Page 337 - Thorn In The Heart

Chinh Nguyên

"What happened for the famine 1943? I didn't understand...!"

She looked at the front door, hold Nguyen tight on her arms,
looked at his two sisters who sat nearby her and sight.

"My-Thanh, Nguyen, My-Hanh, My-Chau. I never forgot the
images of the famine 1943. I was always worried, thought all 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. Because 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. Look 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 bows. Sometimes we saw
the infant who nearly to die on their mother arms, but we didn't
know how to help her. Few times your father and your uncle had
337