Bones of a Rice Cake - Short story by Ha My

He was still very young then, but adversity forced him to grow up faster than his peers. Even now, as a strong young man, he still wonders: "When will God stop testing him?"

Her parents were both poor, and had nothing but love in their hands when they got married. Her grandfather took pity on them and gave them a small piece of land on the edge of the rice field for them to build a temporary house. Fortunately, her parents were hard-working, so although their life working hard in the fields was not rich, they had enough to eat and wear. One afternoon in October when she was 3 years old, she saw a lot of people coming to her house, everyone's face was sad. Her grandmother fainted repeatedly, and her grandfather hugged her tightly, his eyes deep and lifeless. Then people brought her mother and younger sister into the house. That morning, her father told her to take her mother to give birth...

From then on, he lived with his grandmother. His father threw himself into work as if to forget the great pain. Although his grandparents and father loved him wholeheartedly, he still felt that something sacred was missing. The older he grew, the more he felt his loss and unhappiness.

Many death anniversaries of mother passed, one day aunt returned to father. Well, she had heard a lot of whispers from her grandparents. She also understood that no one could live alone all their lives, especially when her father was still very young... However, the careless words of the aunts and ladies at the market made her a little afraid: "No rice cake has bones...".

He always kept his distance from his aunt, even though she always tried to pull him towards her. Many times he felt terribly disgusted with her when he saw his father struggling to apply oil to his aunt's bicycle to go to the market, or when he saw her rubbing oil on his father, or when she was struggling to reheat rice and soup while waiting for his father to come home from plowing at night... He called her "aunt", as a way to gently remind her of her position in his heart. Sometimes he was indifferent to her care, his father scolded him in a stern voice, but his aunt always came out to defend him: "Stop it, brother, her child is still young...". At times like that, he always thought of her as no different from the stepmothers in the fairy tales that his grandmother used to read to him when he couldn't sleep because he craved his mother's warmth.

Xương bánh đúc - Truyện ngắn dự thi của Hà My - Ảnh 1.

The fear and resentment inside him grew since he learned that his aunt was pregnant. Seeing his father clinging to his aunt and younger sister, he felt infinitely sorry for himself. Many times, his father went looking for him and found him lying down beside his mother and younger sister's grave.

- Why don't you accept me? I really love you.

Dad's voice was low, unable to hide his helplessness.

- …

He remained silent, because he himself could not explain to his father how he felt.

Dad fell ill at an unexpected time. He decided to drop out of school and go to the South to find work. Introduced by an acquaintance, he learned the painting trade and started earning his first money by his own labor. In the following years, he only came home on two occasions: his mother's death anniversary and Tet. It seemed that when they were far apart, he was no longer too concerned about another woman - not his mother - being with his father.

She always cared for him by sending messages to his father every time he called home:

- I asked if you like anything to eat so I can make some and send it to you.

- Tell your child to buy some medicine. I heard you say he was sick.

- I told you not to send money home anymore, save money to buy a car to go to work with someone.

- …

It hears everything, knows everything, it just… still can't overcome the invisible wall built up since childhood.

- Tiger, go home now, your father is in the hospital!

Hearing his grandfather's urgent voice on the phone, he quickly dropped what he was doing, hurriedly packed his things, and went to the bus station to buy a ticket home.

Passing through the window of the hospital room, he saw his aunt sitting there wiping his father's face. She looked so thin and haggard. He suddenly realized that it had been a long time since he had seen her, had never once stood in front of her and looked straight into her eyes.

Dad passed away just a few days later, in the last days with Dad, she felt the wall between her and her aunt seemed to collapse. In her heart, a feeling of love and pity for this woman suddenly arose. But at the same time, she also felt more lonely and isolated than ever. Now, she was no different from a wild tree, alone in the world.

The day he picked up his backpack and went back to the South, he made an excuse to go to his grandmother's house to say goodbye so he didn't stay home to eat with his aunt. Actually, he was trying to avoid his aunt. He was afraid that he wouldn't have enough courage to face his aunt's deep, sad eyes, wouldn't be strong enough to say goodbye to his little sister who shared the same father, wouldn't be able to control himself before the distant look on his father's portrait. He told himself, he was a boy, he had to be strong! In the sound of the wind, his aunt's voice faintly said: "Take care of yourself, son, don't need to worry about me and your sister."

The bus stopped at the station while it was still dark. He walked slowly to work and sat outside the gate to wait. At this hour, everyone was still sleeping, so he didn't want to bother them. Suddenly, he thought of his aunt. She must have gotten up to cook dinner and prepare vegetables to take to the market early. She didn't know how to ride a motorbike, so he wondered how long it would take her to get to the market. Without Dad, how would she and her younger brother face the empty space in that house? He suddenly felt sorry for her.

A boy like him, who had never shed tears for anything (his mother died when he was too young; his father died when he was already grown up, he had to force himself to let the tears flow back inside), but now he was shedding tears for the woman he had hated since he was little. He regretted never opening his heart to receive his aunt's love, regretted carelessly pushing her hand away when she gingerly applied a wet towel to him when he had a fever, regretted not having time to teach her to ride a motorbike so that going to the market would be less difficult for her... He took out his phone, did something he had never done before, which was to dial his aunt's number, to call to let her know that he had arrived safely. Hearing his aunt's sigh of relief on the phone, he suddenly felt happy and reassured.

- Tiger, next week is your father's death anniversary, can you come home?

- Yes, I will come back early this year. Wait for me to come back and take me to the market to buy things!

Through the window of the bus going back to the countryside, along the way, he saw a small family riding together for a walk. The little child sat in the middle, his arms around his father's waist but his face was trying to turn back to tell his mother something. Then the whole family laughed loudly. He saw smoke rising from the kitchen of a small house, the house looked like his house in the countryside, but it was certainly warmer and more complete. Suddenly, his heart sank when he thought of his aunt, many years since his father passed away, his aunt had been living alone to raise his younger brother, and waiting for him to return.

The rainy season was coming again, this year he planned to use all the money he had saved to build his aunt and younger brother a new, more spacious and solid house. But of course, the closest thing he was going to do for his aunt was to take her to the market to buy things to prepare for his father's death anniversary as he had promised. Although he still didn't have the courage to tell his aunt the words of love, he believed that she knew how much he loved her. Hearing someone singing a lullaby in his ear: "There are no generations of rice cakes with bones...", he suddenly smiled.