Lie!

(Baonghean) -LWhen you grow up, you will understand what should and shouldn't be done, what is right and what is wrong. Finally, you will know what motherly love is like and understand that nothing can change or shake it...

Maternal love. Illustration photo

Today we had fun, didn't we, baby girl?

We went into the zoo. Here are the monkeys eating bananas and food thrown by the tourists. There are the peacocks with their colorful, shiny dresses, walking proudly and somewhat arrogantly. There is the elephant being fed by the zookeeper. The child said, “Isn’t it as big as your house, Mom?” and stared at its curved trunk, refusing to look away.

Then my mother took me to buy books. I was about to enter first grade, but I had already started to spell. I remember clearly the feeling of being given a book when I was little. It was a fairy tale, about a couple who, for some reason, had to be separated, and when the husband returned, the wife had turned into a lotus flower. I was very sad when I read that story, and I will always remember the image of a lotus flower drawn on the last page of the book. I love stories and books. And I know how happy you were today when you held them in your hands.

At the end of the day, we were resting at a cafe. When I saw the maid holding the baby in her arms, diligently feeding him milk spoon by spoon, I commented: “She looks like the baby’s mother, doesn’t she?” Then the woman got a phone call. On the other end of the line was her young child, who seemed to be in the countryside with his grandmother. When I asked her what she was doing, the woman paused for a moment, her eyes filled with tears, then she answered me: “I’m doing the laundry.” At that moment, I turned to my mother and asked, “Why did she lie? Why didn’t she say she was feeding the baby milk instead of doing the laundry?”

I couldn’t answer you in detail at that moment, my little girl. In your mind, lying is not a good thing, it’s not right, and clearly that mother was lying to her child. But my child, a 5-year-old child like you doesn’t understand the twists and turns of life. That woman had to leave her young child at home to go to the city to make a living, and ironically, the job she had to do was to take care of another child. Believe me, she loves her child as much as I love you, and also wants to take her child to the park, the zoo, or buy books, like we did today. But she can’t do that. And her lie was only to avoid hurting her child back home. A child with its immature mind will more easily accept that its mother is doing the laundry than that it is taking care of another child.

My dear daughter, as you grow up you will understand what is right and what is wrong, what is right and what is wrong. Finally you will know what a mother’s love is like and understand that nothing can change or shake it.

Is today a happy day? I love you so much…

Quynh An