Owl mate Season
Nguyễn Bản
Translated
by Nguyen Trong Long
It was less than two days since the
country girl moved to live with him, the security guard invited him to see the
director. He could immediately read the trouble from his tongue and facial
expression. Normally, the guy was quite friendly with him because he was
actually an easygoing man; furthermore he not only was familiar with the
director but also was held in high esteem. However, the guy talked with him in
an abrupt tongue that day.
- You’re invited to see
Mrs. Phuong.
He felt a little uncomfortable
because he was not her subordinate. But this woman could give more or less
troubles to him. Nearly two months before, in the deputy director’s office,
everyone was seriocomic about introducing him one woman or another… But he
openly revealed that he was going to get married to a
divorced country woman at the age of his first daughter. He unexpectedly saw
that the director, who was Mrs. Phuong, was in her blushes signing some
documents, firmly pressed the pen down, spoke directly to him: “I resolutely
oppose you”. Then she bestirred herself and left for the director’s office at
everyone’s daze. Certainly, he neither simply thought this woman
behaved in such a way because she was in the habit of being imperious towards
her subordinates, simply because he was just an accommodation renter nor she
opposed so because she was his sister or at least his cousin. The story was far more
complicated. It firstly started since he had just moved here, it began from
this woman’s affection towards him. To frankly speak,the rental decision right
and the price were in her hand because it was simply the guest
house of a corporation, which served both its own units and the business to
make profit for facility upgrading and better internal service but it had no
function for rent, especially with the very cheap price for him, perhaps it was
as cheap as the price of a single room for a day and a night. Obviously, It was
not called an accommodation room because it was previously used as a storeroom
for old and broken wooden tables, chairs and other furniture . The woman spoke
while she was leading him under the very cool clumps of trees in the campus:
- I will have the furniture
removed into the next room. And you will have someone to do some
repairments; to whitewash the wall, to repaint the door. It’s ok for
temporary accommodation.
She joyfully continued:
- Live here, it’s quite
free for love affairs, and you can stay as long as you want.
He responded a smile implying his
gratitude to her sympathy towards his homeless and lonely situation
at present although It was just a storeroom behind which there was
large smelly sewage ditch, its side was the place where visitors vomited after
eating and drinking and the place for garbage from many conferences and wedding
parties. But a torn mat that comes in the nick of sleepy time, it
was so good for him because the corner was still a part of the vast
campus of maybe several hectares with big trees with large shades, a flower
garden with benches, which made him feel less missing after he left his house
behind where there were also large shades of luxuriant trees, parterres, pot
plants. He cast off all to save himself from a stressed life in danger of
depression. He remembered once he was passing by the town’s police station, he
saw a woman loudly speaking.
- My husband has criminality,
you can arrest and detain him but you must allow me to supply him
with rice and water.
Perhaps, she was just a peddler or a
cake seller but it suddenly made him think it over and over: “I wish I
had such a wife.” Probably, that thought was just the continuation
of what he said to his old wife when she had just graduated from university and
started her job for a short while: “With you, assumed that it were French
Domination time now and if I took part in patriotic activities, which you felt
getting involved, you would be ready to sell me to gumshoes at once.” One of
his close friends asked him after having heard it:
- How could you have managed to
continue living with each other for tens of years?
- Why couldn’t? A woman ever
talked to me: “I‘ve been sleeping with my little daughter separately from my
husband for five year, we’d rather deceive each other than get a divorce, so
unhappy and miserable for the kids.”
He did not feel anything lost or
missing, vice versa he felt like being freed from a cage, merrier, healthier
and put on three kilogram weight after living here for a month. However, seeing
that couples of men and women came to rent the rooms, it was unclear whether
they were really husbands and wives or just love affairs, he still felt deeply
moved and touched, especially at midnights when barn owls flied over with
deeply sad sounds though he clearly knew they were just the calls for their
mates. Possibly, their mating festival season had begun. Because of the
luxuriant trees, it was unobvious to him that they together came
here for making nests or for mating festivals.
