500WordStories

NHỊP CẦU THẾ GIỚI

Global Citizens - Vietnamese PerspectiveCông dân thế giới - Bản sắc Việt Nam

HappinessA Splash of

I was resting on the couch, clutching Lays. There was a bang on the door that made me jump. I opened it, I saw a girl, her makeup was smudged, she wiped it carelessly with her shirt. “Jane..” I couldn’t hear it because of the blocking of the hiccups that occurred. Jane is a girly name, my parents wanted me to be a true lady. But it turned out different, I’m a strong girl, who hated boys. Seeing my best friend crying over a boy? It upsets me. “Come on, he hates you.” I realised I just hurt her. “ You can’t think of another word? You’re so...!” Su stopped from there. Unexpectedly, Su dragged my messy look outside. I hated the fact people were staring at my appearance judgely. I covered my face and jammed into a guy. In the mov-ie, it should be a handsome guy, but it was a chub-chub who was eating Mac’Cheese. Then someone stood me up, I looked up, I hesitated, I froze. My tummy butterflied when he sauntered away, left a naive Jane. Back home, I tried to convince myself that falling in love would be really painful. I refreshed my mind by checking Facebook, I saw messages from Su asking where have I been, I knew she’d understand so I told her why I acted so awkwardly. She didn’t reply. The day after, I met him again on the street. Is this a setup? I started to think. He came close when I was still figuring out the answer. With a deadly seductive voice, he said, “Want to hang out?.” I felt like a kid who dropped candies then got a balloon from a man, this time it was a good-looking man with azure blue eyes. I agreed without thinking, but right after I got home, I started to suspect. Why did I attract him? I asked Su. Once again, she irritated me. It was the first night I looked posh. My hair was dyed blonde, the dress I wore was my mum’s. In the meal, I tried to be a lady, ordering salad and juice, then a cocktail. I couldn’t move an inch, it was so fake. He stroked my hair, but I knew this stroke wasn’t meant for me. That’s the only touch he made, while he questioned those meaningless wonders, I couldn’t say anything. I saw a moving bush and two black hoops crept through those leaves. I moved closer to the bush, then snatched those two loops, I saw the lovely Su was stalking me. I was vexed, all of the dating was just a setup, then I cooled down because she was trying to cheer me up. When I turned back, he had left me a confusing heart. I sat back down, took a sip of cocktail, I cried quietly inside. Su tapped on my back, I could feel a little rain had dropped. Sometimes, happiness is like a wind, only passed by then left us with chills and goodbyes.

By: Cao Dang Phuong Minh

1

Alaskan WolvesBy: Nguyen Duc Anh

They kept coming. Even though there were hundreds of us, the men could easily over-power us with a finger at a trigger. The fight went on forever. Some trees were even on fire now! Cries and howls of pain, the snow just a moment ago, so strikingly white and pure, now red with blood. The flames, the sound, even the sick scent of blood reminded me of the day that we had lost the King forever. For a moment, I trailed off into the flow of time…

It was a moonless night; our pack was heading into the woods to hunt and stock food for the upcoming winter. It was just so long since we’d gone to do some night hunting like this that we let down our guard. I remembered that time when I wasn’t quite a wolf, as mother had put it- a grown cub. I sank my fangs onto the snow and took in the scent of the ground around me. There was an attack like this just a few minutes later, and al-though it was a huge fight, we managed to scare the men off. We lost our king, though, and it was never the same again. I let out a slight whimper as a knife missed me by only inches. We all fell silent because his presence was so strong. It sent an immediate wave of uneasy feelings to the men. The birds began to sing again. The men began to fall to the ground, and nobody knew why, not that we were to question it, anyway. All the animals of the woods bowed down.

The king had returned.

It was a freezing night in Alaska. Pine trees were smothered by banks of snow. The sky, which was rosy under the sun minutes ago, had turned pitch black. There were no animals out there hunting now, not even the nastiest lion. It was sim-ply too cold. The icy air was like an invisible knife, cutting into the flesh of whichever creature that dared to challenge it. Even from underneath my thick fur, I began to shiver. I quickened my pace as I was struggling to keep up with the whole pack. This day, last year, my brother, the great leader of the Alaskan Wolves had been found missing. We were head-ing to the place that we last saw him. Not knowing we had

stopped, I slammed into an elder. My mother raised a hand, a signal that there might be an attack. I held my breath; my ears raised high, wide alerted. Then, a light flared, setting the whole place ablaze with flame. Men! Lots of them! I bared my fangs and lashed out at a newcomer. What was it they wanted from us? Then I saw it. We have something that they’d never have in a hundred years. It seemed like, in this cold Alaska, even with those flames and convenience, the men were defeated by the cold.

