29

Date …

I opened a website to check the share price index. I palpitated with fear everyday. A great number of foreign economic experts made comments on the securities market in Vietnam.

A following “general” article drew my attention:

The atmosphere of stock exchange in Vietnam had become remarkably eventful due to the improvement forecast in Vietnamese economy since the year 200x.

The Vietnam share price index (Vn-index) had dizzily increased (144%) and won the highest position in Asian securities market.

In 200y, the value of holdings which were put into circulation in Vietnamese securities market was still below the figure 700 millions dollars. In the year 200x, the amount was unexpectedly up to 14.6 billions USD. It was 20-time growth.

However, many gaps in the structure of the market itself were exposed clearer and clearer when the stock exchange in Vietnam broke out because it had just been established for 7 years. Therefore, the accumulated risks accordingly became higher and higher …

Recovering my calm, I analyzed the ground for the surprising outbreak of securities market and thus my share in AVZ Company increased 60 points and as a result of that, I had 60 millions dollars. Several below reasons were worth to list out:

-       The Vietnamese reform policy performed its “effectiveness” when Vietnam had opened. The national board of leaders brought about a turning-point of our country. The economic even growth rate was 8%. The stability of politics (meanwhile, the continuous conflicts were happening in many places in the world) made foreign investors increased their beliefs.

-       The Vietnamese financial market had become clearer and the law was more perfect since Vietnam was a member of World Trade Organization (WTO). By way of consequences, foreigners were encouraged to invest their capital in Vietnamese stock exchange.

-       The banks for investment of international stature such as Merrill Lynch, City Bank and JP Morgan had the right to have share transactions in Vietnamese securities market.

-       The law on stock in Vietnam had come into effect since the date 01-01-200z and the legal corridor was formed accordingly.

It was reasonable for me to win 60 millions dollars and based on the historical trend. The good luck received in the person of me and was considered as a matter of course in the aspect of the economic development in our country.

Then, I started worrying after throwing into ecstasy of “flaps catching gold in bulk” which were “a dream-amount” for a while. I became more anxious when reading what was analyzed in foreign newspapers.

They named the risk in Vietnamese securities market “a coming balloon stock exchange”. The average interest earning from Vietnamese securities market in recent time was 35% which was from 10 to 17 times higher than the average interest earning from perennial market in other countries. That was the suspiciously uncommon figures.

The words “a coming balloon stock exchange” made me most frightened. It meant an artificially high value. My interest was a sort of virtual interest. The foreign investors’ sums of hot money would be rapidly withdrawn without leaving even a cent once Vietnamese stock exchange dropped down.

In 1998, the financial crisis in South East Asian countries whose market economy was operated made many bosses went into liquidation in less than no time. Their shares became valueless and the bosses became beggars accordingly …

Let’s looked back upon the American history in 1929 when securities companies in New York opened to receive their customers’ transactions at 10 o’clock in the afternoon dated 29 October, a mass of “documents” were thrown away and the shareholders’ consternated screams were resounded at the same time. The costly shares became sheets of waste-paper after a night only. The Dow Jones index terribly went down while all other share indexes had an extremely big drop. The date 29-10-1929 became the worst day in the history of American securities market. As a result of that, American economy and even the global economy had to experience an overcast 10-year period of desolateness.

Long time ago, the First World War gave America many chances so that it had many boom years and quickly became very rich. The American economy developed like a horse galloping at full speed and thus the securities market there was pushed explosive. The employees working for securities companies flocked to every corner of the streets in order to invite people to take listed stocks. Everybody changed their savings into shares and one of the contemporary up-to-date modes was buying holdings. Everyday, People were in state of anxious suspense when checking the share indexes listed in securities companies to see whether they were up or down. The “hot situation” of American stock exchange was so monumentally high that it was beyond the development situation of its real economy. The securities companies started being on the wane when the investors “had bargained away” their shares since 24 October and the securities market completely collapsed dated 29 October 1929. On that day, none but Cast iron and steel Manufacturer sacrificed 650 thousands holdings and searching for buyers was just like looking for a needle in a haystack. Meanwhile, the boss of Coal Factory went into shock which was so great that the blood vessels in his brain were broken and thus he died on the spot right after he saw a drop in share index of his company on the electronic board. Many billionaires became penniless in a very short time … Several billionaires who used to be debauchees and played ducks and drakes with their money turned out to be stone-broke and became poor landless peasants. So many banks of stature had to go into liquidation because they were unable to reclaim their loans.

