A starry night

by Trong Bao

After the death of her mother, little Chuyen turned taciturn and became visibly depressed. Her two-year-old brother Can was the exact opposite. He cried and called out his mother’s name everyday, because he thought she had either just gone to the market or was standing behind the door playing a hide-and-seek game with him when he returned home from pre-school. Poor little thing, he did not know that after the traffic accident that day, she would never come back to him.

On the afternoon of the accident, after receiving a bonus for her hard work at the office, Chuyen’s mother had taken her to the market to get some presents and candies for both her and her brother. Then they had gone to pick up her brother after pre-school and had taken both of them to the store to get some ice-cream.

Chuyen still remembered every detail of that terrible accident quite well. While they were eating their ice-cream on their bike by the side of the road, Chuyen had been boasting about her good result at school: eight marks for her composition about a starry night. Suddenly, a motorbike with two teenagers on it going at maximum speed crashed into them from behind so violently that their mother had lost her balance.

Everyone was tossed off their bikes. Her mother’s face hit the ground hard and scraped against the pavement; Chuyen suffered a minor head injury. After a few days in the hospital in a coma, Chuyen’s mother passed away. Chuyen’s head had to be shaved to stitch up a long gash.

After the accident, Can followed his father to the hospital to visit his mother and sister. He was too young to understand what had happened and kept asking his dad a string of endless questions such as: "Why are the two nurses in white?" or "Why can a police car enter this place?"

He felt sad because his mother did not even smile at him. Suddenly, he shrank back and hid himself behind his father after he spotted the nurse holding a big syringe approaching his mother’s bed. Then he burst out laughing, when he saw his sister’s shaved head. Chuyen just bit her lips tightly and tried not to weep.

***

Since her mother’s death, Chuyen had become another girl; actually she had been forced to become an adult. At the age of eleven, she was now responsible for almost all housework and chores for the family. Every morning she had to go to the market to buy food and vegetables. Then she would return home and cook instant noodles for breakfast for her three-member family and prepare everything for dinner. When her father was busy at work, she was responsible for her brother’s schooling. Even when her father returned home extremely drunk and vomited everywhere, she would have to wipe the place clean. These were all things her mother had previously done, and now Chuyen whole-heartedly took on all the responsibilities herself.

One day, after she returned home from picking up her brother, she noticed a stranger sitting in the living room with her father.

"This is Miss Oanh. Say hello to her, dear," he said.

"Good evening!" Chuyen greeted her in a low voice.

Oanh tried to give Can a packet of cakes and a plastic car. Can reached out to accept the toy, but Chuyen held his hand back. Oanh appeared crest-fallen.

Chuyen dragged her brother, who looked like he might begin to cry, into the kitchen. Chuyen told him: "I’ll get you a better car some day." Can was not persuaded and insisted on receiving the toy at once.

"If you insist on taking that woman’s gift, I’ll tell mom," she threatened him. Remembering his mother, he shouted out, "mom… mom!"

"Stop crying, and be good! Some day when mom returns home, she’ll get you lots of presents," she said in an effort to console her brother.

"No, I want mom to be here right now," he insisted.

"If you behave properly, I’ll take you to where she is," Chuyen said.

For dinner Can ate a lot more than usual. Instead of taking the toy car down from the top of the cupboard, he only snuck covetous glances at it.

After dinner, Can dragged his sister into the courtyard. Ever since their mother’s death, he had a habit of going out there and whispering his mom’s name before going to sleep. In the courtyard, Chuyen pointed at the sky and told him that their mother was staying up there. She pointed to a blue star and said that was their mother, but he pointed to a red star he insisted was her because it twinkled at him. A moment later Can fell asleep and his sister took him inside.

Each time she looked at the starry sky, she believed that her mother was somewhere in the firmament, and that she would come back to them astride a shooting star traveling rapidly across the sky. There was a myth that the soul of certain dead people could be carried on a shooting star down to Earth.

The next day, on the way home from school, Can touched his sister’s hand and reminded her of her promise. "Dear sister, today you must lead me to mother’s place," he said. Chuyen was startled for she thought that he had forgotten what she had promised.

"But you look very sleepy. How can you go see mom later tonight, if you are sleeping?" she replied.

"I’ll stay awake tonight, you’ll see," he said resolutely. It seemed she had no choice but to agree.

Once back at home, their father was nowhere to be found. Chuyen made instant noodles for dinner, and then made two cups of strong tea. She drank one and gave her brother the other.

"It’s too bitter! I can’t drink it, sister. Please give me some milk," he implored after tasting the tea. "If you don’t drink it, how can you stay awake to see mom?"

He refused. "No, I can’t stand strong tea anyway."

"Well, I’ll drink it myself then." She drank his cup of tea, and then led him into the courtyard to wait for their mother’s appearance in the sky.

Unfortunately, there were too many clouds to see the sky. Chuyen locked the door, put the key under the flower pot, and then led her brother to a high hill behind their home in the hopes of seeing the stars more clearly and of being closer to their mother if possible. At first Can seemed in high spirits and kept up with her easily, but a few minutes later he became weary and asked to be carried on her back.

Weighed down by her brother, Chuyen could barely trudge uphill. After a while, she had to stop and let her brother down and rest; then she made herself get up and continue the climb. When she finally reached the peak, she was exhausted, and her brother looked like he was almost asleep. His eyes were drooping shut.

"When mom comes down, wake me up, sister," he said to her before falling asleep.

"Yes, surely, my dear," she assured him.

She felt a bit frightened, because it was quite dark on top of the hill with only faint light reflected up from the street lamps and vehicle headlights below. With such dim light, the bushes looked like ghostly dancing figures. All of a sudden the wind blew violently and cleared away the clouds. Millions of stars appeared through only a little bit of haziness. It became quite cold, and Chuyen took off her coat to cover her brother and kept her eyes fixed above. A few shooting stars chased each other across the sky; each time she was going to wake her brother up, but they disappeared as rapidly as they had appeared.

She thought they should go back, because it must be almost midnight. Her efforts to wake up her brother didn’t work he was sleeping so soundly. Finally, she gave his cheek a good pinch, and he seemed to wake up but didn’t open his eyes.

"Mom, mom!" he shrieked happily. That was the way mom had always gotten him to wake up. After opening his eyes and not seeing his mother anywhere, he was about to cry when Chuyen exclaimed: "There comes a shooting star!" Can stood up. There was a whole group of shooting stars traveling together across the sky. Their brilliant long glares seemed to tear the atmosphere apart.

As the stars were gliding past overhead, Can made a desperate wish that his mother would come home. He squeezed his eyes shut and thought about how much he missed her and loved her, and then opened his eyes wide and stared up at the sky again. Suddenly, he clapped his hands in excitement.

"Sister Chuyen! Stars, stars! Lots of shooting stars! Please come here, mom!" he shouted joyfully. She looked in the direction he was pointing, which was the foot of the hill.

It was not shooting stars at all, but many torches that were spreading their light along the path. Their names were being called again and again.

Obviously, their father, relatives and many neighbours had been in searching for them throughout the night.

"Dad! Dad! We’re up here," Chuyen cried out at last.

Translated by Van Minh

(from Viet Nam News)

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