10

Date …

Some tornadoes swept trees so strong that they were deracinated and stood on their branches whereas their roots were pointing upward after being lifted off the ground for a while. Tornadoes could move even a whole stone mortar to a far distance. It sounded exaggerated but it was the truth. Like waterspout, it sucked dry the water in the pond and blew it to somewhere. Well! That was life! We knew any further information for what. Such sort of tornado had extirpated lots of basic universal truths which were built from time immemorial and all previous concepts of life were reversed. New conception was set up: Poorness was respectful-worthy and richness was contemptuous-worthy. The rich had to be annulled. The poor people held the power.

Fortunately, Human being’s foolishness was often stopped in a certain time after it had reached a certain level. The obscurity would suddenly be enlightened in a right period.

The national selected intelligence was advised and thus had discovered the “wrong action beyond measure” which was “imported” from oversea and impudently applied. The national “sage” had recognized their dead mistake. The supreme leaders had to withdraw their handkerchiefs in order to wipe their tears because they were so pained with what had happened caused by reform Team. The “correct the fault” instruction was immediately launched.

All reform Teams were recalled to districts and provinces right away. They were one more time re-educated. New policy was disseminated. They themselves “had changed their look” and reform Team was renamed “correct the fault” team. To be present at the villages and communes was them in the person of themselves but not anyone else, only that they were stationed at Dong commune in stead of Doai one as previously. They “permuted” and were “newcomers” in all the villages.

Taking the mission of “killing people”, they used to be “evil geniuses” with the motto “Team was the second of none, even Heaven” but then they were “Saints” and “Bodhisattva” who helped people.

With the “new political program” in their hands, they almost commuted all “landlord” elements to “middle-peasant” ones and there were only a few landowners in every commune as they had so many fields. All or apart of houses were returned to their rightful owners. Prisoners were released at once, even the people who received life imprisonments or 20-year’ imprisonments … except people who died of death sentences. Such families were resigned to the circumstance as nobody could disinter a corpse and bring dead person back to life.

A tree was replanted by burying the roots under the ground and setting the top pointing upward but not by setting the top on the ground and forcing the roots pointing upward as what they had done previously.

Mrs. Doctor of Letters Nguyen couldn’t be reduced to middle-peasant (as she had up to 20 hectares of fields). However, her “human condition” was restored. She was no longer “an animal” which always received pinches of soil by the children whenever she was in the streets. An apology was given to her because the merit of her husband, her son and hers which was paddy and money contribution to “Three Goddesses headquarters” … was sunk into oblivion.

One hectare of field and a block of ancient houses for pre-court competition-examination in the precinct of the Stone Farming House were returned to her. The two floors building constructed under Western style in olive-like tree forest was confiscated since it belonged to Duc Vinh whose element was puppet side in South Vietnam.

The But Nam leader of “fault corrective Team” respectively invited Mrs. Doctor of Letters to his office. He received her with a happy smile flaring a friendly light full of great affection on his face.

-       We are very sorry for what had happened to your family. However, let the dead bury the dead. Let bygones be bygones! Look ahead to the future! Your family’s merits rendered to revolution were highly appreciated. Nevertheless, life always has many intricatenesses and capriciousness. We can’t get the exactly quantity of rice once it has been scattered on the floor. Let’s put all the debris of a porcelain plate together. Our fault corrective motto is “try to fix all the askew things”.

Mrs. Doctor of Letters was sitting there. Her eyes were overflowing with tears and then they started dropping. They looked like the drops of water in the autumn rain which were non-stop bossing the show on her cheeks. That was the bitterest cry she had ever performed in her life even when she was “denounced”.

The “fault corrective Team” sat tight showing his respect for her painful tears. He went on his state of immovableness even when Mrs. Doctor of Letters had already returned home. He looked attentively at the yard covered by the sunlight. A strange feeling had just dawned upon him when he could not understand who he was, how he was and what he was thinking.

He was a chief of reform Team one year ago himself. He had bossed the reform movement and had made it seething like boiling water in the boiler. He “felt a vindictive hatred” for the wealthy to the marrow. He had to exterminate them and made them vanish into thin air. He had “selected” 20 landlords in a village in which people ate the smell crab sauce and another type of egg plant all year round.

He “approved” the “century” cases in which people were shot like the young frogs were beaten.

In resistance war period, he was a “propagandist” who was hated most by the enemy. His “tongue would be cut” on the spot whenever he was taken up. The “propagandist” had great courage by nature. Having grenades under his belt, he climbed up the highest bachang mango in the village and used a speaking-trumpet to hurl a stream of abuse at “colonialism” as though he was well singing at mid night. Bullets were fired in bursts bang bang from the post. His hysterical laugh was echoing through megaphone and roused the whole village in the quiet and deserted night. The puppet soldiers didn’t dare to open the gate of the post and approach the bachang mango for taking “the tongue” alive.

Thau (the Team leader’s name) had good taste in speaking. He was a “fluent speaker” with a stentorian voice. He was “requisitioned” by his superiors and made official member with the title god’s higher authorities (Team was the second of none, even Heaven) as soon as he was at the age of 20 and in the first stage of reformation in Middle Vietnam because of his intelligence, keenness and being of poor family extraction.