They were trying to steal our fur.

32

Tôi được sinh ra và lớn lên trong tình yêu thương, bao bọc của gia đình dành cho cô con gái út. Mọi người rất cưng chiều tôi nhưng người tôi luôn một mực yêu quý, kính trọng vẫn là Mẹ. Mẹ lo cho tôi từng bữa ăn, giấc ngủ. Có những lần tôi ốm nặng, Mẹ lúc nào cũng ân cần chăm sóc tôi. Nửa đêm Mẹ vẫn dậy pha thuốc cho tôi uống. Trong lúc tôi mơ màng ngủ, tôi có cảm giác ai đó đặt lên đôi má nóng bừng của tôi một nụ hôn và cầu chúc cho tôi chóng khỏi bệnh. Dù công việc bận rộn cả ngày nhưng ban đêm Mẹ cũng chẳng nghỉ ngơi. Những tối đó Mẹ đều thức trắng để trông tôi ngủ, đến nỗi chẳng mấy chốc, khuôn mặt trái xoan, diễm lệ của Mẹ đã gầy gò, xanh xao, đôi mắt bồ câu của Mẹ thâm quầng trông không còn sức sống.

Vậy mà đã bao lần tôi làm Mẹ buồn, Mẹ khóc, tôi ân hận lắm. Thế mà Mẹ cũng chẳng giận tôi lâu. Mẹ dạy cho tôi biết lẽ phải trái. Đối với tôi, Mẹ không chỉ là một người mẹ đảm đang, cần cù mà còn là một người thầy, người bạn luôn bên cạnh tôi và cũng vì thế, tính cách của tôi được hình thành bởi sự rèn dũa của Mẹ.

Cứ thế, tuồi thơ của tôi được cất lên bởi những cánh diều no gió bên ruộng lúa nước, bởi trò chơi đuổi bắt, trốn tìm rất đỗi quen thuộc của miền quê Hà Tây. Quê hương tôi còn có những dòng sông uốn lượn, trông đẹp tựa những dải lụa thướt tha, duyên dáng, có những tia nắng ấm áp tinh nghịch chạy nhảy nô đùa với mọi người, có những bụi tre hay những cây đa, cây đề cao lớn che râm cho người qua đường. Nơi đó còn có những đàn cò trắng muốt dang cánh giữa bầu trời xanh. Tôi còn nhớ mỗi buổi chiều tàn, tôi cùng mấy đứa bạn chạy lên đồi chơi, từ đó nhìn xuống, xóm làng thật đẹp. Xa xa, những thửa ruộng xanh rì như những tấm thảm, những ngôi nhà thì nhỏ nhắn, xinh xinh, còn dòng sông quanh làng trông như vừa được dát một màu vàng nhạt của hoàng hôn. Thật là thích mắt! Từ đó nhìn xuống cũng có thể thấy được làn khói mờ mờ từ từ toả ra khắp bếp mọi nhà.

Tuổi thơ của tôi chỉ cỏn vẹn thế thôi, nhưng nó lại in dấu trong lòng tôi những kỷ niệm khó phai mờ. Mong cho những kỷ niệm đó sẽ luôn sát cánh bên tôi những lúc tôi buồn vui trong tương lai...

By: Dang Nha Truc

수수께끼가 하나 있어요. 어떤 종류의 사람이 있는데 한번 맞추어 보세요. “난

의사이기도 하고 선생님이기도 합니다. 나한테는 내가 아주 사랑하는 사람들이

있어요. 난 그들이 아플 땐 심장이 찢어지는 거 같고, 차라리 내가 아프면 좋겠

다고 생각합니다.” 이 수수께끼는 아주 쉬우면서도 어렵습니다. 어떤 사람은 금

방 알 수 있지만, 또 다른 사람들은 ‘이 사람’을 모를 것입니다.

