Untold Stories of Sanh - Short story contest by Nguyen Manh Ha

It suddenly had in its head the entire history, functions and “user manual” of the plant. That means it now knows how to cooperate with the plant to create some types of bread, cakes in the form of fruit. There are also types of plants that grow clothes, furniture… but that requires the operator to have a high level of concentration and a lot of other knowledge.

- Is there any kind of tree that helps people communicate with each other?

Chuyện Sành chưa kể - Truyện ngắn dự thi của Nguyễn Mạnh Hà- Ảnh 1.

Sành asked and was immediately told yes. On the condition that the trees used for communication must be connected through their roots. That is, wherever there is a forest, there will be a "telecommunications" network provided by the trees. "In fact, humans already have the ability to connect themselves across space and time. You just don't remember it yet," the tour guide's words echoed in Sành's ears...

***

After the school year closing ceremony, Sanh was picked up by his father in a Minsk motorbike to the boarding school. Actually, his father picked him up almost every weekend. Otherwise, he could just walk. His village Lac was more than ten kilometers away from school... But this time, before going home, his father took him to the district market and told him to buy whatever he wanted. Consider it a reward, because Sanh's primary school graduation score was the highest in the grade. The teacher said it might even be the highest in the commune, but they had to wait for the results from all the schools to be compiled.

Passing by the pig breeding stall, his father kicked the cage and praised, "This one is really good." He just smiled. Passing by the puppy stall, his eyes twinkled. He sat down and patted the puppies' heads, then stood up again. When he reached the nursery, he was really excited. Finally, he chose a bunch of multi-colored roses. The hybrid varieties with multiple colors on one petal were more expensive, and his father was willing to pay for it.

Sanh sat behind his father, holding two flower pots in his arms. There were four more pots in the back of the bike. The pots were plastic so they were light. But every time they went downhill, his father would cry out in pain because the rose thorns scratched his back.

Sanh cleared the land in front of the house and planted some flowers, next to some straight areca trees. Her father nodded, "Yes, it's just for fun, maybe it will become a tourist spot in the future." He was nurturing the idea of opening a homestay. It was reasonable because Sanh's house was spacious, high, and right on the edge of the hill, it felt like he could reach out and touch the forest from the window. Her mother said, "I heard that roses are used to make tea to nourish the blood." Her father dismissed it, "Let me go into the forest and cut some blood grass to drink, but the flowers must be kept beautiful." Her mother smiled, "No, I can cut them myself."

During the summer break, Sanh helped his mother weave, craft, etc., then went into the forest to collect bamboo shoots to sell at the market. He also often took out the few books in the house to "study", including some textbooks that his father had abandoned since he was in forestry college. But he mainly hung around the rose garden. And Sanh had a good hand, his rose garden was soon full of flowers. Needless to say, bees, butterflies, and in general, winged insects kept fluttering back and forth on the flowers, which were sometimes as big as an adult's fist.

In early July, Sanh asked his parents for permission to build a bamboo roof to cover the rose bushes. It had been raining heavily upstream these past few days. He was afraid that the rain would ruin the flowers. His father said that the flowers also needed to be exposed to the sun and rain. But his mother suggested that it could be used as a place to sit and drink tea, future tourists would love it. So the whole family started working. Only adults could weave bamboo fences. Sanh was mainly responsible for running errands and fetching water. One end of the fence was attached to the areca trees, the other end was tied to two bamboo trees. The rose roof was formed that same evening.

The next day, Sanh’s mother got up at four in the morning to prepare to go to the forest with his father. It was the peak of the star anise planting season. She lifted the thick brocade curtain that separated Sanh’s bed, intending to remind him to cook something for lunch, but saw that his bed was empty. Strange, every time he came home, he liked to sleep in.

When Bo Sanh was about to run to the neighbors to look for his son, his mother said: "Let me go, you go straight to Uncle Sang's house." Village chief Sang was nearly sixty years old and was trusted by the villagers like a village elder. Anyone with important matters wanted to ask his opinion.

When Sanh’s father returned with Mr. Sang, several neighbors followed Sanh’s mother to the rose garden. No one knew where Sanh had gone. Mr. Sang had a very clever black dog. He told Sanh’s mother to take the shirt Sanh was wearing and let it smell it.

In the dim light of the rising sun, everyone anxiously followed Mr. Sang and the squid. They gradually walked towards the top of the hill. From the cornfield to the cassavafield. Passing the experimental acacia trees, they saw that the trees were growing diagonally, as if they were following each other down the river. Suddenly, the squid squeaked a few times and rushed forward. Everyone hurried after them and saw Sanh lying curled up at the mouth of the crack in the ground, on a pile of dry acacia leaves. Mr. Sang reminded everyone not to make any noise. Then Sanh's father quietly walked to Sanh, picked him up, and moved away from the crack.

Sanh continued to sleep in his father's arms until his mother got impatient and shook him awake.

- Mom and Dad, where are you going? The cake is almost done…

But at this moment, everyone was still paying attention to the crack. From where Sanh had just been lying, they could see that the crack was about two handspans wide, deep, and as long as the eye could see. The crack was still fresh in color. It showed that the ground had just split open.

- In this case… Everyone must evacuate immediately. A landslide is coming!

