Photo: Internet
The afternoon sun fell through the branches of the queen's yellow flowers, and the cicadas stopped singing the melodious song to welcome summer to make way for the sunset to fall.
Every afternoon, Mrs. Chinh goes out to sit under the tree, the queen looks at the gate and waits, the petals quietly fall on her cloudy hair, a few petals lie quietly on her thin shoulders, the wind blows. gently blows over, bringing with them the petals flying in the air, making Mrs. Nine's body seem lost in a dream.
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- Mom, I just came back from school.
A boy about eight years old rushed to hug the woman standing under the queen tree. The woman smiled with loving eyes and patted the boy's head. The shirt was now smeared with mud, and in some places there were green ink stains. The woman sighed and asked the boy why he was late? Also, the clothes are dirty. The boy hummed silently, his hands clutching at the hem of his shirt until it was wrinkled. The woman had to threaten him to spank, the boy was only willing to speak softly at this time. Turns out, he got into a fight with a classmate, but it was only because his friend scolded him for wearing a torn shirt to school. The woman was both angry and heartbroken.
- Meaning! No matter what you say, your child is not allowed to hit you like that, if you tease your child, you are wrong, but if you hit your friend, you are also wrong.
– I hate you, you don't love me, you let me wear torn clothes, now you bully me, I don't defend but scold me. I don't love you anymore!
The boy pushed the woman away and quickly ran into the house, the woman silently shed tears. May has come, summer is almost here, my shirt has a small tear, she has seen it when washing and has carefully patched it. It's not like she doesn't want to buy new clothes for her children because she thinks that there are only two weeks left of summer vacation, if she buys it now, it will become old clothes next year, so she wants to buy it for the new school year. Only two weeks should be fine, but I never expected it to be like this.
- Mommy! Why are you crying?
Seeing Hien small, the woman hurriedly wiped her tears with her hand, trying to force a forced smile:
- I'm not crying, it's just dew in my eyes.
Small Hien did not doubt or ask more, little Hien was also too young to realize that her mother was just making excuses for her sorrows. It wasn't until later that she grew up that she understood.
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Hien red eyes looked at the woman sitting in a wheelchair under the queen tree. Hien's mother was over seventy, two years ago suddenly had a stroke and could no longer walk normally, her legs no longer had strength, her memory was poor, and her voice was hard to hear. However, every day she forced Hien to push her out under the queen tree, she said she wanted to wait for Nghia to come home from school.
Nghia, Hien's younger brother is residing in the US. Every year, Nghia returns to her hometown to visit her mother once, but since the Covid-19 epidemic occurred, more than three years, Nghia has not returned to Vietnam. When her mother had a stroke, Nghia sobbed but was also helpless to run back, could only look at her mother through the phone screen. Hien also loves you, loves her mother, and also wishes that one day the whole family would be reunited and reunited. Hien approached in a low voice:
- I pushed my mother into the house, it was dark with a lot of mosquitoes!
Mrs. Chin struggled and stuttered:
– Wait… wait… Meaning.
Hien's eyes reddened, trying to hold back the tears.
– Nghia goes to study more in the evening, when she comes back, mom, I push her into the house, when I come back, I ask her to come to the bedroom with me.
Mrs. Chin smiled and nodded, then handed the shirt in her hand to Hien:
– Shirt… for… for… Meaning.
The shirt from pure white has now been dyed with the color of the old times, Hien red eyes reached out to receive it, not the first time holding the shirt in her hand, but always with the same emotions. Perhaps because Hien loved her mother, until the end of her life, she still could not forget what she had promised her children. A lifetime of hardship, a life of worry, since the death of his father, all the hardships have been borne by his mother, raising two children to study well, then get married and have a peaceful home.
Tears quietly fell on Hien's eyelids, where did An run to hug Hien's neck and coo: - Mom! Why are you crying? I promise to be good, mom won't cry anymore.
Hien smiled lovingly and then gently said: - Mother is not crying, it's just dew falling on her eyes.
Hien had just finished speaking, suddenly feeling startled by his own words, how many memories rushed into the sentence. That's a saying that Hien has heard many times from her mother, when she was angry and hit Nghia, when she saw Hien with a high fever lying down all night and even when her father died, her mother also said the same sentence. When he was a child like An, Hien also naively believed his mother's words, who knew that she was sad and crying.
