The House Next Door - Short story contest by An Nhien

In the hospital corridor, the woman was pacing back and forth, her hands clasped in front of her forehead, her mouth muttering a plea. The man ran over, his face dazed, his hands holding his wife's shoulders, his voice panicked:

- Where is the child, where is the child, where is the child?

- In there… - Pointing to the emergency room, the woman hugged her husband and burst into tears.

Inside the emergency room, the doctor was trying to save the baby. The baby was the man's child with his second wife. In the emergency room, the ex-wife and now neighbor was trying to save the child of the woman and the man who had caused her the most pain.

The husband's name is Sinh, the ex-wife's name is Tam, the second wife's name is Hoa. The house where Mrs. Tam lives and the house where Sinh and Hoa live used to be the same. But a wall was added to the house a few years ago. In front of the house, there is a fence dividing the yard into two. The child in critical condition in the emergency room is younger than Mr. Sinh's grandchild.

A few years ago, Mrs. Tam and Mr. Sinh were still living together under the guise of a marriage of more than twenty years. They had two daughters together. The day their eldest daughter gave birth, they were summoned to court to resolve their divorce after two calls for mediation.

I thought it was bad news for my daughter who was about to give birth, but unexpectedly she was happy:

- Even though it's late, it's better than nothing. Mom, go to court. My husband and my obstetrician friend are here. Get this over with quickly and then go home and hug your grandchild in peace.

The eldest daughter is named Mai. Mai got married early but had difficulty conceiving, and it took her five years to get pregnant. Hearing that her parents were in court on the day of the birth was not a burden but a joy to her. Mai said: "Maybe when I send my child back to her parents' house, I won't see my grandparents arguing anymore. Her mother has seen enough, and it would be embarrassing for her to see it."

Mai recalls that her and her sister never had a peaceful meal in their childhood because the second their parents spoke to each other, no one could keep calm, their mouths and hands started to move. Dishes and bowls not only pushed each other but also flew past their faces, there was no peaceful meal. When she was in 10th grade, Mai once shouted at her mother:

- Why don't you two just leave each other...

- Because of you two, I have to put up with your father...

- For me, for us. Then please don't do it for us anymore. Don't be together anymore, so we can have a peaceful meal, so we can sleep at night without being woken up by the sound of you two arguing.

Mai had to change schools because she was depressed and had unusual behavior in class. Mai's aunt had to ask for her to change schools so she could live with her grandmother, away from her parents' arguments. But a few months later, her grandmother passed away, and Mai returned to live with her parents.

At the age of 19, when her friends were still in school, Mai agreed to marry a guy who lived nearby, just to have an excuse to get out of her parents' house. Despite her parents' objections, Mai said that if they did not agree to have a wedding, she would run away with him.

After getting married, Mai followed her mother-in-law to the market to sell goods. She said her mother-in-law did not like her, but at least she was her mother-in-law, so what she said did not bother her and hurt her as much as it did her own parents.

***

Mr. Sinh often blamed his wife for being too busy with work and neglecting their children. Mrs. Tam was a nurse at the hospital. Mr. Sinh opened a small mechanical workshop at home. No one remembers when the couple started arguing, but Mrs. Tam thought it was because Mr. Sinh was a patriarch and wanted her to have another son, so he often caused trouble. Mr. Sinh thought his wife only gave birth and did not take care of the children, working all day and leaving her daughter to her husband to work and take care of.

So family meals turned into constant battles. The two daughters soaked their rice with tears.

After her parents divorced, the second daughter asked her mother to come live with her, both to get away from her old place and to ask her mother to help take care of her child. However, Mrs. Tam refused to go:

- I have to stay here to see which one he brings back, and then see…

Finally, the day came. Mr. Sinh prepared several trays of food to invite relatives to welcome his second wife home. On the day he welcomed his second wife home, he also welcomed his several-month-old son. On the other side of the wall, Mrs. Tam was stunned when she heard people say: The baby looks exactly like Mr. Sinh. Some people said that you can tell at a glance, no need for an expensive DNA test.

Mrs. Tam did not go out into the yard all day, just tried to sit close to the wall separating the two houses. The two daughters came home but only went to their father's house for a while and then went to their mother's.

- It's so crowded over there, why don't you come here? Come back for your father's wedding.

- Mom, you two are divorced… but no matter what, Dad is still my dad, no matter what, the boy and I are still sisters.

- Yeah, that's why I told you guys to stay there. Why did you come back here? Come back to see how much pain I'm in? Let's see how long it will last.

From that day on, the wall and fence separating the two houses seemed more awkward. One side wanted to make it higher to avoid the gaze from the other side. The other side wanted it to collapse so they could have an excuse to see clearly how much the boy looked like his father.

If the baby had been a girl, perhaps Mrs. Tam would have been delighted. How could it have been a boy? On this side, Hoa often used the excuse of pulling the doors and cabinets that her husband made to bring people closer to the fence.

One side has a crying baby, the other side turns up the music. One side has a lullaby, the other side plays the song Then You Also Leave Me .

***

Children are innocent and do not understand what adults do. When little Tom learned to walk, he would always wait by the fence and find a way to get to the other side. The mother threatened her son:

- Don't go to her house, there is a witch there who will catch you...

