A good life to live

by Nguyen Dinh Tu

Doan decided to bring his crow to Vu.

The coal-black bird was given to Doan by a relative from his home village. After caring for it for a while, however, it had not grown healthier and still cowered in the corner of its cage if anyone came near. Doan’s friend, Vu lived alone in a small flat with a narrow yard filled with a dozen ornamental plants. Doan had already given Vu a wild rose plant that he had gotten as a gift, because like everything Doan touched that was alive, the plant failed to grow and only bloomed once before starting to wither. That was why he had brought it to Vu, who was vastly better with these things.

Doan and Vu had gone to the same school, but had pursued different studies. After graduation, Doan worked in the banking sector and Vu worked as an editor for a publisher.

Recently, Doan had been staying at Vu’s place, while Vu was on a business trip abroad for a book exhibition. The crow, under Vu’s care, had for a time become livelier, but it still had not made a noise. This kind of bird is very sensitive, so Vu had covered much of the cage with a shirt to make it feel safe. Before he left, Vu said to Doan:

"It takes great effort to feed your bird, you know. I had to buy live worms and grasshoppers to feed it. When the bird moulted, I even gave it some ant’s eggs. This crow is very greedy and wild, so I hope to tame it and make it less shy. When I am away, don’t let it go hungry!"

Doan planned to stop by Vu’s to water the plants and feed the bird and then leave. However, it was a weekend, so he decided to stay overnight at Vu’s. The next morning, he woke up to a rapid knocking on the door. A woman appearing to be in her 40s stuck her head into the room, asking:

"Oh, where’s Mr Vu?"

Still half-asleep, Doan looked at the strange woman with disdain. She looked like an unkempt sack of bones with buck teeth.

"He’s gone on business!"

"Has he? Oh, I’ve brought him some sticky rice like I do every morning. If he isn’t at home, would you please eat it?"

Doan took it and closed the door quickly.

He was too awake to go back to sleep after that. So he tidied his sleeping space and washed his face. It was eight am. He was about to take his motorbike to go out for breakfast, and then go home to check on his parents before going to the office. When he opened the door, a woman was walking by with an old white-haired lady on her arm; the old woman was walking with great effort on trembling legs.

"Are you leaving now? I can cook your lunch today, if you want!" The woman looked at Doan, smiling with delight.

"Thank you, but I can’t tell you when I’m coming back." Having replied, he started the engine and darted down the lane.

Doan did not go back to Vu’s house until late in the afternoon. He had brought his laptop and some clothing, because he had decided to stay at Vu’s for a few more days. He stopped at a tea stand near the house and ordered. The owner asked:

"Is Mr Vu away from home again?" Doan nodded in affirmation.

"Whether you listen to what I have to say is up to you, but I have to advise you that you should both get married now. You’re over thirty. If you don’t do it soon, by the time you have children you’ll be too old to keep up with them!"

Doan looked away, feeling depressed. He constantly had to listen to his parents telling him to marry, and now he had to hear it from this old woman.

As soon as he looked away, he caught the sight of the woman he had seen with the old lady on her arm that morning. Again, she was helping the older women struggle her way down the alley. Doan followed them with his eyes, until they disappeared in the house. It turned out that they were Vu’s neighbours.

"What a pity for the old woman over there! She had a massive stroke ten years ago," said the tea stand owner.

"Is that younger woman her daughter?" The woman intrigued Doan.

"No. She is a housemaid. The old woman has very wealthy children who now live elsewhere, so they have hired this woman to take care of their mother for nearly ten years. The maid is a little foolish, but she is very good at caring for the old lady."

"Is she married?"

"Her home village is in the South. And yes, she was married, but her husband left her and married another woman. She has a thirteen or fourteen-year-old daughter, but the girl is mentally handicapped and now lives with her maternal grandmother. The maid is paid about $60 a month and has her room and board paid for. So, she sends her money back home to her mother. Some rickshaw drivers at the other end of the street like her very much, even though she is so plain, but she is not interested in them."

That night, Doan was watching a European Champions League football match of the on TV, when he heard a knock on the door. The maid from next door looked panicked and said breathlessly:

"Please come and help me. I don’t know what is happening to the woman I take care of."

Doan said: "Why don’t you call her children?"

"I did, but all of them must be off on a trip somewhere. I can’t get ahold of them. The old woman has had a lot of little strokes over the last few years, but this time something is really strange."

Doan quickly put on a shirt and rushed to the neighbour’s where the old woman was doubled up and looked like she was having a seizure.

Doan said, "Shall I call an ambulance?"

"The other day I had to call her son, and everything was all right then. But now that he’s not home, I don’t know what I should do," the maid said.

Doan was still contemplating what they should do, when the maid started shouting, "Oh, it looks like she is regaining consciousness!"

Doan and the maid rushed to the old woman’s bed. The old lady had stopped convulsing, and she opened her eyes a crack to look at them.

"Am I still alive?" The old woman’s voice was barely audible.

"You’ve given me such a fright! Is there anything wrong with you? Shall I call an ambulance?" .

The old woman replied: "Where’s my husband?"