There was a special landlord named Tuan Chanh in Van Xo village where “Team leader” Thau was working. His family was not very rich except around ten hectares of fields. Tuan Chanh was called Mr. Doctor of Letters Chanh as he had received a PhD degree. He was good-natured, decent, righteous and generous and well treated everybody. However, he couldn’t escape from the “standard” of big village bully because he had been working as a district chief and then a province chief for at least ten years no matter how kind he was. With such curriculum vitae, he was counted within the sweep of poor peasants’ eye whose purpose was his death.

Mr. Doctor of Letters Chanh was arrested in the first week of Thau’s present in Van Xo. Taking the motto “I settled public affair basing on the public law”, Thau had to summon Tuan Chanh to the denouncement and gave him a death sentence in spite of his sincere percipience of Tuan Chanh’s good nature. At the trial, Chanh had talked something which made everybody be uncertain. Chanh was a young district chief in a retired district some tens of years ago. One day, police inspectors had captured a student-like youth and he was committed to prison for district chief’s cross-examination. He was suspected of having activities which mobilized people to oppose the State. District Chanh was not fully confident when seeing the youth who was about the age of his. Chanh knew that he was the second best examinee’s son after talking for a while. Chanh was not only acquainted with the youth’s father but also respected the youth’s father with all his heart. Chanh decided to release him. Chanh had found out the solution by destroying all the reported documents and assuming that he was suffered a miscarriage of justice and the soldiers had arrested the wrong person. There was nothing happened to the youth. District Chanh offered him 20 dong and advised: You should immediately show a clean pair of heels. You should flee to a far distance and don’t be taken up by agent provocateurs. It will be a big trouble if you are put into provincial prison and the French mandarins or my superiors know about what I do today. District Chanh also directed him the way to safely escape so that nothing could be taken place later on.

Landlord Chanh answered for the truthfulness of his declaration: The youth was Nguyen Tat Thanh himself and it was the time before he arrived Sai Gon and set out to look for the way to save our country.

His story was a thing of capital importance. Tuan Chanh’s death sentence was postponed. Thau himself had received the order from reform Team which requested him to bring Chanh’s “declaration” with him to Hanoi by train in order to make a report. Some days later, Tuan Chanh was picked up by a car in Van Xo and he was sent to Hanoi. His death sentence was deleted but all his fields were divided among poor peasants.

Thau was known that Mr. Doctor of Letters Chanh was well behaved and was placed in Chinese translator in Literature Institute.

Thau’s secret pride was that he had helped to save a life. At the age of 20, he was pure and unaffected … despite of “Team leader” position. Nevertheless, he was completely changed to another person under the effect of the next “tornado”. Thau became an “emotionless” machine which was spun very fast in its framework. Thau had “gotten in touch, taken root”, accused hundreds of landlords whose guilt was mostly unjust punishments, sentenced to death tens of people whose crimes were established by “faultily air one’s grievances”, much cry and little wool and sentenced to life-imprisonments tens of secretaries and chairmen of commune who used to be wholeheartedly faithful to resistance war.

Thau had never been disillusioned till he was recalled to study “the political creed for mistake correction”. Taking the new mission, Thau appeared to be “another person”. How strange the man’s head was! It seemed to be controlled by two ends stick. The thought would become black when its head was knocked by the black end of such stick and vice versa. It made a volte-face.

Thau had ordered his staffs to commute 95% of landlord element to middle-peasant element since the date he received the duty of mistake correction in But Nam. Houses and furnishings were returned to their rightful owners. It was easy to return houses but not furnishings, or rather, difficult a bit. We can’t get the exactly quantity of rice once it has been scattered on the floor. All the beds, cupboards, wardrobes, sideboards, cabinets, tables, chairs, bowls, dishes, blankets, curtains, mosquito-nets, bronze pots, brass trays, stone mortars, … had been shared as real results among farmers each of who received one thing as a “keepsake”. Some people who only got a “picture” of Justice Mandarin were accustomed to seeing that picture in which the Justice Mandarin with a new-gate fringe and an imperial knife on his hand was riding red-haired horse as a present of supernatural power on their walls. Therefore, they felt thunder-struck and longingly remembered when they had to take off it and returned it to its rightful owners. However, it was worth revolving the universal truth from time immemorial: If you “ate without working” or robbed other people’s things and brought them back your home your descendants would be good-for-nothing (that universal truth was totally forgotten during reform period). And hence, almost masters of the houses spontaneously followed that universal truth. Some of them who noisily rotated the stone mortars on the roads in order to make returns laughed foolishly: “I took it because I was given by the times. Actually, such mortar used for braying the water-fern wasn’t worth a bean”.

How funny the cloddish people were! They were eager to wish for something as a “gift from the gods” when attending the “real results” festival. And then, they suddenly recognized that it was guilty to rob other people’s property and it had better for them to return when following the policy of mistake correction. There were a father and a son in some houses carried a wooden camp bed with difficulty to return and accounted: I couldn’t have a sound sleep when laying my back on this bed in deed. I always got a same dream in which there was a person talking by my ear: You robbed the thing from the sweat of mine. This thick and densely made-up camp bed will be sawed into “six planks” prepared for your future by the way. You see! How fear it is! It has better for me to spread the mat on the floor and have a sounder sleep.

