Khiem

Tra Vinh is the land of poverty and hardship. People from that land work so hard every day, for just enough eating at the end of the day. The people’s life is very unstable, anything can happen to them. Their dream is small but so hard to do, just to have enough food for their family. Having enough money to send their children go to school is luxurious. Minh is an excellent student but his family is so poor, Minh can only keep up on his study by a scholarship. Minh’s family is going through one of the hardest period of the year… The newspaper comes out ‘the storm has come!’ Minh runs as fast as he can to report this to his mother. He has lost his father from the storm last year, the body cannot be found. ‘Mama, the storm has come again’ he said with sadness and worry in his voice. His mother, Ly, fall down to the bed, her face turns grey, and she is scared because of the horrorible accident. Minh gets her a cup of water and tries to calm her down. ‘Ma, don’t worry, my father, your husband is an experienced and great fisherman, what we need to do right now is to trust him!’ Minh said strongly, but in his mind, he knows he is just saying this to calm his mother. ‘You are growing up so fast, Minh. You are right, we can only wait and put all our trust in him’ Ly said as she began praying for her husband. It’s not only Minh’s family who is scared, the whole village are sobbing for their men. Almost, every man in the village is fisherman, except for the very young and old men. One week passed and there was no news, Minh is walking home from school. From school to his home is 5km and Minh has to walk it every day. After coming back to home, Minh has to cook and help his mother on growing rice. He almost doesn’t has free time for his own in a day, but the result of working hard the whole day is just get enough food. Sometimes, life is so unfair. Minh knows that there is the only one way to get out of this poverty is to study. He is one of the hardest-working students in class. If he can just has a little more help from his family, it will just be perfect. However, life is like that. Like every day, Ly, Minh’s mother goes to the beach and expecting magical things to happen. She prays to god day and night for her husband to comeback. And that’s the only one thing that she can do. Two more weeks have gone, still no more news. Ly’s mind is burning with fire, she just wants to cry out loud and drop everything and care about nothing else. However, Life must go on. Ly can’t sleep tonight. Her mind is somewhere on the sea with her husband and her dead son, Minh’s brother. Their life, people in Tra Vinh, is so miserable and extremely hard. On The next day, the newspaper speaks out loud in the early morning, ‘5 men were found on the beach of Dong Thap’. Minh and his mother are both happy and worried. They finally find a little bit of hope; their hearts and the whole village’s heart are pumping faster than ever. They are all praying for their man to be one of the 5 men. While Ly is preparing to go to Dong Thap to find her husband, Minh comes in ‘Ma, can I come with you, please, please ma’ he said fatefully. Ly stands still a while, she afraid that if she let Minh go, he can’t handle whatever bad can happen, but deep inside her soul, she knows, she needs someone to be there for her. ‘Minh, you can come with me. Go pack your stuff now; this is going to be a long trip. I don’t know how long it is going to be’, Ly said with a smile on her face. She knows that she has made the right decision. It’s only taking Minh 5 mins to pack his stuff. Anyway, in general, Minh only has a few clothes to wear, since when he was 10 years old, he hasn’t got any new clothes. They travel to Dong Thap on a cheap and poor coach. The car is hot and not enough room for everyone, because of the event, everybody from the village goes to Dong Thap. Ly and Minh sit tiredly and dreaming about the future. They are trying to calm themselves by the simplest way, imagine. Minh falls at sleep without noticing but Ly, she seems so experienced with this kind of thing. She knows deep down inside, there are not much chance that the result of this trip can be good. However, a little hope is better than nothing. The bus arrives at Dong Thap at 3 pm, just when they get out of the bus, the heat of this harsh land is burning their skin. Even Tra Vinh and Dong Thap is only 60 km away, but in 45 years of living, Ly has never been here. They catch a taxi to the hospital of Dong Thap immediately. After arrive at the hospital, Minh runs to the place that the crowd is surrounding. A paper sticks on the wall with 5 names on it. Minh sees his father name, ‘Thanh’, he start jumping like a kid and it’s seems like this is the happiest time in his life since the day he was born. Minh start calling his mom ‘Ma, Ma, Ma, his name is on the paper, his name is on the paper, thanks god!’ He screams so loud, that the whole crowd changes their attention to him. Ly runs and start thanking to god ‘thanks god for giving us this day, thank you.’ Everybody who is from the same village is congratulating them, but on the other side, they are jealous of them. ‘Thanh, Emergency room’ Ly read slowly on the paper, it’s like she doesn’t want this rare happiness to pass too quickly. ‘THANH’, ‘FATHER’ Minh and Ly shout at the same time after seeing their man are lying on the bed. They hug him as hard as they can. Sadly, there is still no response from Thanh. ‘Please wake up father, father…wake up, it’s me, it’s your son, Minh here’, Minh said while putting his hand on his father’s heart. ‘How is my husband right now, doctor’, Ly said. She forgets how life happens, things come so easy, and things will go easy. ‘Your husband can still be in danger right now; he needs to be operated on now’. ‘Thank you very much and how much is the operation cost?’ Ly said with worry. ‘Around $1,000 or more’, the doctor answers. Ly, a woman lonely in this world, where can she get that much of money! Minh? Her 15 son, she can’t even tell him that she doesn’t have enough family for the operation. ‘Minh, let’s go, we have to find a motel before the night.’ Ly said with a smile on her face. ‘Papa is going to be ok, the doctor told me, don’t worry honey.’ The smile on Minh’s face calms her down a bit. They find a cheap motel near the hospital. After Minh go to sleep, Ly walks lonely on the street to have some new fresh air. Her steps are heavy rock, the possibility of finding the amount of money that she may never have in a life time is weighing down on her. ‘Cheap operation for poor people’, the banner hits into her eyes as her hope rise up again. This is her chance, this is what she needs, Ly thinks. She walks into the poor shop with high expectation. ‘Excuse me; I am looking for a cheap operation. Can I see the doctor?’ Ly asks and trying to calm herself, she has to hide her excitement. Her experience tells her that if she doesn’t want to be cheated by people. ‘Yes, the doctor is waiting for you inside.’ Ly walks through a small curtain, to a cooler and lighter room. An old man sitting inside on the table, looking at her with a very trust worthy eye, ‘Hi, welcome to my operation shop, my name is Vinh’ he said. ‘Hi Mr.Vinh, I am Ly, I am looking for a cheap operation for my husband.’, Ly answers. ‘You have come to the right place, is your husband 1 of the 5 men was found on the beach?’ the doctor asks. ‘Yes, how did you know’ Ly asks, she is surprised by the knowledge of this doctor, who is the operator in a cheap and poor shop. ‘This morning, a woman, has come to my place and ask for the same thing.’ The doctor said, ‘bring your husband here tomorrow, my price is just 35% of the hospital price.’ Ly standstill for a while, how can it’s be so cheap, but however this is her only chance. ‘Yes, I will take him to your place in early tomorrow morning’ Ly said. ‘Good, take him here tomorrow. The sooner the better. You can finish several formalities at the front. Goodbye.’ The doctor said. Ly thanks the doctor and walks out. On the next morning, ‘Minh wake up, we have to take your father to the operation place.’ Ly wake Minh up. While Minh is brushing, Ly gathers all the money in her bag. They arrive at the hospital after 30 minutes, Ly has to sign several forms before can take her dying husband out of the hospital. ‘Why do we have to move father out?’ Minh asks. ‘I know a very good operator and he has good price for me. Don’t worry honey.’ Ly answers. ‘Hello Ms.Ly, the doctor is waiting for you inside’ the secretary last night said. ‘Thanks miss, I have bring my husband with me today.’ After doing several normal checking and looking at the sick profile, ‘he has to be operated immediately, he is in huge danger right now. We can’t be late.’ The doctor said. ‘Yes, please do what you have’ Ly said in hurry. ‘Is my father is going to be ok?’ Minh asks, ‘don’t worry, and now, please, we have to do the operation now. You can pay after the operation.’, The doctor said and looked at Ly. After 3 hours of waiting, 3 hours of worrying, the 3 longest hours of their life, Minh and Ly open the curtain slowly and carefully. The doctor whisper to Ly ‘can you take Minh outside’, as the sentence come out of his mouth as a shot bang is hit into Ly’s head. She’s trying to not imagine anything… After Minh get out, ‘your husband is not in danger anymore, but however there is a small problem. He may can not move or use hig leg for the rest of his life. We are really sorry for this, and Mr. Thanh, he will has to keep talking medicine until the rest of his life. The future is not bright any more. Ly, a woman has to take care of her husband and her son. How can she handle it? ‘Thank you doctor, when can we take him home?’ Ly asks, suprisely, there are so many things she has to care that there are nothing in her head right now. Her mind is dropping down everything. ‘About a week.’ The doctor said. Until Minh grows up, Ly still has her hope that her husband will walk one day. That little hope in her help her keep living this life. People are like that, they will never stop trying. Tra Vinh will always be the land of hardship.
 * __ Land of hardship __**