THE MOON OF THOSE DAYS

Anh Hong and I went  to the same school since we were both kids. Many times my Mom took us to school and her Dad brought us home. The two families were too close because the two fathers taught at the same school, slept in the same bed, ate the same meals when they were single and came to this place to have their houses built after their getting married. The two mothers shared their dishes, kid- teaching experiences. We shared the books we read, the birthday presents we got and we practiced swimming in this river. Just then, one day, the river turned into a barrier, a boundary to separate us as well as our families.

    Born to a confusian scholar and being a teacher himself, my dad was so serious about educating me. He set up a regulation, wrote down neatly the restrictions and rewardings. The number one- I remembered so well- was, “Not to lie - 5 rods.” The number two- I never committed- “not to remember the lessons - 5 rods.”

I rarely broke the regulation. Enjoying my father’s way, Hong once jokingly said to me,

“Let’s exchange. I come to live in your family and you turn into my family’s son, OK?”

I never kept losing her:

“Fine, But is it better if this week we both are in one and then the next we will be in the other. Isn’t it funnier?”

 We were both the only kids. Neither of us had fun living in a family of three. Anh Hong didn’t like playing with dolls or girls’ stuffs. Everyday she just had me to chat , to heart- to- heart talk. I taught her how to use a catapult. I spent a whole day making her a beautiful one and lots of clay balls. A full can of balls I gave her was as worthy as a bullet cartrige for a hunter.

Hong made a mischievous joke,

“Ask those daring to come by your home if they want to get shot. I am one hundred percent good at shooting. From my home, my ball comes exactly at their bottoms, in no time, no place to hide.”

I broke into a laugh replying,

“How about “a blind cat wandering at your home”. I’ll shoot one ball in his forehead. Let’s compete one day. Let’s “shoot the news.”

She pursed her lips,

“ What news to shoot?”

“Listen! It’s childish now to shout loud from your home towards mine across the river. Write down the small piece what you want to say. Wrap a ball then shoot it here.”

Hong yelled happily as she was given a 10,

“What a genius you are! What if I break the mirror of your wardrobe.

I replied immediately without thinking,

“I will have to be a 100- rod- purnished for sure.”

Anh Hong tried to as fast as I did,

“I will get a half..”

“But how can my dad ever beat you?”

“I’ll just lie beside you. We both get a hundred “heos.”

At once, Hong laughed loud innocently. I shook her hand asking, 

“What does “heo” mean that makes you laugh so much?” 

She kind of screamed,

“Hey guy! You haven’t read any Kungfu novels, have you?”

“Don’t ask. My dad must break my ass.”

“Listen, it is a kind of a long rule which farmers use to measure the land.”

“Ah ha! Just one heo makes you run away. How can you stand the 50 th?”

She turned around, put her hands on the hips swaying challenging me,

“Give it a try. I am a grand child of Heroin Trung, Trieu, ain’t I?”

“All right. Please. I’ve already known it. How disgusting! Don’t always say it.”

Hong also begged me to teach her how to play football. I broke my piggy bank to get the money for a ball. The next Sunday morning, I showed her how to get started, how to balance. I taught her how to get the ball when I threw it to her. We practiced till the sun set. About 3 months later, one day, the boys in her class asked us to have a game.

 My whole class was up. They all depended on me, the best striker in school.

“Hey, Thanh, how to reply?”

I remained calm,

“Take it easy. Someone goes find out how and for what to play? A round of green pea sweetened porridge, OK? Each player can take as much as he wishes. If they say yes, the next Sunday we will let them know who we are. Whenever I get excited, tell them to prepare for a big big loss. “

I was good at scoring and a star of my class team- 7 B. In Hong’s class, there was no single soul who could play just fine. How awful if we lose the game? I didn’t know why I wanted Hong to watch it, Meeting her after class, I asked her,

“Hey guy! Who’s the hell in your class asking us to play?

