Nu Nu Yi Inwa - A small piece of cloth

The morning breeze is blowing gently and coolly.

The flames from the fireplace were burning bright red and fierce.

Mido couldn't help but put the rice pot on the stove.

The lid of the pot, which was covered with soot and grime, was washed with rice vinegar and covered.

The rice left for the evening was wrapped in a cloth.

Mido went to get a bundle of tamarind leaves from the water pot and sat down on the floor. With a loud noise, he realized that his robe had torn. When he got up and looked at the robe, it was a big tear about a foot long.

It's gone, it's over.

This was the last of the three blankets my mother had left me.

After slowly sitting down, I put on my mid-length robe and spread out the tamarind leaves.

The next day, I had to sew it with a needle and thread at my aunt's house.

The tamarind leaves were already picked the day before, so they were a little wilted. They had left the tamarind leaves for tomorrow and wrapped them up. The three girls under Mido, who were playing in front of the house, looked at the kitchen together. They poured some of the remaining fish paste from the fish paste packet into the tamarind leaf pot. They poured the oil into the bottle, but only a drop or two came out. Mido hit the bottom of the bottle with his hand. If I get money from my father this evening, I will buy everything for tomorrow.

As the pot of tamarind leaf soup was boiling, a voice came from the front of the house, “The food is delicious.” As usual, Mido shouted, “Come on, let’s eat.” Aye Maung, a monk, glanced at Mido as he was serving the food.

"Let's eat, okay?"

At the end of the call, the three younger ones came running.

They ate with a bowl of red rice and a dish of tamarind leaves in the middle, not revealing their heads. All four heads, with their red hair, were scattered around the rice. All the midwives had been swimming in the riverbed, so their hair, which was not covered in oil, was red.

"Daughter, money."

My father hung two taels from his shoulder on the door frame and gave Mido money. Five kyats. Mido stared at the sweaty pores on my father's face and said, "Dad, I've paid three kyats for the bird." My father looked at Mido and smiled.

"I've already given it to you, my daughter. I can't eat today. The water is red and flowing heavily."

Mido nodded to everything his father said and started to calculate the price for five kyats. A bag of rice costs four kyats for tomorrow. So a single piece of cloth and other short stories cost four kyats. If you buy it with a board book, it will only cost two kyats and ten piaints. It hurts that I still haven't bought the board book that I had pledged for fifty piaints when my mother died. Let's go. Two kyats of oil and a half is eighty piaints. Only twenty piaints are left. I can't buy fish paste to cook tamarind leaves. Even at one piaint, Daw Gyi Ming, the village market, doesn't want to sell it. Mido worried that she would sell it for twenty piaints.

"Hey, Mido, the pot on the stove is already boiling. What pot?"

"Yes, father, I've boiled the avera leaves. Tonight, I'll have avera salad and tamarind leaf dish."

I opened the pot on the stove. The greenish-yellow liquid was bubbling. I glanced at a sprig of a bay leaf. It wasn't hot yet. I lit the fire and put the money in a small bamboo box next to the stove.

"Hey... I'm at level six, I have to jump six steps."

The middle-aged woman's voice came from where she was playing with the glass. Watching her three sisters playing with the glass, she suddenly felt the urge to play with the mee-do. It had been a long time since she had played with the mee-do. When my mother was with us, we had to go all the way to the center of the village to play. It had also been a long time since we had built a house with our friends on the riverbank.

Mido, wearing her robe tightly, ran to the front of the tent and jumped over the six steps that Alat Ma was about to jump. Her mouth shouted happily, “Did you see me jump?” Alat Ma pouted.

"I'm jumping, why are you jumping in? You can't go in."

"Oh... I'll be there, if you can't jump... you're a loser."

Mido started to tease her sister. The middle-aged woman became even angrier.

"You, you, you, you're a virgin, you're not supposed to be with children."

"What... look, what a virgin... I'm a child too."

Mido shouted back with half a child's heart.

"Oh... if you're a child, why did you bathe in the same water as your father? Why don't you bathe like us?"

Mido was embarrassed. She looked at her father hesitantly and, embarrassed, she patted her mother's head with her heel.

Every time Mido picked tamarind leaves, Mido's sisters gathered around my father, who was tying tamarind branches and thorns together. My father gathered the tangled tamarind branches and tied them tightly with a rope at the base.

"Dad, are you done? Let's go and put it in the river now, Dad."

The youngest one was enthusiastic. The whole village of Mido used to set up a net. The net made of tamarind leaves didn't catch many fish, but if you put it up every two or three days, you would get a fish. The net was set in shallow water. The small fish that usually swim in shallow water would get tangled in the tamarind leaves and couldn't get out. Some of the less fortunate people would cast a long line of fishing line along the deep riverbed to catch big fish.

The three younger siblings jumped after their father, who was carrying the rope. The father had buried the rope in the shallow water and tied it to a pole he had planted. The three younger siblings were wading in the water. The middle sister was pushing the sand and mud at the feet of the mother. The two younger sisters were diving and swimming in the water. The mother, who was carrying the rope, pulled the rope that often slipped down her thin arms over her shoulders and felt like taking off her clothes and running into the water like before. The father was pounding the pole with a brick and said to the mother,

"Hey... Mido, take a shower, what are you doing?"

Mido replied softly, looking at the wet cloth his father was wearing.

"Okay, Dad, I won't take a shower today."

Mido woke up suddenly from the touch of the cold wind. There was no blanket on Mido's body. The three younger brothers pulled the blanket towards them and were sleeping tightly together. It was almost dawn. They could see the faint light. Mido pulled the blanket over her and closed her eyes again. Her stomach was grumbling. She was hungry and had no food to cook that morning. She would have to go and pick tamarind leaves or avera leaves. There was some fish paste. She had saved some fish paste for today, so the tamarind leaf soup she had made the night before was soggy. The youngest one frowned and kept asking, "Father, haven't you put the thorn in yet?" until the meal was over. Mido jumped out of bed excitedly. That's right. It's been two days since the thorn was put in. Mido jumped under the tent. When he looked at his father, he was still fast asleep.

Mido walked briskly to the pier. The dawn breeze blowing across the river was cool. Mido pulled on her coat. There was no one on the pier yet. Mido's line of stilts was quite close to the other lines of stilts. However, Mido was only concerned about the line of stilts, so she didn't know that she was afraid. Wearing a short coat, Mido went into the water. She let the line of stilts fall on the shore. Let it fall, lots of fish. Mido shook the line of stilts eagerly. Mido's face became grim. Not a single fish fell. Why? Because the water was turning red? Mido, in despair, dropped the line of stilts back into the water and looked out at the red river. Oh. Mido's eyes widened. A line of fishing rods, set in the deep water, swayed and moved.

The fish that was caught was dead, and if it was alive, it wouldn't move that much. Yes. It must have been a big fish. Midou didn't think anything of it. He quickly went down into the water and swam towards the line. Midou just kept his body still in the water, not looking at the line. It was just as Midou had thought, a big fish. It wasn't a small fish. He was happy. No matter whose line he was fishing, he would pull it out. Midou used both legs to paddle through the water, and paddled and pulled the fish out with both hands. The big fish was struggling. It wasn't as easy as Midou thought. In fact, when fishing, they usually fished quietly from the boat.

The current was pushing the bottom of the pond with speed. It was almost like being swept away by the current. I kept on wading with both feet, trying to catch the fish. The thought of the people who were coming to catch the fish made me sweat. I kept trying to catch the pond. The big fish was tired, so I pulled it out after a while. I got it. I didn't miss the big fish.