Nyein Kyaw - Tell me, it's so sweet and beautiful.

1

The soles of his shoes were covered in red mud. The pale yellow leather of his shoes looked as if it had been stained with blood. The rain and snow had fallen, so he tried to walk on them, but the mud was still clean. Red spots had appeared on the edges of his jeans. The pale blue of his shirt, which had been called a hundred days, had turned dark as it had absorbed the dew. Droplets of water had collected on the leather suitcase he had left behind.

The muddy red road curved sharply to the left. After walking for four or five hundred steps, the house, facing north, came into view. The green-painted tin roof was the first thing you saw through the cherry trees. The red brick walls were plastered with mortar. It was a two-story, three-story, two-room house. It was surrounded by a barbed wire fence that was only a few feet apart. Four or five eucalyptus trees grew in a row in the yard, about a hundred feet long.

When I got to the corner of the yard, I looked upstairs. The doors were closed. I looked downstairs. The doors were still closed. Both sides of the yard were closed. I approached the door. The white paint on the large wooden doors looked like cracks from the weather. The whole yard was silent. Not a single person was in sight. It was the same with Ko Ko. I looked around to see the old man who cooked and fed Ko Ko. I thought for a moment, observing and thinking.

Today is Sunday. Office holiday. If I had to go to the neighborhood for some medical care, the old man who was the caretaker would have been left behind. He glanced around the neighborhood. The houses were not close to each other. Yangon. It was not like the outskirts of Yangon. There were empty plots of land between each house. Even the nearest house was only a bus stop away. I thought I would know if I went to that house and asked.

Ko Ko thought that he would get the letter he had sent. He did not write the exact date. He only wrote that he would arrive within a week. Ko Ko could have received the letter four or five days earlier than the previous one. He wondered if he had traveled a lot. He knew that Ko Ko had a lot of work to do. He was said to be responsible for not only national registration issues but also for operational projects related to agriculture, livestock, and immigration. He tried very hard to get his parents and siblings to come down to Yangon once a year. He moved to the city and could only take leave once a year for two or three years. After that, he came to Yangon for training and came home for a while. Being a single man, Ko Ko was able to immerse himself in the workplace more than others.

Having lived in the city for over six years, Ko Ko is well-known. Although it is only listed as a city, it has as many houses as a neighborhood in Yangon. The city is very spacious. Ko Ko was there once when he first moved to another job. This time, the number of houses has increased slightly. It is easy to see that four or five houses have been added around the station from a distance. In the rest of the places, if you don't notice, you won't even think that there has been an increase.

There are only eight houses on the street where Ko Ko lives, as before.

"Who do you want to meet?"

He was only fourteen or fifteen years old. A tall boy. He was holding a fork in the garden of truth, and turned around to ask. His hands were shaking and shaking. Three or four fingers. His eyes were narrowed by the two jaws.

“U Thaw Swe came to my house, my brother, and I wanted to know where you went because the door was locked.”

The boy walked to the gate. He pointed towards Ko Ko's house and said -

“Is U Thaw Swe from that house?” He smiled and nodded.

"Wait a minute... I'll go ask your mother."

He walked briskly towards the house. His body was so fat that he walked with a limp. The cloth was wrapped around a mat. It was four stories long, with a flat roof and a fireproof stone roof. In the courtyard, roses and chrysanthemums were planted in pots. He thought they were ornamental plants. The boy walked to the back of the house between the flower pots and came back after a while. When he first saw the garden of truth, he saw -

“He went on a trip,” he said, disappointed. The boy put his hand on the gate of the farm and said, “I went to Minesuk with a group from the township to buy rice.” He shook his head, “How long has it been, brother?”

"They went... they only left yesterday morning, I saw that group go down to the field."

“I think it will take a long time to return.”

The boy, whose eyebrows were unusually thin, frowned and thought. Then -

"I think it will take ten to fifteen days," said the Buddha, unable to speak.

"Do you know U Thaw Swe?" He nodded.

"What about the old man who lives with him?"

“Oh.. U Do Sein?.. U Do Sein went with me. Where did their group go out? U Do Sein usually follows, he is in charge of cooking…”

The boy said it as a joke and laughed.

“My brother is... U Thaw Swe’s biological brother, my brother’s name is Tin Swe.”

"Ah... yes"

He nodded in a familiar manner. He immediately asked the question that had to be asked.

"I've only heard that there's a guesthouse here, but I don't know where it is, where is it..."

"Brother... do you know the price?"

The market is north of the east-west railway. He nodded.

“From the market... follow the asphalt road heading northeast. On the road that leads to the high school, turn left onto the road that turns north. After two blocks, you will reach the garden. At the far end of the garden, you will find a restaurant called Kunthayar. You can stay there....”

"You can rent a horse-drawn carriage from the station, right?"

"It's close... I don't even need to rent a car. I just want to ride the horse-drawn cart that goes from the front gate of the school to the station gate. I pay a small fee."

For him, who is used to traveling with his two children, it would be fine. The distance between the two children is still more than a mile or a mile and a half.

"Thank you, my brother."

It was a long walk to the station. It was not far from the Lion Gate of the University to the front of the Pinya Hall. When I got to Ko Ko's yard, I stopped for a moment. The rain and snow had stopped. I took out a piece of paper from my bag. I wrote, "Ko Ko, I have arrived, I am staying at Kuntharyar," signed it and dated it. I folded it and put it in the letterbox that was hung in front of the door.

The only road in the city that connects the plains and the highlands is a paved road. The road that leaves in front of the high school is a dirt road. When you get to the garden area, it is a road made of sandstone, gravel, and cobblestone. The ground is hard. The wheels of the horse-drawn carts that you pass by and walk along are not slippery. It is difficult to guess whether you have heard the name of the garden area or not. The northeastern part of the city. It is closer to the road than the market area, where there are a few houses. It is on the outskirts of the city. The land rises significantly to the north of the road. The area around the garden area is not flat, but the elevation is not different. The hills are smooth and high. The slopes are flat and low. The yards are wider than in the city, and the distance between each yard is one yard.

There are almost no coconut trees on either side of the road. You can see eucalyptus and cherry trees. The building you can see around a bend to the right is probably Kun Thayar. The facade of Kun Thayar is three rooms and two stories. It has a tin roof and a wooden roof. It is longer towards the back. The front and back are two rooms longer. There is a veranda on the front and on the left. The reddish color of the wood is visible in the western sunlight.

The road was cut through the high ground, so there was a height of about 100 feet on both sides of the road. It was only about knee-high and waist-high. On both sides of the earthen walls, moss was slightly green. Elephant grass was growing sparsely. Between the farms and houses on the left, there were patches of wild grass and bushes.

The barbed wire fence of Kunthaya was only a day high. Flowers were hanging from the barbed wire. When I reached the edge, I threw a cigarette on the road and stepped on it with my shoe. About a foot away from my shoe, among the rocks, slabs, and debris, I saw a small black stone, two hands long and one inch wide, barely an inch. An ancient moonstone. The hand that picked it up had already turned to look the other way. I stared in amazement. There were small leaves like tamarind leaves on the stems. I looked at the side. Layers of coal and stone were layered one after another. The fossilized remains of a tree branch from the Middle Ages. The upper row had more leaves. The lower row had only half of them.

Curiosity had replaced the lost feelings of Ko Ko. Geological evidence had been found there before they could be found. There were already many school holidays, so there was plenty of time to search and collect. He put the small fossilized stone in his trouser pocket. His steps became more brisk.

I think Kunthaya looks more beautiful under the bronze-colored sunlight.

***