Everything could be returned but rice as it had been already eaten and nobody could “vomit”. It was resigned to losable.

According to Thau’s statistical date, 80% of landlords in But Nam who were commuted to middle-peasants received their undamaged houses and 20% of them could only receive damaged houses because the poor peasants had changed hands to other owners at cheap price for the want of money. Such sorts of peasants could be accounted as “smart people” or “destitute people” who were so poor that they had to sell anything they had to satisfy their eating purposes without concerning to dwellings. However, the “new owners” couldn’t lead stable lives. They had to bring all materials used to build the houses to other places and return the foundation of the houses, the gardens and the ponds to the rightful owners.

A typical problem which made Thau worried was that the “vengeance” movement towards poor peasants who had wrongly aired their grievances had been risen up in But Nam since the date of implementing mistake correction. Previously, the poor peasants eloquently invented the guilt for the rich without understanding the reason why or as if they were possessed by the devils and the ghosts. They said: they were always undernourished or ate inferior quality rice and cold soup in stead of saying: they had three rice meals a day and they ate as much as they could when being hired-ploughmen. They said: They were dispossessed of gardens, ponds and fields in stead of saying: Their gardens, ponds and fields were sold under the contract of definitive sale. Both sides agreed, or rather, they begged the rich to buy so that they could immediately have money for their parents’ funerals preparation. The “wealthy” would “give up the ghost” at once under the effect of the words “starveling” and “dispossess”. The “ex-wealthy” were current middle-peasants who were going to take revenge by threatening beats and “stuffing shits into the mouth” of the people who had wrongly aired their grievances. Nguyen Van Chuot was the second object of none in the list because he belonged to first-class people who used to wrongly air his grievances “by snatches”. Chuot had made a mess on the altar of as much as several landlords’ houses in But Nam and he considered it as his “item which was so excellent” that he repeatedly performed. Mrs. Doctor of Letters Nguyen was fast to forget old scores but other small landowners didn’t spare him. The dry dog shits were thrust into Chuot’s mouth twice. He was forced to swallow otherwise he would be beaten to fracture of teeth. Chuot called upon Thau for help.

-       Team leader! I used to wrongly air my grievances because the former chief of reform Team asked me to do like that. You have to settle my case now. Nobody could use dry dog shits as meals forever.

Thau advised Chuot:

-       Move to mountain area and stay there for a short time till the situation has cooled down and everything falls into obscurity. Take hired labor as your career to lead a hand-to-mouth existence.

Chuot had disappeared from But Nam since that day. The “percussion cap” of vengeance was defused according to Thau’s thinking.

But Nam countryside was restored to life under the effect of “correct the fault” movement. All landlords didn’t “reclaim” their fields which had been divided equally among the mouths to feed in the village since reformation period. How extremely happy they were when they were returned houses and got back their condition of “being equalitarian people”. All the villagers were joyful. The children were trained how to dance and sing. They beat the drums whose voice resounded low and high every evening. Village festival was opened in the First lunar month with accustomed activities such as planted swing pillars, played cock-fighting, played human chess, sacrificed to idols in the village communal house, offered presents Buddha in pagodas.

Thau felt peaceful with a light heart. His current works helped him to atone for his dead mistakes which had been caused by him, himself. He was “the king of terrors” of the old days but then he was “the Bodhisattva” who saved everybody from misfortune and danger in But Nam. He was sometimes unable to pay attention and wondered: Who he was and how he was … and he couldn’t find out the answer.

Date …

Nothing could make everybody surprised more than three days …

The poor peasants couldn’t “wide open their mouths” beyond the standard of limited time when receiving the “correct the fault” instruction. They had gone into ecstasy of “pinnacle of high rank society” and “calumniated” at their pleasure for almost two years. They were surprised into consent that it was unfair when the showers of “incompetents and bad behavior” like them were highly appreciated just because of the standards such as poorness, laziness, untruthfulness and despicableness …

A great deal of poor peasants had to confess: I am poor due to my weak standard of business and my destiny. I am resigned to miserable. I was puzzled and suspect as well when I was praised to “high heaven” by accident at that time. I would be assumed to be the same side of the wealthy and to lose “class standpoint” and I would die as well if I didn’t “oppose”, “denounce” and “eliminate” them. By the same token, I had to “follow the current situation”. I would like to return the “real results” which were created by other people’s sweat.

Mrs. Doctor of Letters and Vien with their two ragged bags took 500 meters long from ox-stall to the main hall of pre-court competition-examination in the Stone Farming House. Many people who were returning tables, chairs and furnishings were gathering there in number. Everything was in its place. The altar for worshipping Mr. Doctor of Letters Nguyen was set at its old position. The plate “Benevolence for returning village” granted by the king was set dead under the red parasol. The picture of Mr. Doctor of Letters Nguyen which was brought with his wife from the ox-stall was placed on the red lacquer trimmed with gold throne under sparkling candle light and the perfume of aloe wood pervading the air.

Lan Vien had bought a cake of soap to wash the sweet potato resin on her body and she looked as soft white as before.