Heard of his new accommodation, his
friends came to visit him in turn, even some from other provinces, it was much
more crowded and merrier than the old house. His daughter came and knew her
father’s living in such a condition with quite cheap renting price,
she felt secure and gave an unprejudiced judgment:
- In such a condition, It’s
good for Daddy to live the rest of your life here.
He smiled:
-But will my acquaintance
work as a director here for the rest of my life ? And how long is
the rest of my life; ten, twenty, five or just three years?
It was just a talk
because even though Mrs. Phuong could work as a director here for the rest of
his life, he had no intention of living here for long time. And then he must
have his own new nest even though it was just like a duck tent compared with
his old nest, which cost him a half of his life for building. And even
barn owls must have their own nests. Therefore, when director Phuong
recommended he submit a personal situation description paper as
stipulated, he just submitted for renting until the end of the solar
year , which meant nine months only.
On arrival day, he
was absolutely merry out of the blue, his friends paid for a
new accommodation warming party with nearly ten people, and some second- class
love duets singers were also invited to join for more fun. He only felt happy
when clinking glasses with the singers and director Phuong who looked so lovely and beautiful as well that evening. A
singing resounded from his heart: “what a freedom! My freedom”. Not until he
asked his friends for the cost of the party several days later could he know
that his friends already paid for the party and director Phuong gave tip
envelopes to the singers. He was at a nonplus:
Mrs. Phuong did pay… I thought
she invited her acquaintances to join for more fun.
My friend clapped me on the shoulder
as he smiled:
- What a writer! It’s now a
market economy. They’re singers, even second –class, not cicadas just living on
night frosts.
He unexpectedly got involved in the
debt. How could he pay the debt? Despite that, the debt became bigger when he
was invited to join in a tour to Ao Vua (King’s Pond), Toc stream (hair stream)
held and paid by her company’s trade union. And many others.
He thought as he was walking:
“ it was told to be quite free for love affairs, but now she started asking for
trouble with a proper marriage”. He saw the furious expressions on the female
director’s face just as he came in. She was at her desk not at the
sofa as before and she did not bother inviting him to take a seat. He
reluctantly dragged the chair and sat down face to face, waiting for her to
speak first:
- Why did you invite her to
live without any reporting ?
The question seemed to have been
prepared, so watertight that it made him feel a bit awkward:
- I’m going to have a
small party and invite some ladies in your office to come, share my joy and
report at the same time in a few days.
- But what’s the relationship
between you?
He became a bit aggressive:
- Of course, she’s my
wife, not an adulterous relationship.
- Being your wife, there must
be a wedding, mustn’t it?
- If several trays of banquet food offered to my
wife’s ancestry in her family are considered as a wedding, it was already done.
- Has Marriage Registration procedure been
done?
- No yet, the marrige law
forbids only married people from living with others as a married
life.
He straightly looked into her eyes
as he was speaking, forcing the eyes glittering in less anger, but not yet
accepted to unblock him:
- But you submitted renting for
only you.
- My submission mentions
renting only but for one or two.
He felt regretful right after he
spoke, he editted in hurry:
- Despite all that, it’s my
inperfections. I should have reported to you before.
Indeed, the peace policy was always
the most effective one, the female director started speaking softly:
- Pleas sympathize, it’s the
guest house, so complicated with guests and the police always keep an eye on
it. If the busines isn’t smoothly done, all will go bankcrupt.
-Yes, indeed, I see…
- So don’t forget the registration of her provisional
stay.
Walking out of the room. He breathed
a sigh of relief: “ Luckily, the debt hasn’t been so big and signed in the
record notebook”. His wife asked on his arrival:
- What’s the matter with you?
- Well, she criticized me for not reporting on your presence here.
- Indeed, you should have reported before you took me
here.
- Alright, it’s done.
Actually, he just wanted to reply:
“what the hell is indeed?. It’s
all from owls”. He ever wanted to tell everything to his wife but
what was it for and was it really necessary?. Moreover, there happened nothing
serious. Only one thing he had not understood was why barn owls sounded for
mating festivals so plaintively and dolefully.