One more time, the bankrupt history of American securities market happened in 1987. In that time, the Dow Jones index was down 508.32 points within a day. A series of famous securities markets in London, Tokyo, Sydney, Hong Kong and Singapore performed the drop of their share indexes as well. The share indexes had been always valuable since 1982. Then, the “balloon” was broken at last in 1987. The date 19-10-1987 was a “destiny” date. The billionaire No. 1 in the world Sam Walton had a dead loss of 2 billions USD within a day …

The above information was mentioned in a newspaper. I had a great deal of anxiety when I looked back on the practical situation in Vietnam.

Some foreigner judged the people who bought Vietnamese shares as follow: “They will later on lose their last shirt on their bodies”.

I came to AVZ Head of company in order to request them to help me with selling 10% of my total shares so that I could have some money as “a beggar preparing a sack and a stick just in case”. How sorrowful I was! As a member of board of directors in that company, I won the priority in buying the shares at basic price but I simultaneously lost the right to transfer my stocks within 2 years. That meant I wasn’t allowed to withdraw my money even a cent at that moment. My 60 millions dollars turned out to be money of “worship” or a virtual amount which was written on the paper only. Within two coming years, how the share index would be. Did the current share index remain unchanged as “60 points” in two years more? Would I be “rendered unto Caesar the things that were Caesar’s”?

Date …

The Earth starts performing its manifestations of an insecure situation in our living environment.

The planets are innumerable in the immense universe. Among them, the Earth is the only planet which has enough wonderful conditions for life. The rest ones which are only fire, dust and nebulae are now millions of degree of heat, now minus thousands of thousands degree of cold. They are quite worthless.

Nobody knows why there is the precious planet called Earth like that. The Earth has ground so that we can put our feet on it. The ground is the place for the plants to grow and produce not only food but also the most beautiful and sweet-smelling flowers so that the human can have a concept of how the “beauty” is. On the other hand, we can use the air above the ground to breathe as well. The air is inexhaustible and won’t be deficient. The human will launch into eternity once the breath is stopped within some minutes. Therefore, the air has to present everywhere and everybody including the people of all classes such as the wealthy and the poor can have “free of charge” breath. Water comes next after the air. The water is clear and swift flows in the very blue rivers. Everybody can be “buckshee” whenever drinking water as well because the human can’t also survive within some days without drinking any drop of water. Ground, water, air and plants are esteemed to be enough. On the contrary, there are the fossil fuels, coal and petroleum as energy sources in earth’s womb as well. How exceedingly perfect the Earth is! The lamp of Phoebus above our heads freely illuminates the space … The light of stars and moon is used as “poetic inspiration”. It is free of charge as well. The four seasons including spring, summer, autumn and winter alternately arrive so that we can change our feeling. Nothing can be accounted more beautiful than a peach blossom or girl’s cheeks catching the drops of spring rain. The sunshine at the beginning of summer darts its beams on the buds’ complexion which then becomes dazzlingly bright. The cool summer breezes in the afternoon are high and large. The early autumn winds are tumultuous. The dry sunlight is as yellow as chrysanthemum. The cold at the beginning of winter gives the couples the ground to warm up each other by mean of their arms.

You see! How miraculous the Earth is! Nevertheless, the human has step by step spoiled the environment on Earth in recent years without understanding the reason why.

Firstly, the air is destroyed. The productive industry is discharging mountains of carbon dioxide CO2 and thus the phenomenon named greenhouse effect has happened. The Earth becomes hotter, the ocean froze in the North Pole and the Antarctic is liable to gradually thaw. The Eskimo people perpetually walk on the ice blocks but now, they have to “tiptoe” since the thickness of ice becomes thinner and by the same token, they can unexpectedly plop in the sea at any time. The sea-level will turn out to be higher and by way of consequences, the lands in sea surroundings will be prone to flood once the ice thawed. The sea-level will increase up to several meters and the cars will have to swim “with much plashing noise” in the cities in sea surroundings at that time.