Ham rode a bicycle from Hanoi to the Stone Farming House. It was extremely extraordinary at the first moments when he, his mother and his younger sister were embracing and breaking into tears. The two ladies had been living in the hell for around two years. They were then escaped and were making the most of the sunlight.

Vu Hung was later than Ham 10 minutes. Hung motionlessly stood like a post on the part-house as though a dead tree was struck by lightning. Two streams of his unusual tears were flowing on his cheeks whose owner had a sculpted stone-like shape and never complained even when he was cut by a knife. Hung looked like a child as before when he was at the same house with Mrs. Doctor of Letters.

-       Mom! Please forgive me …

Vien caught Hung’s sight. Their sights were unknown as if they belonged to two persons coming from two different planets.

-       Please forgive me – Hung spoke softly and indistinctly …

Ham held Hung in his arms. Mrs. Doctor of Letters embraced Hung’s shoulders in her hands. They were in a voice choked with emotion:

-       Well … Just because of the situation … Nobody has fault.

-       But mummy! I had become an outsider of your family – Hung was violently sobbing. It was unexpected that such a stony man could be feeble like that …

-       No … I didn’t blame you … You are our relative forever.

-       Ham added – We remain brothers.

-       The board had been used as a part of another boat. How everything remain unchanged …

Vien had kept silent till then. She rushed into her room and press her face against her pillow.

The whole family stood dumbfounded as if they were attending a funeral.

-       It can’t be helped. Let her cry – Ham said.

Hung followed Vien. He knocked his head against the wooden wardrobe:

-       I’m not fit to be a man. I’m the most despicable person who clings to life and fears death on earth.

Vien held Hung in her arms. His front shirt whose color was waning grass one and represented for the uniform of Provincial Captaincy chief in the army was damp with her tears.

Mrs. Doctor of Letters and Ham got closed to them and poured comfort into their hearts:

-       Well! What a blessing of us when we haven’t died and we are still able to preserve our bodies like this after social changes. There is nothing else to ask for. Many people were died of being shot “boom”. They couldn’t break their tombs and come back to lives. To whom we should be reproachful now. That’s all right! We are quite lucky compared with them. Our lives are opening and we should restart everything. Nothing can make us scared …

Vien stopped crying unexpectedly. She wiped out her last drop of tear on her cheek:

-       What my brother Ham said is correct. Well! Hung … It’s enough for us to sorrow and I don’t want to be more miserable … All was arranged by the God … We had had an urgent marriage. We got married as fast as we robbed something. It didn’t look like a marriage life, or rather, a joke. Then, we divorced as accommodating as a game which didn’t happen slower than a whirlwind. Easy come, easy go … It’s not a true life, or rather, a dream which we should assume to be after all …

-       OK! Let’s put aside all the melancholy because today is a “resuscitative” date which brings happy to us …

-       Yes, we have fun. But how a cloth can be changed color to white once it had been dipped in indigo.

-       It remains the cloth despite of its color rather than the one shattered to pieces.

-       Hung! Let me tell you one thing – Said Mrs. Doctor of Letters – I had brought you up since you were a child. So, you should keep being my adopted son, Ham’s younger foster brother and Lan Vien’s older adopted brother. We are members of the family and we concern our future together. Frankly speaking, I’m afraid of staying in the Stone Farming House, But Nam, Thuan An so much after my “escape death” case. Staying there, how “glorious” we were and what “great disasters” we got. I don’t want anything else. I move now. I am going to live in Hoang Lan villa enclosed by iron fence. There, neighbors know none of each other. I no longer dare to be at the Stone Farming House which was possessed by the “devils and ghosts”. Lan Vien is too. She was so scared of the countryside that her hair stood on end. Vien is going to live in Hanoi with me and Ham. I would like you to mind the Stone Farming House for you lived in Thanh Do town whose distance to this place is nearer. You are able to frequently visit here as the owner …

Lan Vien smiled, or rather, was on the brink of tears:

-       The country folk living by green bamboo ramparts was good-natured, unsophisticated and loveable and behaved with the fullest propriety towards one another in time of peace. On the contrary, they all appeared to be demoniac fiends when the time in trouble. I had extremely penetrated into such “hearts of people” and I have nothing to hesitate. I and mom will “walk” to Hanoi next week or even tomorrow right away. The Stone Farming House will be locked and let it sink into oblivion …

-       Vien is right – Mrs. Doctor of Letters added – I was bored of Hanoi by nature because of its crowded houses, noisily trading scenes and glacial townsfolk who always stood on ceremony with each other and lacked of sentiments towards neighbors when lights were out. I like countryside with warmly neighborly relations. I like the space on the fields, century-old tree gardens, lotus ponds. I like the incense smoke pervading above the altar and ancestors’ graves. Everything supposed to be pleasant and easygoing. Unpredictably, “the clodhoppers are going to be demons and ghosts” that are more merciless than beast of prey as the opportunity offers. So, I would like to “give a kowtow which is so long that my hat has dropped” and say goodbye to this village …

Ham had to make an unnatural smile although he was ineffably and unspeakably melancholy. What his mother said wasn’t unreasonable. Ham “knew the time of day” more than others. He commented:

-       An underdeveloped agricultural country whose population has 80% farmers is determined to create indispensably blameworthy impacts. The Western industrial countries took hundreds of years to build urban – industrial zones and set up urban life.

