War. She had to evacuate with her grandmother in a village near Hanoi. The daily meals of the two of them are very simple, but now it is a specialty: All vegetables, fresh vegetables, picked at each meal, cooked with soy sauce when boiled, rarely stir-fried. There’s no fat to stir-fry. Meaning no meat. But there’s no need for war to evacuate to the village without meat. Not even in Hanoi. At that time, children were only allowed to buy three ounces of money each month. Three ounces! Can you imagine: it’s just a piece a little bigger than Mouse’s hand.
But when Tet comes, it’s terrible. However, the meat eaten during Tet is usually just pork and chicken. Beef is never available. The cow, like the buffalo, is the beginning of a farmer’s business, and must be cared for so that it can continue to feed itself.
Yet during Tet that year, every house in the small neighborhood where she lived had beef to eat. It was very cold that year. Many families have to burn a pile of firewood in the middle of the house to heat, and also have to line a bed with straw to lie down on. Buffaloes are strong, cows are weaker, some families even make straw shirts tied around their backs and stomachs for them, but there are still animals that cannot cope with the cold. Do you know what cold comes out of your intestines? Every day we have a day off and don’t have to go to school, we skip breakfast and lunch and go to the apartment yard to play for half an hour, you know.
That afternoon was the 29th of Tet. She followed her friends from the same village to the cemetery near the village. The grass is haggard on winter days. It’s a hungry month with cows and buffaloes. At night, each child can only hold straw from the owner’s house and throw it to him.
She went with Mrs. Mo, also 8 years old like her. It’s dry. Windy cemetery. The two ladies stood together, the cotton shirt she wore had two pockets, and Mrs. Mo shared one pocket to put in her hand. She doesn’t even have a warm coat to wear, only two brown shirts, that’s why the children in the village like Mrs. Mo all wear red scarves all day, and when they go to bed they also wear them or something because the two ends of the scarf keep curling up. , cannot spread out. It’s also less cold.
Mrs. Mo’s cow stretched its neck to nibble on the grass and suddenly froze, its four legs trembled and then slowly knelt down. Mrs. Mo panicked and urged her to run back to the village to call the adults. May, running across the cooperative yard at the edge of the village, met the captain of the cooperative team. The captain and several other men frantically pulled out a straw cart. A pile of straw was burned, smoke surrounded the spot where the cow had just collapsed. Mrs. Mo trembled. I don’t know if it’s because I’m hungry or because I’m scared or worried.
The cow did not survive. That day, besides it, another one also collapsed from the cold. The captain consulted the cooperative’s board of directors and decided to slaughter the meat and share it with the whole village. That afternoon’s dinner was fragrant for every house. In our house, Hanoi residents who evacuated were also given a share. Bac Nhac is used to cook fat tubers with celery. The remaining part is braised with ginger sauce. At that time, there was no refrigerator, and the village near Hanoi also did not have electricity. You have to cook it all and then leave it there until the next day when your family in Hanoi comes home to eat it. The next day, thirty years later, there was still pork, chicken, and carp grilled and braised. The cold beef dish was sold out because it couldn’t be served as a feast.
On the fourth day of Tet, she went to Mrs. Mo’s house to play. Mrs. Mo’s family is a mother and one child. Mom was away, Mrs. Mo invited her to have lunch, rice mixed with cassava and braised beef from the 29th of Tet. While eating, Mrs. Mo suddenly burst into tears:
– My uncle entrusted me to take care of him since he was 5 years old, since he was just a calf. It’s been three years. My cow is good, the plowmen like it very much. You don’t know if you’re in Hanoi. My teacher was in the army and went deep into the South. The new cooperative first gave my son and I a calf to herd. If you herd it into a cow, I’ll give you a bunch of points. Yet it died!
Do you know what Mrs. Mo’s score is? Labor points for cooperatives! At the end of the season, people convert that point into rice. Few years, many years, because we still don’t know if there will be a good harvest or bad harvest, but more or less it’s still rice, rice is made from milled rice, you know? Only from rice can we have money to feed our children, and then we can have… My family has not been a farmer for many generations, and we only eat rice in moderation. Now your mother is afraid of getting fat and even refuses to eat. It’s so clear! But that’s it, it’s sweet and fragrant, but it’s bitter and bitter!
Little Mouse looked out the tall window. His family just moved to this apartment complex. From here you can see the Red River. The Red River will probably remain there forever. But the fields…
Her grandmother urged her sisters to finish eating and prepare for extra classes, while she returned to eating and drinking. Little Mouse looked at her, remembering. There was a time not as far away as fairy tales but he couldn’t imagine, his grandmother had to evacuate because of the war and his grandmother played with Mrs. Mo. His grandmother and Mrs. Mo were both 8 years old like him now and his grandmother often followed Mrs. Mo to herd a cow.
Berlin, June 2023!