Tuesday, 01/14/2025
Posting Essays
Fate and Private Lottery Numbers
Update: 22/10/2014
She is unlearned. That year, she had her mother be married\r\nat the early age. Her husband was not a meek man and he was also not devoted to\r\nhis work. Instead of helping her wife with hard business, or looking after his\r\nchildren, he spent time on gambling, cock- fighting, football betting, and\r\njoining private lottery numbers. He tested and practiced all various kinds.\r\nHowever, my aunt didn’t only blaim him any words and stops him but she supplied\r\nhim with money. He gradually fell into sins.
\r\n\r\nFrom those days, even though her life was unstable, there\r\nwas no astonishment from my maternal relatives when she exchanged her\r\nresidence; including selling, buying her new house, rebuilding and selling her\r\nhouse again. Seeming to be affected by my uncle, she began to bet, initially\r\nfrom 5,000 to 10,000 dong.
\r\n\r\nI exactly remember the time when she found 10,000 dong which\r\nwas a red paper bill, not a yellow polymer bill as now. Immediately she put it\r\ninto her husband’s to gamble. They looked at each other in the same emotion as they\r\nabsolutely understood thoroughly on the meaning that they would together attach\r\nto the end satisfaction of life side by side, even if someday they will be put\r\ninto prison.
\r\n\r\nAfter that, they increased the amount of gambling from ten\r\nthousand dong to a hundred thousand dong, a million, and tens of millions. Not\r\na few times she cheated to ask her seventh sister, her eighth brother for money\r\nto pay her debt. She also sank back into her sinful way with the same faults.\r\nIn fact, she was not in shortage of food, not accept her tattered life and\r\naccompany with their greed, jealousy, they forgot that their deeds were\r\nillegal. As a result, they went bankrupt and were put into jail.
\r\n\r\nIt had a period that she had worked hard and rarely played\r\ngamble. She could afford her family and support her children’s study.\r\nEverything seemed be alright, but finally, her house was found out to be a\r\nfamous host of betting illegal numbers in this small hamlet. In afternoons, she\r\nwas busy checking the cell phone. As the phone rang, she was immediately\r\nwriting down something in a small paper and her handbook. It was obvious that\r\npeople phoned her for betting numbers. This illegal work brought her a quite\r\nsum of money.
\r\n\r\nBut one day, there was a rumor\r\nfrom the market that she had to leave her house. Nothing was left to her\r\ngrandparents and my mother- her closest relatives, including news, message, and\r\npiece of paper. People were stunned when they clearly conducted an inquiry\r\nabout her. She was in debt of many owners and ran away for not having property\r\nto pay the debt. In fact, many people paid her money when they lost, and she\r\nought to pay for the winners.
\r\n\r\nStep by step, her budget went so down that she had to borrow\r\nothers to compensate it. Borrowing absolutely means being usury. After two\r\nmonths, an interest raised double, trible until an inconceivable amount.\r\nSelling noodle just helped her with food for three family members. How could\r\nshe afford the debt? Moneyless, she is on the deadlock without sharing to\r\nothers. Especially, she couldn’t offer to ask for any one’s help. She and her\r\nfamily might decided to escape on hope that no one could find out them. It is\r\nlike robbing off others’ debts.
\r\n\r\nHer nature used to be meek, and diligent. She would work\r\nmany jobs, from dish washing to plant gardening; from pig husbandry to a mason,\r\nor a noodle seller, etc. She herself took care of her parents and all household\r\nchores. Unexpectedly, she disappeared without any information. Because of her\r\ngreed, she has to pay for her deed. What should a human fate be? My dear\r\nfriends! Do not act as my aunt! Causing greed means being self in failure.\r\nDon’t get touch in it.
\r\n\r\nTranslated into English by Nguyen Thi Cam Nhung.