What a “pity” of Vietnamese villages when they are complained angrily as they are indispensable products manufactured by agricultural economy. They have their own attractiveness, beauty and long-standing tradition. They are “existent” and hence they are “reasonable”. Only that we shouldn’t be complacent and assume them as our ideal, we shouldn’t be self-satisfied by praising them without considering and we shouldn’t “seize our hair”, lift our bodies off the ground and place ourselves on high “position”. We should recognize that human being can’t be completely liberated unless industry and urbanization are carried out. Countryside is “the prison of life” in some aspects. The bamboo ramparts in the village were bastions which shield from the civilized light. A country can’t count as a developed country with its civilized citizen unless it can break out the structure as well as the custom of home village. It takes long time and even centuries to do it, of course. Firstly, we have to “patch, protect and help” so that the village structure can be made good its “dead” shortcomings.

-       Life is quite short. We may die and our remains may be placed in a small terra-cotta coffin for definitive burial till then. We have our own body and we have to take care of ourselves – Vien smacked her lips – For me, what I need is a clothes on my body only and I depart from here – say good-bye to the fascinating beauty of century-old tree garden, lotus pond, stone dock, stone bridge, ancient moss-grown houses with frankincense rising in curls …

Ham burst out laughing …

-       We have already “corrected the fault” … The life is peaceful as before. However, it’s true that the “village” had done our mother and Vien “serious injuries”. Both of you have to go for “wound treatment” right away by living in the city. I and Hung will be in charge of looking after the Stone Farming House from now on.

The Stone Farming House is quite valuable. It is our “originative place”. The country space will entertain our minds. We can sometimes come here for relaxing. The “cementation prisons” are located in the city as well. All our frets will be cleared away under the effect of trees, grass, cool winds and bright moon … in the countryside.

-       You can say like that because you haven’t experienced the feeling of “sleeping in the ox-stall” – Vien looked askance at Ham.

-       I haven’t started until now – Mrs. Doctor of Letters remarked – If Vinh kept staying here he would be dead for a long time. I’m cock-sure he would receive death sentence.

-       Mrs Ham advised Vinh against leaving here because she “relied on” her husband who “had joined resistance war” on that day. It was very perspicacious of our mom to ask him to flee without hesitating.

-       Without my suggestion, his “instinct of self-preservation” would “give information in order to help” him as well. “Among 36 tricks, the best solution is to buzz away”. He would know how to take care of himself. In our world, everyone has to care of their future and nobody can look after the other’s business. Even Hung whose “element is servant” would lose his yellow star on his hat if he didn’t kowtow to the times by divorcing his wife and implementing “wrong denouncements”. Let’s think and feel pity for Duc Nguyen. If he “hardly worked” as a mandarin he would take the title Viceroy of Tonkin or Province chief. He had made fuss with “fish sauce trading”, “hair cut” and spreading material about new ideas. He was for our country, for independence and against French. He laid down his body at sea for our motherland but then his wife and daughter had to live in ox-stall due to the behavior of our “country” …

-       Mom is not perfectly right – Ham had to “rectify her thoughts” – Our country has never forgotten anybody’s merit. Our father was perpetually cited and respected by our country. Such “problem” happened due to the fault of a “small part” and now it is corrected.

-       The cheek was swelled before getting compensation – Vien talked discontentedly.

-       Well! I don’t know how your father, you and Hung, three of you have “merit and guilt” but I only know that which shortcomings I and Vien, two women of us had and we were used as dummies which gave our lives in order to save another’s act as substitutes in the denouncement. We were suppressed, trampled as if we were worms and considered less valuable than a creature while you still lived in Hanoi and Thanh Do without having an undernourished day.

-       That’s why we are wastes – Hung wetted with tears again.

Mrs. Doctor of Letters smiled:

-       I just say like that but I didn’t blame any of you. I would be more broken-hearted if you were in prison. I contented myself with shouldering your men’s guilt by our women’s bodies. However, they were not to go so far as to give me a death sentence. I was so scared of getting a shot boom into my body. I’m afraid of blood event most …

-       You might receive a capital offense for sure if you “stubbornly” resisted poor peasants at that time. Nevertheless, our family had “good behavior”. We had devoted all our assets.

-       I admired Mrs. Ly Mieu living in Upper hamlet. How brave such a woman was! She was counted as a landlord in the afternoon. In that evening, she had garroted herself and went to the next world right away showing the body hanging down loosely. She couldn’t bear as she had resentment. If I was her I wouldn’t have such courageousness.

-       How hurried she was! It’s regretful now.

-       It’s not sure that everything will be “reported to the king” and the fault correction is carried out without such above mentioned people. You did nothing but pusillanimously wrote your thorough self-criticism, re-educated, broke off with your father, your mother, divorced your wife, your children and conserved your lives.

Her saying made both Ham and Hung ashamed. Mrs. Doctor of Letters kept smiling:

-       Well! I just “talk for fun” only. I didn’t mean to blame you. It was hard for a snail to carry its shell. How it could bring a stake for alga growing …

-       We are guilty with you, mummy.

