When she first met him, she was only 17 years old, tiny, hair ponytails, thin lips glistening.
When she first met him, she was only 17 years old, tiny, hair ponytails, thin lips glistening.
When she first met him, she was only 17 years old, tiny, hair ponytails, thin lips glistening. On that day, her father took a young American, introduced his assistant to his family, the man looked at her without blinking.
Do not know why the man was attracted to her or even lost his soul for her, but she didn’t give him any mind. She did not pay attention to this fellow American boy. Then the man asked her to rent a floor on the top floor to live, they started to meet each other every day. Living in the same house, but she did not see him as a friend because he is her father’s assistant, an adult, even though he was only 24 years old; This is his first job after graduating from university. He was strange to the Vietnamese society but he can speak Vietnamese accent in the North and fluency as trained through classrooms.
He is sternly and rarely talks, he doesn’t look like the one would be embarrassed. But every time he met her, his face turned red, and that made her want to tease him.
Once in the meal, she gave him red chili, a very beautiful and spicy one, she left the chili in her mouth and told him it tasted good. She gave him the chili and told him to try. He believed and imitated her, then he choked, he coughed, his eyes turned red with tears fallen down. She released the chili and laughed. He was angry, he took a cup of water and get upstairs. At night, she didn’t see him get downstairs. She knew that he was mad and she decided to send him a glass of soybean, but he was not upstairs. He did not return for a few days for work, she didn’t know why she was waiting.
Next week he came home to see her, then pretended not to see, he carried his suitcase straight upstairs since then he always kept his cold face when he saw her.
One night, as she went home from school with her bike, the bike started to stop working in the middle of the dark roads that made her scared. It happened by chance, the man was driving on the same road and found her. Although angry, she let him help bring the car home. They were both quiet on the way back home. Nearing the house, he turned to her lightly and suddenly asked, “Why do you hate me so much?” “Do I hate you?”, she asked back. She looked at his eyes, it’s dark but his eyes bright, as blue as two stars. “Why do you want me to cry, to make you laugh?”, he tried to ask again but she didn’t answer because she felt awkward. When they got home, she thanked and went to her room hurriedly.
That night was weird, she was unable to sleep, she just remembered his eyes like two stars, the first time she lost sleep for a guy. In the morning, before going to school, she was expecting to see him but she has not met. When she got home from school, she heard her father said he returned to the United States. She felt like a lost soul, she didn’t go out of her room for a few days wondered why her mood is so unstable. When he came back, saw him walk from the door made her happy like she has caught the gold, her eyes were glittering, she laughed chattering. He dropped his suitcase, beamed at her, listened lovingly, and finally asked her, “Do you miss me?”The question made her pause for a few seconds, her face blushed like the strawberry then she made excuses for leaving.
Her 18-year-old’s birthday, she invited friends to the house, a bunch of kids, laughing loudly. After the party, at the room on the second floor, she saw him standing there, in the dark, presenting her a bunch of roses before he left. She looked at the bouquet of flowers, the soft velvet wings, nice and beautiful. There was a thin card with a short letter attached:
“My heart taker.
When I first met, you were beautiful as a picture.
The second time I met, you were mischievous like a cat.
The third time met, the cat stole my heart …
Now that I have to leave, where do you leave my heart?
I want to ask you to return …! “.
All night long, she did not dare to light out of the room. Her love begins so cutely and gentle. But one day, in the early morning of the 75th, he went to Saigon for work and did not return … All US diplomats were ordered to withdraw from Vietnam. He called her father, asked him to take the family, he will arrange the flight, but the father refused. The man asked to marry his daughter, but her father did not agree. How can he let his daughter get marry with a guy in another country? She did not know all about this, she was waiting for the man and blaming him for leaving without saying a word. April 4/75, her grandmother was in an incident struck. The whole house was confiscated, her dream of studying abroad shattered. Her family is like a fallen leaf, she was sad for a long time. After a couple of years, she got married, the couple is relatively happy but her mother-in-law was making her mentally and physically exhausted. She disappointed that her husband is afraid of his mother, he did not help her, although she was pregnant. After the baby is delivered, the husband has to work harder to help the family out, therefore her mother-in-law felt unbearable, she told them to divorce. But then her mother-in-law has to stop because she found out that she was pregnant the second child. Later, she knew the story from her father before he’s going to jail, he recounted in a voice of regret: “I should’ve let you go with him.”. She realized that the man had found every possible way to take her with him but he can not do anything more than that, she sure that it broke him as well as it did to her when they were apart. She accepted the fate and stop blaming him.
One day, a stranger came to give her his address and phone number in the US. She read it with tears flowing on her face. She kept the phone number and his address, to occasionally take a look. During this pregnancy she was weak, she is thin that no one can ever tell that she has a 7 months baby in her belly. She has no idea where her beautiful, chubby, active girl in the past go.
