by Julia Legian
Hanh remained still, no life in her body.
Tu Do moved to an altar in a corner of the room where a painting of Quan Cong hung. He bent over a small stack of yellow papers beside the altar and selected a piece of paper. He chanted while writing some Chinese characters on the page and covered his tongue with the paper. He then took a sharp metal skewer about a size of a pencil and pierced through his face from one side to the other, then he grabbed a small razor and cut his tongue. Phuong and I were shocked and fearful of Tu Do. We ran back to Grandma. She appeared unmoved. One of his followers brought Tu Do a glass of water and he squeezed his tongue and dripped three drops of blood into the glass. He then took the same piece of paper he had placed on his tongue and covered his tongue with it.
He removed the paper and incredibly the tongue seemed to be fine again.
“Oh, my God, did you see that Phuong?” I whispered.
Phuong, who looked like she had just seen a ghost, nodded slowly.
The crowd went wild. The people screamed in disbelief. They turned to each other and looked for confirmation of what had just happened and some were lost for words. Tu Do held up his hand and everyone fell silent while we watched. He walked over to Hanh, opened her mouth and poured the blood tinted water down her throat.
Minutes went by and nothing happened. Then suddenly Hanh stirred and sat up, very much alive. She began to cry hysterically. Grandma managed to calm Hanh down. Hanh looked around in confusion and realised that hundreds of people were staring at her in astonishment. She hugged Grandma tightly and hid her head under Grandma’s arms, hoping for the strangers to go away. It was clear she had no idea what had happened to her and all the strangers around her must have looked very scary to my baby sister.
Tu Do moved back to the altar where he began to pray and chant in his strange language. He then removed the skewer from his face and collapsed into the arms of his men. A short time later Tu Do awoke, oblivious to what had taken place. He didn’t know what had happened in the last half hour. The crowd drifted off.
Tu Do and his wife invited Grandma and Hanh to stay with them until Hanh recovered. Chu Thang, Phuong and I travelled back to Bay Gia to spread the amazing news and also to pass a message to my parents. Hanh had come back to life! Tu Do would visit our home to remove the curse that he said had been placed on the house. He said an evil spirit that had intended to attach itself to Dad had instead latched onto Hanh.
“But why?” Grandma asked.
“Because Hanh stepped on the voodoo doll that was buried at your place, also her star sign was a better match so the demon took to dwelling in this defenceless child body, instead of residing with Inh. If Inh wanted his mystery headaches and pain to go away he must let me come to remove the spirit,” Tu Do replied.
Dad was in a sticky situation. While he didn’t believe in black magic and voodoo he couldn’t deny the fact that Tu Do had brought Hanh back to life, so he reluctantly accepted the offer.
Even though Tu Do appeared to be doing a good thing, Dad was very suspicious of his claims. He went to the Viet Cong authorities and told them about Tu Do’s proposed visit. The Commies did not believe in curses or voodoo either. They had tried to stamp out the practice. They promised Dad they would send soldiers to guard the house so that when Tu Do arrived, they could arrest him and throw him into prison.
Tu Do arrived with Grandma and Hanh. Dad refused to talk to him and stayed well away. Hanh’s cure had been the gossip of the town. An army of strangers flooded in, along with some tough looking Viet Cong soldiers with rifles.
The healer with his four helpers started their ritual, dressed in the same ancient warriors’ clothing as before. His students chanted and Tu Do swayed as they painted his face in red and black stripes, bathed him in boiling water and he walked on hot coals, as he had before.
He walked around the house several times and stopped at the front door, pointing to the ground at the entrance to the house with his sabre. “Dig right here,” he commanded. “This is where we will find it. It will try to escape, so be careful and don’t let it get away.”
His students started to dig carefully with their shovels. A doll, supposedly used to curse Dad, lay buried in the ground. Suddenly it hopped up and jumped over Tu Do’s helpers and disappeared into the crowd. They searched until they found the repulsive thing. One of the men brought it back to Tu Do. He used his lofty sabre and whacked the man on the forehead with an all-powerful force, leaving him with a lump as large as a golf ball. “You are a hopeless lot,” he shouted.
