Short story: Rooftop

( Quang Ngai Newspaper) - Sim slowly carried the folding hammock up to the terrace. Her eight-month pregnant belly was hanging out. Sim lay there swinging in the breeze, watching her three-year-old daughter riding her bike around the terrace. Lately, besides the time spent cooking and doing odd jobs around the house, Sim often comes up here to enjoy the breeze.

At first, it was just to clear her mind when she was stressed at work or upset with her husband. Later, Sim came up with the idea of turning the rooftop into a workplace to avoid having to look at her husband walking back and forth. The desk was placed near the power outlet to conveniently charge the computer and phone. She also brought a small fan for when the weather was calm. So there were days when Sim stayed on the rooftop all day except for when she ate. Today she brought this item, tomorrow she felt it was missing, she added another. In no time, the rooftop was no different from a small room.

The day he brought a mini gas stove, some instant noodles, and a set of old pots and pans up there, Sim was startled to realize that it looked like a boarding house. Messy and makeshift like all the boarding houses Sim had rented during his ten years of youth. And Sim had only escaped the life of a boarding house less than a year ago when he built his dream house.

MH: VO VAN

Sim couldn’t remember all the small alleys in Hanoi where he had stayed since he had started backpacking down to the city. The cramped rooms were about ten square meters with three or four poor students who were frugal with every penny. The low-rise, metal-roofed rooms were like ovens during the summer, many days the sun was 40 degrees Celsius. At night, Sim and his friends poured water on the floor to lie down, and even when they fanned their faces, they still didn’t feel cool. There were boarding houses that were so far off the street that they looked like a basin. During the rainy season, water poured down from above, flooding up to the foot of the bed. There were also boarding houses right next to the landlord. The common walkway was about 1 meter wide, with vehicles parked on both sides, and people had to squeeze through. Whoever got in first parked their vehicles far inside, and when they took them out, it was like they had crossed a border.

Sim lived there for four years and was granted a license to drive a car skillfully by the boarding house, but she was almost late for work every morning. The owner of the house loved animals so he raised dogs and bantam chickens. Sim's room door faced the livestock area, and when it was hot, the smell of dog urine and chicken droppings made her want to vomit. At night, rats ran noisily on the roof. Getting married meant escaping the life of a boarding house, but it turned out to be just a migration from city to city, from boarding house to boarding house. Now that she thought about it, Sim couldn't understand why she chose to live such a life. When she was earning her own money to have a better life. All because of her dream of having her own house.

Sim and his wife left the city to return to the countryside to buy a piece of land on the outskirts of town. They had to borrow a lot of money to build this two-story house with an attic. The house was spacious, and they thought life would be easier. Unexpectedly, financial difficulties caused Sim and her husband to quarrel frequently. In fact, they were incompatible, and they were the same age, and neither of them would give in to the other. Sim was a person who loved literature and beauty, and was eager to find a man who would spend his life protecting her, even her mistakes. Then Sim had to go through the shock of a woman who got married and was disillusioned.

Sim's husband is like a woman, he doesn't worry about big things, he just complains all day long. Why is the fried fish too dry? Why is the fried meat too salty? If I wash clothes like that, I'll have to pay for electricity and water at the end of the month. Sim is afraid of the smell of garlic, but her husband puts garlic in the dipping sauce for every meal. Sim is afraid of the vegetable garden full of buffalo dung, but her husband still brings it home to fertilize every day. Sim hates the way her husband does everything, and after finishing a bowl, she washes it. Sim's husband often asks unnecessary questions, talks about everything under the sun, and knows more about other people's business than about his own. He doesn't worry about running out of rice tomorrow, but he's always worried about fighting. At the end of the month, there's no bank interest, no money for the children's school, no money to buy toilet paper, but her husband plans to secretly pay off other people's debts.

Sim was pregnant with her second child, and every time she went for an ultrasound, her husband never asked if the baby was okay. Sim handed over the ultrasound papers with pictures of the baby, but her husband didn't even bother to look at them. His eyes were glued to his phone to check on the war situation halfway around the world. Sim was busy all day, and her husband still complained about every little thing around the house when he came home from work. When she complained, her husband said with a frown, "What the hell are you doing that you're tired?" What's the point of having a husband like that?

For a long time, there was little conversation in Sim's house. The eldest daughter went to school, the youngest was still in her womb, and the couple only spoke to each other when necessary. Every time she heard her husband close the door and go to work, Sim breathed a sigh of relief. When her husband was home, Sim often went up to the terrace. Lately, her husband's company had little work, and sometimes he took a leave of absence with 70% of his salary. So Sim lived on the terrace more than in the house. The house that Sim had saved up her entire youth to build. The house had a small kitchen where Sim had meticulously chosen each porcelain bowl, each flower plate, each pair of good chopsticks. The house had a bedroom that was beautiful down to the pillows and blankets. The house had embroidered curtains, and a window overlooking the fields where the rice was beginning to ripen and smell heavy this season.

But now, Sim considers the rooftop as her world . Sim looks around where she sits, the 120 square meter rooftop is divided in half. The other side is covered with corrugated iron to dry clothes. This side is only partially covered with corrugated iron, the rest is left bare with an iron frame to grow flowers. The sun still shines directly, the rain still wets, there is no way to block the strong wind. Last night when her child went to her grandparents' house, Sim brought a mosquito net up here to sleep. Waking up in the middle of the night, looking at the moon peeking out from behind the dark clouds, she suddenly wondered if this was really her home?

- Why don't you sleep on the bed? It's a foggy night and you'll get sick.
- Stay here for peace.
- Who did anything to you that you can't rest in peace?
The husband threw the pillow right next to Sim and lay down. The husband's sigh mixed with the sound of the wind:
- I remember when we first got married, the summer was so hot that we spread out our mats in the yard of the boarding house to enjoy the breeze. One day we fell asleep and the mosquitoes bit us to death. The salty wind blew from the sea on the tip of our tongues. I heard the sound of a ship's whistle at night and often said it was the sound of loneliness looking for a friend in the vast ocean. Do you remember?
- Um... remember.
- At that time, I was pregnant with Na. It was so hot, one day when I came home from work, I saw her buy a big bag of ice and put it around her. At that time, we always wished to go back to the countryside to build a house. Remember?
- Um... remember.

That memory made Sim emotional. She looked out in front of her, the roses that bloomed at night were so fragrant. There were all kinds of climbing roses that her husband had personally bought and cared for. Occasionally, she saw her husband boasting, “I just found a very cheap rose bush, but unfortunately I have to go far away. But I'm sure you'll like it.” Her husband said he would turn the rooftop into a garden, with flowers blooming every day, grapes dropping in bunches, and gourds bearing fruit in every season. “So that the mother and children can come up and play in the cool of the evening.” Sim's husband probably didn't want to turn the rooftop into a rented room in the house. Sim turned around to say something, but saw that her husband seemed to be asleep...

VU THI HUYEN TRANG

RELATED NEWS:

Source: https://baoquangngai.vn/van-hoa/van-hoc/202412/truyen-ngan-san-thuong-9ab42e0/