Soul of the land

(Baonghean) - On New Year's Eve, Trung village's communal house is brightly lit by electric lights. Only on Tet and village festivals do people add a few more light bulbs to make it brighter. On normal days, they use oil lamps or candles. Trung village's communal house is very sacred. Anyone who is virtuous or encounters any misfortune, if they come to the communal house to pray, will be blessed...

Van stepped into the village gate as the sacred New Year's Eve moment approached. Many people gathered at the village temple to burn incense to commemorate the merits of the village's tutelary god, pray for a new year of peace and prosperity, then ask for fire to bring home, light lamps or candles on the altar for good luck. This custom has existed in the village for a long time. Van used to follow his grandfather and father to ask for fire, now Van goes to ask for fire for his own family.

Illustration: HT

The greetings and New Year wishes filled the courtyard of the communal house. Van walked into the communal house, before he could light the incense, he stopped when he saw Mr. Bach also praying to the village guardian spirit with a reverent expression. On the altar was a package of some kind, probably from Mr. Bach. What package was it? Van tried to guess what it was but couldn't. Van retreated to a dark corner to observe, after praying, Mr. Bach took three bills worth one hundred thousand dong and put them in the donation box. It was true that overseas Vietnamese were different, the donation was three hundred thousand, while the villagers only gave five thousand or ten thousand. Mr. Bach walked out, not forgetting to hold the package wrapped in red cloth. Waiting for Mr. Bach to leave the communal house, Van went back to the altar, placed offerings including a plate of sticky rice, a bunch of bananas, a bottle of wine and ten thousand dong. Van lit incense, praying to the village guardian spirit to bless him, his wife and children with good health, to survive disasters, to have a prosperous business, and to rebuild his house. Before leaving, Van, like everyone else, did not forget to ask for fire to light the village. Van took a match, lit the oil lamp on the altar, then lit his torch. Van hurried home. Van's wife had prepared the New Year's Eve offering tray. Van lit the torch on the candle, lit incense and prayed to his ancestors. The incense burned very well, Van was very happy, hoping that this year his family would have much luck and fortune. After the New Year's Eve offering, Van whispered to his wife:

- This year, on New Year's Eve, Mr. Bach also went to the village temple to burn incense. When he came back, he brought a big red cloth bag!

- Really? The wife was equally surprised.

The couple talked about Mr. Bach's red cloth package and blamed him for being stingy. When they heard that he had returned from America and was currently staying at Mr. Hai's house, the head of the family, Van and his wife and their children came to visit. Despite being their nephews, Mr. Bach only gave them a package of candy and a piece of cloth to make clothes for his two children.

- A gold nugget! - Van's wife suddenly exclaimed as if she was digging in the garden and suddenly found gold.

- Gold? Where? - Van looked at his wife with wide eyes.

Van's wife told her husband that they heard that in the past, Mr. Bach worked for the landlord Hao. One time, Mr. Hao complained about losing his gold, so he beat Mr. Bach's neck until his butt was swollen. He couldn't find the gold, so he chased Mr. Bach away. At that time, everyone thought that Mr. Bach was wronged. In the early days, Mr. Bach lived at the village temple, ate offerings, and slept under the banyan tree at night. During those days, Van's mother-in-law was assigned the responsibility of sweeping the temple yard, and Van's wife followed her mother to sweep the banyan leaves, so she saw Mr. Bach eating sticky rice under the banyan tree. It turned out that during those days, Mr. Bach endured a humiliating life to find a way to bury the stolen gold in the temple grounds. After that, Mr. Bach disappeared from the village for decades. Now, he had the chance to return to his hometown as an overseas Vietnamese. Mr. Bach dug up the gold and prayed to the village god to let him take it away?!

Hearing his wife, Van said, that's right, Mr. Bach had buried the gold in the village temple, if he wanted to take it away, he had to make a ceremony to ask the village god for permission, no wonder Mr. Bach donated three hundred thousand; he must have carved some gold to sell so he had money to visit the lonely elderly people in the village, and also donated ten million dong to the commune's education promotion fund! But Van and his wife, who were supposed to be his cousins, had not received a single penny from Mr. Bach? Van's wife discussed with her husband, finding a way to steal Mr. Bach's gold, only then could they escape poverty, raise their heads, and raise their faces in front of the villagers. Van listened to his wife's discussion and immediately agreed, if that gold was sold, they would have billions in their hands, not a small amount. Van and his wife would build the biggest house in the village, with an iron gate, a barbed wire fence; the house would be furnished with all foreign goods, from televisions, refrigerators, air conditioners, bathtubs, motorbikes, and raise a German Shepherd to guard the house.