I still have a vivid picture of the doll in my mind. Later in life I called it Chucky the demon after seeing the horror movie called Chucky. Our Chucky was made of candle wax, had dirt clinging to every surface and was covered in sharp needles from head to toe.
Hanh screamed in agony as Tu Do removed the needles from Chucky one by one. There was a strange connection between the doll and my sister. Each time Tu Do pulled out a needle, Hanh would grab the exact same spot on her body and scream as if the needles were being pulled out from her body. When Tu Do had finished removing all the needles, Hanh stopped screaming and lay crying quietly in Grandma’s arms.
Tu Do turned to Dad, who had tried to remain impassive the whole time. Tu Do asked Dad if he wanted to reverse the curse back on the man who had put it on our family. Dad, who appeared somewhat taken aback by what he’d witnessed, shook his head. He told Tu Do he would not want his worst enemy to go through what we had gone through.
Tu Do shrugged. “I have summoned the man who is responsible for all this to come here.”
Minutes later Tuan came running to the house, tears running down his face. He begged Dad for forgiveness. “My good brother, please forgive me. I didn’t mean to bring harm to your family. I was angry with you because you behave as if you were still a wealthy bachelor. You fooled around with my sisters and aunt then treated them like garbage. I couldn’t stand listening to your nonsense, talking about how rich and powerful you used to be. You dressed and acted as if you were a wealthy man.” He told Dad how he had paid a Cham man from Saigon to put the curse on our family to teach Dad a lesson.
Dad was angry. “Tuan, how could you? I thought you were a friend! Get out of my face and don’t let me see you again or I’ll kill you.”
I was confused as to why Tuan said Dad was a wealthy man. I thought Tuan was crazy. I had never seen Dad with any money, even though he always dressed in his favourite expensive purple Western flared pants and a cotton floral shirt. I had no idea how he could afford to buy expensive clothes in the first place. His clothes were worth more than our hut.
Tu Do lit incense while his students chanted, then he dropped to the ground in a deep sleep, once again waking with no memory of the events. The VC soldiers left without a word.
Right after this, Tu Do and Dad became God-brothers. Dad was still doubtful whether Tu Do possessed supernatural abilities. But after this experience he always asked Tu Do for a charm for his fighting cock. Supernatural or not, Dad’s rooster was undefeated champion that year in Bay Gia and surrounding towns.
Tu Do and Grandma today
Chapter 6
I was a restless kid who liked being outdoors, always looking for something to do to keep my mind occupied. I was very resourceful, unlike my older sister Phuong who liked to stay home, study and read books. I was constantly out in the mangrove forest, looking for shellfish to eat and finding plastic bags that I sold to the recycling man for enough money to buy lollies. Neither the distance nor the many dangers deterred me. There were strange creatures and unexploded bombs. Sometimes I got lost and walked around in circles looking for a way out.
I particularly went looking for small, thin pieces of metal with strange letters and numbers written on them in a foreign language. I’d seen a number of kids in the village playing with them and I decided I must have some for myself. I found them exceptionally dazzling. The other kids told me the metal was buried in the ground, deep in the forest. I spent weeks and week
s in the jungle combing through the mud with my hands, looking for them. They weren’t as easy to find as I thought they would be and I was bitterly disappointed. Months later I hit the jackpot and within one week I found a few, some with beautiful chains still intact. I wore them everywhere; they were my latest fashion accessory.
I didn’t know at the time these were dog tags that belonged to dead soldiers. Nobody ever told me that until thirty odd years later when I watched a war documentary and I found out what they really were. Once I realised their significance I felt devastated that I had taken them, but I consoled myself with the thought that I was a child and I didn’t know any better.
One day on the way back from the mangrove forest, I ran into my tough pal Nguyet. I hadn’t seen her since our sorry excuse for a school blew away in the storm. We were so happy to see each other after so long. She wanted to know what I was up to. I told her this and that, and bragged about stealing fruit from strangers’ gardens.
