It was early evening. The sun had almost gone down already. To the west there was only a small yellowish glow in the sky. It was the end of autumn, and the weather was chilly. Cold dry winds seemed to blow constantly, and when they stopped blowing people heard the sounds of ocean waves lapping the shore like a long sigh. The ocean was sad and lonely because the exciting days of summer were over.
Near the ocean, there was a river running through the rice fields that was also lonely. Its surface looked dark purple in the twilight. A raised dike bordering the rice fields separated the sky and the water with a straight line. Along the line appeared the shadow of a man walking wearily. His silhouette looked like a scribbled question mark.
The man walking wearily at twilight was Tran Xuan Vop. He had just finished fishing in the river and was now on his way home. As he walked, Vop’s thoughts turned to griping about his fate: Why do humans suffer? Why is my life so miserable? When Vop had returned home from his military service years earlier, his wife’s thirst had been like a desert during a quick, heavy rain. Their five children were born one right after another: Ha, Ngao, Gion, So, and Vang. Vop gave them these names because they were all girls and the names seemed to match the sound of his own. Vop sweated and toiled tirelessly in the rice fields, dug up clams, hunted crabs, and cast fishing nets, but he still was unable to put enough food on the table for seven people. His children quacked like wild ducks. In fact, they were an entire family of wild ducks—one mother duck and five ducklings. Vop couldn’t bear all the complaints, the nagging, the derisive comments about him being a worthless man because he failed to provide for his family. Sometimes he felt like giving up completely, but he knew this was impossible. He couldn’t take his own life by jumping in the river. If I died, he said to himself, all of you would be homeless.
As he walked along the rice paddy dike, Vop all of a sudden looked down at the river. Its water was black—it resembled thick black jelly. He thought the water was very mysterious and must contain thousands of deaths. When he looked toward the mouth of the river, near where it ran out to the ocean, he noticed a floating object. It looked like a giant sea crab bobbing in the water. The crab was dead. Vop rubbed his eyes. No—it wasn’t a crab, he could see now in the opaque twilight, it was a small covered bamboo boat, floating along the surface of the water. It looked empty. It was probably someone’s boat that had not been secured properly. In less than an hour, the current would drag the boat out to sea and it would be lost forever.
Vop ran along the dike, toward the mouth of the river, until he was standing directly across from the boat. Well, I should swim out there and bring it to shore so that the owner can come collect it tomorrow, and maybe he’ll even give me a little money, Vop thought, jumping into action immediately. He took off his clothes, rolled them into a bundle, and hid the bundle under a bush on the side of the dike. Wearing only his underwear, he ran toward the river. But after a few steps he stopped. It’s so dark out now, and nobody’s around, he thought, removing his underwear. Besides, this type of fabric is easily ruined by seawater. He ran back to the bush and hid his underwear with the rest of his clothes, then returned to the river and jumped in.
Vop shuddered as his body touched the cold water. No big deal! he said to himself. Nothing is easy, certainly not earning money …
He was familiar with the river water and so swam quickly and easily over to the boat. But once he touched the oars, he paused all of a sudden and plunged down into the water.
It looks like someone is inside the boat. I’ve got to be careful, or they’ll think I’m a thief. Maybe I should just go back before they see me. Actually, it seems like there’s more than one person in there.
Vop held the side of the boat and craned his neck to look inside. In the dim light shining over the front of the bow he could make out two naked bodies in an intimate embrace. His ears were full of water, so he shook his head to get the water out. He could hear their loud breathing, their moaning, and the occasional shriek that reminded him of cats during mating season.
The couple in the boat were unaware of the third person watching them. The woman sat on the man’s belly. Vop could see her full, round breasts swinging back and forth as if the breasts were dancing, and her long hair was untied. Suddenly his own body began to get hot and hard. Vop leaned in closer and continued to watch.
The woman was like a maniac. She placed her hands on the man’s chest and moved her body back and forth like a carpenter smoothing wood with a hand planer. When the woman arched her back, Vop recognized who she was—a woman who lived in his neighborhood.
Your eyes are always wet and you’re
