by Le Minh Khue
"Uncle Ban, what are you going out for in this cold weather? You’ll catch your death of cold," said Thuy half seriously, half jokingly. "Just stay indoors, please; or else I’ll be criticised as indifferent to your living conditions," he added, urshering Ban in. Ban was his nearly 60 year-old haggard-looking next door neighbour. Meanwhile, Thuy’s younger brother Tu just stood outside, saying nothing.
"Before, I was malnourished, so I’m now this thin," complained the old man.
"Anyhow, now you’re okay. Go to bed, will you?" Thuy encouraged him.
After that Thuy rode his motorcycle away while Ban went to bed. Tu kept going to and fro outside like a sketchy good-for-nothing guy. From the ceiling an electric bulb was shedding its dim light all over the room, which seemed to enliven the old man.
He was brought to the hospital by the two brothers after suffering from sunstroke and left it two days later. Finding a lot of presents – apples, packets of sugar and tins of milk – already placed on his table, he felt grateful to his kind-hearted neighbours. Normally, he only had a bowl of porridge made of rice, soya bean and some sugar made by Thuy to look forward to.
This place used to be a tiny hamlet with two rows of shanties frequently without electricity. Sometimes tiny earthworms could be detected in the muddy running water that served as the people’s water supply. Although its inhabitants lived in extreme poverty, they willingly shared with one another what they had. These days, most of their huts had been replaced with multistoried houses; one even had seven floors and a lift. Ban’s house was different. It remained a dilapidated hut built early in the 1960s.
However, Ban was in no way a poor man. In addition to his retirement benefits, he also received money sent to him by his adopted son, who was said to have settled down in a quasi-Vietnamese town in Germany. Residents in that German locality amounted to only several hundred. Ban’s adopted son married a blonde-haired Serbian girl, a refugee seeking political asylum during the civil war in former Yugoslavia. He used to send home a small amount of dollars or Euros each month, but during the past year, his money was all in Vietnamese currency. Recently, he sent a letter to his adoptive father. The note said:
‘Dear Dad,’
‘Try to keep your plot of land, so that when I return home I’ll build a decent-looking concrete house for us to live in. My wife is dispensible. If she refuses to return home with me, I’ll divorce her and come home alone. Remember not to sell it, Dad, even if you are heavily pressured. Neighbours in their fancy hi-rises might bother you about this, but they can’t deprive you of the fresh air given to us by God…’
Thuy read the letter sent to Ban from Germany. "The guy must be very clever." He says ‘Nobody can possess natural air for himself alone;’ he’s quite right here, but I’ll take another measure. At that moment Tu was standing nearby and glanced at the envelope doubtfully. A few seconds later, he went away.
In the brothers’ building, Tu lived on the fifth floor. The third and fourth floors were occupied by Thuy and his wife; whereas, the second was for common use. Thuy was a strong-built youth with a height of over 1.70 metres. Looking like a hunch-backed bear, he liked to wear a T-shirt with a pair of Levi shorts frayed at the edges. His wife managed a restaurant downtown. She usually carried a leather handbag on her shoulder and wore a pair of high-heeled shoes. She passed by Ban, as if he had been merely a lamp-post.
When the brothers’ parents were still alive, Ban regarded the two boys as his own children. He did not know the origin of Thuy’s wife. One certain thing about her was that she had a lot of money, but little schooling. During Thuy’s stay and work in Korea, he made acquaintance with her. They had an extravagant wedding at home in Viet Nam.
Thuy had many times discussed how to deal with the old man’s plot of land, which was worth nearly VND2 billion.
"With such a great fortune you may return to your native village, marry a young woman of less than thirty and lead a happy life of plenty in the country. As for your son’s sums of money you’d deposit them at the local bank if necessary. But in fact, I think, the money he sends is only pocket change anyway. What do you think, is that all right?" Thuy tried to persuade him.
"No, never! I can’t break my promise," Ban denied Thuy’s suggestion right away.
"Such an honest man as you, you’ll surely live in misery for ever," Thuy exclaimed.
Ban’s health remained in bad shape. Day after day, he felt himself getting worse and worse. One night, a heavy rain flooded his poor hut. Thuy and his brother came to his rescue and urged him to follow them to their adjacent high-rise building to spend the night.
"No, thanks anyway. I’ll stay on my table, that’ll do," he refused. Saying so, he climbed up onto the table trembling like a 3-year-old child.
"You’ll be sorry that you haven’t listened to our advice. Or else, you could sell half of your plot, and the remaining half would be used for a 2-story temporary house to shelter you. In bad weather like tonight, you might die a violent death," said Thuy.
"No, never! I’ve said that I promised to give it to my son. This 40sq.m-plot must be kept intact," Ban replied resolutely. They sat by his side for a while.
"Think of the situation carefully, Uncle Ban. Why can’t you come and stay with somebody else for a little bit?" Thuy defied.