-       That’s all right! Put away all the old stories. The matter of “agrarian reform” is not allowed to mention again. We are now going to draw fowl, cook sticky rice and prepare a party …

A meeting among the people who had just escaped from misfortune, scatter and “father left offspring, wife parted from husband” had mixed feelings. Ham and Hung clinked glasses together and said in melancholy:

-       I could finish my studying in Law school and received the title District chief. I was able to repeatedly gain promotion. “Drink champagne in the evening and milk in the morning”. My reputation was honor. My family was developed. Even so, I didn’t care. I dropped everything and joined in “social activities” for national independent ideal. I feared neither ammunition nor bombs. I had spontaneously thrown myself about Hanoi in the first days of resistance war before I moved to war zone and joined in “patriotic Resistance” of hardship with “tasty olive-like fruit and bitter bamboo sprout” in remote places difficult of access.

Even so, Life neither “rewarded” nor “granted privileges” to my mother but led her merry dance … and “kept” me in re-education camp …

What an ungrateful life I’m sadly thinking of! However, I regained calm when recalling another person who was very much more “ungrateful” than me. Mr. Clementy was the owner of French newspaper office. He had devoted all his life for activities fighting for independence in Vietnam. This topic covered most of the articles in the newspaper. What a great merit he had devoted to our country. How awkward it was! Mr. Clementy had relied on his Vietnamese wife before the political upheaval named Japan staged a coup d’eùtat against France happened. He had fled to his better half’s hometown in Thai Binh as a place of concealment before he was killed. The illiterate militia didn’t know who Mr. Clementy was and what the ideal of his parliamentary and expressible struggle for Vietnam independence was. They could only know that he was “French” who was “as dishonest and cruel as” all the other French and they had to kill him. Mr. Clementy had told his merit to militiamen with falchions on their hands. The minutemen couldn’t understand at all and thought of begging words so that they chopped his neck with their blades of scimitars. A stream of fresh blood overflowed. His whole life devotion for independent ideal in Vietnam was “paid” like that. What is more illogical and capricious than that on earth? I appear to feel “very lucky” whenever I think of that event. My merit turned out to be nothing to talk. How affectionate the life had given me …

Hung cast down his eyes without daring to say a word. There were full of Hung’s analphabetic guerillas in Three Goddess base of the old days. They didn’t know anything about “press” event as what Ham had just informed. What they concerned was revolution or French. They had to kill the people who were French … We couldn’t blame them but the unreasonable and whimsical attributes existent in life itself …

Date …

All the things in Hoang Lan villa were rearranged. My grandmother was on the first floor where the living room was set. My parents were on the second floor. I and Mrs. Vien were in two rooms on the third floor. The top of ylang ylang tree was as high as the roof of the house. The balcony of the third floor was scattered with sweet-scented ylang ylang flowers. I and Mrs. Vien were “embalmed” with the perfume of the flowers.

Mrs. Vien had changed from “a woman slept in the ox-stall” to “a young lady” living in Hanoi capital. However, the Hanoi ladies then pinned up their hair like the women in the country as well. They didn’t have their hair permanent waved anymore. They wore black silk trousers as well but their shirts were of a brownish-black color with round neck cutting. The only difference between them was a shirt. The women in the countryside were in loose-fitting blouses dyed brown and bare feet whereas the “ladies” wear wooden shoes.

My father rearranged all his documents to find out the certificate of female student in Dong Khanh School. He transcribed to prepare Mrs. Vien’s curriculum vitae and wait for the chance so that he could help her in applying for a job in a State company. My mother had been changed her teaching from Children private school to Quan Thanh Grade School. She was in charge of the second grade. She was counted as “State cadre” despite of her not much paid.

In idleness, my grandmother grew sad and fretful. Therefore, she prepared a bamboo frame holding two loads of flowers at both ends of a carrying pole. She bought flowers in Ngoc Ha village and carried them to the Shores of Sword Lake for selling. Her rattan was quite beautiful with dahlias, gladioluses, roses and daisies … Even so her profit was not much as well. Everybody advised her to stay at home for relaxing but she refused. Idle life made her extremely sad. She didn’t feel strenuous at all but happy when selling the flowers on the street like that. She said: What a lot of fruit such as jack-fruit, shaddocks and longan are in bud in the Stone Farming House. I have dropped everything there. What a bit pity! But I can’t do differently. I don’t know whether Hung harvested or let the neighboring children destroy everything.

My grandmother let the farmers cultivate rice on her hectare of field without getting any “land rent” because she was so afraid of the impacts from “renting land and getting land rent” and “exploiting” in olden times. She would like to sell flowers at the Shores of Sword Lake rather than to “collect land rent” from such a hectare of field. Many times, while I was passing by Ngoc Son temple I saw her sitting there. She was so small. A snowy-haired old woman between two loads of flowers looked strange and compassionate. Who was she? She used to be a wife of Doctor of Letters who was promoted to District chief. She was Deputy of Province chief’s mother and she was sitting in such state. The more resplendent the roses and daisies that were placed all around her were the more wrinkled and waning her life was reflected.