‘이 사람’이 누구냐고요? 이 사람은 바로 ‘엄마’입니다.

엄마란 그런 존재입니다. 우리가 아프면 엄마는 의사가 되지요. 우린 때때로 그

런 엄마에게 투정을 부리기도 하지만 우리가 엄마를 싫어하게 되는 건 아니에

요. 엄마와 우리의 사이는 ‘모성애’로 아주 끈끈하게 이어져 있어요. 아마도 어

떤 사람은 엄마의 존재를 모르고 살고 있을 거예요. 하지만 그 어떤 사람들은

절대로 엄마의 존재를 잊으면 안 돼요. 생각해 보세요. 학교나 직장에 다녀왔

을 때 우릴 맞아주는 사람이 누구이고 우리와 함께 이야기해주는 사람은 누구

인지 그걸 생각하면 아마 엄마가 다르게 느껴질 거에요. 아마도 몇몇 어른 중

엔 엄마에게 “사랑해요.” 한마디 못하신 분이 많을 것 같아요. 그런 어른들은

제 글을 읽고 꼭 엄마에게 사랑한다고 말해주시면 좋겠어요. 만약 엄마에게 미

안한 일이 있다면 엄마에게 말하세요. “엄마, 다음 생엔 엄마가 제 딸로 태어났

으면 좋겠어요. ”

MUM By: Park So Jung

54

Friday, the 13th was never a good day! I called it: “The day I lost my hair forever!” Since Friday the 13th was my 13th

birthday, my family decided to go out and celebrate this unfamil-iar occasion. My dad searched on the Internet for some great restaurants. In China, everything goes wrong. Even the smallest thing could be the worst. And I could prove it by saying that my dad picked a Chinese restaurant. That could be the worst ideas; I have to eat Chinese food everyday. From breakfast to lunch and from lunch to dinner, and even from dinner to mid-night dishes that my family created to increase my weight! I was shocked when they gave me mid-night dishes when I was confused to fit my new clothes. I have black eyes and curly black hair.

I walked with my smile turning upside down! I hurdled on the car and there goes a trifling squeeze. Everyone was in it already. After a while, we arrived just in time for the discount. My dad familiarised me with a picturesque restaurant with large letters that said: “Golden Dragon”. The letters were written in bright yellow and it was decorated with beautiful drawings. I walked in, clutching my mother’s hand and we all stopped in front of a Chinese woman. The Chinese woman led us to a table with superior dishes and plates and it was laid out charmingly. There was some Dim Sum on our table. We all sat down and enjoyed the meal. This could be the first and the last time I’d enjoyed a Chinese meal. As time went, it was time for me to blow out the candles. I was really excited and imagined what the cake would look like and how delicious it could be. To my surprise, a Chinese girl, about my age marched out of the kitchen holding a plate with one little fortune cookie. On top of the cookie was a small candle which was already lighted up. All of a sudden, the lights of the whole restaurant went off. My family raised their voices and among everyone else in the restaurant, they sang happy birthday to me. I was ecstatic although the one fortune cookie, which the chef replaced it from a birth-day cake, still hurt me a lot! When the song had finished, all of the lights were lighted up again. But the fact is no one was there in the restaurant let alone me.

I can feel the way that my heart had bumped faster. I held the fortune cookie up on my hand and slowly pulled the small piece of paper inside the cookie and slowly read: “Poor you, you will have to cut your hair till there is not a single mane on your head. If you refuse to do it, your beloved family will be trapped inside hell.” I threw the paper away and thought; maybe I’ll have to change the curly to the baldy style!

