child to follow him, because that price was ridiculously high and he needed to investigate this. Moments later, the kid came running back with the chicken strips, happy as all get out, and the old man was cursing under his breath how expensive the food and how ungodly the whole situation was. A similar exchange occurred when the child looked into acquiring a carbonated beverage to accompany his carbon consumption. When the younger child brought back the liquid fuel, he was playing with it, and the old man told him to cease doing it. Whatever it was (I tried to avoid blatant staring) suddenly spilled onto the table. The old man got extremely angry, said something like, "Now look what you did! Stupid son of a bitch!" and proceeded to clean up the spill. One of the things I noticed about this situation, is that the older child was very disobedient. I think this stems from the old man yelling at him all of the time and being verbally abusive. If you don't respect the child, of course he's not going to listen to you, especially when you are yelling at him the whole time. Eventually the group left, and I was left wondering if should call the cops or if I was overreacting. I chalked it up to overreaction, because the he never looked like he would harm the children. Further light was shown weeks later.
I was voting for MSA president and was trying to get a free meal out for my vote. I actually had some idea who I was voting for MSA, but it was mostly for the meal. Don't worry, it's not how I vote for U.S. president. I knew exactly who I was voting for U.S. president. Anyway, I voted, received my meal, and was looking for spot to sit, when an elderly gentleman with a baby in a stroller, invited me to have a seat with him. He started talking to me, asking me about what I studied. I didn't notice it at first, but after I had settled in, I realized that it was the old man from before! From what I gathered (it was very hard to hear him, because he mumbled so much) he had 3 wives, or over the course of his life had 3 wives, but I think he meant was married to 3 women at the same time! He also had children, to which I think he was referring to the Asian baby in the stroller and the other child from before! I became more mortified by the minute, attempting all the while to stay calm and not look too bewildered. He said something about how I should work for the Honeywell Co. because they have plants all over the world. He had been to Taiwan and some other places in China. He told me the Japanese like to visit Taiwan because of the mountains or something like that. I dared not tell him that I studied Chinese, because he claimed to speak Beijing hua (Peking dialect), which I would understand, yet I wanted nothing to do with this guy. I finished eating and was sort of packing up my stuff, when he suddenly burst out quietly, yet loudly enough to hear me, "Jesus Christ! Look at that! Holy God! Damn, she looks phenomenal!" A young college girl had walked by. I didn't know what to do, so I just acted as nonchalant as I possibly could muster.
Three wives, and a horny bastard to boot! I thought. He looked over at me and said, "I still get the goosebumps, after all these years! Can you believe it?" I just sat there for a minute. I slowly rose out of my seat, and he said a goodbye, as he sensed I was leaving. I said some sort of farewell. To this day, I really worry about those kids. I'm not sure of the situation, though because the man's mumbling was difficult to understand. Maybe I'll inform the U's police about the guy. I guess it's not illegal to be polygamous, but the way he treated that boy, and the way he acted is very bizarre!
What do you think I should do about this?
