“There’s a new person. Tonight, I won’t be able to sleep alone.” The woman in hospital clothes, lying on the bed placed against the wall, quickly sat up and moved aside so the nurse could help Ms. Kan Min down from the stretcher.

The hospital room was less than 20 square meters but had five beds. Kan Min’s mother was the 10th patient in the room. The ceiling fan whirred overhead but could not dispel the stifling heat and the distinct smell of the hospital. The smell of antiseptic mixed with the thick smell of sweat.

O Chao's village is nestled at the foot of the Truong Son mountain range. O Chao rarely goes to town. This is the first time he has gone to the city.

Kan Min's mother did not like her daughter following her friends to the city to work, even though there was no job in the village that could make money.

“People down there are not good. If you go back to the city, you will not be lucky enough to return to the village like me,” Kan Min’s mother told her daughter. When she was young, she was tricked and sold across the border, but was fortunately rescued by the border guards. The first time she left her village to work in the city left a horrifying memory in the heart of the mother from the highlands. The city was a scary place for her.

This season in the city is as hot as a hot pan, O Chao still likes to roast salt and chili in the kitchen corner of the stilt house. In the village it is also sunny, but the sunlight slant through the green leaves, so the sunlight carries the fresh scent of plants and grass. The wind coming from the mountain has the scent of flowers and leaves, of the night dew. O Chao likes to inhale the clear scent of the mountains, hills, and fields, as if the rain and sun blend with the earth and sky to create a pure flavor that can only be found in the mountains. And here, the smell of people, the smell of food, and so many strange smells that O Chao cannot name, make her restless.

A long day at the hospital. O Chao sat in the hallway, watching the sunlight at the door move silently, but the noise was like a swarm of bees that had just broken their nest.

“Everyone, please speak more quietly. It’s hot and noisy. Anyone with a caregiver card, please wear it. Anyone without a card, please go downstairs,” the nurse’s voice boomed.

O Chao took the card from his pocket and hung it around his neck. He leaned against the wall, listening to the sudden thunder in the afternoon. This season, there were often thunderstorms in the afternoon. I wonder if it was raining in the village. Did O Ri and O Man remember to dry the bamboo shoots this morning? Did they have time to bring them in and store them during the afternoon thunderstorm?

Alone at home, the two younger siblings did not know if they listened to their older sister's warning not to go to the stream to catch fish in the afternoon. In the mountains, thunderstorms often bring thunder and lightning. The villagers who go to the fields are often afraid of lightning. Every year, buffaloes and cows in the village are killed by lightning. When O Chao was 9 years old, O Chao's father was also taken by lightning on his way home from the fields. The house was already empty because there was nothing of value, and the absence of a man made it even more empty...

***

When they first entered the room, everyone saw O Chao walking empty-handed, not carrying any bags or baskets like everyone else, so everyone asked.

A few days ago, Kan Min's mother had a stomachache. When she was taken to the town hospital, the doctor suspected that her mother had acute pancreatitis and had to be transferred to the emergency room. Having left in a hurry that night, O Chao did not have time to bring anything except some money tied tightly in her pocket.

When she went to buy food, O Chao stopped by the cart selling clothes in front of the hospital gate. The clothes were colorful and beautiful, but each set cost as much as dozens of kilos of rice or bags of corn on the kitchen floor. She had to save the money in her pocket to buy food and medicine, so she had to wear the same old clothes.

In the afternoon, O Chao met the nurse to ask for more patient clothes. She planned to change into those loose clothes to sleep in the evening. She would wash the clothes she was wearing and hang them in a windy corner of the hallway, they would definitely be dry by tomorrow morning.

As soon as I got back to my room, an aunt called O Chao and stuffed a bundle of clothes into my hands. “I’ll give you some clothes. The bathroom is at the end of the hallway, very crowded in the afternoon and evening. But if you shower late at night, it will be less crowded, so you won’t have to wait long. There are also disposable paper underwear inside.”

In the village, O Chao's family was used to eating only two meals a day. But here, people did not think it was right.

“Eat a lot, you will have the strength to take care of your sick mother. How old are you this year? Fourteen? Then you have to eat a lot to grow taller.” A girl gave O Chao a lunch box. “My husband bought it, but I’m sick of the smell of rice. Please help me eat it. Otherwise it will spoil.” O Chao knew that those loving words were not true. I once heard her call her husband and tell him to stop by the intersection near their house to buy two more buns after buying porridge. But that night, she offered O Chao both buns, saying that her husband bought too much and couldn’t finish them.

The hospital room was still noisy, the voices were still harsh and unpleasant, in a small space with 10 patients and sometimes more than 10 caregivers. But O Chao no longer felt shy and lost when facing new people. O Chao realized that the people here were no different from the people in his village. There were also people who often frowned and complained, and there were also people who were kind and warm.

O Chao was the youngest caregiver. Everyone shared something with her, sometimes a box of porridge, a loaf of bread, a meal ticket, sometimes a few oranges or bananas. Everyone's care and concern for her was as sweet as the dew drops falling overnight on the mulberry leaves, as gentle as the moonlight covering the high mountain slopes.

***

Kan Min's mother got car sick so Uncle Vai drove back from the village on a motorbike to pick them both up. O Chao told Uncle Vai to stop by the house to pick up a few bundles of chopsticks that I had whittled and were still standing on the stove, not yet ready to take to the market to sell. The day before, O Chao heard an aunt tell him that she was looking to buy bamboo chopsticks. The kind of chopsticks whittled from old bamboo like her father used to whittle. Nowadays, chopsticks sold in the market are all coated with a layer of oil, and then coated with a layer of yellow paint. Soaking overnight, the water in the basin also turns yellow, but the pungent smell from the oil on the chopsticks still doesn't lessen. People complain that using plastic chopsticks is not good for your health, using stainless steel chopsticks is slippery and difficult to pick up food, wooden and bamboo chopsticks are all treated with chemicals to prevent termites. O Chao just realized that it's hard to find a pair of chopsticks that you like in the city.

“These are chopsticks that I whittled at home. I chose very old bamboo and soaked it in the stream for many months, then hung it over the stove so that the smoke would make the bamboo shiny, create grain, and prevent mold and termites without using chemicals, so it was very safe, and it wouldn’t slip when picking up food.” O Chao took each bundle of chopsticks from Uncle Vai’s backpack and gave each person in the room a bundle.

“You sharpened it? Do you sell it? I want to buy more.”

"With these chopsticks, you can pick up food without missing a beat."

Everyone exclaimed in admiration at the smooth, shiny, and sturdy chopsticks that O Chao made. Everyone pulled O Chao's hand to thank him and eagerly placed orders. Seeing that everyone was delighted with the gift he gave, O Chao felt happy too.

O Chao happily held the piece of paper where everyone wrote down their information so that she could send the goods along with the promise to introduce more customers to O Chao, making her heart as happy as blooming flowers. In the coming nights, by the fire in the stilt house, O Chao would stay up later to work. Thinking about buying new clothes for her two younger siblings, and even books with the money she was about to earn, made O Chao excited.

O Chao left the hospital, carrying with her the kind words of encouragement from everyone in the room. The sun was still harsh above her head, but in her heart, O Chao was no longer worried or scared like the night she followed Kan Min's mother in the ambulance back to town. O Chao folded a few envelopes and placed them neatly in the bag on her shoulder. That was the money her aunts had given her, telling her to buy a lot of food to nourish her mother. The bag felt light but heavy with the affection from those she had met for the first time, making her eyes sting.

The city sun is still harsh but in my heart is a gentle cool green patch.

Le Ha