Short story by Ho Anh Thai: Waiting for the earthquake

Just two months ago, he was struck down by a stroke. Yes, a stroke. He was standing inside the house when he suddenly felt a little dizzy, lightheaded, and unsteady. He fainted. When he opened his eyes, he found himself lying on the floor.

Now he was feeling that sensation again. A little dizzy, a little unsteady, a little spinning. His head swayed slightly, as if signaling an imminent fall. It was coming again. He briefly thought, he needed to lessen the impact of the fall. He quickly lowered his head, hastily resting his forehead on the computer keyboard. He made sure that if he fainted, it would only be a head slump onto the computer, not a fall to the floor.

But he didn't faint. Instead, he heard his colleagues commotion and then they started pushing and shoving, running out of the office. Someone shouted something that sounded like "Run! Run!" They rushed out into the hallway. A fire or an explosion. So it wasn't another stroke. So he hadn't fainted. It was just an immediate choice: run or not run. His colleagues had already run like ducks.

They scrambled down the emergency exits. No one dared run into the elevator anymore. The twelfth floor to the ground floor was over two hundred steps – no small feat. But the mass escape swept people along, the overwhelming panic pushing them forward; no one thought about their aching knees or numb legs. He ran past a girl crouching down, clutching at her red shoe that had just slipped off her foot. At this point, what use were shoes or sandals? Then he caught a glimpse of a man carrying a woman down the remaining few dozen steps. It was like a couple carrying their spouses, dropping them at a ford. Here, a man was carrying a woman. They must be newlyweds to be carrying each other like that. Or maybe they were boyfriend and girlfriend; after this chaotic escape, that carrying might lead to them getting married.

So it was an earthquake. He'd been to countries where earthquakes happened every day. In the Middle East. In an island nation in Southeast Asia. Don't panic at the mention of an earthquake every day; the country is vast. Yesterday there was one in the East, today another in the West, tomorrow in the North, the day after in the South—thousands of weak earthquakes before one strong one. Over there, they build high-rise buildings with steel frames. They erect a steel frame, forming a complete skyscraper in the sky, with steel beams and columns. Finally, within that steel frame, they install the walls. They build with such meticulous care, unlike in our country where people often skimp on materials or use substandard materials from neighboring countries. Just a few moderate tremors and you'll see the truth.

Illustrations by: Vu Thuy

Over there, there are thousands of weak tremors for every one strong one. Usually, it's just a gentle tremor, like dizziness. The time he fainted from a cerebral ischemia, in the moments before he fell, he thought it was like that time in the Middle East, where there was an earthquake every day. Shaking, swaying, rocking. Gentle for a few seconds, then it stopped. He thought it was an earthquake, but it turned out to be a cerebral ischemia.

Now, what we thought was a stroke has turned out to be an earthquake.

The office workers rushed downstairs, then swarmed out in front of the buildings. They were all excited, as if they'd escaped death. Laughter and chatter filled the air like popcorn popping. The young people were jumping and stretching their legs, having just barely managed to move across dozens of floors. The damage would be that their muscles would ache for days from the strenuous activity. The worst affected was the woman in the red shoes; one of her designer shoes, worth tens of millions, now had a broken heel. She slumped down on the sidewalk, one hand carrying the shoes, the other clutching the broken heel, resentful of the sudden earthquake that had caused such severe damage to her alone. Why did our city have an earthquake? No. This earthquake was in the mountains. True to the butterfly effect, the epicenter was in the middle of the mountains, yet the tall buildings here were shaking.

Even a small earthquake in the mountains affected our city. And don't think that Hanoi, the capital, is earthquake-free. It's located right on the Red River fault zone, which has historically experienced earthquakes and shows signs of renewed activity in modern times. That's the assertion of my friend, a geologist. He warned of the danger in articles and scientific papers decades ago. His papers weren't published. His submissions to authorities were met with silence. Talking about geology is fine, but adding a warning is like sitting next to the driver and loudly recounting a traffic accident. Yet, the geologist remains persistent and tireless, always and everywhere talking about the Red River fault zone. For many, a cerebral ischemia is just an earthquake; for others, an earthquake is just a cerebral ischemia.

***

He went on a business trip to a neighboring island nation in the South Pacific. He happened to arrive in a province that still applied religious law. Even without official government laws, criminals could be tried right there in the neighborhood or village. For example, if someone stole a neighbor's goat, a people's court would be set up right there in the neighborhood or village, and they would be judged according to religious law. Thirty lashes. The theft wasn't punishable by amputation of hands like in some Middle Eastern countries, but thirty lashes were enough to leave them crawling on the ground.

