The Mountains Sing(48)

“For sure your mother could have delivered babies, H??ng. Doctors from the North had to help civilians who’d fled their villages.”

I nodded, a heavy burden lifted from my chest. “Now that you’re here, Uncle, I hope she’ll come home.”

I went to the kitchen, bringing back a bowl of roasted peanuts. Uncle ??t tossed a few into his mouth, chewing noisily. “Grandma told me your mother moved to Duyên’s house because it’s peaceful there. What’s the real reason?”

“She had a big fight with Grandma.” I turned the bowl in my hand.

“About what?”

“She said that if Grandma hadn’t run away from her village, perhaps all of you wouldn’t have had to go to the battlefields and Uncle Thu?n wouldn’t have died.”

“What?” Uncle ??t looked up to the altar, shaking his head. “Grandma saved us by running away. Besides, had we remained at the village, we would’ve been drafted as well.”

“So you don’t blame Grandma at all for what happened?”

“Blame? No way. On the contrary, I feel like I’m not good enough to deserve her. I don’t know why your mother would say such hurtful things.”

“Uncle, please . . . don’t be upset when you see my mother. I want her to move back with us.”

“I want her home, too, H??ng. Don’t you worry.”

I picked up the S?n ca, cupping it to my face. “Uncle, so what happened next?”

Uncle ??t sighed and took a drink from his bottle. “Malaria is a terrible thing to have. It makes you so weak. I just lay there in my hammock, shivering and burning with fever as flocks of people passed silently by me. The days and nights dragged on, and still, I couldn’t get up. Whenever a company set up camp where I was, they helped cook my rice and gave me some greens. They were tired, hungry, and sick, too, and I felt so useless.

“One morning, a man shook me from my blurriness. I thought it was only a dream, but Hoàng was standing in front of me.”

“My father?”

“Yes, it was him. He was grinning from ear to ear. ‘Ah, I can’t believe this dead log turned into my brother-in-law,’ he told me.”

“How was he, Uncle? Very thin?”

“He was thinner but looked okay. He was growing a beard, too. He said that your mother used to shave him so he was keeping the beard for her, as a gift.”

I couldn’t help but smile. “He still managed to joke?”

“He’s a rare spirit, I know.”

“Tell me more about him, Uncle.”

“He showed me the S?n ca he’d carved for you. He went on and on about how much he missed you and your mother. He said he regretted he’d never told you how much he loved you, and that you meant the world to him.”

“Why hasn’t he come back, Uncle? Do you think something happened to him?”

“It took me a while, you see? He might be home any time now.”

I nodded. Uncle ??t’s return gave me hope.

“That day, your father cooked and fed me breakfast, lunch, and dinner. For the first time in weeks, I got to eat fresh meat. He also managed to find medicine for me. He stayed by my side, whispering to me about you and your mother, and about our happy times in Hà N?i. As the sun began to set, he pulled the S?n ca out of his breast pocket, asking me to give it to you if I made it home first.”

I held the bird tightly, a tear sliding down my cheek.

“I didn’t want to see darkness, but it came. Time to say good-bye. Your father poured all the rice from his cloth bag into mine. He went to a stream nearby and filled my canteen, disinfecting it with one of our medicine tablets. He gave me his big, brotherly hug. He joked that whoever got home first would have to buy the other a round of beer.

“Around half an hour . . .” My uncle quickly glanced at me. He cleared his voice. “Hmm . . . as I said, I wished your father could stay. I tried to get up from my hammock, thinking I was strong enough to join his troops, but my feet collapsed under me. I couldn’t be his burden, so I lay there, watching him leave. Two weeks . . . two weeks after his departure, American planes arrived. Bombs darkened the sky. Explosions turned the world upside down. Jungles were uprooted and burned like wild grass.”

I looked up to our family altar and prayed.

“Your father’s medicine gave me strength to crawl into a cave and hide inside. His food helped me survive the bombing days.

“As soon as I got better, I staggered out of the cave. Enemy planes were gone, and I couldn’t believe my eyes: hundreds of soldiers were silently moving past me, on the same trail the bombs had destroyed. Groups of Youth Brigade volunteers, most of them women, were repairing the trail; their first task was to find unexploded bombs and defuse them.

“I joined up with another unit, and now we were walking during the day as well as night. It was by pure chance that Thành, your Auntie H?nh’s classmate, was one of my new comrades.

“Along our way south, I saw bomb craters, so many that it seemed flocks of gigantic animals had rushed by, leaving their footsteps carved into the earth. Sometimes when we were trekking, I felt a light rain being sprayed from airplanes overhead. Plants around us shriveled instantly, large trees dropping their leaves. Everything around us just withered. To protect ourselves, our commander ordered us to take out our handkerchiefs, pee onto them, and put them against our noses. We walked on.”