- Oh, three days off is nothing... Well, I guess I have to accept it... If only my mother were here, it would be fine, but she can't come... I also think sending the child to her paternal grandparents' house is the most convenient option. If the school is far, I'll ask my friend to pick her up... and Aunt Hanh will drive her to work in the morning. I'm just worried that my little girl doesn't know how to do anything yet. If she stays with her grandparents, she'll definitely get scolded...
That was a phone conversation between Mom and Dad that May overheard last night. This morning, sitting in class, May kept thinking about it.
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| Illustration: MINH SON |
May is the only child in the family. This year, May is nine years old. May's father is a soldier stationed in Bien Hoa. May's mother is a journalist. May heard her grandmother say that her mother used to have to go on field trips, but since May was born, her mother was given priority to work regular office hours, so she no longer has to go out to gather news and write articles. All of her time is dedicated to taking care of May. No matter what, May's parents have been married for almost ten years, and after so much effort and trying to conceive, they finally had May at forty years old. How could they not cherish and worry about her? Fortunately, despite her parents' age and May being born prematurely, she is still a pretty, intelligent, quick-witted, and healthy little girl. Except for the time before she was three or four years old, when every child was sick with fever and minor illnesses, May hasn't had to go to the hospital since she was five. At only nine years old, May is already over 1.5 meters tall and weighs forty kilograms. May is understanding, cheerful, humorous, and more mature than even her middle school classmates. May even won second prize in a city-level public speaking competition. Mây rarely scored a 9 in any subject. Her academic achievements were often proudly displayed to the whole family. In everyone's eyes, Mây was a wonderful girl, "loved by many, criticized by few." Friends and acquaintances all praised her mother for raising her so well. Yet, Mây also had an "Achilles' heel" that no one knew about. Although Mây was intelligent and eloquent, she was quite clumsy with her hands. At nine years old, Mây knew almost nothing. When washing dishes, she broke plates and left the dishes dirty; when folding clothes, she spent hours, and in the end, her mother still had to fold them again.
Once, May overheard her mother talking to a friend on the phone: "It's my fault. I'm too busy and I lack the patience to train her. Teaching her housework takes too much time. Watching her clumsily makes me impatient. Once I've taught her one task, I don't have the time or mood to write or read anymore. Well, even adults are sometimes clumsy and sometimes skillful, let alone children. People have different levels of intelligence. Instead of forcing her to do housework, I'd let her learn English, and I'd do it faster." So, for a long time, her mother didn't let May do any important chores, only letting her sweep the floor or take out the laundry. But this time was different. Her mother was away on a business trip for ten days. Her father only had a few days off. May would be staying with her paternal grandparents. Every old couple loves their grandchildren. Any extra money or delicious food they have is reserved for them. However, they are still old people; meaning they are both strict, overly cautious, and old-fashioned. My grandparents' house is big, and there are so many things that need sweeping and cleaning. They want the kids to pitch in and help clean, making it fun and keeping them away from their phones. But the kids prefer playing together to doing chores. So, in the past, when May and her younger siblings came to visit occasionally, they would get scolded by their grandparents: "You're all grown up but you don't know how to do anything. When we were five or seven, we already knew how to cook, wash dishes, sweep the house, do laundry, sew... and back then, cooking rice on a straw or thatched stove was difficult, not like with electric rice cookers where you just wash the rice, add water, and press a button."
Mom was worried that May would stay at her grandparents' house for a whole week while she was too busy preparing for a trip and wouldn't have time to teach May how to do housework. She wondered if her grandparents would tolerate May's clumsiness and messiness. So, Mom assigned Dad the task of teaching May how to do housework, at least the basic tasks, during her days off.
On the first day, when it was just the two of them at home, Mây came home from school to find a delicious meal already prepared. Mây playfully exclaimed, "Dad, you're so good at cooking! Your dishes are always better than Mom's!" Dad boasted about it to Mom. On the phone, Mom burst out laughing, "Mây, you're just good at flattering! From now on, you two can take care of yourselves. No need for me to give orders from afar anymore." Actually, Mây knew perfectly well that Mom had already prepared all the food in the refrigerator; Dad just had to take it out and cook. But Mây said that to make Dad happy, only to have him tell Mom about it. What if Mom got angry for denying Mom's important role like that?
