Instead of saying he would scold or beat me, my father quietly asked my mother to mend the vest.

父亲没说责备我或要打我的话，而是轻声叫我母亲把那件背心补好。

youdao

So he had noticed that it was him I'd asked and not my mother, and also that I had not said I was wondering whether I should go back to school or not.

所以他留意到，我问的是他，不是我的妈妈，而且我还没有说我在琢磨我是不是应该去上学。

youdao

One day he asked his mother, "Where is my father?"

有一天他问他的母亲：“我的父亲呢？”

youdao

Stopping here, he asked my mother for a glass of water and gulped it down.

NPR: Literature and Lullabies from the 'Axis of Evil'