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 30th
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