"He’s gone to work. Please lie still, and he will come home in a moment."

Doan found the conversation between the two women difficult to understand and was impaitent to get back to watching the football match.

He asked: "What are you going to do now?"

"Thank you. The old woman is getting better. Nothing to worry about. You can go now."

Doan looked at the two women with concern in his eyes. Before he left he turned and said: "If you need me, don’t hesitate to call me."

After the football match, Doan was about to go to bed when some of his friends came, asking him to go to a restaurant. He said "yes" immediately and took the motorbike out of the house. He came home at two in the morning and slept until noon.

He had just gotten dressed and opened the door to head out for a cheap meal, when the maid from next door came by with a tray of food.

"I’ve been waiting for your door to open for some time. I got up very early this morning, and bought a chicken to cook into a broth for the old woman; I saved a bowl of it for you. Please eat it!"

Doan took it with a word of thanks. Once he was back in his house, he took the cover off of the bowl of broth. What a nice smell! He quickly ate a leg of the chicken, and drank all the broth. After that, he wondered, if the old woman was eating the broth now. Maybe she was eating the other leg of the chicken. What about her husband? What would he eat? I have to buy another chicken for them, he thought. He was about to wash the bowl when the woman came in.

"Is the broth delicious? Let me wash it for you. Don’t worry! I’m used to doing it. Just a minute, and I will be done!"

The maid took the bowl from Doan and walked briskly to the back door. It seemed that she must usually come and help Vu, so she was familiar with everything in the house.

He ventured to asked her: "Does the old woman feel better?"

"Yes, she is better. This morning, I took her for her morning exercise, you know!"

"What about her husband?"

"Who’s her husband? Oh, he already died a long time ago."

"Last night, I heard you and the old woman talk about him," Doan wrinkled his eyebrows in confusion.

"The old woman forgets things sometimes. I am told that in the old days her husband often told her not to die before him, because if she died before him, he said nobody would take care of him. Then she had a stroke and was thought to have died. Yet, she regained consciousness, and said she had had a strange dream, so she could not die!" The maid had finished washing the dishes and placed them on the rack to dry.

"What was the dream?"

"This is what the old woman said. In her dream, she says she was standing in front of a cave with the fragrant smell of burned sandalwood and fireflies surrounding her. Some of her old childhood friends were waiting for her there. She could hear lovely music, as if they were preparing to have some kind of ceremony. She was about to enter the cave, when her husband stopped her. He whispered in her ears: ‘Please don’t. You did promise me not to die before me. Who will care for me if you do this?’ Suddenly some of her friends ran to her and tried to pull her along with them. She fought with all her might against them. It was because of her fighting them, that she was able to open her eyes and come back to life."

"Was this a long time ago?"

"Yes, it was long time ago, when her husband was still alive. A few years later, he died and I came to help her a few days after that. She had some severe health problems, and right about that time her dreams about the cave had reappeared in her mind. She had fought hard to live on, because of her husband. So whenever she regains consciousness, she always asks: ‘Am I still alive?’"

Doan had chills running up and down his spine. The old woman’s squinted eyes from the night before haunted him. It was strange to have such a will and vitality. If one day the old woman regained consciousness and knew that her husband had died, she could have let herself die in peace! Now she lived with dementia. What was the use of living in that way? And what about the maid? Didn’t she feel so dispirited by living with and caring for the old woman for all these years? The old woman’s children should have tried to take care of their mother, if she was in this condition.

"Has your daughter ever come to visit you here?" Doan ventured to ask the woman.

"Oh, yes, she has. She’s a good girl. She can do many things, and the old woman likes her very much. I’m advised to send her to a school for the deaf and mentally-challenged, but the fee is beyond my means. So, I had to send her back to my home village."

Doan suddenly remembered that the bank where he worked had sponsored this kind of special school, and many students had been accepted there on scholarship. So, what he needed to do was to ask the bank to sponsor the girl."

"Oh, I’ve got to go now to make sure my old woman is okay."

The maid carried the clean dishes back to her house.

That afternoon, Doan’s mother phoned to ask him to come home. So, he packed everything up and left Vu’s house. Before he went, he did not forget to leave some food for the bird, and asked the maid from next door to tend to it while giving her the key. A few days later, he stopped by to check if the bird had been fed and the plants watered.

Doan came into the house and found to his amazement that all the plants were in bloom, and especially his dog-roses were blossoming in great profusion. And, what was even more strange, was that his bird was singing. He was standing there, dumbfounded, when the phone rang. It was Vu calling to check on the situation at the house, and Doan could only give a short answer:

"Don’t worry! The flowers are blooming, and the bird is singing!"

After the phone call, Doan looked out of the window and again saw the maid from next door walking in the lane. Oh, God! He had forgotten to talk with the head of the school for special needs children about the woman’s daughter. How could he have let it slip his mind? So, he phoned immediately. While waiting for the response from the other end of the line, he heard the bird twittering and smelled the wonderful fragrance from those plants in the corner of Vu’s yard.

Translated by Manh Chuong
(from Viet Nam News)

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