Page 129 - Thorn In The Heart

Chinh Nguyên

"I sat in the darkroom and cried to think of both of you and
my son. I was tired and fearing of tortured. I thought of their
interrogating, raping and killing me. All of those thinking came
up and bothered me, so I fell in the deep of depressing until
midnight. It was quiet at outside, only dogs barked at a short
distance, and Viet-Minh soldiers did not come back as they were
said. I was so tired in the thinking and fell into napping. I did not
know how long I was, until the whistle of a cannon shell in the
air and exploded at somewhere in the Do village. I waked up and
was so afraid of hiding at the corner of the room. I checked the
door when the canon stopped shell into the village, but it locked
at outside. I cried and cried so badly at each time that I try to
open it..."

"Where they were...?" Nguyen's grandma interrupted.

"I did not know where they were hiding. When I heard the
whistle of a cannon shell in the air and waked up, Vietminh
agents had left the house. I thought the cannon shell might drop
onto the house and I was so afraid to die...! Suddenly, I heard
the voices of French soldiers at the short distance on the front
yard. I looked out of the window from a slit, raped hardly at the
window and screamed for help."

"Did French militarist know the Vietnamese language?"
Asked, Grandma interrupted.

Nguyen's mother shook her head.

"I did not know they understand me or not and what they
talked after they heard my screaming. Then, they had cared to
check around the house area and walked slowly toward the door.
They stood outside of the door and kept quiet at a moment while
I hurried to take my husband portrait out of my bra and hold on
my hand.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of beating at the door lock..."

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