A “postal parcel” was mailed to Hoang Lan one day. It was unpacked. A lacquer picture named “The River in the afternoon” with dedication words written on the paper “Thuan Phong is pleased to offer you, Lan Vien a picture which recorded the afternoon we had met together on the boat” appeared. Mrs. Vien hung it in her room. Our whole family gazed at it many times and was full of admiration. The “thin gold-leaf” color performed the miracle of the countryside in the afternoon sun. The surface of the River tossed by the wave after wave expressed confusingly inmost feelings. The boat was simple, light and thin. Mrs. Vien was sitting there. She showed an undetermined look. The image of the boat looked like a destiny leaf which was forced to leave its branch.

The picture gave its viewers a feeling of sadness with agitation or something like vague melancholy and infinite.

-       It’s a true work of art – Ham commented – It’s quite beautiful. I had heard that Phong is a skillful knight of the brush but I haven’t witnessed with my own eyes yet till now. It is only counted as a “present” despite of its value. It cost much money and meticulous labor of Phong to finish it. The yellow color over there is a gold-inlaid one which is made of the real gold. It’s very expensive. But he offers for free. How precious Phong’s affection is! A beautiful drawing may cost a small fortune in oversea or West Europe. And special painting is a big inherited property. Keep it with you all your life and don’t lose it. It’s not easy to have it. You can earn money but you can’t create art inspiration which can only appear in some special contexts … Phong had had a strong feeling in that afternoon when he met Vien on the boat and it was in lurking-background. That obsession can be considered as a motive power for him to create such a masterpiece like this. It has no copy as it is so-called art which can only appear one time in one’s life …

The picture became Phong’s friendly “ambassador” that made him and our family got closer and closer to one another.

It wouldn’t be correct if I said that Phong wasn’t on his lonesome. He was the assembly Southerner and he was alone with no relative. He could find out the image of warmness and something like moral support in Hoang Lan villa. My grandma “hurriedly” counted him as her “own son” like she used to consider Hung as her natural son. She had a “habit” of taking great concern to other people. She always asked everybody to prepare the feast in which there were snake-head broth and cooked meat of small breed of fowl every Saturday afternoon and invited Phong to the party. Phong and our family hadn’t stopped talking until late at night. We were in each other’s pockets.

Phong managed and helped Lan Vien in applying for a job in “Fine arts Association” in which he was member of the standing committee at that present time. He had great power there. Lan Vien was in charge of papers work in the Association office. It was an idle job and suitable to her. She worked eight hours a day. According to what Phong had predicted, the image of Vien – a lady with a flower-like face and powder complexion would “brighten” the whole company where the “ugly and untidy” painters worked. They felt very happy …

The sky was cloudless and clear after the earthquake and thunderstorm. Our family started enjoying the stable and peaceful atmosphere. My father Ham was working for the Board of Central Agriculture. I didn’t know whether his title was high or low but I sometimes saw him clucking his tongue against the roof of his mouth and talking to my grandmother:

-       Brother Vinh who is working for puppet regime in South Vietnam is a “black spot” in our family’s history. It’s a mercy that my father laid down his life for our people and our motherland in Con Dao. That regained our reputation and the face of our family was “stable”. The historians are now giving more and more prominence to Modernist movement and thus my father’s sacrifice was more and more valuable. I will receive “beatitude” inherited from my father. I will be used at an important function in near future.

Mrs. Doctor of Letters agreed:

-       Yes! Your father was determined to support to you …

Date …

A long video clip set the scene happened in the context of the year 1956 was a saddest one and Mrs. Doctor of Letters was the main character whose frequency was high on the screen.

A long video clip set the scene happened in the context of the year 1956 was more “brilliant” and the main character was Duc Ham. Nguyen Duc surname was “when misfortune reached its limit, then prosperity came”. It seemed that he was dismissed from his “thinking mission” position which was of capital importance (at the level of Vice Prime Minister in Vietnam news agency) at first. He was prevented from dealing with international communications circles and the West. Ham was suspended from his job as an international news commentator whose replacement staff was an army colonel demobilized and given a post as civil servant. His unique “foreign language” was the language of Meo ethnic group (he used to take part in the battle fighting bandits in North West Vietnam). One and all had to be “checked” by interpreter who was a former police’s collaborator.

Ham was stored in the “warehouse”. He was assigned the “light piece” of works in the Board of Agriculture. He carried out the work of fighting against coldness at grassroots level (pullovers were used whenever it was cold. The cadre presented for what). He fought against coldness for people. He fought against coldness for rice seeds by scattering ashes so that the roots of rice seeds would be warm. He fought against drought by pumping the water into the fields and so on …

He had been absorbed in a big circle since 1958 when the Agricultural Co-operative revolution – a great movement whose nature was to “restructure” all rural areas in Vietnam was taken place. He became a key person.

It was true that revolution had non-stop operated like the sea had created wave after wave. They seized power in 1954, promptly implemented agrarian reform in 1956, discovered the mistakes and corrected such shortcomings at the end of 1957. The people in the countryside had no time to “breathe” after mistakes correction because they had to join in “Mutual help” movement and then took part in the “Co-operative” movement in 1958. That was the very fast operation with great animation the history had ever happened. Previously, the images of home village through generations were the old roofs growing moss, dark feet of bamboo trees, puddle with full of mud at its bottom. They were the same through centuries. But then, every new revolution was carried out every year. The changes could be seen every day.

