2. The smell of fish sauce and Pho, filled the air, and you could hear giggling
from the neighborhood of Ly-tu tang, Vietnam . Two boys, Bao and Tien were
playing hide in seek in front of Tien’s house. Tien and Bao were both 9. They
had no brothers or sisters. They were like brothers themselves. Tien usually
wore baggy clothes. Everyday he would greet Bao with a white tank-top, brown
shorts and no shoes. Bao would greet Tien in a pair of Brown pants, white
tank-top and a pair of slippers. It was already night time when they stopped
playing. Tien and Bao were called inside their homes for dinner. Bao and Tien
were eating Bon-u-blak (as usual). Surprisingly They never got tired of that
dish! After dinner Tien took a shower and headed upstairs, into his room. His
mother came in an hour later, running up with tears in her eyes. He knew
something was wrong, very wrong. His mother spoke in a cracked voice
“Honey, I have bad news.” “... A few minutes ago Bao and his family went out
to buy something in the market, General Binh (a communist general) saw
them and ordered some soldiers to shoot... .” Instantly Tien broke into tears,
his nose went bright red, as countless tears dripped from his eyes. Soon
enough Tien’s father came in the room and hugged them both and said “I
know... its hard Tien, but he will live in your heart, just stay strong, the war is
starting and this won’t be the biggest problem we have.” 20 minutes later
Tien’s parents left after Tien cried himself to sleep. His mother was still crying
but Tien’s dad held her hand as they left.
The next day Tien heard a sweet call from his mother to eat lunch. Tien
could not believe that he had slept until noon! He walked downstairs, and was
shocked when he saw his Grandfather. He hadn't seen his Grandfather in 4
years. He was very excited and immediately hugged his Grandfather. At last,
he could smile after all that crying. He said “Grandpa, I missed you!.” His
Grandfather smiled and replied “Yes, I came with hope that I could cheer you
up, so far its working.” Tien’s smile went into a frown. “Oh so you hear-ed, I’m
trying to forget about Bao”. Tien’s Grandpa nodded and went to help Tien’s
mother carry lunch. They were eating Pho today, it’s a very traditional noodle
dish in Vietnam. Tien was eating like mad, until he finished half of his Pho.
Tears started to appear and nobody noticed execpt for his Grandfather. Tien’s
Grandfather patted his back and whispered “Hey, you know General Binh is
terrible. He has a power that is obviously... very powerful. A bullet shot by
some soldiers is nothing to him, even if it might take someone’s life away,
because of his power many people are scared of him, honestly everyone here
is. We are very fortunate we are not killed. Aren’t we?.” Tien nodded and
finished his Pho, he delivered his dirty plates into the sink then went up stairs
to his room. He was exhausted from all the crying so he went to bed. It was
actually hard for him. See, his room had no ceiling. And it was about 1:00 pm
when the sun shines brightly. After an hour you could finally see Tien’s eyes
shut completely.
Tien woke up again at 7:00 pm. He went down to the kitchen and turned on
his radio. His radio was orange and red. It had the channel knob on the left
and the speaker on the right. He turned the knob to channel 8, the news
channel. He heard General Binh’s voice... “Communism should be all over
vietnam. Everyone should eat ,live and breath the same. Why shouldn’t people
be the same?, we are right and will stay right!”. This made Tien furious, his
3. face became red and his hands turned into fists. He immediately grabbed a
piece of paper and a pen, and wrote “ General Binh you are wrong!” He ran out
into his neighbour hood and yelled “ GENERAL BINH YOU ARE WRONG,
GENERAL BINH YOU ARE WRONG!.” One by one the doors of the neighbours
flew open and people started coming out. Then Tien’s mum came running out
screaming saying” TIEN MY BOY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING! DO YOU WANT TO
DIE? STOP THIS PROTEST IMMEDIATELY!” Tien asked “Why mother? I shall go
against General Binh and stop his silly commands.” Tien’s mother replied “No
son, you see you are a boy, the world to me, but just another body for General
Binh and his army. You shall never do this again, you are risking your life.” Tien
nodded and ran. Ran straight for his room. His room is like a place he can do
whatever. He smothered his face in his pillow and screamed his anger out.
After, he looked around his room, and then something caught his eye. It
was Bao’s hat. He was supposed to return it to him today. He picked it up and
remembered all the good times they had together. He went back in his bed,
looking at the stars with his eyes almost about to let a tear drop down his
cheek, but he just kept on remembering the good times over and over again.
There was a smile slowly appearing on his face again, until he heard
screaming and heavy footsteps. He saw this plane, not a regular one though.
Suddenly the plane left and all that was remaining was a speck. A small speck.
He watched it. Every second it grew bigger. When it was big enough for Tien to
see what it was, Tien tried to run he made it to the door and down the stairs to
his family. But they were to late. The speck was a bomb. It blew their house up
and turned them into ashes. That was the bomb that ended their lives. They
were gone...gone for good.