He was working with the local import-export corporation when he learned that there was a trial at the city stadium that afternoon. A young couple was caught red-handed when the woman sneaked into the man's room. The moral police, acting on a tip, stormed in, broke down the door, and apprehended them. The man and woman were unmarried, but the problem was they weren't married. According to the sacred scriptures, the crime of adultery should be punished with fifty lashes each. The punishment would be public, the lashes public, in a place where everyone could see, as a warning.

The public can come and watch. Foreigners can come and watch. It's just like going to a stadium to watch a football match. He expressed his desire to go. The corporate representative happily agreed to take him. She was still looking for places to visit to fill the gap in his schedule.

The foreign affairs officer arranged for him to sit in Stand A. In the middle of the stadium, a wooden platform was erected, resembling a small stage. The two culprits and the punisher would appear on that small stage. The punishment would take place on that small stage. Ten thousand people in all four stands would see it. Clearly.

The crowd sitting around occasionally shouted slogans and beat drums deafeningly. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Typical football cheering. But unlike football cheering, they were also allowed into the stadium with banners and signs promoting traditional morality. Boom, boom. Chastity is virtue. Boom, boom. Chastity for marriage. Boom, boom. Adultery is hell. Slogans raised high. Slogans shouted. Drums pounded loudly. The faces of those shouting were beaming with joy. Faces burning with lust, shouting today, but tomorrow they might be arrested and dragged onto that small stage. Their positions could be swapped. Never mind, as long as they weren't arrested, they weren't guilty; as long as they weren't arrested, they had the right to beat drums, shout slogans, and watch the revelry.

But he wasn't allowed to see the incriminating evidence. Long after the scheduled time, the trial still hadn't begun.

Over thirty minutes.

Forty minutes.

One hour.

One hour and twenty-three minutes.

At 1:23 AM, the stadium's loudspeaker system relayed information from the city's radio station. The disaster forecasting agency issued an urgent announcement: an earthquake was likely to occur in the city area, predicted to be over 7 on the Richter scale. The announcement also advised people to stay away from tall buildings, beaches, and lakes, to seek shelter in parks and open spaces, and to monitor news updates via radio and mobile phone applications.

Suddenly, the people in the stands scrambled down onto the pitch. Being residents of an earthquake-prone region, no one had more experience in earthquake preparedness than them. Not a soul remained in the stands. If the earthquake were above seven on the Richter scale, the stands could collapse. The safest place was the pitch itself, a large, open space with no roof. They sat and stood crowded together on the pitch, chatting and waiting. Waiting for an earthquake.

The foreign affairs officer, of course, led him down to the courtyard, near the small stage where the trial and flogging were supposed to take place. They gazed up at the empty stage like subjects gazing at an empty throne, hoping a wise ruler would ascend and sit there. Waiting. The mischievous boys jumped onto the stage and performed a farcical play about the flogging of the guilty. Two young men knelt down, pretending to be a couple caught in the act. A muscular, bearded man played the punisher, wielding an imaginary whip, lashing it down the backs of the two wailing victims.

"That's exactly the flogging scene, sir," the woman in charge of external relations said. She was narrating to describe the scene unfolding on stage in more detail. Two men and women were brought onto the wooden floor. They were wearing loose, baggy clothes, like prison uniforms. White. Prison uniforms weren't supposed to be white, but the clothes of prisoners being flogging were always white. No one knew the true intentions of the person who decided the prisoner's uniform had to be white, but one thing was certain: after the flogging, the back of the prisoner's uniform would be soaked with blood. Blood splattered all over the white fabric. Twenty lashes or more were enough to knock them unconscious. They walked onto the wooden floor on their own two feet, but had to be carried down on a stretcher. An ambulance with flashing red lights awaited them, ready to take them to the hospital.

The religious court. The ward or district chief would announce the reason and deliver a sermon on religious morality. A law enforcement officer would then question the two offenders about their crimes, quoting passages from sacred texts regarding the punishment of adultery. Finally, it was the butcher's turn. "Butcher" was just a title; he didn't actually wield a butcher's knife. Instead, he used a rattan whip—not a large rattan stick, but small strands braided together in the shape of a girl's pigtail. These flexible strands, twisted together, would tighten around the flesh, tearing at the skin before snapping, pulling away chunks of flesh. Each chunk of flesh, like a chopstick, would cling to the cloth garment. After the beating, the garment stained with dried flesh would be sent to the offenders, a reminder of their suffering for life.

