After 8pm
Winter evenings in the countryside are very strange. It seems like every family is busy preparing rice porridge from around 5 o’clock.
when the chickens come back to the coop, so that meals can take place in small kitchens to avoid the cold
Grandma was still sitting in the kitchen, slowly pushing some sticks into the fire to warm it up.
Tu, how did you talk?
Hee hee
He’s fine now, ma’am. He ate half of the porridge you scooped over. He said he’ll eat the other half closer to midnight.
This bag
Yes
Sister Tam has boiled the bath water for your child and poured it into two thermoses. Take him out to bathe later. Grandma is boiling some more water. Go take a bath or you’ll get cold. Grandma will heat up the cold soup and then come eat.
On the other side of the house, the voices of the aunt and the mute girl continued to echo. The aunt laughed loudly as if it were a bumper crop.
My grandmother said, it is truly born from heaven.
A child lost a child, depressed for months, now seeing the pregnant belly of the heart, touching it all day like finding gold. Your aunt must get through this to be at the top, at the top.
What is the top and the number?
Well, the ancients used to apply the summaries of life, for example, if your aunt was born in the year of the Rooster, she would be compatible with a certain age, and then her fate would have to go through this period to have a smooth life for the rest of her life.
What is your age?
Hee hee
The cat gave birth at noon, on the afternoon of the twenty-ninth of Tet. That day was Tet, every house had fish, meat, rice and soup.
Hehe. So I was born at a time when I was full, grandma.
Well, they are idealistic in their speculation, but if a cat is lazy, it will starve to death.
What a dusty day. Dinner was late but felt peaceful.
She still sat beside me, whispering and chatting. Her experiences were like a book that passed on to me things I didn’t understand.
I suddenly remembered..
Grandma
what
This afternoon I heard you say that Mr. Dam is a kind person.
what is kindness
Grandma pondered for a long time, feeling her heart calm down.
a moment later she said
I go to school, my teacher teaches me something, it’s a concept.
meaning an opinion, a way of thinking, only an action or word, work or a certain problem
kind
It sounds vague, but one has to do it, think it, and live one’s whole life to be recognized by the world, my dear.
I don’t know, when he was young, Mr. Dam’s family was very poor, his parents died early, he had to work for others for more than ten years before he returned to the village, at that time, couples got married through engagement.
He returned to the village to live in his parents’ old house. It was simple and ordinary, his fate was that he lost his mother and father, and the family had only two children.
The older sister’s husband’s family is not well off either. People say that marrying him has no future.
so I asked a few places but no one accepted me
Several years later, the priest’s mother agreed to marry him.
The village thought he was poor…but he was humble and in no hurry to show off, living simply to see how life would go.
Later, when he married the priest’s mother, he bought the house he is living in now, near the main road, at the beginning of the village, and opened a pharmacy. Business was very developed, my child. He was very good at treating illnesses, taking the pulse and prescribing the right prescriptions.
His reputation travels far and wide. His pharmacy is only at the beginning of the village, but people travel dozens of kilometers to get to his house, my child.
You know, many infertile couples who can’t have children, thanks to him, they can have children by taking their pulse, prescribing medicine, and getting them.
There are families in difficulty when they are sick, he still wholeheartedly treats them without taking any money for work or medicine. On the outside, he is sociable and simple, but he is very thoughtful and profound.
Grandma, I went to grandpa’s house and saw that his house had a lot of books.
Yes…people who work in medicine, especially traditional medicine, must have a heart for the profession, must know how to share, then God will bless the profession, my child.
that’s called destiny
uh..madam
what
So midwife, it’s called western medicine, so why do you keep doing it until now? What is it called?
with whom, she does not know. For her, it is karma.
career is called hard, why don’t you quit?
your father
In life, whoever brings karma into their life, even if they want to get rid of it, they cannot get rid of it.
Grandma asked me, in this world, people no matter what era, still only have two words: birth and death.
When a man dies, he can do anything, when he is buried.
When born, how many men in the village are midwives?
She is weak now, luckily she has a good heart, that girl must have a knack for this job, so she doesn’t mind being dirty.
Oh, grandma said, that heart is truly God-given, and his ears are very sharp. I’ve only taught him a few times, but he can hear the fetal heartbeat very well and take the pulse very accurately.