That night was also the first night May slept alone. Before, no matter how late her mother worked, even if May fell asleep long before her mother came to her room, she still felt safe knowing her mother was there. Every night, May would snuggle into her mother's arms, inhaling the familiar, indescribable scent emanating from her. Now that her mother was away, her father encouraged May to try sleeping alone. May agreed, but all night, she lingered in the living room watching TV, occasionally glancing towards the door, hoping it would suddenly creak open and her mother would come home late from work, just like on those nights when her mother came home late. It was past 10 p.m., and only after her father reminded her did May go to her room, climb into bed, hug her teddy bear tightly, pull the blanket over her head, and finally fall asleep after a long time.
Friday morning, the second day after Mom left. After breakfast, Dad had to go out. He asked, "Do you know how to wash dishes, May?" May said, "Yes!" Dad left. May immediately got to work. She put on an apron, rolled up her sleeves, filled the sink with water, and then poured dish soap into the dishes as Mom used to teach her. But alas, instead of just adding a little dish soap, dipping it in water, and dipping the sponge in, May, seeing that the sponge was too dry, poured almost half a bottle of concentrated Sunlight dish soap into the sink. In just a few minutes, the entire sink was overflowing with soap bubbles. The more she washed, the more foam there was, and the water started to spill onto the floor. May scrambled to her feet, but somehow slipped and fell flat on her face, getting wet and hurting herself. Not to mention, the bowl in her hand flew out of her hand and shattered into dozens of pieces on the kitchen floor. May scrambled to her feet, looking at the floor covered in broken pieces and soapy water, and almost burst into tears. Luckily, Dad came home in time. Dad hurriedly checked to see if May was alright, then said, "Okay, leave it there, I'll wash it for you. Bring me the mop, and go change your clothes. Be careful not to fall again!"
Washing dishes seemed a bit difficult, so May switched to mopping the floor. May remembered her mother telling her to wring out the mop thoroughly before mopping, but the mop was so heavy, May couldn't muster enough strength to wring out the dirty water, which dripped all over the floor. Soon, the floor was covered in water. Her father had to spend another hour wiping it dry with a clean mop.
That evening, since Dad had already prepared the meal at lunchtime, while he went out to buy vegetables, May took the rice and cooked it herself! Preparing the food was difficult, but cooking rice was as her grandmother always said: just wash the rice, add water, and press the button on the rice cooker – that's it! Having seen Mom cook it so many times, May was confident she could do it too. But it looked easy, yet in reality… May was very careful, but still spilled a handful of rice. Not to mention, when Dad opened the rice cooker, he was stunned; the rice inside was mushy like porridge. That night, May didn't see Dad laughing and teasing Mom, "Even if you're gone for a whole month, we'll still be fine!" Even though Dad had previously reassured May, "It's okay, it's your first time, you'll do better next time!"
Tuesday. I don't know what Mom and Dad talked about, but that Sunday Dad took May to the market. More accurately, to the supermarket. They bought all the fish, chicken, pork, shrimp, and beef that Mom had repeatedly asked for. However, when they got home, while sorting the meat and fish to pack into freezer containers, Dad suddenly realized that everything was missing something. For example, the fish for cooking had tomatoes and dill. The braised fish didn't have caramel coloring. The braised pork, as May requested, lacked coconut milk and eggs. They had bought vegetables but were missing minced meat. Dad said, "We can't let your mother look down on us. Now I'll mince the meat to make soup. You run to Aunt Hong's vegetable stall and buy some tomatoes, green onions, and dill, and while you're at it, buy me a coconut and a dozen duck eggs." Aunt Hong took the money from May and praised her profusely, "Your mother was away, and you already know how to go to the market! So clever!" May happily ran home with her bag of groceries. When they opened it, oh no, three eggs were broken. But in return, May helped Dad peel a few eggs, and even though each one was covered in bruises, the two of them still had a delicious braised pork with eggs for lunch that day.
Then the ten difficult days passed. When Mom came home, May hugged her tightly, so happy she cried. Mom's eyes welled up with tears too, she hugged May tightly and praised her: "I heard everything from Dad and Grandma and Grandpa. My clumsy little girl. Just the fact that you tried so hard makes me happy. After this, I'll dedicate time to teaching you how to do housework!"
Short stories by BUI DE YEN
Source: https://baobariavungtau.com.vn/van-hoa-nghe-thuat/202503/khi-me-vang-nha-1037547/
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