Everything seemed not to go smoothly, his wife always complained:
- Every time I saw her, I greeted her first but she
didn’t reply and kept glowering
at me. Why’s it so?.
His wife kept calling the female
director Mrs because she was just nearly ten years older than her daughter. He swept it under the carpet
with humourous voice:
- Just a flighty woman having not the heart for those things at all. All
the same for a widow from her young age or the ones in her staus.
- What’s the status?
- A motorbke accident has left her husband paralysed
on bed for nearly three months, now he managed to drag himself with a walking
stick, but his wife still has to support holding… for peeing.
His wife pursed her lips:
- So old as you’re but you’re
still unable to abstain
from yourself from it, so you have no reasons to speak ill of women.
- Who spoke ill of? Maybe
only Buddha did as he advised the human beings to repress all desires.
Though he said so, he hurriedly
looked for renting house. He knew for certain that Mrs. Phuong would not easily
unblock him even though he was innocent. There would be nothing called “ live
here …as long as you want ” any longer. There was enough trouble for only him,
let alone being burdened with a young wife. He hastily looked for a house to
buy for a few months. With his limited money amount, someone suggested him some
living places surrounded with only drug addicted guys, places of illegal
land or transgressed land, others introduced him to buy houses in dispute
or requested to return to the pagoda..etc. Finally, he could find a house in a
village near the suburbs suitable with his money, cars could be easily driven
to but problem with trading documents only, his wife was also pleased with it.
He was in inspired mood, he dropped into his aquaintance’s nearby and showed
off that he would be a neibour of his soon. Unexpectedly, it was a saddish man,
he immediately sold the information of the house to another buyer to get some
commission. He became more and more impatient as Tet had about two months to
come, in addition, his wife still suffered from grudge looks with a little
slight. He himself, each time saw her, had to be humble to greet her first.
Despite hundreds times of first
greetings, that nearly fifty energetic woman undergoing menopause would not set
him free, either. Besides many things affectionate towards him, she had belief
in him, confided in him whatever, even having to support her husband with
hoding for peeing, which seemed to confess her sins to him: “My husband’s so magnanimous,
generous and never deceitful .. but I’m disloyal to him”, as if in front of the
high altar: “ My God! I’m still craving for commiting sins”. That woman took
out the album and showed him about ten different photos of her in swimming
costumes taken on the beach last summer, all showed off her avalaible and inviting
breasts and thighs, then asked him: “Do you find me thinner now?”. Truthfully,
in his heart, it was untrue that he did not want to commit sins with her, on
contrary he strongly did desire for it much more, beacause he lived in
separation from his wife for four years, nothing related with women, but he was
timid and afraid of being lost, therefore he just flattered: “just same, but
you aren’t photogenic, the photos look older than you”. The woman jested: “I
like practical, not flattery words”. Then in one evening uncertainly between
summer and autumn, it was over 10 pm when he was rewriting a short story that
had just been finished writing, there suddenly appeared a human shade
alternately ahead of the window. He rushed to open the door to see who it was.
In front of his face, there stood a woman with white miniskirts dress with
green dots, just like fox hair, under a little bit cold moonlight,
making him astonished as if he were living
in Lieu Trai story (A chinese ghost story), in the frost garden and the moon
post. But it was not a fox ghost turning into a fairy after having trained with
gems elaborately, it was director Phuong who was going to leave.
- Oh, Mrs. Phuong, why was you
leaving?
- I work night shift today,
patrolling and seeing your light’s still on, just pass by to
see.
- Oh, no, arrived already,
please come in.
The male guy inside him rose up,
making him definitely bolder, one hand held her arm, the other pushed her in. It
seemed that there was an electric current transferred into his hand, then
spreading all over his body. He found himself desiring to commit sins with the
woman. But in the nick of time when he intended to turn her back
around and hold her tight, there were noises of flapping wings almost near the
roof and barn owls’ plaintive soundings outside in the sky. He was startled.
The woman hurriedly sat down on the chair, courteously closed the thighs,
gentlely pulled the skirts for cover and asked him:
- It’s a bad omen, isn’t it?
