The day I went to college, my uncle didn't even ask me a word. In his mind, I was still just an illegitimate child.
The father passed away, the house on the street was divided into two halves, but not equally. The right half was the eldest brother's house, the land was probably more than ten meters wide. In the front, he placed two billiard tables for people to come and play and collect money. The players were bustling in and out. Mostly young men. Inside the house, in a hidden corner, there were always one or two gambling tables. He and his wife sat there collecting money, sometimes the table was missing a leg, he and his wife would sit down and play with them. The eldest brother's house became a billiard and gambling den for the young men and men who loved gambling in the neighborhood. It was not difficult to find these men, just run to the eldest brother's house, and sure enough, they were either in front or behind.
The left half was much narrower, about two meters wide, just enough to get in and out of. That half was the younger sister's house. It was called a house, but in reality it was just a thatched hut, where the mother and her children, grandmother and grandchild lived. In front of the house was a small, shabby shop, selling a few bottles of soft drinks to passersby. The old mother lived with her younger sister, but definitely not with her rich son next door. It was unclear why.
The younger sister looked pitiful, her face pale and haggard. She was unmarried but had a daughter. People said she was an illegitimate child, and no one knew who the father was. The three of them depended on each other to survive. The refreshment shop had only one table, with an old glass cabinet on top, containing ten bottles of soft drinks. On the table were some cakes and fruits. The shop had only one long wooden bench for seating, and it mainly sold to passersby. The shop had few customers, sometimes hungry, sometimes full.
The storm came, the roof of the shop was blown away. The thatched hut behind was devastated. Water flooded into the house. The mother looked at her daughter in a daze. The grandchild looked at her grandmother and mother with big round eyes, bewildered and sad. The mother was heartbroken, walking around picking up the remaining pieces of the fallen roof. The three of them still had to struggle to live. Struggling to re-roof the house, repair the shop, and drain the puddles.
Months passed. The old mother could no longer help her and her son. Her eyes were blind, her limbs weak, and she could only sit in one place. The ten-year-old grandson could help his mother with many things. Although his family was poor, he studied very well. He wore only one old set of clothes, patched at the hem, but his eyes were bright. He loved to read.
The year she was in middle school, her grandmother passed away. It was a day of torrential rain, the water pouring down like a torrent. The rain was so heavy that the sky and earth were dark. The little girl cried for her grandmother, her body soaked in the rain, but she still held her mother's shoulder close to her. Her mother was about to collapse. Her mother struggled for a whole week before she finally got up. Losing her grandmother, her mother lost her greatest spiritual support. Now the two of them could only rely on each other to get through the days.
The girl entered high school and suddenly grew up into a young woman. She was a poor girl who only had one old ao dai of her mother's. Every morning and every afternoon, she diligently rode her bike to school. She didn't have money to go to extra classes like her friends. After school, she also had to look after the shop to help her mother. People in the neighborhood were familiar with the image of her looking after the shop while diligently reading books and writing articles. She had a dream of going to university. She had calculated everything, she was determined to pass the exam to become a police officer so that the State would feed and support her, because if she went to a foreign school, where would the money come back? Because the number of female students was very small, the standard score for the police officer was very high. She knew that and tried her best. The road was both narrow and steep, but she was determined to overcome it.
In addition to borrowing books from friends, he went to used bookstores to buy them at cheaper prices. He studied each word voraciously. He found ways to solve problems and systematized methods for doing exercises. His self-study ability improved day by day.
Since the day she learned to look after the shop, her mother took advantage of the early morning to go to the sea to buy the catch of fish that people had pulled in that morning and then brought it to the market near her house to sell for extra money. Her mother also knew how to buy vegetables and kohlrabi from the baskets of goods that she cycled past her house and then put them on display in a corner of the market. The profit she earned was small, but it was enough for both mother and child. Her mother tried to save money to send her child to Hanoi to take the university entrance exam. More or less, she had to find enough for her child to have something to protect herself when she was away from home.
That year, she was the only girl in the neighborhood who passed the university entrance exam and one of three girls in the district who passed the police academy. The day she received the results, her mother cried tears of joy. She prepared a plate of fruit and burned incense for her. She whispered to her grandmother's portrait and then burst into tears. She stood next to her and whispered to her: "Grandma! I did it." Life seemed to have its own sense of fairness. During the stormy days, she and her son did not collapse. Now that the storm has passed, she is ready to walk on the road ahead.