Mr. Sang's words were like a sharp axe blade cutting down on a crossbow. Everyone immediately felt the seriousness of the matter. Everyone spread out to spread the urgent news. Women and mothers packed up their belongings, while young men set up temporary tents in Dong Quang - a flat, high land separated from Lac village by a dry streambed. Considered part of the sacred forest, no one cultivated it, Dong Quang became a favorite resting place for buffaloes, horses...

When the sun was at its zenith, the most necessary and valuable belongings had arrived safely. In the afternoon, the young men finished making a place to pen the pigs and chickens. Following Mr. Sang's instructions, everyone wandered around Dong Quang all day. That day was a beautiful sunny day. Father Sanh regretted going to the forest, but his mother reminded him:

- Don't you remember that last year, Uncle Sang also stopped you from going into the forest, thanks to that we avoided the flash flood? So he saved our family twice.

Bo Sanh nodded, remembering the sudden flood on San stream that swept away two forest workers. After that, he stopped following people from the lowlands into the deep forest to look for precious wood.

The night passed peacefully. Everyone was tired and fell asleep. At dawn, the few people assigned to sit by the fire to keep watch also dozed off. Then everyone was awakened by a loud explosion. Those who had been up earlier could hear the rumblings echoing from deep underground.

Then, like a slow motion film, the stilt houses blurred past their eyes. They wanted to reach out and touch, to hold on to something familiar, but they had to give up. Then the current picked up speed, trees were overturned and mud covered everything.

Only then did they wake up. The sound of crying arose. Sanh's mother leaned her head on Sanh's father's shoulder and lamented: "Our home! How could all the hard work go away so quickly...". Her father's shoulder also shook. Suddenly, a woman's voice screamed: "My mother! Where is my mother?". Several people had to hold Xanh tightly, preventing her from rushing back to the village. Mrs. Xao, her mother, had come home last night, saying she was looking for a sow, and then she had disappeared.

After a while of struggling, Xanh fainted. She drank some water from a neighbor's hand, then said softly but clearly: "Everyone let me go. I have to go save my mother!" There were sighs here and there, no one believed that Mrs. Xao had escaped the earthquake they had just witnessed.

The terrifying noises had stopped. The silence was equally terrifying. Everyone was anxious to return to their homes. After some discussion, everyone agreed to let the village chief and a group of strong men go back to investigate. Ms. Xanh also went.

Seeing his mother still sobbing, Sanh hugged her and comforted her: "I will build you another beautiful house in the future!". "Thank you... Thank God! Luckily, my child is okay today, and we were able to save the whole village", his mother smiled. "Oh, I didn't do anything", Sanh's eyes widened. "I just led everyone to the crack". "Ah... do you know who showed me the way? It was the little people inside the roses!". It was his mother's turn to widen her eyes...

Eventually, the people who were sitting on a pile of fire finally caught the distant howl. They were worried, then hopeful. At least they couldn’t make out Xanh’s cry. There it was, four young men carrying Mrs. Xao on their shoulders. It was precisely the screen covering the rose garden of Sanh’s house with Mrs. Xao sitting on it. When people found her, her eyes were still closed, her hands and feet still tightly holding onto the areca tree. While the screen became a pedestal to lift her up from the muddy stream…

Mrs. Xao said that when she came back last night, she didn’t see any pigs, but she was so tired that she fell asleep on her familiar bed. At dawn, she got up to go back to Dong Quang. While walking, she fell down. She thought she slipped, but she didn’t. The ground tilted. To avoid rolling, she groped around, grabbed a areca tree, held on tightly, and then could only close her eyes and pray to God…

The rose garden was buried under a foot of earth. Yet, Sanh struggled for a while and still managed to pull out a tattered rose tree that still had roots. Dad said he would propagate this tree and plant it both here and at the new settlement. The rose garden was right at the edge of the muddy river. Which meant the landslide had missed Sanh’s house. But then they decided not to move the stilt house to the new place. It would remain there as a reminder to future generations…

The villagers agreed to plant many trees on the land that had submerged Lac village. Not short-term crops to be harvested immediately. They would turn the old village into an extension of the sacred forest. Mrs. Xao’s pig eventually found its way back to its owner. It seemed that it had foreseen the disaster and had quickly fled into the forest.

***

According to what Sanh’s father told the villagers, that night Sanh was sleepwalking. But everyone believed that Heaven and Earth had guided Sanh to that crack in time to save the villagers. Sanh told his parents in detail that in that dream, he met a group of fairies whose clothes were the same color as the roses he planted. Each fairie was as small as two fingers, with wings like butterflies or dragonflies.

They invited Sanh to fly up high to see the sacred forest. In his dream, Sanh felt that his ability to fly was completely natural. Sanh learned that in every tree and blade of grass there was the presence of a forest god, a land god, a river god… The moment each god appeared to welcome him, Sanh felt extremely overwhelmed and also very peaceful. He understood that the gods were here to protect the Earth and all species, including humans of course…

But Sành had not yet mentioned that it entered the earth through the crack. It was as bright in there as it was up here, except the sky was a pale pink. The flower fairies down there grew as big as humans. They lived in beautiful, comfortable houses made of flowers that grew on trees.

The flower fairy was busy studying and working on the ground. They brought Sanh to the Red Earth to learn about the plants that could coexist with humans in the future. Sanh stayed with them for three days and two nights before being awakened by his mother as we know. In his dreams (not sleepwalking) after that, Sanh would return to that place many times. Every time he woke up, he carefully copied down what was shared, as completely as possible. To save for future work, who knows.