Calmly answering me, She seemed not to care for the hot news,

“Who cares?”

“How about waching and being in our side? All of our girl classmates will be our supporters.”

What such a kind of princess having no ideas what football is! Just yelling, shouting as kids.”

“Stop criticizing. Promise me. You will get 2 bowls. How fun!”

Hong stared at me half smiling. She looked as beautiful as an angel. I hadn’t seen one though. I thought to myself,

“I have to play so well in such a game.”

The memorable morning finally came. The sun shone. I felt as warm as the sunshine that day. My legs and arms were itching as if thousands of tiny needles were punching me. I felt eager as though I would demonstrate to be selected to play professionally.

Uncle Thinh came to the scene when we were ready for the game. He scolded us for playing football and pointed to Anh Hong.

“How can you- a girl playing football? Who organizes? Stop it at once.”

From home, my dad rushed there,

“What’s going on? Brother?”

“Whatelse can happen? Don’t you see them- boys and girls playing football at the school front yard.”

That evening on the regulation there came two more which my dad had just written down, “Not to play football or 20 rods and not to swim across the river or 20 rods.”

My mom intervened,

“Uncle Thinh must have gotten something unpleasing so he had raged against the kids. He will be calm sooner or later and apologize you.”

My dad tried so hard that he could talk slowly,

“Since he was transfered to the district, he appeared himself an important person. He wants to make everything important to get attention. I can’t stand that kind of guy, that style.”

“Let me come to talk to his wife to see what’s up.”

He stopped her,

“I don’t want to. I don’t want to hear about that either.”

I felt painful as if part of my body were cut off in a major operation without anesthesia, a sudden violent hit. Who had never made mistakes. I didn’t think he and my dad tried to fight each other as they did boxing on the rings but I hoped they just misunderstood or he was just on a rage against us. And Hong spoke up what girls almost never cared for,

“I could do whatever you can. Football’s not a big deal. I will tell my dad. I will be able to do more than that except one thing, “moving the moon across the river for you.” I will swim to your home when you want. I could lie beside you to share the rods. I can become a well-known striker like you. Can you be a goal keeper like me? Who is responsible for the other? Lift me up when I fall down, will you?”

   Later, I found out Hong tried to do the rope jumping, bound and catch the ball, fall down on the lawn as she watched the goalies practice because she wanted to prove that she could do what she wanted.When comparing herself with the other beautiful girls, she wanted to make a difference. She really wanted to please me as I often showed  her, the only one I could, that I was unpleased with another stuff. She did not expect that I was wanting her to remain the same. There I wanted to see her as such a charming graceful girl. On my side, I would be, as a boy, talented, responsible and chivalrous. The two sides of the river would combine perfectly as the 2 sections of a beautiful painting.       

     The moon on the other side of the river would not be pretty if there was not the river. It would not be meaningful if there was noone on this side watching it. The moon on the other side would not be for noone but it would be my treasure, a nature gift for me. She out there would feel the same but we were different individuals. We needed each other to link to create a common point, our own very common one. The river was a simply physical boundary but the gap in her dad and mine was such a complicated one. We could from the two sides swim to meet, to hold hand and to talk for a while then to swim back home. Uncle Thinh and my dad could not from the two simple stuffs discuss to make a common point. Why was that? The envy, the conceit or inferiority complex and most of all egoism of the two were too great. My dad could not explain why I would get 20 rods swimming across the river or 20 rods playing football. Uncle Thinh could fail to make our playing football a big deal up to a provincial matter. He could not explain to Hong why she would not play football with her classmates and with me either.

   Life was like a big school, a great game. The river was a small boundary to prevent one person but it would be an advantage for the other. The moon out there was so meaningful to me but it had no meaning to uncle Thinh. After the argument, he and my dad never saw each other. We still went to the same school but our moms never brought us home. We no longer played football and Hong would no longer want to make a difference. One day, on the way home, Hong sadly told me her family was moving to another district, her dad would have got another job. On that weekend, on the full-moon, they would even have a farewell party. She reminded me,

“You have to promise not to put your mind off the schooling, not to stop playing and never ever forget me.”