She went to university, ate state meals, and had her clothes and accommodation provided by the school. Occasionally, when she returned home, she proudly boasted to her mother that she went to school but still received a monthly salary from the industry. She also received a scholarship. The girl is now strong and mature. In her second year of university, she was honored to be admitted to the Party. She still loves to study and read books as before. Her name was never absent from the school's and industry's law-research competitions and police officer competitions. After graduating, with an excellent degree, the school wanted to keep her as a lecturer. But she insisted on working in her home district. The family only had an old mother, so the school agreed to her wish. Her mother was proud to see her daughter, Loan, studying hard, dignified and gentle in her industry's military uniform.
The day she went to college, her eldest uncle didn't even ask her a word. In his mind, she was still just an illegitimate child. But he secretly admitted that she was a good student, and she was also obedient. She was much better than his two "spoiled brats" sons. The first one dropped out of school before finishing high school. He said that staying home to look after the billiard parlor would make his father happier. He also had a gambling habit. When he looked after the parlor, he would play one, even two, three. The money he earned couldn't make up for the money he spent gambling with the customers. Unable to force him or beat him, he had no choice but to hope for the second child, but the second child wasn't any better off. After finishing high school, he wanted to work as a long-distance bus conductor. Then after a while, he came home and didn't work. When asked, he learned that he was fired. The reason was that he was addicted. Raising an addict was extremely expensive. Every penny the family had was stolen to buy drugs. The eldest brother's house was also gradually fading away with his two sons. Looking at his sister's house next door, the eldest brother wished that his two sons could have a part, a small corner like the illegitimate child of his sister's house.
Once upon a time, the lottery movement arose in the district town. Every household played the lottery. Whenever they had a dream, whenever a number came up, people clung to it with hope. They waited until the evening to change their lives. But gambling and lottery only enrich the house, usually no one wins with this game of chance. Unfortunately, chance is no different from drugs. It is terribly addictive, the more you lose, the more you get drunk.
The eldest brother's wife was also a famous gambler in the neighborhood. She was the treasurer, but when she got addicted to gambling, she burned all her assets. When she ran out of money, she borrowed money from the mafia. Interest compounded interest. In the end, all she had left was the house and the land, which were her last remaining possessions, and she had to pawn them.
She planned to make one last move. Just this one move would allow her to recover all that she had lost, and also have more capital to do business. She sat on hot coals, anxiously waiting for the results. She was bewildered and then cried loudly like a child whose toy had been snatched away. She had almost lost everything. The debt collectors came to seize the house, so they had to sell it. After selling the house to pay off the debt, the eldest brother and his wife were only able to keep a small piece of land, just big enough to put a bed on. The family of four looked miserable and bored. The wave of gambling swept through the poor district town, just like the storm and flood that devastated the city years ago. If a house was not held firmly, the little savings would also be gone.
Working in her home district, Loan saw with her own eyes the terrible harm of gambling, so she advised the leaders to take immediate action to eliminate it. Loan suggested that the first step was to strike first. A special project was set up. After a period of careful investigation, the first target was the bookies. The police took action simultaneously, arresting the bookies. Then Loan and her teammates went to every hamlet, every residential area, every neighborhood meeting, to educate and educate people to give up lottery and gambling. After a while, this evil gradually disappeared. The poor district town became peaceful again.
Loan went to her uncle's house to talk to him and persuade him to send his eldest brother to vocational school. Loan also encouraged her uncle to send her second brother to compulsory drug rehabilitation. The uncle's family was like a drowning man clutching at straws, and they listened to their niece's advice. The road ahead was brighter, they just needed to persevere and put it into practice. It was never too late to start.
The poor district town is now a town, the economy is developing because many industrial factories have been built. The district police were upgraded to the town police, Loan was promoted to captain. She bought more land from the neighbor next door, built a sturdy flat-roofed house for her mother. The ramshackle shack remained only in her memory. The eldest brother of the eldest uncle's family finished vocational school and was hired to work in the maintenance and repair department of a factory. The son later got over his addiction and also applied to vocational school...
This year, the anniversary of her death was celebrated by both families. In front of her mother's altar, the eldest uncle had tears in his eyes as he apologized. His younger sister, standing next to him, also sobbed. For the first time, the meal on her anniversary had more than three bowls. The invisible barrier between the two families had been broken down. Finally, life showed its own fairness.
Short story by LE NGOC SON