"Of course, I can’t. Anyhow, things are not the same as they were before when your parents and I were still in dire poverty, you see," answered Ban.
"This month I’ll do my best to look for anyone who wants to buy half of your land, then we’ll build a new house on the other half for you to live in. You’re worthy of leading a decent life. Don’t you think so?" Thuy tried to persuade him.
"I beg you both not to talk about this any longer," insisted Ban.
Tu silently bent down and moved his boots into the water, which was now ankle deep inside the old man’s room.
Actually, Thuy and his brother did not like Vi, Ban’s adopted son, because he had been rude to neighbours. After completing a course, he went to Germany to do business; not to study further as his adoptive father had expected.
Vi was an unwanted orphan picked up by Ban at the market place near his village when he returned home from the district capital to spend his weekend with his wife. Oddly enough, she did not welcome the boy.
"Let him stay here with us for a few days to see if anyone comes and looks for him, then we’ll give him back to him or her. We’ve got no children of our own anyway," he tried to persuade her. Several months later, Ban asked the local authorities to grant the poor little thing a birth certificate with his surname and the child’s own name Vi. When the boy was seven years old, Ban officially declared Vi as his adopted son. He lived with Ban alone when Ban’s wife returned to her native village to look after her old and weak parents. He supported the boy until he came of age and graduated from the provincial college of advanced education. It was small wonder that the youth secretly went to Germany in search of wealth without his father’s knowing, instead of studying further. Ban took pride in him and boasted a lot about him with everybody, even in front of Thuy and his brother.
Tu had again and again been absent from home on business for a few months at a time.
Tu’s taciturnity was worlds apart from his brother’s behaviour. For Ban, seeing his two young neighbours everyday were the highlights of his daily life.
Unfortunately for him, he lost another two teeth one day. His rheumatism forced him to lie in bed for days on end. Nevertheless, he did not want to go to the hospital.
One morning Tu came to visit and asked him whether he wished to eat anything or not.
Ban shook his head and waved him away. After that, he fell into a deep sleep for the whole day. In his dream, Vi was standing close to him and watching him worriedly. Vi remained young as he had been before going abroad.
"When can you return home, my beloved son?" he asked Vi.
"Wake up, wake up! Uncle Ban. This is your real son Vi, not the imaginary youth in your dream." Ban vaguely realised that somebody was waking him up with these words. In addition to that, he felt that there were some people arguing beside his bed; he distinctly heard Vi’s shrill voice. All of a sudden he was fully awake. There was indeed a quarrel between Vi and Thuy brothers.
"I’m back here already," said Vi. "You think that I’d run away. No, never! Release me please," he said to the brothers.
"Uncle Ban, you’ve always taken pride in your adopted son," Thuy told the old man. "Tu’s been watching him wandering around your dwelling for many days. Whereas, you just told us that he’s been living in Germany. Actually, he returned to our country a long time ago and has been living with his old girlfriend in a neighbouring province, and their business is said to be thriving," he concluded.
Ban did not believe Thuy’s account. He got up to see whether he was in a dream or not. He seized Tu’s strong hand and realised that he was quite conscious.
"Vi, how can you have the heart to deceive me like that ?" Ban whispered.
"He came back home simply because of your plot of land, Uncle," Thuy stated without waiting for Vi’s answer. "Finding you in bad health, he’s been reluctant to take care of you. Worse still, he’s only sent you some pocket money and waited until you pass away; then he’d hold your burial ceremony. After that he’ll take possession of your plot of land, build a big house, purchase a car and open a restaurant downtown. That’s his cunning scheme, you see," Thuy went on.
Ban opened his mouth wide. He stared at his adopted son for a while, then shouted at him. "Shame on you! Get away," he said loudly for the first time in his life.
Looking at Thuy and his brother walking out of their 5-storied building with their motorbike, Ban, sitting at the door, felt quite at ease. The stench of the damp and moldy walls had been driven away to some extent, thanks to the painstaking efforts of Vi and the group of builders under the supervision of Tu.
"When you finish packing up everything at your place, return here to settle down at once; or else we’ll sell half of the plot to build a house for Uncle Ban on the remaining half. As for the money coming from selling the house, half of it would be spent on constructing a new decent-looking bungalow here. The rest of it would be sent home for Uncle Ban’s relatives, and the other half would go to your business here. Think of the matter carefully, for Uncle Ban has recently made a will with the confirmation of the local authorities, whose contents are what I’ve just told you," Tu said to the naughty child who just nodded his thanks without saying a word.
Ban glanced at his two young neighbours and greeted them happily. He felt totally pleased, due partly to his clean house and partly to Vi’s impending homecoming. Come what may, Vi remained his own son. How could Ban deny that fact?
In society, there usually exist both kinds of people: bad people like Vi and good men like Thuy and his brother. Such was life.
(from Viet Nam News)
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