The climate change causes the violent storms, the tsunamis and the torrid seasons which can make the people dead and the forests burnt. Everything will be beyond remedy.

The human will spoil water source after destroying the air. The very blue rivers will become not only very muddy but also noxious due to the effect of industrial waste. The great breast milk-like river named Danube in Europe hasn’t remained unchanged. The currents of Asian large rivers which rise from the huge “roof” called the Tibetan are blocked or adjusted and their water are contained in reservoirs and the countries in their lower sections are deprived of water. More than a half current of the great Me Kong River are blocked by an impoundment in Yun-nan before the rest half one can escape Yun-nan. The water which used to be the endless source has to be in state of deprivation and becomes an object for everybody to fight over. The rivers were formed due to the crack of geology. Many countries long since share and enjoy the water source from heaven. Now, it is occupied with impunity.

Next is forest. The forests are devastated as though the patches of grass are eaten by the clicks of ox. Each tuft of grass takes turn to be stripped bare. The disappearance of forests will cause the damage to living environment. The ground will be covered by nothing, will be in moistness status and will carry the toxic carbon dioxide CO2 when catching rains.

The pollution of climate is a menace to the whole mankind and it isn’t less dangerous than the effect of radioactive substance coming from atomic bomb. The children living in the areas which are 500 meters far away from car-routes often contract respiratory diseases and the elderly there have an expectation of short life in general. You see! Is it precious to have a “façade” house where the money can be made easier and the death can also come earlier? So, what is the purpose of earning money?

I don’t know how the relationship among the factors causing the change in the weather is but what a pity for the vast oceans whose absorbable ability of noxious carbon dioxide CO2 now reduces as well! That means the environment is comprehensively degraded and thus thunderstorms, flood, drought and scorching sun appear more and more frequent. The human has to stop such dangers or the Earth will be spoiled and turned into a “dead planet” like innumerable other planets in the universe …

All above mentioned phenomenon explained the grounds for my two most terrible fears of natural calamity in my whole life within 6 months of that year. Those are a tsunami which made me had a hairbreadth escape from death in Sky-blue seashore and a 12-wind force gale in the Stone Farming House in my hometown.

Returning Vietnam from America, I and Vera decided to take a holidays in Sky-blue beach after burning out the sorrow due to Lu’s death. It was new seashore which had just come into operation and thus there were only a few excursionists. The salt water was very blue. The sand was monumentally white.

To avoid attracting attention, I hired an ugly pleasure-house which was far away from the swimming place in the sea. Besides, Vera referred a country-seat where stood isolated, was far away from groups of people wearing bikini and walking backwards and forwards along the beach and there was a garden full of yellow leaves.

In such a deserted house, Vera carried me in her arms and paced up and down just like a mother rocking a baby to sleep. I was having half-closed eyes while I was engulfed in boyhood memories.

-       Let’s enjoy the life as though we were still young and had just cohabited with each other in our apartment in Moscow – Vera suggested.

-       We are now more profound because we had already experienced all the superficialities and frivolities.

-       I’m sorry I had been unfaithful to you. Forgive me, please!

-       Forgive and forget! Now, we are together. That’s all!

We meet.

Hand in hand, we’re each other’s sweets.

We use present tense,

Forget the past and future we haven’t reached.

I composed an improvised verse. Vera laughed aloud in the fullness of her content.

In the afternoon, we got fun at the seaside. We hired two bed-like buoys and let it cumbersomely drifted far away from the sand-bank.

-       Be careful or we will be drowned at sea.

-       Don’t worry! We have floats! In addition, I can swim. I always struggled in the sea at my convenience whenever being on vacation in Sochi seashore in Russia.

I was flat on my back and was viewing the boundless sea with my half-closed eyes. My life saver was bobbing on the quiet waves. I stretched my hand and tightly held Vera’s hand.

