by Di Li

Released in Vietnamnews

The First Story

He was a third year student and she was a freshman. They were both born in May, under Gemini, two years apart. One Saturday afternoon he rode his bicycle to her school. He stood outside her room with one hand clutching the handle bar of his brand new blue bicycle and the other hand plunged deep in his trouser pocket. She ran towards him in great delight.

"You just bought it, didn't you?"

"Yes! Now I want to treat my future actress to dinner."

He was very proud as he rode her to downtown. All eyes were on her, a beautiful flower sitting behind him. He was in high spirits.

"We'll eat to our heart's content today, won't we? I've got a lot of money today because I just got a job tutoring a little boy."

When they arrived at the market, they talked very glibly about their school, about her friends, and particularly about the boy who had tried to push a mobile phone into her hand. It had made her so confused that she had gone to his class to give it back to him.

In the middle of their conversation, he said:

"You know, all of the camera-operators who graduated from our school are currently unemployed. The film industry has reached the saturation point."

"How dare you say our film industry has landed in quandary. We've joined the WTO, which is very promising, and all the camera-operators are from high-society families, so how can they be unemployed?"

It hurt his feelings to hear her talk like this. He felt hot in the cheeks.

"It's nothing for all these high-born people. The information technology sector needs people with ability."

"How can you say they don't have any ability when you don't even know them?"

"It's not a new revaluation that students from your school rely on their relations to get into school."

"So do you think I'm relying on relationships? How could you be so short-sighted?"

"Yes, I'm short-sighted, that's why I've been following you all these years," he said angrily, while she burst into tears.

"Do you feel bad? From now on, you go your way and I'll go my own way. I regret accepting your love."

"All right. Let's do it. Let me see if you can do anything with those dirt cheap films. You don't think that your beauty and your relations have anything to do with it? Stop thinking like that."

"And for you and your bony programmers, it is no better, you know."

***

He could not sleep that night.

She did not sleep that night either.

Two days later, she realised she should not have been so hard on him.

Three days after that, he realised he should apologise to her, so he went to a public phone to call her up. But on second thought, he dropped the idea and went back to the university boarding house.

Ten years later, she was a famous actress. She got married and had children. She had the successful husband and happy family that so many people dreamt of. Twenty years later, she had won a lot of film awards. An American director who saw her in a film shown on the opening day of the Cannes International Film Festival and invited her to play the lead role in his film.

Forty years later, she was as beautiful as ever, but her hair was dotted with streaks of silver. A newly established private television company made its debut by building an international television bridge on Lunar New Year's Eve. She and her husband were invited to attend the event as honourable guests. The show host's voice echoed over the loud speaker:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, it's 11 am in New York and we are preparing to welcome the dawn of 2040. In front of me are ten successful overseas Vietnamese from the USA. I would like to introduce the first overseas Vietnamese to be selected by Forbes Magazine as one of the most successful CEOs in the USA."

She forgot to bring her glasses, so she could not see the man clearly. The host continued:

"It's known that this gentleman started his career from scratch, so how did this poor student become one of the top executive directors of Silicon Valley?"

The man stood up and politely said:

"Forty years ago, I had my first love. Unfortunately, we had to part with each other. However, for all the years since, whenever I have faced difficulties and challenges, my love for that girl and my self-love has urged me to persevere. I've always followed her progress and I know that she is happy now."

"Oh, I told you. You should have stayed home – at your age you're always affected by such scenes. Please stop crying. He is a stranger and has nothing to do with you," said her husband, confused, as he took a kerchief from his pocket.

The Second Story

They were young mothers and best friends. They had their first babies at the same time, and on Sundays they often sat in the living room and gossiped while their children played in the bedroom. When the children, a boy and a girl, were five years of age, the boy said to the girl:

"My mother said that when we get older, you'll have to marry me, you know."

"Will you have a lot of toys if I marry you?"

"A lot, you'll see. I'll give all of them to you."

"Well lets marry each other now, because tomorrow I have to go to school," the girl said enthusiastically.

"Okay. We'll marry each other now, because I have to go to school tomorrow too."

"I saw some weddings on television. People have to open a bottle of wine that spurts in the air."

The girl had an idea that she would use her mother's perfume and spray it on him and herself. The boy was so excited that he wanted to spray it first. Half an hour later, the mother came into the room and found a huge mess along with an empty bottle of perfume, so she moaned:

"Oh, God! My mother brought it from the Czech Republic." And then she yelled "Who thought up this trick?"

"No, it wasn't me," the girl said, so frightened that she cried as she said it.

The boy turned pale and looked at the girl. In a soft a voice he said "It was me," and then he burst into tears too.

When the boy and girl started first grade they were registered in the same class and they went on learning together until they were 13. But then the boy told the girl,

"My mum told me I have to change schools. So I have something for you," he said as he slipped a hairpin into her hand, a sad look on his face. The girl smiled: "We won't learn together, but we'll still be friends."

And it was true that they saw each other often after that.

The year when both of them entered university, the boy was tall and the girl was beautiful. Their meetings had become less frequent, but they were still friends. Once he went to her school.

"I just bought two tickets for the film Troy with Brad Pitt, will you go with me?"

"Sure. But you have to wait for me to finish my last class," she said with a smile.

The boy waited patiently. He finally saw here leaving school with a group of classmates, including a brown haired student.

"I'm sorry, but I have something else I have to do with my class, so you should ask my mum to go with you because she also likes Brad Pitt a lot."