One evening, her mother-in-law told her husband to get on a trip to cross the border without her. The first time she saw him resolutely, he asked to take her and the children with him, finally her mother accepted. They went on a boat and crossed the sea, but there was stormy, the sky was dark that she can’t see a thing, the thunder was loud enough to shade her voice. The boat keeps going until the machine is damaged, they were out of the water, out of food, and floating on the sea. Her lips were chapped, bloody, and exhausted. She was being unconscious several times. In her dream, she found herself back to the old days, cheerful, chubby, romantic, and beautiful under the blue sky of peace. Like a miracle or maybe the dream that gave her a little strength, she woke up and saw the little girl sleeping in her lap and her baby in the stomach sometimes kicking her out. But when the ship reached the rescue, she settled again into a coma. Do not know how long, when she woke up, she found the man lying in the sickroom, he looked confused and ambiguous. Through the native nurse, she knows this is an island in Malaysia. Knowing that she had arrived at the free wharf, but was too weak, she was in a coma. Before fainting, somehow in the subconscious, like a python, she withdrew the address hidden in the shirt, gave it to the nurse, she told the nurse to call for this person, tell him she is here. After that, the pregnancy is premature, doctors are worried because she was too weak, they did not know if they’ll be able to save both mother and child. In her drowsiness, she heard her husband cried, and the little warm hand of her little daughter’s fingertip strokes her face as if to be resurrected again. The doctor decided to surgery. When she woke up and saw the man, like a whirlwind, he was still looked like him of the old days. He was still tall, skinny, pupil shape, the differences that she noticed are his sleepy face, messy brown hair, and his blue eyes were not shining as the two stars anymore. Maybe because he did not sleep after he received the telegram, contacted the United Nations to verify her safety. Before the express flight took him here, he did not think of that she has a husband, a daughter, and another child was about to birth. He was standing there looking at her, embrace his pain, pity, his head filled with emotion. He pinched his hands several times, to make sure this was not a dream. After a moment of pain and surprise passed, he discussed with the doctor, talked to her husband, introduced himself, and he urgently contacted the hospital for help. On that day, she was transferred to a large hospital, in the capital Kuala Lumpur, with the fullest care. She was saved, both mother and child. Standing outside the room, he looked at the baby girl born, she looked a little bit bigger than a kitty. He felt overflowing love as it was his own children. He asked her to be the godfather of the baby.
Before returning to the United States, he and she first talked to each other directly in the hospital, when she was awake. He was next to her, his eyes fell on her, as blue as the ocean. Eyes of love, like a thousand words to say, but he knows, there are many things to keep for his own. And just like him, she knows she cannot say or express what she is thinking. Looking at each other as deep as the sea, she only said one sentence: “I’m sorry.” There is a private life hidden as moss drowned in the sea. Before pouring, he gave her husband an envelope, inside was a cash register (USD). Her husband refused but the man kept catching her husband, he said: “Just take it as a loan, and then you can pay me back later…”.
Four months later, in mid-1980, her family settled in San Jose, California USA. There is a little boy who is born, she is now calmer, the wind in the heart has softened each year to the big holidays or the birthday of each child. Both the man and she send greetings, send gifts, but the two sides did not talk directly, she felt it was good to be like that. After her career and economic life became stable, her husband sent back to the man $3,000 dollars after three years living in the United States. The money was paid … but the debt of love? One thing that made her uneasy was that he did not marry, 40 years old still living alone. His work goes much, and it gets him busy. His mother occasionally speaks to her over the phone. She loved her as though she had never met, but she knew her face through the picture in his room. What his mother said often made her heartthrob, it made her touched and sad.
One afternoon in autumn, his mother called to tell her that he is seriously sick. She wanted to visit but she didn’t get a chance to come because of work. She can only send beautiful flowers to the hospital for him. A few months later, he was released from the hospital, she phoned but he was too weak to talk. His mother just cried and said to her: “You know? Relatives, friends, and colleagues sent flowers to the hospital a lot, but he only keeps yours. “.
Two years later, his mother called him dying, heart surgery was unsuccessful. Last time she came with her middle child, she looked at his feet on the bed and cried like never crying, she felt like out of breath, like there was a brick that weighs down her heart. The first time is also the last time, she cried for his love, and her love for the man who loved her with a durable love, never stop, never asked for a thing. At the last moment of his life, he calmly looked at her with eyes full of love, he told her not to be sad, life has birth, death, he thanked God let him meet and love her. “I’m sorry.”, she said. He said to her with his last breath: “If there is a future life, do not say sorry “. He died at the age of 46.
She returned to normal life, this world from nowhere without him but in her heart, he still has a special place dedicated. Three months after his funeral, she received the invitation from his lawyer, on the occasion of her flight to visit his mother, she was much older after the death of her son. On the day of his testament, she knows that all three of her children were part of his estate. The amount is not much but enough for all three to attend the most prestigious universities. At his grave, she quietly whispered the love words that she was not able to say when he was alive. The wind sent the words of a love, which she knew this life and until the next life, she still wished to have, as well as to meet again. She heard his voice whisper in the ear, ” If there is a future life, please do not say sorry “.
Grammar, mechanics and consistency of tenses to make it more accessible to the reader.