Every morning, Van and his wife and children would ride their motorbikes to the market to eat pho or porridge with pork and blood pudding, instead of eating boiled sweet potatoes or cold rice like now! Then, Van would also buy a racket to occasionally go to the district town to play tennis to show that they were upper class! Van's wife thought about the prospect of going to the city, going to a beauty salon, improving her appearance, her nose would be lifted, and her flat chest would also be lifted to become as plump as a twenty-year-old girl's chest. She had worked hard all her life, now that she had money, she should know how to enjoy it! The idea of ​​stealing the gold bar was highly agreed upon by Van and his wife, dozens of options were proposed, and finally, Van and his wife agreed on the option of finding a rock, wrapping it in a red cloth, and swapping it for Mr. Bach's gold bar on the morning of the first day of Tet.

On the morning of the first day of Tet, Van and his wife woke up earlier than usual to prepare the offering and then went to the head of the family's house. The head of the family was surprised to see Van and his wife and children come to burn incense at the ancestral temple and wish their family a happy new year earlier than usual. Van said that as descendants, on the death anniversary of their ancestors and on Tet, they must burn incense for their ancestors first, only then will their ancestors bless them. The head of the family smiled and said that if everyone thought like Van and his wife, the Dao family would soon be prosperous.

Following her husband's instructions, while everyone, including Mr. Bach, was having a good time, Van's wife carried her two-year-old daughter out into the yard, stomped hard on her foot, making the baby cry loudly. Mr. Bach and everyone else rushed out to get candy and lucky money, and finally calmed the baby down. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Van opened the cupboard, rummaged through Mr. Bach's travel bag, and stole the gold package, hiding it in his shirt pocket. Everyone went back into the house. Mr. Bach told Van and his wife to sympathize with him, that his health was not good so he could not visit his two children. Van said it was nothing, and besides, as descendants, Van's wife and children had the responsibility to visit him. Mr. Bach asked Van and his wife how their business was, and learned that Van and his wife's house had been severely damaged by the storm and they did not have money to repair it. Mr. Bach walked over to the cupboard, Van's hands and feet were shaking, but fortunately, Mr. Bach only took out his wallet, took out the money and gave it to Van:

- I have five hundred dollars left, I was going to buy gifts to bring back to America but never mind, I'll give it to you and your wife to fix up the house.

Van felt as if he had just escaped a giant mountain that had been crushing him. He thanked Mr. Bach profusely and asked for permission to leave immediately. Afraid that Mr. Bach would discover him and come to his house to search for him, Van took a shovel to the back garden and dug a hole half a meter deep and buried the gold nugget. He even planted a young banana tree to camouflage it.

On the fourth day of Tet, Mr. Bach went to Hanoi and flew back to the US. Van and his wife still did not dare to dig up the gold nugget, afraid that Mr. Bach would go to the airport and find the missing gold and come back to search for it or report it to the police. The next day, the fifth day, Van told his wife to dig up the gold nugget, but his wife said it was an unlucky day, so they waited until the sixth day to dig. Early in the morning of the sixth day, the fog was still covering the ground, Van and his wife took a shovel to the backyard, Van told his wife to keep watch. The weather was cold, but sweat was beading on Van's forehead, not from the heat of muscle movement but from the heat of the gold nugget that was making Van nervous. After digging up the gold nugget, Van and his wife went like ghosts into the room, closed the door, and locked it tightly. Van still peeked out to see if anyone was there. There was no one around, but Van and his wife did not dare to turn on the lights. Van's wife turned on the flashlight. Van trembled as he turned each layer of red cloth, gently, bit by bit, as if archaeologists were turning over a newly unearthed national treasure. Approaching the last layer of cloth, both Van and his wife strained their eyes, their hearts pounding, a drop of sweat from Van's forehead rolled down onto the cloth.

- Open it!

Van's wife no longer had enough patience, urging her husband, Van closed his eyes and pulled the last piece of cloth. Both Van and his wife were shocked to see that the "golden lump" was just a lump of soil? It turned out that although he lived in America, Mr. Bach always remembered his homeland. The village's tutelary god was very sacred, he asked the tutelary god to bring the lump of soil to America, waiting for him to rest in peace, if he could not return to his homeland to be buried, he would have this lump of soil to cover his grave!

Short story by Vu Dam