the entire family is sitting down in the living room, eating roasted salted pumpkin seeds. the mother, the father, the son and his wife keep a small amount in their left hand. one by one, they pop a seed between their front teeth and nibble on it until the shell falls off. the salt from the seeds temporarily numbs their bottom lips and the tip of their tongues. their eyes look straight ahead. it is dedicated work with little reward.
when the family stops eating roasted salted pumpkin seeds, their attention shifts back to one another. the mother gets up and walks to the other side of the room. the son starts a conversation with her. the wife sits between them. she wishes the mother or the son would change positions so that she wouldn’t be caught in their dialogue. she looks at her husband, but he doesn’t sense her discomfort. she doesn’t interfere.
the son and the mother talk for a while. the mother finds a few cucumbers to offset the lingering salt. she cuts the cucumbers into four small portions, and the family munches on their slices, looking at no particular point in the distance.