“I will always remember you and the game I would not play yet.”

“Sure?”

“I’ll keep in mind whatever has happened in my life.”

I got home in a very tiring, awful mood.  I would have no reason to swim across the river and my dad would not delete his regulations. My mom was worried while seeing me wonder as a mindless young guy. I had to tell her a lie that worry about the coming math test the following week made me look that way. I guessed in her home, her mom would hear the same thing. I counted each day passing as people would wait for their greatest days in their lives.

   Since the sun had not gone down the row of trees, from her home there came laughters, applauds, the scutters’noises moving back and forth. Here, in my home, my parents were reading newspaper as usual. Like what I did very other Sundays, I would have to get my lessons ready for Monday and the following days.  For me, that day was not for preparing for Monday lessons but for saying goodbye to whom I was closest and with whom  I was deepest in love.

The moon was round and bright but there was black clouds in my mind, the darkness of the 30^th lunar night. I stood still watching at the front yard of her home. Suddenly, Hong came up, brightest as an angel under the moon light. I walked quickly towards the river so she could see me. I motioned to her and she did the same. I used to speak loud to her but I would not tonight. Her home was noisy. Mine was quite but my parents were reading. We both stood still for a while. No longer had she signaled me to wait, she came out with the catapult and aimed quickly then she shot towards me. I had no seconds to react as the ball with her note came down on my front yard. Picking up the ball with the note, I stood by the window to read the special note with the light coming out from inside.

“Hey guy, I want to say goodbye to you. We could go out somewhere or sit to talk for some time, couldn’t we. I want to see you to change- to progress, to be better. I promise to do what you want me to.

Let’s be good friends forever.

                                 Anh Hong Truong    “     

What she wrote shook me. I felt like doing something for her. Suddenly  from the other side, Hong slipped down softly from the quay to swim towards me. Immediately, I plunged into the water with a speed of a professional lifeguard. I swam so quickly to reach her. Upon hearing the sound of my juming, my parent hurried to shine to search for Hong as they knew she had recently known how to swim. As some of the guests rushed out to see what happened, I swam faster towards her. I grabbed her shoulders  when we were about 8 meters from the other bank. I put her arm over my shoulders and kept on swimming towards the quay in everyone’s expectations. Her mom got us with a very big towel. Hong stood leaning on me to get my support. She was shilvering a bit but calm a lot. I became more confident to protect her to help her warm. Unpleasantly, her dad asked me,

“How come you swam here?”
Hong quickly intervened,

“He did that to help me, Daddy!”

He seemed displeased,

“You know she can swim, don’t you?”

I tried to be balanced to express literaturally,

“Yes, I do. When I see her, I find the moon so beautiful that I want to swim to her and with her…”

A guest just interrupted,

“…as the two mice getting soaked to the skin.”

The crowd broke into laugh. The women went to the back of the house. Hong followed her mom to get dressed. A guest gave me a bottle of soft drink and fruit. Uncle Thinh gave me his very large T-shirt. He took me to the quay to speak loud across the river to my parents,

“Don’t worry! both of you. Thanh stays here with us for a while.”

My parents out there said something softly, then they waved and came in. I felt great as if I had scored in a big game. I never thought of the 20 rods. Maybe, my father would break the restrictions or Hong would voluntarily lie beside me to share half of those 20 “heos”.

     Not very long after the event, Uncle Thinh reconciled with my dad. Later on, after being retired, he moved back. After our college graduation, we got married and now have 2 kids. Whenever the fullmoon comes, my wife recalls of “The moon of those days and I sometimes ask her to swim across the river to watch the moon better. That’s it.

                                           Rach Gia May 9, 11

                                               Thanh Luong