Min Khak Soe San - The Life of a Bird

The train has left him behind.

He was left standing alone in the cramped station of a small town. The steel body of the train, which was gradually moving away from him, seemed to glide smoothly and comfortably. In fact, he was the only one who did not live comfortably.

The thought of being alone reminded me that the train was too long. It felt like there was something to do, but there was nothing to do. Is that what life is all about? It's like remembering that there is something to do, but there is nothing to do, isn't it?

He felt like he wasn't ready for anything.

* * *

Two birds were seen resting on the red tiled roof of the Minka Soe San Station. The appearance of the station, which was the color of oil sludge and brown, seemed to be hiding something among the small diamond flower buds and paper flowers. Red and yellow diamond flowers were scattered on the green grass. Dried pink paper flowers were also seen in bunches.

He got off the dirt road near the station. He would have to take something to get into the city. A horse-drawn carriage or a rickshaw, he thought. He didn't know how far he had to go. It was the first time he had ever been to the town. If he hadn't heard the news that his father had been there, he would have said that he had never heard anything about it in his life.

Well...now it's about time. Let's say it's because of Dad. Well..that's not what I'm saying. Dad didn't tell me to look for me, son..he wanted to go on his own. I was looking for myself. He sighed. Well..so it's because of me that I came to this town, he thought. Hmm...that's not so bad. If it were up to him and his own mind, he certainly wouldn't be looking for Dad. Let him go, Dad, go where he thinks he can get away. Dad, let him find his own peace. He has no reason to call me, in other words, no reason to disturb me.

Shouldn't a person be free to choose between himself and his environment? He believes so. The power of a person is limited. At most, he can change the entire environment. It is not easy. He will face opposition. And there will be people like him who want to change the world to their liking. If their preferences do not match his, he will have to compete. To change the world is a matter for very ambitious people. If the world were a lump of clay, they would sell it all together. And when they disagree, let them each throw their own punches. That's it. If that is not possible, the least that can be done is to choose what you like from what is already there without changing anything.

My father couldn't do the most. So he did the least he could. He left his family and went off to find his peace. Let him go, what happened?

There was only one problem. Mom.., Mom couldn't accept him. In fact, it was Mom who created the environment that Dad didn't want to choose. It was Mom who made Dad go looking for her to drag him back into that environment. He thought it was lucky Dad wasn't a match. If he had been a match, Mom would have filled it with gasoline and lit it every now and then.

He saw a rickshaw parked in the shade of a sycamore tree at the end of Myay Ni Street. He walked towards the sycamore tree. When he got close, a rickshaw driver asked, “Would you like to rent a rickshaw, sir?”

"I asked." He nodded and asked how far into the city. The rickshaw driver...

"Give me forty, sir." "You're not used to being rich, are you?"

"How close is it to getting on a rickshaw and getting a seat, teacher?"

Oh my God...is there a lot of gold in this chair?

He sat down on the cushion of the rickshaw, which was already covered in coconut fibers. He glanced at the other rickshaw driver. He felt a pang of sadness in his heart that he would be left without a passenger. Now... look, how stupid he is. .

I'm just making up a story that doesn't have anything to do with it. Well... I'm not the only one who rented both rickshaws. I'm sure I'll have to leave one behind. No need to worry about anything, now... forget it.

The problem was that he was the only passenger who got off at that station. The rest of the rickshaws had no more passengers. So he would have to go home with an empty seat. His face felt hot as he thought.

But when I imagined him riding alone on two rickshaws, one leg on each side, the heat on his face disappeared. Well... that's how it is, sometimes in this world there are situations where it's impossible to help each other. What can I do? I just turned a blind eye.

When the rickshaw she was riding passed by the person who had been left behind, she instinctively turned away. But after a long time, she couldn't help but turn around. She saw the rickshaw driver who had been left behind, sleeping peacefully on his rickshaw, his face covered by a bamboo hat.

Good. He didn't seem to be complaining about the passenger he didn't get. He didn't seem to be anxiously waiting for something to save him. He didn't seem to be thinking about anything in particular, good.

He was a little dazed. He had to repair his mind, which was trying to run everywhere. "It takes a long time to repair broken minds."

"Sir...are you going to the market?"

The rickshaw driver he was riding asked. Suddenly he didn't know what to say...

“Well... let's do this. Please send me to a guesthouse. Not a fancy one. Just a small one where I can stay in peace and quiet.”

The rickshaw driver laughed...

"It's like you've never been to this city before, teacher."

He was a little surprised...

"Hey, I've never been here before. This is my first time. Why?"

"I'm looking for lodgings. There's only one inn in our town. Good, average, cheap, or whatever you want to stay in, what's the difference?"

"There's no need to choose. The teacher said, 'Our town is small and small.'"

He nodded. If that's the case, then his father would be staying in that same dormitory if he were still in town. There's no reason he couldn't find him. He and his father would have to meet.

He thought he would ask the rickshaw driver to make sure...

"Brother...does your rickshaw stop at the station every day?"

"Yes...brother, at other times I have to walk around the market and the city. When the train is almost time, I go and wait at the station."

He started calling me "brother", so the rickshaw driver changed his name from " teacher " to "brother". Not bad at all. You might need to get close to this rickshaw driver.

He unzipped his suitcase and pulled out a photo of his father. He then showed it to the rickshaw driver...

"Brother...about four, five, or six days ago, did you send this man to the inn you mentioned earlier?"

The rickshaw slowed down. The boy glanced at his face, not at the photo. He saw the panic and worry in the rickshaw driver's eyes.

The rickshaw driver..

"Is your brother from the intelligence service?" He laughed mischievously.

"No, I'm looking for my father. He got angry and left the house. This is a photo of my father."

The rickshaw driver took the photo and looked at it. He looked at his face again. Then he looked at the photo carefully and thought about it, then shook his head.

“I haven’t seen him, brother.” “So what about the other one?”

I asked, referring to the rickshaw driver who had been left behind at the station. The rickshaw driver thought for a moment, then

"I can't tell, brother. There aren't many passengers in our town. Just one or two. I can't see them without seeing them. But if I left the station after I got a passenger, I don't know, brother."

It seems like nothing can be calculated in a single step. He has a little difficulty thinking. In life, formulas are useless. School teaches you how to solve equations with one unknown, equations with two unknowns, but in life, school doesn't teach you how to solve problems when all the numbers in the puzzle are unknowns.

He could only sit and stare at those unknown numbers. For him, arithmetic seemed to be no more useful than keeping a list of debts.

"Brother, can you come to this city by other means than by train?"

The boy was pedaling the rickshaw briskly.

“Let me tell you a little about the location of our town, brother. This is how it is. All the way to the west of the town is the railroad that I came across earlier. To the east of the town is the stream.