Page 318 - Thorn In The Heart

Thorn In The Heart

of you and hope all of you are not hungry in the future." In a
low voice, she said.

"You worried too much!" My-Thanh said.

"Yes...Maybe I thought all of you. Nguyen was 13, My-
Hanh was 10, My-Chau was 7, and you were 16 years old now.
But I could not put those things out of my mind."

Nguyen holds his mother arm.

"Why? Did you have afraid of it?" Nguyen asked.

"Yes. Because your father's younger sister and I must wake
up every early morning to cook a large pailful of rice gruel..."

"Who was my father's sister? I didn't see her!" My-Hanh
interrupted.

She looked at My-Hanh.

"Mss. Bich-Chau." she replied, then looked at My-Chau she
said: "Bich-Chau had select a name for My-Chau before she left
home to be a nun in Catholic Church with a name Teresa since
two of you don't see her."

"Mom. Would She like to be a nun?" Nguyen asked.

"After she saw the crisis of famine 1943."

"What was wrong for her?"

"Nothing wrong. She and I opened the front gate every
morning to see the hungry people sitting and laying on the
ground. All of them were nothing but skins and bones; their
clothes were in rags and dirtied. Looking at them, I thought they
were the skeletons, who can walk and eating. Their eyes were so
deep and white; their hands were shaking to hold their rice gruel

318