Men's tears

Normally, men cry less. Tears often flow inside. Tears ran down his face, he secretly turned around, quickly wiped them away, not wanting his wife and children to see. Men, everyone is like that!

The afternoon shadow was shining across the alley. Usually, at this time, Thu finishes cleaning the scaffolding, washes the trowel, washes the trough and then sits and drinks with his fellow workers who have not yet returned. The job of holding a plane is one day at a time, but one day I quit and change my job. Take a break and show your teeth. Lake friends often say that to each other!

In the past, only men were involved in construction work. Now, the husbands hold the trowels and the wives hold the shovels. Many women also join the construction work. Understanding the hardships of the job, the women sympathize and clean up first, take care of meals, take care of the house, pick up the children so that the men can stay and have a few drinks to relieve fatigue, listen to the contractor and the homeowner arrange the work for the next day. At the end of the month, the homeowner advances a few hundred, the contractor calculates and divides it, and the workers also make a bit of a fuss and invite each other to go home to make extra chickens and ducks.

This whole month, I've been so sad. The trowel was thrown away in a tool bag and I didn't want to hold it. The door was closed, the wife was in the upper room with the boy, and the father and son were in the lower room near the kitchen for ease of cooking. The market asked the buyer to lead the fence and come pick it up. Chop the pieces and mince them horizontally and braise them to make them less expensive to eat, so you don't have to buy them. Thinking is also troublesome, but in life few people want to ask for help. Moreover, in a situation where insiders and outsiders cover their mouths, don't want to speak, and are afraid to meet each other. No matter how friendly you are, you still have to stay away, let alone rely on them. The more Thu thought, the sadder he became.

Lying awake at night...

For the past two years, the COVID-19 epidemic has forced workers to take time off. The job is lost, the work is gone, it's already difficult. This year, unlucky heavens and earth caused disaster to come to his family. It's not okay to not send your children to school. He doesn't learn anything and follows his friends, but if he gives it away, it will lead to the harshness of COVID-19.

His wife is visibly aging. Every time I'm in the sun and in the rain, my hands are rubbing bricks and shoveling glue, even though it's so hard, my mouth is still crispy, smiling and looking so pitiful. These past few days, I've been stuck in my room like a dry banana leaf. While worrying about my child, taking care of all the household chores, I was also worried about whether I would test positive or not. After testing the child, then testing the mother. Even thinking about loving her husband had to endure the sight of crippled chickens hanging around the mill.

This COVID-19 thing, she loves adults, no matter what, she also loves children. They went to school, the teacher told them to wear masks and do 5K. It sounds serious, but it's kindergarten. Runny nose, sneezing, constant drinking of milk... oh my gosh. Adult masks sometimes have to be taken off to breathe a little more air when children are four or five years old. So the COVID-19 sniffer came in and picked up Mr. Thu's youngest son.

After school in the afternoon, he slept, then had a fever and coughed at night. In the morning, he had a quick test, and oh my, his mother cried, his teacher cried, the whole school was in chaos, people were running and leaving. Without telling anyone, their eyes were red, looking at each other like interrogators. The whole class was F1, the teacher was F1, the whole family was also F1. Mother and son were quarantined for 14 days, anxiously looking out waiting for food to be brought and porridge to be ladled. Every night, Thu went upstairs, his wife went downstairs to take a shower. Both mother and son peed and defecated in the room. There was only one toilet in the house, so they didn't dare go together. He brought food and received gifts to pick up and drop off the potty after discharge.

Soon enough, the moon was almost gone, her round eyes were red and watery. Europe is also the world. In the past, because Thu was poor, he chose to study at a country school, close to home, which was less expensive. After graduating, unable to find a job, they met Nhan and the two ran around, asking for jobs. But then his fate was unlucky, he asked for something wrong. Thu and Nhan got married. The couple is passionate and takes care of business. Working hard day and night, buying land to build a house, giving birth to children, and hoping that my children will study well.

Cai Dun is now in 5th grade, his youngest son is older in kindergarten. If you think about it, missing school for a few months is okay. But school is still in session, they say we have to live with the epidemic, so why don't we let them go. So, the wife picked up the wife and brought the whole F1 family. The teacher at the quarantine center also called every night to ask about my child's situation. The teacher also left her young child at her husband's house while he worked and took care of them. I miss my husband, love my children, call my husband, call my parents. The scene of life is cruel. Looking forward to everything being peaceful, at night I lie down and pray loudly. Every now and then, I wake up and burn incense at my grandparents' altar, praying for God's blessings so that my youngest son can recover from the accident. His mother should not be so cruel.