How do you know so much about him?
Long ago when he returned to the village, he came to my house all day to play with my maternal grandfather.
why do you often come to my house
Because my maternal grandfather went to study Chinese and Nom characters. When he returned to the village, he carried a whole cart full of medical books and books on divination. So my maternal grandfather loved his books very much.
So were you married to your grandfather then?
Ah…at that time, my grandmother and grandfather were married.
Okay, wash your face and go study.
let her wash some dishes
Are you and mom sleeping?
Hey you
Yes
Tomorrow morning, get up early. Bring rice and porridge to Mr. Dam. Also visit him to see how he is doing.
She got up early to cook some food for him.
9pm
The yard rustled a few dry jackfruit leaves falling from the night wind, the rustling sound of grandma also gradually quieted down. The space seemed to quiet down, only people with joy were awake.
When I walked to the house across, inside on the bed the aunt and mute girl were still talking and laughing.
stacks of clothes, diapers, baby hats… in the corner there are some bottles for feeding the baby
Some of the shirts look really strange. Some are white, some are pink, fragile like butterfly wings.
Hee hee.. aunt picked up the shirt, sniffed it and then hugged it to her chest..
It’s true, girls are always like that, fascinated by the two words “fashion”.
Hee hee..
My aunt tried on the shirt with two straps on her chest, she said this one really suits you. Now if you wear this shirt and lie on the bed, boys will be jealous.
I was silent, tilting my head to feel.
the childlike joy of unmarried girls
aunt and sister
Oh girls, women…isn’t it like that in any era?
quietly drop the mosquito net, close the door
silently feel human emotions. outside i turned off the lights, the light inside
aunt and sister still laugh and talk freely
Suddenly she stood up and took off her shirt.
oh…full chest
From the bed, I could only see my aunt’s figure behind her. They were probably engrossed in their conversation. They didn’t know I was already in bed.
Auntie put the tank top on her head and let it down.
She bent down and took off her pants, revealing straight, white, pink legs.
Who the hell made this dress for?
it is short only to mid thigh..
She turned around twice, grabbed the hem and pressed it against her butt. Standing in front of her, she shook her hips like someone bailing water…
hee hee…perverted laugh
She was mute, her eyes were shining brightly.
are you horny..
hee hee
She stroked her hand down her thighs, as if to say, “Are they white yet?”
mute girl laughed out loud
The moment she spread her legs and squatted down, sipping, she probably wanted to say this is the buffalo tying position..
The mute girl suddenly pointed to the outer room.
I understand..
Maybe it was her playful nature, or her madness getting the best of her.
Turning her butt back, facing the light of the room door, she arched her neck slightly, stroking her hair with both hands and spinning around as if performing.
the action of hammering a buffalo stake. Now anyone who sees it feels like they’re bleeding..
aa huh huh
aunt happy as showing promiscuous movements
distance, the gaze only sees a faint light, looming over there the fork of a fragile white cloth
lift up, push out…the big, thick, really bold turtle’s back
The mute girl suddenly reached out and grabbed her aunt’s waist, pulling her back.
aunt fell down, aunt put her butt on the bed
two legs suddenly raised straight up to the sky
like a mother in labor arching out
hee hee…
Suddenly she lay on her back with her legs spread out, facing the door.
her head rested on the jumbled clothes on the bed
aunt hugged the child’s shirt to her face and sniffed
I’m sure you’re dreaming, the dream of being a mother of a child.
out here
my heart beats fast
tense and painful
remember the sentence that day on the dusty road
just smiling, aunt said
aunt likes to flirt
promiscuity is also cute. Now in there
just like a lover
when happy tell aunt
is a pervert
but I like it
her aunt’s free-spirited, ironic personality
I closed my eyes and fell asleep
Over there two people are packing things into the gift box
daydreaming in silence
Somewhere appears the moment of that day of his
he talked about how difficult those days were
What did you do that someone gave you this?
She went out and then into the front room.
silent
It was a long time before I saw my aunt quietly close the outside door.
very smooth
light as tiptoe
the mosquito net outside, someone is pulling it up
It seems like… someone is putting their butt on the outside of the bed. The house space
pitch dark