Following is part 2 of chapter 6 "Đôi guốc của cô Hà" (Miss Hà’s high-heeled shoes) from the children novel "Open the window, eyes closed" by Nguyen Ngoc Thuan presented in both English and Vietnamese only published on Tuoitrenews:
The English translation is provided by Tre publishing house.
We hope you would have an enjoyable experience reading this lovely piece of writing.
|
She rolled her eyes and gazed at me, “So you notice my shoes, do you?”
I nodded. “I liked seeing you in those blue shoes. They made you look so tall on the platform.” She nodded with pleasure. “Thank you. But they were getting too old.” “That’s OK”, I said. “They still looked great. My mother keeps wearing old sandals. My father told her to throw them away but my mother won’t do it. She said she’s used to them, and that’s why they’re the most beautiful shoes in the world to her.” “So what did your father tell her?” she asked. “My father gave up”, I said. “He said my mother was too stubborn. But I know he was just kidding. He never really meant it. Dad would often call Mom little honey. That sounded too weird to me. Mom was too huge for a name like that. And still Dad kept calling her honey, my little honey...” The following day Miss Hà wore the blue pair of shoes. When she saw me she rolled her eyes, as if to say ‘Keep it secret!’ It was something only between her and me. I was so happy, I never knew Miss Hâ trusted me so much. I knew she wore those shoes for me. During the break I ran to her and said, “You look just great!” She smiled and blushed. She said, “Thank you for letting me know the blue shoes make me look great!” A month passed and I saw her on the teachers’ platform in the red shoes again. She shrugged when she saw me looking at her. It turned out that one of the blue shoes’ heels had been broken, and if she’d worn them, she would have walked in an unbalanced way. She said, “They were too old. They couldn’t even be repaired.” I felt for her. “No problem,” I said. “You look great on the red shoes too. I won’t look at your shoes any more - I’ll just look at your face. Because your face isn’t getting old, and it’s not going to get a broken heel.” She smiled very happily. “You’re the one who knows me best”, she said. “When you know a person’s pairs of shoes, you know that person too. You know why she loves the blue and doesn’t love the red.” “Ah I see!” I exclaimed. “You love that pair of blue shoes because you love me.” From then on I stopped taking any notice of which high-heeled shoes Miss Hâ wore. I’d have loved her even if she’d been bare-foot. Mom said when the Teacher’s Day arrived she would give her a pair of blue shoes as a present. So I waited and waited for that day. How long those endless days of waiting were! |
Cô xòe to con mắt nhìn tôi:
- Bố em chịu thua mẹ. Bố em nói, mẹ cứng đầu lắm! Nhưng em biết bố đùa, bố không bao giờ nói mẹ cứng đầu. Có hôm em còn nghe bố nói mẹ là cục cưng. Em thắt cười lắm. Mẹ to như vậy mà bảo là cục cưng. Vậy mà bố vẫn cứ nói cục cưng, cục cưng...
Cô cười trông vui lắm, nói:
Và tôi chờ đợi, lâu lắm... Lâu quá trời lâu! |
Rememeber to visit Tuoitrenews to follow the next chapter: Leave something in the classroom before you go home
The other day something happened that puzzled all of us in my class. Nobody noticed it at first, but then it became obvious - Tí was arriving in the classroom very early. This was especially weird because he was never a particularly hard-working student. And yet he wasn’t even calling round for me to go with him to school any more. This repeated itself a couple of times and I decided I would get up early and follow him and see what was going on. What was he up to? I didn’t know yet. All I knew was that he was heading for school much earlier than necessary.
Print