When you're hungry, you're hungry together, the world still has you. Tet looks at a few Siamese ducks and chickens that don't look diseased. The night robbers also avoided them, pitying them and leaving them to take care of their children. Tears flowed into Thu, mumbling in supplication. Outside the pond, the frogs responded loudly, the shrews, not understanding the situation, also bit and chirped. Thu is used to it. The countryside scene has been linked to him since childhood, like music and lyrics, like a song and a knife that cannot be separated. It's a crime for children to be quarantined during an epidemic and not allowed to leave the house to dive into the pond or reach out to catch butterflies.

***

Suddenly it was 4 o'clock, it's like that every night. Thu quickly went downstairs, went out to scoop water to wash his eyes to wake him up, turned on the electricity, boiled water, and cooked rice. In the upper room, hearing rustling sounds and knowing her husband was going to the kitchen, Ms. Thu said:

- Go to sleep, it's still early. Let's cook tomorrow morning.

- Don't you sleep? Sleep so you can take care of your baby - Thu replied.

Outside the pond, the sound of insects calling for their mates was heard. Suddenly there was the sound of sobbing and dripping. Thu quietly went out into the garden, his eyes looking into a far away world...

***

That day, Thu and Nhan met each other at a prom night. A student from the Faculty of Literature met a female student from the Faculty of History. Nhan is the most beautiful in the class, every year she wins the title of elegant female runner-up. They graduated from school with excellent diplomas, full of hope, and boiling enthusiasm. It's difficult at a time when business is encroaching on education. There were not many teachers in the school, so Thu and Nhan could not find a place to teach.

Hiding the dream in the past, the old pulpit is stuck in the middle of the road. Consoling myself, my life was so unlucky that I couldn't become a teacher so I had to become a worker. If you can't hold chalk, you have to use a trowel. Chalk dust, cement dust, all dust is dust. Thu comforted Nhan, "Let's go to university, but life is our official university."

Thu and Nhan applied to join the construction company. At first, Thu worked as a construction worker, and Nhan took on cooking for the workers. Seeing her husband exposed to the sun and rain, many times she couldn't pour water to serve him rice, Nhan asked to go to the construction site to work as a helper to share with her husband in difficult times.

Nhan was born in the city, Nhan's parents were familiar with the trade, and working in a restaurant as a travel companion who knew how to read was very difficult. As for Nhan, the scholarly girl who had never been exposed to the dew and wind, now holding a shovel and trowel, her calloused hands loved Nhan who struggled with him. Standing on the high platform, looking at his wife with her wrinkly hands, her tears seeped into her intestines, her heart ached, her cruel fate put away her university degree to hold the trowel.

Then she gradually got used to it, Nhan no longer raised her hand to look at her hair, she smiled and showed off her crooked teeth as if to tell her husband that our life is still beautiful!

Every time she gives birth, Nhan becomes more and more beautiful. Twice in confinement, two skin changes. Previously, Nhan was famous for her rosy white skin and charming smile, but now after giving birth that skin has the opportunity to be painted pink on the smooth paper of her old dream. Thu quietly held Nhan's hand, she is now the teacher of two children.

Nhan had his children read poetry, poems he wrote for Nhan the day they first fell in love. The children were bewildered. They don't know anything about adult love. Nhan is shy with her first love, as beautiful as a dream.

***

This year is the second year of the epidemic season. Nhan took care of her children in her room and felt sorry for her father-in-law who said goodbye without being able to see his children or grandchildren.

On this same day, he visited relatives in Binh Duong and unexpectedly became infected. They took him to quarantine and then left and never came back. More than a month later, the family was informed that they were coming to receive the remains. In the midst of quarantine, no one can enter and take care of burials.

He spent the night alone, sobbing two streams of tears. Light a stick of incense, mumble prayers and cry for your mother and father. Thu's mother passed away early, and Thu only had three left. The day he passed away, Thu could not see his father. The urn of ashes cannot be brought back to the hometown. Dad's grave still lies in a foreign land. He did not cover himself with a handful of green grass, and did not bow to his father when he lowered his grave to take him back to the motherland.

Holding back the pain in my heart, feeling sorry for my life and worrying about the little boy who had just turned five years old. It tested positive for COVID-19, but it was as if he himself was infected with an evil bacteria. He counted every day and every hour, praying that the boy would quickly chase away COVID-19.

***

The fourteen days that passed were heavier than the ten years in which Thu applied for a job without success. Tomorrow, Thu and his wife will take their child for another final test. If negative, everything returns to normal. Both he and his wife gathered and waited for the results at the nurse's desk.

The red line appears again. Nhan's tears fell again.

Now Thu has to go, he has to take the trowel to build a house, build a school, build a life.

The union president brought the support money to Thu's house and said:

- There is a vaccine. COVID-19 will eventually pass.

- Yes! Thank you. I hope so too!

The leader replied. Then he and the union chairman rode their motorbikes across the long road.