The surrounding coracles which were used whenever the fishers wanted to hook shrimps looked quite lovely. They were going up and down on the water. They gazed at the “grandiose” body which the Creator granted the white race with curious eyes. Vera was my pride. She was my property. I appeared to love Vera very much. I loved her more than I used to. Then, I had enough condition to “support” her whole life in spite of the fact that I had to “look for” a Vietnamese young girl who satisfied my standards in order to be delivered of a Vietnamese purebred boy. He would receive an inheritance from me or I would “be without offspring”. To whom I should hand over my property. A cross-bred child between I and Vera (if any) would have “blue eyes and golden hair” in its appearance anyway. It would belong to “international guy”. It would neglectfully worship me, my father Duc Ham, my grandfather Duc Nguyen and my Great Oldest Uncle included. Most of my assets would belong to my Vietnamese clean-bred lad and the cross-bred child could only get a part. I knew my thought was totally “wrong” and “backward”. However, I was Vietnamese orthodox man. I couldn’t have a different point of view.

Leaving the sea water, I and Vera hand in hand walked on the sand-bank on our bare feet. At random, we sat down, drank coconut milk and tasted the roasted squids.

I knew that I shouldn’t absolutely show my wealth. It was quite dangerous. I always pretended to bargain whenever having any commerce. All my things such as personal effects and garments were casual. I even looked “slovenly” like “a village teacher” being on vacation as well. I was afraid of the scent of the “underworld”. Vera had to “camouflage” herself also. She didn’t dare to prodigally spend. She had to behave as if she was a poor “foreign girl” who followed her husband, stayed in Vietnam and led a life in many hardships including eating cooked water morning glory and egg-plants. She didn’t wear even a piece of jewelry. I had a “bag used for going surrounding areas such as hometown or district” on my hand. The bag represented its owner’s “level of ability”. There was no place to hide my Mercedes. Fortunately, many people had their own cars at that time. What I needed to do was to disguise my Mercedes as the old car. I dirtied it with mud. Then, I started masking and pretended to be poor after originally performing several shocked swagger out of revenge for the time when I was miserable.

-       When will you buy a house in Texas? – Vera asked – I had talked to Lu when we were in America. That thing can also be carried out despite Lu had passed away, can’t it?

I hummed and hawed. I had to “camouflage” myself with her, herself as well. The contradiction of a person who “had just had money” was that in a certain context, he would boast and brag as much as he could. However, in another background, he was so nervous that he would “talk at random” to make the world “confusing” or have a common impression on him as a respect-worthy man due to his wealth …

-       I just had a joke for fun. I exaggerated to prevent the Vietnamese overseas from despising the domestic people’s deprivation. Actually, how I could have such amount to buy such a house – I explained.

-       I understand! Nevertheless, it wasn’t worth for you at all to make me believe. Well! I shouldn’t be so curious as well. I will join in your play to create comprehensiveness and cause effectiveness otherwise your tail will be performed.

We both smiled.

-       I only have enough money for us to live and to keep you with me forever in a condition of “a simple hearth and a common wish”. That’s all!

-       It’s enough for me …

Date …

The event that the tsunami tumultuously rushed down on the Sky blue seashore was completely unexpected. Like most of the beaches in the world, system of natural calamity warning wasn’t set up there and it seemed that that sort of disasters wasn’t popular at all.

The weather was perfectly normal on that day. The sky was clear. The sun was intense. The sea was very blue. The strip of sand-bank was smooth, even and romantic …

It seemed that the cause of tsunami originated from earthquake. Therefore, it was accounted reasonable when the weather was normal.

I and Vera were lying on our floats which were bobbing on the waves. We were having half-closed eyes and listening to the whistle of the sun on our complexion like the froths of beer. There was something suddenly moveable as though the surface of the sea or the horizon was turned sideways. Taking a look out to sea, a great stronghold made of water was formed since when. It was bigger and bigger and slowly approached the sand-bank. Feeling the waves under our life savers started frightfully rolling on, I and Vera rushed to the bank. Many people accordingly followed us with amazement although they didn’t comprehend what was happening. Reaching the bank, they assumed to be alright so that they stopped running and looked back.

