You have to...

Maybe it is translation, but Koreans often tell you that you must do something. And maybe it is translation, but Canadians don't like being told what to do.

I never tell people what to do, not even my children. I ask them to do something, or suggest that they do something. I let them know what the consequences of their not doing something will be. But I do not tell them to do anything. I do not tell anyone what to do. Until someone tells me what to do, I then I sure as fuck tell them right back what to do.

I am taking the garbage out and the building manager asks me if my car is parked on the road up to the apartment.

"Yeah, it's the one in the back." I say, pointing.

He gestures to the construction workers mulling about.

"They're going to bring a big truck in there...."

"Ah, just a sec. I'll go get my keys."

I go up to the apartment to get my keys and come running out to move the car.

A construction worker is taking the plastic cover off the car that they have put on it to keep off the dust. They have put these covers on all the cars parked nearby.

I help her take the plastic off.

"You have to put your phone number on your car." she says. She doesn't thank me for running out to move the car. She doesn't thank me for helping her remove the plastic. She just tells me what to do.

"No I don't." I reply. It's instinctive. If it isn't a law, I don't have to do it.

"What?"

"I don't have to put anything on my car."

"You have to put you phone number on your car so we can call you." she says again, Then she adds in English, miming a phone. "Phone, phone."

I don't leave my shopping cart in the middle of an aisle in the grocery store, or stand in doorways, or walk slowly dead center down the middle of a sidewalk. And I do not park blocking other people in or out. There is no reason that I should leave my phone number on my car.

"If you want people to not park where they park everyday, you have to post a notice."

I don't know how to say 'post' though. I say 'put'.

Perhaps this is why she doesn't understand me. "Phone. Phone" She repeats in English.

"I don't have a phone" I say.

"You don't have a phone?" she repeats.

"And I wouldn't answer your call anyways."

I'm tempted to just leave the car there until she can learn to communicate like a reasonable human being, but who knows what might happen to it in the meantime.

I get in my car and move it to the parking lot away from the construction.