Thien received the message at 3am. His mother was hospitalized for emergency surgery. He immediately took a bus back to his hometown. The city sky that day was hazy in the morning mist, tall buildings flashed past the car window. “Why did you choose to stay?” That question haunted Thien for more than twenty years. His mother gently told him, “Because I’m used to living here.”
At the provincial hospital, looking at his mother lying still with a pale face on the hospital bed, Thien's heart was even more confused by the many things surrounding her. He planned to take his mother back to the city after the surgery to take care of her more conveniently.
That afternoon, the village chief Vu came to visit, his voice filled with sadness: “Teacher, please be well. The children are waiting for you in class…” After decades of teaching at this highland school, Thien’s mother had become an indispensable part of the village. When the village chief Vu said that, her eyes looked towards Thien with a light sadness.
That night, in the hospital, Thien could not sleep. He looked at his mother and thought about his love for teaching, which had been like a fire that had warmed her soul and the souls of many children in the highlands of his hometown for so many years. But his mother's health was not as good as before. How could he reassure her that he was being treated? The doctor said that the patient's spirit was very important. If the mind was not at peace, the body would not be at peace.
After thinking for a long time, he said: "Mom, I will go back to the village to take your place in class." Mother held Thien's hand: "No, what about your work and students?" "I will ask the school I am teaching at to temporarily arrange for me to go back to the village to take your place in class until you get well again. I will try my best." Thien smiled confidently.
***
The day Thien went to school in place of his mother in the village, he saw his mother's students standing outside the porch, waiting, their eyes wide and eager. In the following days, Thien woke up to the sound of roosters crowing, watched the mist covering the mountains and forests, then prepared his lessons for class. Without the sound of car horns, his soul was strangely peaceful. Simple meals with students who lived far away and had to stay at the boarding school made him feel cozy. In the afternoon, he sat under a fig tree marking papers, while students played in the distance. At night, he looked at the starry sky. In the village, he had deep sleeps, immersed in the space of the mountains and forests.
No matter how busy he was at home, he went to the school and met his mother’s students, but he had never understood his mother’s work as well as he did now. He saw his image from many years ago in each of his little students. Some had to walk for hours to class despite the slippery road and muddy feet. Some even brought cold rice to eat to ease their hunger. No matter the circumstances, their eyes were clear, their smiles were crisp in the sun. And Thien felt more love for the job he followed in his mother’s footsteps.
On the weekend, Thien went to the city to visit his mother. His mother had just recovered from a serious illness and was still haggard. However, his mother's eyes lit up with joy when Thien told her about his studies and the peaceful moments in the village.
I thought life would be peaceful like that. But a month after the surgery, my mother's illness relapsed. This time it was much worse. Thien received a phone call from the hospital and rushed to the city that night. My mother lay on the hospital bed, holding her son's hand tightly, no longer having the strength to tell him anything. Thien leaned down and said to my mother, "I will continue teaching in the village, okay Mom?"...
***
The funeral was held in the village. Everyone in the village came. Mother's students, from adults to students, sat around the coffin, telling stories of how the teacher loved her students with sobs. Thien stood by the coffin. He couldn't cry. The pain was too great, pent up somewhere in Thien's chest, unable to find a way out.
After the funeral, Thien sorted through his mother’s belongings. An old wooden box contained photos, letters, and a diary. Thien opened it with trembling hands.
“...Today, an orphan named Thien was brought back to the village. His parents died in a traffic accident. He was only five years old, his eyes were red but he did not cry. Looking at him, I saw myself in the past. I decided to take him in, even though I knew I was poor. I remembered how my father Tuan took me in, taught me how to read and write, and gave me a loving home. My father passed away when I was eighteen. Now, when I look at Thien, I want to do for him what my father did for me.”
Thien stopped reading and seemed to stop breathing. The years he thought he understood everything about his life turned out to be just a thin surface. He turned the page, his hands shaking.
“...My students gave me flowers. They were wild flowers picked from the edge of the forest, but I was so happy I cried. They even made cards, writing, “Teacher, I love you.”
“...Thien graduated from university, but at that time I was sick and could not attend the ceremony. He sent a photo of himself in his graduation gown. I sat alone in this house, looking at the photo and crying. He has grown up. He will have a bright future. He always asked me why I didn’t come back to the city with him. But how can I explain? Here, I find meaning. I see Tuan’s father in every child. I see myself in Thien. I hope that one day, Thien will understand...”.
Thien hugged the diary to his chest. Then he cried. He cried because he understood now, but his mother was no longer there.
***
Thien asked to officially teach at the school where his mother had been attached for decades. The classroom was still the same small room, with a picture of his mother smiling with her students hanging on the wall. The day he finished his work in the city and taught the first class after his mother's funeral, a small student asked him: "Teacher, will you teach here forever?". Thien smiled slightly, patted the small student's head, then looked out the open window to the mountains and forests with green trees, the sky sprinkled with shimmering rays of sunlight. "That's right, I will stay here to watch you grow up healthy, know how to read, write, know many good things, so that you can go to bigger schools, learn many more things...".
Source: https://baocantho.com.vn/ngon-lua-khong-tat-a193672.html
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