Humanity...

It was the summer of 1980, I was a third year student at Hanoi University of Science and Technology.

Illustration photo. Source: Internet

I was a soldier returning to study, the class party secretary, and at that time I was assigned to check the background of a student in my class named Quan, who was from Dong Tho commune, Thanh Hoa town. I was given a work permit from the school and took the train to Thanh Hoa . At that time, weather forecasts on radio in our country were often very inaccurate. The meteorology industry was always a source of jokes. When it was sunny, there was heavy rain, and when it was raining, the fields kept cracking and there was no sign of rain. I went to Thanh Hoa on the day a storm hit the East Sea without knowing it.

I passed by Quan's neighborhood, knowing he was home but didn't turn in to keep to the rules. I went straight to the commune committee headquarters on the edge of the village, where the party committee also worked. I gave my letter of introduction and talked to Ms. Binh, the standing member of the commune party committee, before I finished my pot of tea when the wind blew fiercely outside. It was only about 3 pm. As soon as Ms. Binh stood up to close the window, the rain started to fall heavily. The raindrops were so big that I could count them. Ms. Binh immediately locked the door, gave me a raincoat and the two of us ran through the rain to her house, which was nearly a kilometer away.

Binh's house is located in a small hamlet next to the railway, from there to Thanh Hoa station is about a kilometer. When I got home, I saw the rain pouring down on the sky and the ground. Binh's house is a small brick house with three rooms and a small brick yard. At the front and back of the house, there are some dense bamboo bushes, leaning to block the wind. At home, there are only her two children, who are just in primary school. After a while, her husband came running home in the rain and wind. He works as a fish pond keeper for the cooperative. He is about ten years older than me, with dark brown skin, he looks like a strong man. We greeted each other, his voice was loud like someone who speaks loudly.

That night I stayed at Binh's house, having dinner with the family. My husband and I cooked a lot of rice, the food was a bunch of small fish like mackerel that he brought back from the pond to cook. The vegetables were some kind of boiled lotus stem, I think it was called lotus root. The whole family enjoyed the meal, including the two children who quietly and well-behavedly ate by themselves. Binh and I only ate three bowls each, but her husband had to eat seven or eight bowls. For each full bowl of rice, he would pick up a piece of fish and use his chopsticks to cut the rice bowl into four pieces like we cut banh chung. Then, each time he used his chopsticks, he would push a quarter of the bowl into his mouth. Just like that, four times he would cut the chopsticks, four bites, and the bowl of rice was gone. I had only eaten a few bites of rice, and strangely, I stopped my chopsticks and watched him eat. While he was giving his wife a new bowl of rice, he waved his hand and told me, "Eat well, why do men eat so slowly?" I sped up but finished the meal much later than him, Binh had to eat and wait for me. In the end, I finished my meal just a little bit earlier than the two children.

That night, Binh left his wife in the room with the children, and he put an extra bamboo bed outside the house for me to sleep with him, each of us on a bed. They were so kind. Only later, when I had a wife, did I understand that he had sacrificed several nights away from his wife to sleep next to me, an unwilling guest, to ease my sadness. That night, the rain poured down, the wind blew loudly in the yard. The sound of the rain seemed to chase each other on the roof. Binh and his wife's neighborhood had no electricity. It was dark all around, but every now and then we could see thunder and lightning, everything looked flickering. I was a soldier, used to sleeping in the open air and could sleep easily, lying down anywhere. I used to sleep in the sun in a large field without a tree, covering my face with a towel and sleeping, letting the sweat pour out and dry, my clothes burning hot. At the post for several weeks during the rainy season, at night I only wrapped myself in plastic to cover half my body, and from my thighs down I was drenched in the rain all night and still slept. Hearing the sound of enemy artillery fire, I jumped up and rushed down into the wet valley. After the artillery fire, I crawled back up and wrapped myself in plastic to continue sleeping, despite my clothes being soaked. But at Binh's house, I lay listening to the rain and wind in the yard, and it took a long time to fall asleep.

