Story of three friends

Hai was surrounded by his friends, he shook each of their hands, stammering an apology to those who were his old friends and whose names he could not remember. A plump woman opened her arms wide as if to hug Hai, repeating the question:

- Do you remember me?

Hai stepped back slightly, squinted at his friend, and awkwardly searched his memory but no name popped out.

- Nhi here! Nhi here!

Oh my! In the past, Nhi was so delicate and gentle, but now… she is so massive. Hai remembered, Nhi playfully sat at the head of the first desk between two rows of desks in the classroom, one time, whether intentionally or not, she spread her legs, making him stumble when he went to the board to solve a difficult math problem. Hai regretted that he was so naive back then, he didn't know how to secretly love girls, so no girl left a deep mark in his memory.

Anyway, old friends, both male and female, from the dreamy student life always weave the most brilliant and bright colors of life. Among the old boyfriends, Hai missed Hung and Tuan the most. In the first years away from home, Hai tried to find out the whereabouts of these two very close friends but in vain.

*

I don't know how many times Hai repeated the sentence:

- It's been fifty years since we last saw each other. Luckily, none of us have passed away yet.

This morning, three friends sat down at a coffee table in a popular cafe on the edge of Hung's hometown, a coastal village; Hai reminded them:

- Half a century has passed in the blink of an eye? How fast…

Half a century ago, three close friends were classmates throughout their high school years. Tuan was from a farming village, Hung was from a fishing village, and Hai lived in Phan Thiet town. Each friend's circumstances were different, but their close and lasting friendship was unbreakable.

One time during class, Tuan kept scrutinizing the calendar with a blank page that Hai used as scratch paper. This calendar, besides the dates like any other calendar, also had advertisements for medicine names, types of medicines and their uses in treating diseases. Tuan asked around and found out that Hai had a calendar that advertised a new medicine every day, so he asked his friend to tear out a page for him every day. Hai didn't ask why his friend needed the calendar, but Tuan joked:

- I intend to study pharmacy.

The whole school was shocked to hear that "Pharmacist" Tuan was arrested by the police for buying medicine to supply to the guerrillas.

It turned out that Tuan had read the uses of the medicine on the calendar, especially the antibiotics. The blister packs of antibiotics to drink or the bottles of antibiotics to inject, and the flu medicine, Tuan cleverly hid them on his daily bicycle to school, such as hiding them in the inner tube of the bicycle handlebars to avoid the guards at the last station in town. Tuan brought the goods safely home, then someone would deliver the medicine to the place where it was needed. Because Tuan bought antibiotics regularly, the undercover police followed him to his house, searched him, and arrested him with the evidence.

From that summer, the three friends split up. Tuan was imprisoned in the middle of his first year of high school, just a few months away from his high school graduation exam. Hai went to Saigon to continue his university studies, while Hung failed the Baccalaureate 2 exam and had to report to Thu Duc Infantry School.

Looking at each dazzling wave pulling into the shore, Hung wondered:

- Tuan, for many years I wanted to ask you a question but never had the chance...

- Now you ask! What's the story that you've been keeping for decades?

Tuan was surprised. Hung searched his memory:

- Around the beginning of 1975, after Tet, you disappeared. I went to your boarding house at Ban Co market dozens of times but couldn't find you. The landlady said you left behind a trunk of clothes and disappeared. She also asked me to get one month's rent that you still owed if I saw you. Hearing that, I reached into my pocket and paid you back, but didn't take the trunk.

Before Tuan could answer, Hai spoke up:

- I didn't go home but went to the market pretending to buy pork. I asked your pork butcher girlfriend, she said you thought we weren't a good match so she left. I went back to my hometown and asked your father, but he said you were still in Saigon. I don't know...

Tuan gently stirred his cup of coffee, slowly letting the film of the past show up with familiar images of a time.

Tuan was detained for 6 months and then released, using fake papers, he went to Saigon to learn tailoring with a relative. The attic Tuan rented in Ban Co market was the place Hai and Hung often went to on Sundays when Hung was on leave from the military school; Hai came more often because he… skipped school. The three friends had a chance to get together like they did back home.

Tuan often delivered tailoring to clothing stalls in Ban Co market and became acquainted with a girlfriend who sold pork. Knowing that the boys living far from home did not have much money, this girlfriend often gave them meat and vegetables for the three boys to cook.

Next to Tuan's rented attic was a coffee shop with a few waitresses. The shop was downstairs, and the girls lived upstairs, the kind of attic with wooden walls, where when one person on one side spoke, the person on the other side could hear clearly. The planks that made up the walls were not very flat, the gaps between the planks were uneven, and there were places where you could fit a finger. The paper stuck between the planks had peeled off in many places.

Saigon is hot all year round. The tin-roofed attics in the crowded market are even hotter because they are not well ventilated. At noon, when the cafe is empty, the waitresses often take the opportunity to shower and change clothes.

Tuan joked with overseas Vietnamese Hai:

- Now I know why you often skip school to come play with me...

One afternoon, Hai was alone in the attic when something happened that caused a stir in the market. A waitress at a coffee shop discovered a pair of eyes watching her change clothes through the cracks in the boards. She screamed loudly, causing the peeping to flee. The shop owner reported it to the market police station.

Tuan was delivering goods near his house when his friend who sold pork stopped him in panic.

- The police are searching your attic. Don't go home yet...

Tuan did not understand the situation clearly but he quickly went to another alley, not having time to thank the informant. Tuan revealed:

- At that time, I thought that my inner-city activities had been exposed and the police were searching for the leaflets I had hidden in the attic and had not yet distributed, so I quickly ran to a base's house. Then, on the day the revolution took over Ban Me Thuot, I went home and was completely unfounded.

Hai timidly:

- After that, did you go to Ban Co market to find your pork seller to thank him?

Tuan lowered his voice, sadly:

- It wasn’t until the end of 1976 that I had a chance to go to Saigon. When I got to the old place, the row of tin-roofed attics had been demolished. I asked a few people but they didn’t know the butcher because the meat stalls were gone…

The three friends silently watched the flat sea shimmering in the sunlight. The speedboat carrying tourists from a distant island entered the port, blowing a long, clear whistle.

Hung confided:

- The first few years after April 1975 were very difficult for me, but it passed. We all have a past and cannot forget our past, but no one can live separately from everyone else; to survive, everyone must integrate and cooperate to have a better life, remove barriers and prejudices...

Tuan squeezed Hung's hand, sympathizing with his friend's worries. As for Tuan, he had been retired for more than ten years, living a leisurely life in his hometown. Tuan joined the revolutionary work on the first day of peace in his homeland, then received a higher position in the district. As for Hai, he followed his family to evacuate and settle abroad. Hai hesitated:

- … It seems like the waitress at the coffee shop has been following me for a long time. That afternoon, she knew I would be watching her change clothes, so she had a chopstick ready. As soon as I peeked through the gap in the plank, she poked the chopstick almost hitting my eye and then screamed. I ran down the stairs and ran out into the street, almost hitting the landlady.

The waiter was pouring more water into the teapot, surprised to stop and look at the three old men laughing heartily…

After the laughter ended, Hai became serious, a rare seriousness of a person who likes to joke, and said to his two friends:

- My family and children abroad have settled down. My husband and I have been back home for a month now, have visited many places and have decided to complete the procedures to return home to live permanently in our birthplace.

Source: https://baobinhthuan.com.vn/chuyen-ba-nguoi-ban-129887.html