- No, It’s the call for lovers. One thing with
this kind of bird, their call sounds so plaintive and doleful.
- The god torments them. Please
continue your business, I have to leave.
- Let’s have some tea, I’ll
make it.
- Oh no, thanks. Tea at night
will make it hard to sleep
He just wanted to add more:
“especially when the peachy wine cup has been accidentally spilled out”, then
amazedly stood by the door and kept looking at. In the moonlight,
barn owls sounded for lovers plaintively now and then. And he turned off the
light and went to bed, dazed with it the whole night, he could not understood
and defined what had just happened as if it were a real Lieu Trai story. That
fox ghost that already disappeared would appear alternatively again as it did
tomorrow, wouldn’t it?. What a fool I was to believed in good and bad omens
which I understood clearly it was just the desiring sounds for mating festival.
Looking for a house was stil nothing
effecitve. Land price gradually went up, he felt like a cat on hot bricks, his
wife was, too. She was a sparrow sometimes seeing a falcon fly over. He worried
and shared with a friend of his, who paid for the last party.
- Don’t worry. I have just
asked and found you one place, on the large road. A husband and a
wife is living there for free. They finish building their own three storey
house in 2 weeks, they will return the accommodation. The house owner promised
to let you live there for some three year for free.
- In case, they won’t finish
building, Tet is coming in only nearly two months.
- Move to my production
workshop temperarily. There’s a 8 square meter room there with cement roofing,
a little bit hot but it’s winter now.
As far as he assumed, two days
before solar Tet, an administration staff sent him an official dispatch to
inform the return of the accommodation as the expiry date on the 31st Dec
and all the amount of electricity and pure water service must be paid. It was
signed by director Phuong underneath.
- What’s the paper?
He gave the dispatch to his wife:
- See it.
After having seen it, she asked:
- How can we manage now?
He smiled:
- Don’t worry. I’ll take
you with like a cat with a mouse.
At night, on bed, his wife asked:
You said it was a storeroom before,
wasn’t it?
- Yep, I had to hire several
labours to make it like this.
She continued after a moment:
- It seems that she’s
jealous of me, or anything with you and her before…?
- Nothing.
- Ulm, It’s so strange. I
always feel that if I weren’t present here, there would happen nothing.. Is it
right?
- It’s right… but not for all
as you thought.
And he told her everything, even the
confession: “but I’m disloyal with him!”. His wife interrupted:
- You didn’t understand wha she
said it, did you?
- I did, I’m not a clergyman.
But listen to me first.
He continued with that moonlight
night, barn olws’s soundings interrupted all.
- Then just sitting with each
other?
- She decided to leave though I
offered making tea.
- Oh my, at a late night, she
was in her miniskirts to have tea with you, wasn’t she?
- Just an intention of
salvage.
He stopped talking, intentionally
turned his body to sleep. His wife turned him back to continue:
- Any other similar night?
- Another evening, at
about 9 pm, rainy, uncertainly , it was the lasting rain in the seventh lunar
month. She was also in her miniskirt dress of ripe plum color, its cloth mixed
with brocade looked so nice. She said she came to present me a pack of
cigarettes as a gift from a conference she attended…
- What else then? No barn owls’
soundings this time?
- No, because it seemed that
their mating festival season was just over.
His wife let out a strong sigh.
- Why sigh?
- I’m thinking of women’s life, the
underprivileged. Unlike men, It’s said that women are just like a stick of a
beggar.. To tell the truth, If it were me, I would do the same, already
dismissed you away for a long time somehow.
-You thought I didn’t have any
desire so easily. Human being all the same.
- Why didn’t you…? Even if it
had happed, I’m not jealous… we’re both women, so much pitiful!
- I was afraid I couldn’t have
you.
- How good you are at
flattering! You didn’t know me at that time to say have or have not.
-It’s not a flattery. I thought of a
woman like you since I had seen the woman bringing rice to her husband in
temporary detention.. and the other thing is just like the mating festival
season of barn owls.
Then he continued telling about the
woman whose husband in temporary detention and what he really thought at that
time.
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