I rushed into my Mercedes parking in the shadow of coconut leaf canopies. The mini hotel where I was staying was rather far away from the seaside resort and thus I had to use my car to travel there. That saved me and Vera itself.

The screams of the sea drowned the sound of the running car engine. I drove the car at highest speed and leaf the seaside resort behind in a jiffy.

The tsunami collapsed on Sky blue seashore. Its roar seemed to make the sky broken and was chasing us.

The waves overwhelmed the sand-bank, drowned the bank and flood as far as the mainland with water which was apart from my car a short distance. If the car engine stopped, the waves would appear with lightning speed just like a tongue of an enormous “sea monster” which would snugly swallow my car like a nut with a lick.

-       Hurried up! Quicker! The waves are right behind us – Shouted Vera.

The rolling sea with its spine-chilling blue color covered the fields, the resort town and surrounding villages. My car looked like an ant which was having an escape from the Noah’s Flood with a non-stop run. The roars of the waves were fearfully threatening. The ground seemed to rock as well …

Having a bone in my arm, I hadn’t dared to park and look back till I left the flood of water far behind. The whole area in front of my eyes was completely ruined as though a patch of green grass had just been grazed by a lick of an ox.

The quickly the tsunami came the faster it was on the ebb. However, it had enough time to strike down all the houses and the century-old trees, drowned the people, made them choky to death before tossing them just like the balls.

The Mercedes ran faster than the waves and we escaped death. My car narrowly became a blade of seaweed which would bob on the waves. I and Vera were pale with fear. The corpses looked like “small prawns” which were hanging their bodies on branches of trees and lying on grassy banks. Like us, they had just being swum with light hearts and then they were nothing but stocks and stones.

With a lick, the tsunami had stripped bare the seaside resort and surrounding country. The villas used as neat mini hotels were reduced to piles of brickbat across which the dead bodies of the beautiful receptionists who had just wiggled their vermilion lips in order to speak English language were lying.

The sea was back to normal. It looked quiet and phlegmatic as if there was nothing happened. It seemed to ignore and deny everything. It seemed to be unconcerned and indifferent. Again, it was back its “peace” when it whispered soft and low and performed its charm …

THE LAST PART

30

(A letter sent to Li Da from Vera)

Date …

Dear Li Da!

Once, we met in Moscow some years ago. Then, we have just reunited in Texas.

We are alike when we love Vietnamese fellows. According to Vietnamese “relationship”, we have “sisterhood”.

My dear Li Da! We had already seen the film “The family’s chronicle” which talked about the Nguyen Duc clan. It isn’t a common line. They used to be leader of the insurgent army, patriotic intellectual under feudal time and their descendants are lovely youth. Our destinies brought us to them and we become members of their family. We have to take the duty of being delivered of “children who can maintain the continuity of their family line”.

Carrying out the “resolution” which was raised in Marco hotel in New York, I am pregnant now. The ultrasonic result reported that the baby is male. And you! I knew that you also have a son with Lu – a person who died for nothing in a terrorist war – a new type of war under the modern time.

How strange the fate is! I assumed everything was over when you lost your Lu. On the contrary, my turn came when I also lost my Trung.

 Lu departed this life due to the war among the international influences. Meanwhile, Trung was gathered to his ancestors because of the war between the money and the wish for money in everybody’s spirit.

The Trung’s death was portended by a hurricane – a terrible tornado in the tropics. In other words, the squall was the symbol of Trung’s life in his last days.

I was born in snow latitude. Therefore, I knew how the blizzard upset the white canopy of the heavens. But, it became nothing in comparison with the tornado in tropical region where there were a very clear sky and very green plants. That was a storm of “global climate change” time – it will be the “extermination” period of the earth if the human don’t hurriedly stop destroying environment.