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An's mistake was beaten by Hien, he rushed to Mrs. Chin's room, crying and shouting for help "Grandma save me". Mrs. Chin hugged An, shook his head, and told him not to cry, then took out a few thousand and one thousand dollars from her pocket and gave it to him.
– Meaning… good… buy candy to eat.
An was so used to his grandmother calling him Nghia, the first time he tried to argue with his grandmother, it was An, not him, the youngest was in America, but when he argued with his grandmother, he saw "fog" ' fell on her eyelids, she hurriedly called out to her mother, afraid that she would not be well again, he saw her red eyes. His mother scolded him, later, she mistook him for him, he also laughed silently. He loves his grandmother, doesn't want to see "dew" on her eyelids again, she is his savior whenever he is scolded by his parents, sometimes she even gives him money to buy snacks.
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Today, when An came home from school, An brought a piece of paper with some flowers drawn on it and the words squiggly in front of Hien: "Today is Mother's Day, I give it to you. Wish you always happy and live forever with me. I love you very much."
Hien put down his chopsticks, turned off the stove, the sweet aroma of sour soup and fish braised with pepper made An's stomach rumble, he put the paper in Hien's hand and then tiptoed to the kitchen to inhale. Hien smiled and said thank you and asked him to wash his hands and prepare to eat. An's father goes on a business trip, An's sister goes to school far away, so there are only three people in the house. Grandma could not eat by herself, so only An and mother remained for the meal. While eating, An innocently asked her mother:
- Have you drawn flowers for your grandmother yet? Did you say you love your grandma? The teacher said that everyone must say that they love their mother today.
Hien bewilderedly looking at An, who was still constantly working hard to eat rice, Hien suddenly remembered that it had been a long time since Hien hadn't said love to his mother, does Hien love her? Very dear, of course. But to say it out loud to her mother, since she was an adult, Hien has never spoken. Perhaps growing up makes people feel embarrassed to say words of love to their mother. Children can freely express their feelings but adults are very difficult. Hien is a close daughter who talks to her mother a lot, but it is difficult to say how much she loves her mother, how can a son like Nghia say it, let alone Nghia is still far away. The sound of broken dishes startled Hien, An sitting across from him red-eyed frantically apologizing, he just slipped and dropped the cup in his hand to the ground, rice was scattered all over the place. Hien frowned and didn't understand why his chest felt uncomfortable.
- Mommy! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to.
When An saw Hien wince, he was scared, his hands and feet clumsily sat down to pick up some broken pieces, but Hien stopped him.
- Let me clean it up, you go back to your room to study.
An was so happy that he ran away to his room.
Hien brought a bowl of rice to Mrs. Chin's room, every day, Hien had to feed her rice little by little. Place a bowl of hot rice on the table with a few petals of the queen's flower that have crept into the room with the wind. Outside, the sound of cicadas heralds another summer coming, Hien is looking forward to this summer because Nghia will return to Vietnam in June.
- Mommy! I bring rice in here, I'll help you get up and eat rice, mom… mom!… Don't scare me… mom!
Hien panicked and called her mother in vain, Mrs. Chin's hands and feet were frozen, her face no longer had any blood, she had left the world, a gentle wind blew through the queen's petals, Hien's tears. pouring like July rain.
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Through the phone screen, Nghia saw a photo of her mother placed in front of the coffin, an adult man crying like a toddler, tears tearing his heart apart.
On the day of Mrs. Chin's burial, it was found on the tombstone that "Hien Nghia loved her mother very much" but both loved and blamed her. Some people said that when she was alive, she refused to say love so that she could hear and be happy. happy, now that she is dead, what is the meaning of inscription on the stele?
The day Hien and Nghia met again, they both hugged each other and cried like the day they lost their father. Hien burned incense and gave it to Nghia, Nghia red eyes looked up at the relic placed on the altar.
- Mommy! I'm back!
An boy from behind Hien asked softly:
- Mommy! Is the dew falling on Ut's eyes?
Hien hugged An in his arms, gently closed his eyes and drifted his thoughts back to the warm and beautiful memory region of the past.
Snow Always Martial