Fortune Cookie

By: Pham Gia Khanh

I woke up in a dark can full of trash and cat poop. I never knew what that was called. So I just call it dark can that contains poop and banana peels. I got used to these things, being thrown into a dark can is just a normal. No one in the whole world wanted me. I can give you epidemic diseases. Like measles or chicken pox, you know, normal dis-eases. I grew up in a garden. The owner once tried a science experiment and injected some of his chemicals into my family. We became quite special until his niece ate my uncle and got measles . However, I’ve got over it once I met a guy. He was quite nice very polite and his name was Raw! People used to make fun of him because of his name. We met at a restaurant in Chicago, I knew that he would be the fruit of my life. But that didn’t end so well. He was a stupid creepy looking banana. I honestly thought he was a banana clown from New Orleans. I came to him and said, “Hey!” he didn’t reply. I was thinking that he was one of those mad bananas. Then he hesitated a little and said, “Hi, I’m Raw! You must be one of those poisonous potatoes”. I laughed and felt offended at the same time. After that we started talking, I was shocked that he had feelings. I thought he felt quite isolated. Raw told me about his childhood and having to live with a name that reflects uncooked things. Must be hard living on that side of the road! He was abandoned and lived in a hostile condition. I’m not surprised he was abandoned, I mean look at him, big teeth, long nose, girl’s hair I can make a list! But after a few days of talking to him and getting to know who he was, I started to like the dude. I don’t know if he felt the same way but I liked him. I started to feel a heartwarming light in my potato guts, I knew it was love. Ew! The next day was the most horrible day of my life, seeing the dude that I had fallen in love with get eaten to death by some kids with Elvis hair. They need to get themselves checked! Me and Raw were just bouncing on a trampoline on the street. We were having so much fun. Then, some rude kids somehow got in. They looked like they just got out of a steamy fight. I’m not kidding their bodies were smoking like grilled pineapples. He grabbed Raw with his barbeque sauce stained hand and peeled him. I was traumatised by his actions. Raw was screaming as he put Raw in his mouth. I covered my face and tried to imagine this was just a dream. After a minute, Raw was eaten. I forced myself to have a nervous breakdown. After that day, I can’t love anymore.

Tasty LoveBy: Nguyen Phuong Nhung

76

BANG! It was the sound of a gun. Brooklyn Rusty’s mother and father collapsed to the ground. The thieves ran out of the house in a blink of an eye. The only person now living in this house was Brooklyn. His mother and father, two amazing people, were now dead! Brooklyn was already 15, not young but watching his parent’s death made him feel like he couldn’t do anything like a young child. If anyone knows about my parent’s deaths then I will be sent to the orphanage or my aunt’s house, thought Brooklyn. He was sad because

1) The orphanage is terrible2) Living with his cool and funny aunt is not like living with his parents.

There are only 2 options for him now that his parents are dead. Or, maybe, 3 options… The third option is for him to run away and live in a house and use his parent’s money and live alone from now on. That could work, but he should do it now. In his mind now, he could imagine himself in a small house, finding a job and making money. It feels lonely but that will do, it is better than living in the orphanage or with his aunt. He could imagine himself, 10 years later, almost getting married, buying a new house without his parents there to watch him grow. A drop of tear fell down his cheek, men shouldn’t cry, it is feminine but Brooklyn just couldn’t help it. He kept on imagining years and years until the last minutes of his life, still alone without his parents. Brooklyn’s last thoughts before his death was about his parents and now, he is going to meet them in heaven and slowly, he soon died peacefully in his happy dreams and thoughts.

‘Full Stop ends a sentence like thoughts end everything’. That was Brooklyn’s last sen-tence in his story about him dreaming about all of those thoughts, but it was just dreams, not reality, everything he had just wrote was beyond the imagination of any young child’s dream but Brooklyn was not that child. He thought about his writings and that story coming true, but that will never happen or will it???? Even if it happens, he won’t want his parents dead by a bunch of thieves, or him sneaking out and buying a house then getting married and then dying. It is just sad and lonely his thoughts, they were blue and so was Brooklyn. However, he will be happy one day right?????