The next morning it was still raining heavily. It seemed like this area was in the eye of the storm. The rain was not as persistent as the rain in the jungle, but being in the eye of the storm was still terrifying. The rain was heavy and the wind was very strong, as if the sky was pouring water down. Binh and his wife got up early to boil sweet potatoes for breakfast. The rain was still pouring down from the sky and the ground, and they couldn't see anything from afar. Outside, the water in the yard was ten centimeters deep. After breakfast, he went to the fish pond, and Binh also put on plastic and went to the committee office. I was the only one at home with the two children. I asked them about the story, the older sister was in fourth grade, the younger brother was in second grade. There was nothing to do, so I told the two children to take out their books and study. It turned out that the two children were very studious. They were bustling about asking me about the exercises they hadn't done yet. So I played the role of a village teacher teaching the two children. At noon, Binh and his wife both returned home. They had caught a bunch of shrimp from the pond and a handful of lotus stems that he brought back for food. Lunch was the same as last night's dinner, he still ate quickly and a lot. Still urging me to “eat well”. In the afternoon, I was alone at home with the two children studying. Sister Binh prepared a large pot of tea for the three of us to drink. Late in the afternoon, my brother and sister-in-law came home in the pouring rain to cook. In the evening, they just sat and talked for a while and then went to bed early. Because of the storm, they couldn’t do anything at home.

For three days straight, everything went on without any change. He went to the pond to look after the fish, she went to the commune party committee to work. I still stayed home twice a day with the two children studying and doing math. They liked and respected me very much. As for the job of examining the background check for Mr. Quan to join the party, Ms. Binh helped me to do it all. I did not have to go to the house of the party cell secretary or the commune party committee secretary to present and ask for opinions and get them to sign and stamp. The rain gradually stopped, only pouring down and then clearing up. Sometimes the sky was a little sunny. The train, after several days of waiting to avoid the storm, was running again, so it was time for me to say goodbye to Mr. and Mrs. Binh and the two children and return home. I had been at Mr. and Mrs. Binh's house for more than three days and four nights.

Early in the morning of the fourth night, Binh and I woke up early so he could take me to the train station. On this business trip, I thought that I would finish my work that afternoon, and in the evening I would go to the train station to buy some cakes and fruit to eat and sleep there until morning to return to Hanoi. Therefore, I only brought a little money and no rice stamps. I didn’t expect to be stuck because of the storm and stay at Binh’s house for several days. The night before, to prepare to say goodbye, I thanked Binh and her husband and awkwardly gave them some money from my pocket, keeping only enough to buy a train ticket. They brushed it off, and she even blamed me:

- Don't let us down. That's looking down on us. You used to be a soldier too. This time I came here to work for public purposes. If Uncle Quan is allowed to join the party, our commune will have one more government official, adding glory to the commune. You stay at our house for a few days, helping the children study, the affection is like that of soldiers towards the people. We can help you a little and feel warm inside. Don't think about it. Please send our regards to the elders. If you have a chance to come here in the future, stop by our house.

There was only a dim oil lamp in the house. I held Binh and his wife's hands and felt tears well up in my eyes. Binh and his wife were so kind. The people of Thanh Hoa were so kind and benevolent, just like the spirit of those days when they gave their all to the front line.

Mr. Binh took me by a shortcut to the station when it was still dark so that he could come back in time for breakfast and to go to the pond to watch the fish. I was almost the first passenger to board the train at Thanh Hoa station that day.

When I arrived in Hanoi, I immediately went to buy two sets of textbooks for grades two and four. Back then, it was not easy for students to buy enough textbooks, especially in the countryside. I sent Quan a message, telling him that if he ever went back to Thanh Hoa, he should bring them to Ms. Binh's house for me.

The beautiful and warm memories of the people of Thanh Hoa have followed me throughout my life, helping me always believe and try to overcome all difficulties in life.

Vu Cong Chien (Contributor)

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/tinh-nguoi-218465.htm