Ham was assigned to set up a pilot “mutual help group” in Dong Phong – Thanh Do. Dong Phong was a large commune with many typical features of delta areas in South Vietnam. Taking experience from the works carried out in Dong Phong, the movement would be applied in the whole Red River delta. According to “High Command’s” guideline, Dong Phong was chosen as typical location where Hung used to inhabit as a member of reform “Team” by accident. Hue – Hung’s wife was still the most important leader there at that moment. Nearly all every cadres who had been through reform movement were “deposed”. However, the excellent “poor peasants” who were young with “developing” status and had gotten the abilities as well as fervent activities in somewhere like Hue still firmly held on to their position. All the works “reformed” weren’t perfectly wrong. It was correct when landlords’ fields were divided among poor peasants. The only mistake it had taken was “the wrong action beyond measure” which was a disguise of the wealthy massacre. There were still talent poor peasants among who was Hue. She had all necessary factors of an important person and it was not easy at all to find such a female officer like her. It was sure to have young female element in revolutionary staff structure and Hue had won the “nearly exhausted prize”.

In Dong Phong, Ham had to base himself on Hue and used her as the most important cadre at grassroots level. “The earth was round”. The old people saw each other again. Before “co-operating” with Hue, Ham had looked for Hung to make clear Hue’s characteristics.

… The macadam road in township was leading to Provincial army headquarters. The old-fashioned house made of bricks used to be “military commander’s Building” which had been built since last century. The military commander used to live there. There were two rows of houses set up as places for some ranks called district and provincial colonial units and native soldiers. Viceroy of Tonkin was the highest position in the province. The lower ones were provincial treasurer who was in charge of administrative affairs and provincial judge who was in charge of law. Military commander was in charge of military affairs.

Hung was a provincial army chief with Captaincy level which was tantamount to a military commander in the old days. The house of military commander was then a permanent office and “military commander Vu Hung” was living in a space with a neohouzeaua-roofed and walls plastered by the mixture of mud and straws.

Hung received Ham in a warm and friendly atmosphere. An iron mug was used to make tea. Their rations including boiled water morning glory and pork side were supplied by collective dining-room.

It was cool in late afternoon. Both were carelessly strolling on the streets. There wasn’t a peaceful and romantic town with the shadow of hyacinths, the sounds of birds cooing and beautiful two-floor houses around which fences were planted with eglantines any longer. There were no more crowded stores loaded with fabrics, miscellaneous goods, bronze art objects, handicraft woodworks. Formerly, Thanh Do was quite beautiful with sky-high ancient stronghold made of stones and surrounded by trenches, magnificent envoy palace, palace of Province chief where horse-drawn carriage always came in great numbers, bishop’s office,  solemn cathedral, house of public works, post office, hospital, French – Vietnamese primary school which had dormitories for distant students. There was no longer an entertaining town with restaurants, songstress stores from which the voices of singing and musical instruments were echoing … The town then had an “anti-illiteracy color”. The watch booth was narrowed with several “listening and shaking Nicole” watches in the window beside a watch-repairer in singlet with a magnifier hanging on his neck was completely wrapped in a mass of old-fashioned cog-wheels at full stretch. The “sunglasses” shop turned out to be a drawer which was displayed on the pavement as a place for amending the glasses whose frame was steel wires wound on by wool. The sewing stall showed its plate “Picker” the knees of trousers. “Picker” – How terribly majestic French was! That was the work of putting a piece of fabric on the tear of the trouser legs before sewing them together.

The only “fun” thing was counted in the town was what happened in General Trading Store. Everything was sold there. Everybody had to form a very long line to get their buying-turn despite the shelves there were as empty as the bottom of Buddha status.

Everything in the town was gloomy and solitary except the train-whistles which loudly shouted from time to time whenever the railway engine prepared to enter its station. That made the town woke up suddenly and caused the people a bit stirring and happy. The hooter reminded the people of mechanical age but not stone or bronze age.

-       Brother! Wind and waves had just stopped. Peaceful life temporarily returns. But I feel the greatest tornado hasn’t come yet. It’s waiting for us – Said Hung – South Vietnam hasn’t been liberated yet. According to my opinion, it’s determined to have a war to liberate and unify our country … You know! I’m going to leave this town. I have handed over “Commanding officer of provincial army section” work as I was directed in order to attend “High-ranking Military Academy”.

-       It sounds good! What great “strides” you have! Your future is bright. The middle and high military officials will be trained in such an institute. It’s quite right when you are chosen.

-       I was informed that the coming war of liberation in South Vietnam needs contributions from a great number of commanders who are “well schooled”. The experts from Soviet Union and China will take part in training. It won’t enough to be counted with practical combat experiences but the knowledge of tactics, strategies and commanders’ visibility in the context of modern warfare. My experiences taking from “Three Goddess system of defense works” in the past can be counted as nothing …

Both Hung and Ham had lived side by side for some days. Three months later, Ham worked in Dong Phong and Hung attended college. Hung received the title lieutenant-colonel and moved to South Vietnam after finishing high-ranking officer course …