Then Hoa told her husband to make the door facing in a different direction, not to let her door and Mrs. Tam's door be in line with each other anymore. However, Mr. Sinh said that opening the door in the other direction, the West, was not good.

Many times Hoa was about to take her child to the gate when she heard the clanking sound of Mrs. Tam leading her motorbike away. Hoa stepped back, wanting to wait until she heard Mrs. Tam’s motorbike before stepping out. But each time, Mrs. Tam tried to stop longer, clanking the lock but it wouldn’t work.

One time, Tom didn't know, he ran after his sister when he saw her going to the other house. He went to Mrs. Tam's yard. Mrs. Tam came out to welcome her grandson, saw the boy, hesitated for a moment then also divided the two packages of cakes in her hand, one for her grandson, one for the boy. But before the boy could open the package of cakes, she snatched it back and said:

- Let's go home, let's go home - She snatched the cake package back, pointed at it and made the boy run away in surprise.

- Mom, it's just a child, just a pack of cookies, why give it to him?

- Yes, if you don't give it, it's fine, if you give it, there might be trouble. You don't understand yet.

Once, the two daughters told their mother that she had spent her whole life buried in that hellish marriage, and now she dared to divorce. Why not free herself and bury herself in the next pain, why care about other families? Unexpectedly, she said:

- I've been there all my life. He still owes me...

Hearing his wife tell him, his son ran to Mrs. Tam's house. When he returned, his eyes filled with tears, Mr. Sinh lit a cigarette and turned to look at his wife:

- Wait until I earn enough money to buy a house at the beginning of the village...

- When will we have enough?

- In these difficult times, orders are few, we have to wait. You'd better keep an eye on the kid, don't let him run over there.

***

Today is Sunday, while taking a nap, Mrs. Tam heard screaming from the house next door.

- Help, help my child, help...

She jumped up and walked towards the wall between the two houses. The scream became clearer. She suddenly smiled. But the scream became more panicked. She ran out on her tiptoes and looked over the fence. Hoa was shaking her son. Outside, a few people had already run over but could not open the gate. Inside, Hoa was confused, holding her son and fumbling around, not remembering where she had put the gate key.

While people were breaking the lock, Mrs. Tam broke the fence and jumped over.

- Give it to me, give it to me, did it choke on the porridge?

In her sobs, Hoa could not answer but nodded. However, when she handed the purple baby to Mrs. Tam, she tried to take it back. Mrs. Tam grabbed the baby and shouted:

- Let me save it, quick.

As she spoke, Mrs. Tam held the boy's body with her hands, pressed hard on his lower abdomen a few times, then laid him on his back and gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. At that moment, people, some broke the gate lock, some broke the fence separating the two houses, to find a way to get in. Mrs. Tam looked up and shouted:

- Take him to the hospital. Whoever has a car or calls a car, come with me and take him to the hospital.

In the car, Mrs. Tam continued to perform CPR on the boy. When the car stopped at the hospital, she shouted, “Help, help.” The staff recognized Mrs. Tam, who had just retired last month, so they acted even faster.

***

Mr. Sinh received the news and immediately ran to the hospital. His two daughters were also informed and immediately ran to the hospital.

Four people stood waiting outside the room, no one said anything to each other, just walked back and forth, looked at each other, then looked into the emergency room, waiting and pleading.

When the emergency room door opened, everyone rushed in, everyone was about to say "Doctor..." but their words were cut off. Mrs. Tam looked at them, especially at her two daughters. After a while, she said:

- It's okay. Don't worry.

After speaking, Mrs. Tam walked towards the doctor's office. It had been a long time since a smile appeared on her face, and her facial muscles relaxed.

In the waiting room, the doctors were still talking excitedly about children choking on food. Mrs. Tam said nothing but turned back to the hallway and said to her daughter:

- Mom just called Ms. Lan. Tomorrow morning, Mom and her group of friends are going on a week-long vacation in Da Nang. When she comes back, she will come to stay with Thu and her children.

Hearing what their mother said, the two daughters' faces also relaxed and smiled. Following Mrs. Tam, Mr. Sinh whispered:

- Tam, I'm sorry, sorry for owing you a promise - For so many years, the couple had never been able to apologize to their wife. Mrs. Tam stopped when she heard that, and after a while she turned to look at Mr. Sinh.

- Our mistake was not divorcing sooner when it was beyond saving. The promise that year, but now everything is in the past, can be forgotten.

Back then, when she was young, Tam told Sinh that she was afraid to marry him because he was an only son. She was afraid that she would still have to have a son, so she was afraid that marrying an only son would put even more pressure on her. At that time, Sinh had said that even if they had two daughters, it would be fine, and that he would not force his wife to have more children. But their marriage still had many problems and arguments, many of which were related to whether or not to have more children.

Mrs. Tam turned back to look at Hoa:

- Next time, pay more attention to feed it. I've been gone for many days, the fence has been removed so there's no need to re-fence it. When the boy comes back, let him run over to play with the wooden chrysanthemum pot. I saw him standing at that pot every time he came over.

- Ms. Tam. Thank you! You go rest, I will come back to water the flowers.

The two daughters ran after her, each holding one of their mother's arms. Perhaps this was the most peaceful moment they had forgotten for so long.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/nha-ben-truyen-ngan-du-thi-cua-an-nhien-18524101017190636.htm