The punishment didn't come. The violent earthquake hadn't arrived either. Only occasionally did the ground tremble slightly. It felt like the dizziness of a neurotic. Shaking. Swaying. Gently, but no one could ask the heavens whether those gentle tremors were the prelude to a cataclysmic event. The foreign affairs officer recounted that fourteen years ago, a tsunami swept through the city. An offshore earthquake triggered the tsunami. The sea rushed in, carrying away twenty thousand sleeping people. In the museum of the double disaster, there's still a round-faced wall clock from someone's house. The hour and minute hands stopped at four thirty-four in the morning. Precisely at that moment when the tsunami hit the city, the clock stopped. He instinctively glanced at his watch. Seventeen forty-one. To put it bluntly, if anything happened at this moment, people might find the watch on his wrist stopped at that exact time.

The earthquake hadn't arrived yet. It could come at any moment. The fans stopped beating drums and shouting slogans. The harsh afternoon sun slanted from the west, forcing them to use banners to shield their heads. Chastity is virtue. Chastity for marriage. Adultery is hell. Cover everything. Put it on your head. At least it provided some relief from the intense sun. They had thrown themselves into a race to call their relatives. Access earthquake forecast websites. The foreign affairs officer had managed to call her family, and they had also run to the large square nearby. Reaching the open space offered some temporary reassurance.

Standing became boring, then sitting. Then lying down. Occasionally, the loudspeaker would update warnings and advisories. Since it's a forecast, nothing is certain. If the station predicts a storm, it will rain; if it predicts sunshine, nothing is certain yet. Experience in a country where earthquakes occur daily can make people complacent, but when a warning is given, they consciously take precautions. In the evening, the authorities sent trucks carrying food to the evacuation points. The walkways around the stadium became food distribution points. Each person received a loaf of bread and a bottle of water. He received a portion. When it was the turn of the foreign affairs officer, the bread was gone, and they were told to come back later. The two of them shared one loaf of bread, half a loaf each, even jokingly philosophizing that half a loaf of bread is half the truth. Each person got half the truth. The original text: half a loaf of bread is bread, but half the truth is not the truth. Her family, including the foreign affairs officer, sent a message saying that at the evacuation square, people were bringing out gas stoves and pots and pans to cook for themselves, with smoke and flames everywhere. In this stadium, the isolation meant people could only stand, sit, or lie down. After eating, they would lie down again. They were scattered like fish in the vast open space. The foreign affairs officer then recounted the tsunami fourteen years ago, how the sea rushed ashore in a flash and then receded just as quickly, and people were collecting bodies and arranging them in the temple courtyard, also scattered like fish in this vast space.

He thought to himself that the Red River fault zone hadn't become active again, and if he were to speak carelessly, one day the earth dragon would stir up trouble, and there wouldn't even be an empty space like this to arrange fish. Urban land is gold. No wards or districts have any vacant land left. Any empty space that appears is quickly filled with high-rise buildings by those with hawk-like eyes. Apartment complexes are built densely packed with dozens of stories, with not a single large park or open space inside or outside. Even if you ran from the thirtieth floor down to the street, there wouldn't be a single open space to temporarily escape an earthquake. Not a single open space. Running in any direction, you'd find high-rise buildings collapsing on your head.

He sat waiting in the stadium all night. Or rather, he lay down waiting. The external relations officer, exhausted, lay down beside him. She and he, both working in the corporation's external relations department and seeking new business partners, had never before found themselves sleeping outdoors like this. It was truly a case of using the sky as a canopy and the ground as a mattress. During the night, the ground seemed to shake occasionally, but the shaking wasn't enough to cause panic among those lying and sitting.

In the morning, the lockdown order was lifted. A cool breeze swept across the stadium, bringing a refreshing feeling and dispelling the lingering anxiety. People poured out of the stands as if they had just watched a night's football match, cheerful and joyful. Those carrying large and small drums began beating them as if their team had just won. Banners were scattered all over the field. During the night, these banners and posters had been used as makeshift mats to lie on.

He signed a memorandum of understanding to continue cooperation. The business trip was considered a success. But at the same time, there was a feeling of incompleteness. People say this island nation has two specialties: one is the public flogging of criminals with rattan canes in front of the people, and the other is earthquakes. Coming here without seeing those two things firsthand is like not having come at all.

He had only nearly witnessed both of those things. Just a little bit more. It either whizzed past him, or he brushed past it.

Writer Ho Anh Thai