It was very cold. He quickly took off his overcoat and put over the girl's shoulders. She was smiling happily as she sat on the bicycle behind that brown-haired student.

"I'll invite your mother to go with me, don't worry!"

When they were 25, the girl got married and naturally the boy went to her wedding. It was one of the most luxurious weddings the city had ever seen. He wished her happiness and the girl laughed, and said: "Do you remember that day we were punished when we sprayed that full bottle of perfume thinking it was a a bottle of champagne?" Then she went to the other side of the table to toast her guests.

The boy laughed and then left the party in silence, possibly because of the bad food.

Ten years later, the girl and her husband got divorced. She went to the boy and rested her head on his shoulder, crying her heart out.

"You're the only one who understands me."

"Don't worry. I'll always be by your side."

"I'll marry another man tomorrow just to take revenge on him." All her tears dried up. "So why aren't you married yet? Do you want to go into a monastery?"

The boy just smiled. Five years later, he went to the girl's second wedding. She was now an ambassador. Six months later, he also got married.

They were 65. They both had grand-children, but unfortunately his wife died young. One warm spring day, she suddenly remembered her old friend. She went to visit him on the 36th floor of his condominium. His hair was snow white and he was sitting silently within a man-made garden walled with glass. She said:

"Where are your children? Why are you sitting here alone?"

"They're all at work or school. But what about you?"

She began her story in a soft voice. Actually, she complained about her children and her husband who did not pay any attention to her, about her indifferent friends, about environmental pollution and even about how her legs ached when the weather changed.

Then suddenly she said:

"You and I have been friends all these years. Whenever I need you, you're there immediately. You've always listened to me. Don't you have anything you want to talk about?"

"Oh, I do," the man replied.

"So what?" she opened her eyes wide.

The man was playing with his coffee on the saucer.

"Go ahead, I'm listening!" she said as if she were giving him an order.

"For all these years, I have always wished that you would call me ‘my honey'."

The Third Story

He was one year older than her. It was Lunar New Year's Eve and they danced madly on the floor. Her cheeks were touched with pink because she drank a few sips of Corona. Their friends were also in high spirits when it went black. The DJ said: "Please have a look at the clock. We're only a few seconds away from welcoming in the New Year and entering a new millennium. Count down with me: ten, nine, eight.... five.... two, one...."

The cheers and celebrations blended with the tunes of ABBA's Happy New Year. He embraced her and kissed her hair which was filled with confetti.

"I love you."

"I love you too," she whispered. "For how long?"

"For fifty years. Until we will celebrate our diamond anniversary."

They drunkenly left the dance floor at one o'clock in the morning. He clutched her hand tightly.

"Will you stay with me tonight?"

"My parents will be very angry with me," she said fearfully.

"Can we both bear it?" he said softly.

He hid her behind his solid 20-year-old back. His motorbike raced smoothly through the night. When they reached a large field away from the city centre, he stopped.

"Later, when I become a successful politician, you'll be my first lady."

"Oh, no. I'll be a famous fashion designer," she retorted.

"Okay! You're very intelligent, so you'll be able to do whatever you want."

The night sky was dark, without a star in sight. The only sound that could be heard was their trembling, and quick breaths. Their gentle sounds blended with the wind until the sun rose.

One year later, his father's portrait was printed on the front page of almost every newspaper. Wherever they went, they heard people whispering:

"Heaven has the eye. It's because of the father's corruption that his son led a debauched life. He deserves to be in prison. We'll see if his son will be able to treat his long-legged girls to luxury cars and foreign brandy any more."

He was so unhappy. A few days later, he and his mother moved to another city. He didn't hear anything more from his girlfriend. A short time later, the girl's father also had trouble with his business. Her family had to move many times as well, and with each move their house was smaller and had fewer conveniences and comforts. The girl married a rich man who unfortunately had a lot of bad luck. In the end, she had to work as a normal clerk.

In the winter of 2050, a 50-storey Plaza opened for business. It had a lot of amusement areas, including a tennis court and a swimming pool. In a cafe on the top floor, a fat woman was talking with a little girl. The woman looked carefully at a thin man who walked over to them and said: "Is she your grand daughter?"

"Yes," she replied nonchalantly.

"You know, several decades ago, this place was a waste land. I still have many memories about this place. Years have gone by, and I've been looking for her in vain."

"What was she like?" the woman asked.

The old man pulled a photo out of his pocket. The woman tried to make it look like she were looking for something familiar in the woman's face.

"I've known a lot of women in this city, but not the woman in the photo. Well good-bye, I have to go home now."

The old man saw something fall out of the woman's hand to the ground. He picked it up. It was an identical photo to the one he carried. It was of a young man and a beautiful young girl. He took the lift to the lobby and went straight to the railway station to buy a ticket home.

***

When I finished this story I sent it to a friend, the editor of a magazine. He read it and said:

"It's good. I think this story could help change something in our readers. There is only one thing you need to do: pull the time back by about five decades to make it more logical."

In his opinion, at this time no guy would be so stupid as to wait for half a century to express his love for a woman. If people lost each other, television or the internet would make it easy to find someone. In a word, he thought literature should be realistic and reflect life in a realistic manner.

"This story is simple, quite conforming to my readers' tastes."

Before I closed the door, he said again:

"Remember to pull the time back. Make the corrections quickly so we can publish it in the upcoming issue."

I struggled for an hour before changing the story. In the end, I only added one sentence: "Stories about Time" and clicked the mouse on "save". You can never know if fairy tales about daily life will still exist in forty years.

Translated by Manh Chuong