It was one Friday. Taking a feeling of city-aristocrats who had a weekend holidays in their own house in countryside, I and Trung returned the Stone Farming House. We received the news of storm from meteorological station on arrival. I and Trung still remained there so as to be witnesses in spite of that fact. Actually, we couldn’t avoid the storm anyway no matter where we were or even in Hanoi. Therefore, we would rather stay there to see “how it was”. We had already experienced the tsunami in the Sky Blue seashore at the beginning of summer. Then, we would taste the gale at the end of summer.

Like hundreds of thousand trains running at highest speed, the extremely strong wind bang rushed down on the fragile roof of the house and the wild garden in the Stone Farming House. Like the girl’s long untied hair, the bamboo hedges were pushed to confusion. The cracking noises of broken bamboo trees sounded as if the people’s shin-bones were chopped into halves. The tiles on the green moss roof of ancient house were repeatedly slipped on the ground.

I and Trung searched for a shelter as though we were going to lose our head. The house used for the Pre-Court competition-examination in the old days in the precinct of the Stone Farming House was no longer firm though it was as big as a temple. The raised cracking sounds were just like the weary joints.

The winds came from all directions. The winds rotated at full speed. The winds seemed to tear the clouds and the sky as if they tore the blankets. The masses of clouds seemed to be panic-stricken, to run away and to be driven from sky area to sky area. The ground looked like a boat which was rocking under the effect of the typhoon and it seemed to be blown away as well.

I hid myself in the space under wooden thick camp bed because most of the tiles on the roof of the ancient house were slipped away. The dropping tiles which sounded clanking could make our heads broken if we didn’t have a shelter. Like one of ornamental plants, the century-old banyan tree whose leaves were small in the garden of the Stone Farming House – The symbol of Nguyen Duc clan was effortlessly uprooted by a hand of “a tempest giant”. It was tossed in the high space and dropped in the pond. By way of consequences, the Nguyen Duc line lost their symbol.

It took around four hours for the cyclone to finish performing its show. The most remarkable image was the whirlwind – the water-cannon. Trung’s Mercedes parking on the yard was lifted by the fire-pump and threw far away. It was lying on its top with all four wheels in the air like a turtle which was up side down and showed its stomach. I tightly clang to the foot of a pillar propping up the roof. The building seemed to be pulled up and flied just like a kite despite its system of dense columns and beams. Trung rapidly approached me and dragged me to an underground hideout where we slipped away. Fortunately, there was a brick tunnel in the entrails of the earth. It seemed to be the place where property was stored to prevent the thieves and robbers during the trouble time. Thanks to it, I and Trung survived the storm because in two shakes of a mouse’s tail, the building used for the Pre-Court competition-examination in the old days with its tens of spaces in the precinct of the Stone Farming House was twisted to pieces. The columns and beams of the house were lying about in disorder and in the way. Only with a bar of lumber, we could be easily struck down to death. Even then we were saved in deep earth’s womb.

The downpour made the ground flooded with water which was then swift-flowing into our room. I was up to my waist in water. I assumed to be drowned once the water level rose higher. Fortunately, the winds and storms started stopping in due course and the rain was over accordingly.

I and Trung stood in the centre of the yard and took a look at the whole area. What a tornado! I then understood how it was …

A crowd had shouted before my Mercedes was upturned to normal. “The turtle” which was lying with all fours in the air was then upturned and again wagged its legs to move in spite of the fact that it was scratched everywhere and no matter how crooked it was. What a very high quality car! It could still plod to Hanoi although it was as battered as a rag bag.

Mr. Duc Ham received us at the gate. The Cananga Odorata tree – the second symbol of Nguyen Duc family collapsed due to the effect of the storm. The gale visited Hanoi as well but its strength was weaker in comparison with the time when it was in the Stone Farming House so that the two-floor villa Cananga Odorata remained unchanged …

My dear Li Da!

I have to carefully describe the tornado which destroyed the Stone Farming House because it was “the natural hurricane” and was also the symbol of “the life storm” which would exterminate Trung’s life some months later.

Trung still survived “the natural hurricane” but he was totally struck down by “the life storm”.

Li Da! As you had known before, Trung said that he would buy a house in Texas. It wasn’t empty words because Trung had earned very big money which was 60 millions dollars in securities market (Trung hadn’t sincerely informed me till his last minutes).

