Page 54 - Thorn In The Heart
P. 54

Thorn In The Heart

             Few times, Nguyen ran around the refugee camps to watch
         the people. They were living on the knolls, sleeping beside the
         large  longan  foot  trees,  and  built  the  banana  tents  in  the
         bamboo's bush. They ate anything that found on the field with a
         little help from the local people. Few dozens' children and adults
         had  wounded,  infected  on  their  bodies,  heads,  legs,  and  arms
         with blood dripping out on the cloth-bandages without medical
         treatment. They cry loudly for help under the tent-banana leaves
         in  the  late  afternoon,  or  under  the  rain  that  was  leaking  in
         through the cracks of the roofs. However, nobody could think of
         other  more  than  himself  in  the  life  and  death  situations.
         Sometimes their lives became more hardship under the broken
         tent-cloths and banana leaf-greens by a long day raining.


             Nguyen remembered that he had  a stand on the front of a
         broken tent of a refugee family when it was raining. He watched
         an  infant  crying  by  the  cold  weather  and  no  milk  because  his
         mother was shot and died on the war zone. A gentleman holds
         his son on his dirty arms with the tearful running down on his
         face while two other hungry children stood behind him.

             In suddenly, a he looked at Nguyen and asked:


             “What is your name?”

             Nguyen looked at him and started on an infant.

             “My name is Nguyen.”


             “How old are you?”

             “I am 9 years old. “


             A  gentleman  looked  at  his  old  son.  In  a  low  and  sorrow
         voice, he said.


             “He was the same age as you.”


                                          54
   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59