The Journey through the

Mind and Thoughts of

Brooklyn Rusty By: Tran Gia Linh

“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the funniest of them all” Wouldn’t it be funny if the mirror asked himself that? Well it wouldn’t obviously because that just happened and did you laugh, no. Oh well I’m just a pathetic mirror who lives as a slave all his life... but wait, why is there the phrase ‘All his life’, I wasn’t just born in a factory where they make poor quality glass. A bit of story wouldn’t hurt, would it. I remember entering ‘La Smartas Persan On Eartha’. I studied all night as to hold up my name of the smartest person in town. Then the day come, even babies can do the test, however the result was shock- ing, I came second place, the guy in first place was the guy who created the test and got everything right, I checked back over my test, I can’t believe I got wrong the one where they ask the meaning of life, I demonstrated it so clearly but all they marked for me was ‘There’s no meaning, weirdo’. After going so far and I almost making it, I’ve failed to succeed. On the way home, a woman come up to me, she asked-“Hello there young boy, you look stress out, what happened” she said softly-“I lost a competition, how miserable is that!” I explained loudly-“I’ve got just the thing for you, how about 3 days at the villa ‘La Fab’ with free spa to yourself, I promise you’ll have the time of your life” her voice was so sweet and convinc-ing. I know Mama said not to take stranger’s stuff but I’m definitely smart enough to handle it. The next day I followed the address in the coupon and arrived at what seemed to be a castle. There, I met the cutest baby ever, her lips red as a rose, hair black as ebony, and skin white as snow. I’ve sure got the time of my life until I thought to myself, why don’t I pay the jacuzzi a try. The smell of lavender, the smell of roses, the smell of chicken already roasted, soon I fell asleep, and as soon as I knew it, they trapped me in a cage. It wasn’t a normal cage this one was covered with mirrors every side I then heard an announcement through the glass, “Sorry for doing this, don’t worry, you won’t get hurt we put fusion potion and Anti-Pain-be-Gain potion in the jacuzzi. In return I’ll give you the power of immortality” I then shouted “But why me, why did you choose me!” The voice returned “You’re the one who owned the name of smartest person in town, that’s all you need to know.” I never remember what happened next but the next thing I knew was answering dumb questions like ‘Am I pretty’ or ‘Who is the most beautiful woman in town’ I wish I’d never met the woman in the first place!

The MirrorBy: Phan Ba Anh

98

The Civil War“Have you heard from your husband yet?” my mother whispered to her best friend, Ka-binwa.“No, what if something terrible happened to him?!” she answered softly.“Please quiet down, children. All this noise is giving me a headache!” our mother requested. The kids, who earlier were certainly noisy, stood perfectly still, hanging onto her very words. “We’re really sorry, mother.” my eldest brother spoke up. Then, they definitely played to-gether a lot more sensibly. Until they finally stopped making silly noises, I too realised that they were being a pain in the neck. My name is Nabica, and my mother is Masuri. I thought, What a lovely night! The moon was full, and up high. It shone brightly. Such a magnificent sight! I could now hear the peacefulness outside once more. People were danc-ing, singing joyfully. They were laughing merrily. I was, too. Delighted from the inside of my heart. Suddenly, there was a sound of an explosion, then, we felt a small shake in the ground. As a consequence, from the far side of the town, there came something blazing in the peaceful night. A fire! A fire was spreading across the whole village! Those cheery sounds I heard before now were nothing but cries of panic, along with shouts of alarm. The moon was covered by smoke from the fire. It was a terrifying scene to watch. Without being warned, the second bomb hit the ground. This time, it hit our house. All those homesteads, and it hit OUR home! The ceiling collapsed onto our heads, and that was the last thing I remembered before I lost consciousness. I woke up in utter darkness. I gazed around, looking for my family. I heard a voice. A fairly weak one perhaps. At that moment, I recognised the sound. It was MY MOTHER! “Please, Kabinwa! Stay with us! Please!” she begged. After that, there was a mo-ment of dead air. I guessed Kabinwa had passed away. Blindly, I dragged myself to my moth-er. We escaped from the ruins of our house. At the same time, we heard a cough coming from the inside of the house’s breakdown. We ran to the spot and pulled out one of my brothers, Kajun. He peeked at the sky and shouted “Oh no! The troops are coming! We must run, fast!”. We headed south, towards safe haven. By the time we were there, a few of them were in our way, so we avoided them by going around them. One spotted us right before we reached the place! “Run! Leave this place!” he stayed to buy us some time while telling us to carry on running. He sacrificed himself for us! But why? So we finally got to safe ha-ven- my mother and I- and all the people that didn’t make it through that fateful night will always live in our hearts. We are and will never be separated.

By: Pham Thi Dieu Linh

10

�is year 40 students in Years 6 and 7 chose to get involved in a 500 word story competi-tion to fuel their creativity and imagination. Each story was read by a panel of judges and the ten best young writers were selected for this book. We hope you enjoy reading it.