The dawn of Vietnamese stock exchange had a boom development and by way of consequences, it brought Trung a profit up to 60 millions dollars in the course of an inexperienced market economy. However, “the dawn” itself was the cause which made the securities market broken like soap bubbles. At the beginning of this year, the shares which were on sale in the stature securities transaction centers in the world had gone down in price beyond redemption when the global economy was degraded. Meanwhile, the securities market in Vietnam was also on the painful wane, or rather was subject to a break. The indexes were down as if the snow thawed. The shares in AVZ Company of which Trung was a member exactly dropped in price 60 times as well. That meant his share index was 1.

Trung lost all his 60 millions dollars. In other words, 60 millions dollars changed him into a balloon carrying hydro gas and soaring to the air. The balloon hadn’t broken until his share index came down to 1 point only. The remains of the balloon were the very thin pieces of rubber which dropped on the ground.

I witnessed such terrible minutes in Trung’s life. Every night, Trung switched on his laptop and checked his share index which went down everyday. That demoralized Trung. Nobody could console him, his father included. We lose nothing. We still own this villa Cananga Odorata, only that we aren’t the wealthy – Said his daddy.

-       A guy who becomes penniless right after having an amount as much as 60 millions dollars will look like an empty vessel. How it can be equilibrium once it carries nothing – He argued.

I had tried my best to pour comfort into his heart. Nevertheless, his terrible stress had made him became a different person since he lost 60 millions dollars. He was completely strange and had manifestations of depression and mental illness. Actually, he hadn’t touched any note of such a 60-million-dollar amount at all. They were just the money written on paper, or rather the virtual money. Even then he could become a specter when his virtual money disappeared like a will-o’-the-wisp. He became weightless while his real sorrow was laden.

On one bright full moon night, the moon was very beautiful. However, I heard on the grapevine that according to what the scientists had discovered, it’s accounted very dangerous for human’s spirit and the people who are in state of unstable mentality in particular when the moon radiates. Vietnamese proverb says that “the first of the lunar month is for man and the fifteenth of that is for woman”. That means any girl who was born in a full moon night usually has a sharp-tongued manner specially. It’s impossible to be unreasonable. The proverbs are always conclusions which are learned from the age-old reality.

It was that day itself. I heard a sound of gunshot while I was getting some fresh air on the terrace. I ran downstairs. Trung shot himself in the head. His blood splashed over the display of his laptop on which the daily share index table was still flickering.

His father Duc Ham held his face and wept bitterly. His grey hair was shaking as if a mass of cloud was going to fly while Mrs. Ham became so unconscious that she was rushed to hospital.

-       The virtual money has killed my son …

The germ which Trung “seeded” in my body wriggled. Trung’s parents implored me to keep it and let it “be brought into the world”. Mr. Ham insistently asked me to stay in Vietnam and to be delivered of his nephew so that the baby could maintain the continuity of his family line and worship his family temple. He also declared that “the villa Cananga Odorata is going to belong to me and my son after they are gathered to Buddha”.

I am between the devil and the deep blue sea. I can have an abortion before bringing my suitcase, getting in the plane and flying home in my snow country since I don’t have any relative in this golden sun country. However, I think that Trung has already gone up the flume and his “reproduction” should see the light and maintain the continuity of their Nguyen Duc illustrious line. There is no reason why the leader Great Oldest Uncle of insurgent army is heirless.

My current duty is parturition … The matter whether I will live here or not is the future stuff …

Goodbye my dear Li Da!

Your Vera …

THE AUTHOR’S NOTES:

A book in which Duc Trung’s writing and the appendixes including Duc Ham’s narration and Vera’s letter are rewritten is brought to an end. I am acquainted with Trung, Yen, Thieu and Lu. We are of the same age.

Their lives had taken place exactly the same to what Trung and Vera had recorded. What unhappy endings!

It was 10 am on Saturday 20-07-2007 in Hanoi

(Written in Dai Yen – Ngoc Ha)

N. P. H

v