Nguyet laughed and said she knew a place where we could pick fruit and catch fish without stealing. “Remember I told you about the beautiful white sandy beach with two mangrove trees that you can see from your house when the water goes down?” she asked.
“Yes, I’ve wanted to go out there for like forever but Grandma won’t let me. She said it’s too dangerous and that it would take too long to get there and back.”
Nguyet laughed. “People drown all the time. So what? There are tons of delicious juicy mangrove fruits, millions of big fat pipis buried in the sand that taste a trillion times better than those gross cockles you have in your hands. It’s totally worth dying for!”
“Hmmm, sounds yummy. I’ll go with you after I learn how to swim.”
“Chicken,” Nguyet teased. “Meet me at my place tomorrow. I’ll show you the fastest shortcut.”
I didn’t sleep well that night and I was up extra early. Although I hadn’t been there before, I knew where she lived so I ran to Nguyet’s place.
“This is not where your family lives, is it?” I asked.
“Yes, this is my house. Why, is something wrong?”
“But this is someone’s verandah!”
“So? My family have been living here since the day I was born. It’s the only place I know. We don’t have enough money to buy our own place. This place is cheap.”
“How can five people squeeze into this tight spot? I can stretch out my arms and touch the other side. Your parents use fabric as walls! What happens when it’s raining or it gets windy? Wouldn’t the material be flying everywhere? What about the fat mosquitoes? I bet they love it here.”
Nguyet pulled a face. “Stop criticising my home. Here come the boys.”
To my surprise, there were two faces I had not seen before. Nguyet introduced me to the boys. One was Uc who dressed and looked out of whack. Tam however was dressed like Richie Rich who lived on the other side of the river where most of the wealthy people lived. I liked Tam from the moment I saw him. He was a bit chubby but he was cute. Nguyet had a small dragonfly in her hand. “Lift up your shirt and show me your belly,” she said.
“No,” I said. But curiosity got the better of me. “Why?”
“C’mon,” said Nguyet, “we don’t have all day.”
I frowned. “What are you going to do with that ugly thing?” I pointed at the ugly looking green insect, with bulbous eyes and grey, gauzy wings.
Nguyet said if I wanted to swim like a fish I’d better do as she said. I rolled my eyes and didn’t believe a word she said; unfortunately she wasn’t kidding. She was dead serious that I should let the awful thing sting my belly button. “Don’t be stupid. It won’t work. Don’t listen to them,” a little voice in my head said.
“You’ve got nothing to lose - just give it a try,” Tam said.
I took the insect from Nguyet’s hand. Its thorny legs scratched my skin as it tried to latch on to my fingers. “Yuk,” I said, grimacing at the repulsive thing.
I closed my eyes and pressed the ugly face of the dragonfly against my belly button. “Owwwwww, that stings,” I yelled. “This is the most stupid idea I’ve ever heard. I don’t like it,” I cried, pulling it away from my body.
Nguyet and the boys laughed. “C’mon, don’t be a chicken,” said Nguyet. “Do you want to learn how to swim or not?”
I shut my eyes again letting it sting me a few more times.
“Take it home, let it bite you many, many times until we meet again tomorrow,” Uc ordered.
Home I went and I let the nasty thing sting me until bedtime.
Grandma cried with laughter when I told her what my friends had instructed me to do. She said they were fooling around; letting it sting me wouldn’t turn me into a great swimmer. I ignored Grandma, choosing to believe my friends. Hanh and Tien joined the party and we took turns letting the stupid thing bite our belly buttons.
“What does Grandma know, she is a fruit loop. That’s what my parents always say,” said the voice.
The big day for my swimming test arrived. The four of us went to the bay at high tide.
“Jump in,” Nguyet said.
I dived into the deep water without a second thought, but instead of swimming I went straight down to the bottom, swallowing a belly full of sludgy, salty water. I flapped my arms around like a mad idiot because I couldn’t breathe. I thought this was it; that I would die in this disgusting brown water.
“Oh, my God! My crazy Grandma was right after all,” the voice in my head screamed.
Out of nowhere, I felt hands pulling me out of the water. Nguyet and Tam had come to my rescue.
Once I’d recovered, I let them have it, calling them all kinds of names I had learnt from my parents’ fights. I accused them of trying to kill me.
Tam reckoned I had cheated and didn’t let the pest bite me as often as I should.
“Shut up you stupid fatso. Are you calling me a liar? What do you know? You weren’t there to see me. Shut your stupid big mouth, you dumb arse.”
“Ohhhhhhh, I know,” said Uc. “We need to get a bigger dragonfly - the one we caught was too small.”
“They’re not that easy to catch,” Tam complained.
“No worries, follow me, let the master show you how,” Nguyet replied.
We followed her to the nearby swamp. Nguyet tore a few baby bamboo branches off the trees and tied them together. The four of us roamed the neighbourhood searching high and low for spider webs to put on the bamboos and use as a trap.
Eventually we caught one, and every day like clockwork I let the beefy insect sting me on my belly. However, I still was unable to swim and I almost drowned in the grimy water for weeks on end.
Bai Gia pier today
Early on a Sunday morning, I waited on the pier for my friends to arrive. Without warning, some crazy idiots pushed me into the water from behind. Again I panicked, only more so this time, as my friends weren’t there to save me. I kicked and flapped in a frenzy and somehow managed to keep my head above the water. I heard clapping and cheering up above and saw my friends applauding me. I’d finally learned, the foolish and hard way, how to stay afloat.
This surely meant that I could go to the beach with Nguyet. However when I asked Grandma, she straight out said no.
“C’mon, Grandma.” I dragged her to the pier to show her how I could swim. I jumped into the water and paddled like a dog.
Grandma cracked up laughing. “No, you can’t go; you need to practise some more. A puppy could do better than you.”
I knew she was right and didn’t argue with her. I was determined to get better so I practised every single day for months. I was stung by stingrays and catfish but they didn’t put me off. I was a stubborn kid so nothing would stop me. After all, these animals weren’t deadly and there were thousands of tiny baby catfish inhabiting the water. It was impossible to keep away from them so I decided to turn them into dinner. All I had to do was use a woven bamboo basket and lift them out of the water and straight into the frying pan and we had a
delicious dinner for a starving family.
The only two lethal sea-creatures we had to steer clear of were stonefish and sea snakes. The churlish stonefish, with their motley brown and orange bodies and their rock-like appearance, were a fearsome enemy, as were the poisonous blue-backed sea snakes that patrolled the waters of Bay Gia.
After many months of hard work plus vigorous training from my friends I finally became a good swimmer. This time, when I showed Grandma my skills, she agreed to let me go.
Chapter 7
Nguyet, Uc and I made our way to the mangrove trees. Tam’s parents would not allow Tam to come with us. We waded through the murky water towards what we called ‘our beach’. While Grandma had finally agreed to let me go, she told me to be careful and threatened to whip my bottom until it turned pink if anything bad happened to me.
I’d dreamed about this day for so long, I couldn’t wait to get there. I could see the place from my house, but didn’t realise how difficult it would be to get there until we had trudged for around half a kilometre.
“Ouch, ouch, ouch, Nguyet, my feet are bleeding. Why are there so many sharp things buried in the mud? It’s getting muddier and deeper, my legs are killing me. I don’t think we will make it there at this snail’s pace,” I whined.
“Stop complaining, Loan! Years ago the stupid village was right where we’re standing, but the water kept eating the land so it forced the people to move further away. They just left their rubbish behind; that’s what you are stepping on. Happy now?” Nguyet said.
“No, not really, you didn’t tell me it would be this hard. It feels like we’ve been walking for hours and we’re not even halfway there yet.”
“We’re nearly there, just keep walking and stop whining,” Uc said.