Aye Min Saw - The Remains

The yard is about one hundred and forty feet long and sixty feet wide. In the yard are a row of three-roomed houses and a row of buildings, where the oil mills are located. If you look from the street, you will see the reddish-brown rust spots on the roofs, which have been skillfully painted over for years. The roof, which adjoins the roof, has now been completely covered with a dull brown varnish, from the dull color of the old oil well. The wooden walls, which are made of uneven vertical planks, are cracked and decayed in many places, a sign of the weather and lack of maintenance. The windows on the wall facing the west street are damaged from their original condition, and are tilted and tilted, Similarly, in many places on the lower floor, which is about a foot thick, the plaster on top has fallen away, leaving the underlying bricks exposed in a thousand places. Overall, it looks more like an ancient fortress abandoned by defeated kings than a residential building.

Now the mansion is bustling with activity. After decades of being a desert, with only a few people coming and going, it has been more than ten days since the mansion was last seen. Now, in the downstairs living room of the mansion, there is a group of people. The living room, which is about four hundred square feet in size, is occupied by groups of people. In it, retired judge U Ba Soe is walking slowly around the room, while retired forest chief U Tha Myat is quietly reading the book he brought with him. On the couches and benches along the east wall, elders from the street are whispering their opinions to each other. Ko Sein Win, a schoolteacher sitting against the west wall, is rubbing his thumbs with an impatient expression as he looks at the people inside. Meanwhile, Ko Aye, who was sitting next to him, was sitting on a chair with one knee propped up on a palm-backed chair, looking up at the spiderwebs above. As the sounds of people and cars began to sound from the surrounding area, the room became quieter and everyone’s heads turned towards the street. Their heads had been wandering back and forth between the street and the living room for over an hour, and still no sign of what they were waiting for. U Tha Myat closed the book in his hand and took off his glasses. U Ba Soe, who had been pacing the room, sat down on the sofa. U Bo Phyu, the retired headmaster of the main house, who had been the quietest of the lot, opened a betel nut and chewed betel nut. Then he put the third betel nut in his mouth. At that moment, a voice came from the teacher Ko Sein Win. “Father, I can’t wait any longer, this is just insulting,” U Ba Soe got up from his seat and went to Ko Sein Win. Then, holding Ko Sein Win’s shoulder, he spoke soothingly. After another fifteen minutes, a car driving at high speed stopped in front of the house, and all their eyes gathered at the front door as if in consultation. However, the view in front of the house was suddenly obscured by the gray dust. After a few seconds, the view gradually became clearer. The white sedan’s brightness, blocked by the dust, sparkled in the sunlight. First, the rear door of the car, which was sealed with glass, slowly opened. Then, from inside the car, a pair of white feet wearing eight-inch black heels slithered down the street like a snake.

The beginning of the problem can be said to have been the death of U Thant. To be precise, it was the morning of eight days ago. It was a normal day with a pleasant weather, the sun was shining brightly in the city, and the people were moving around the streets as usual. At that moment, the people on the street heard the panicked scream of U Thant’s grandson, Chit Oo Maung, who was delivering rice. At first, the people around were indifferent, unable to distinguish whether it was the sound of an accident or a fight. However, the intensity of the sound and the duration of the sound, combined with the length of time it had been heard, made everyone rush to the road. At that moment, Chit Oo Maung, exhausted and shocked, collapsed against the pillar in the front yard. His eyes were wide, as if expressing how terrified he was. He kept repeating, "Do it, Grandpa is dead," and pointed into the house.

The first person to know that U Chanchan had died that day, after Chit Oo Maung, was Ko Sein Win. He was sweeping the floor in front of the house as usual before going to school in the morning when he heard Chit Oo Maung’s voice. At first, he thought it was the sound of a quarrel between a couple from a nearby house, but the sound did not stop and repeated itself several times. When the hand holding the broom stopped, he looked for the source of the sound and saw Chit Oo Maung lying limply in U Chanchan’s yard. As Chit Oo Maung pointed out, he ran into the house, where U Chanchan’s lifeless body, which was already cold and stiff, was waiting for him. He immediately went back to the front of the house and asked someone he found to tell the news to the elders. Then U Bo Phyu also arrived and opened the door to the room to see the situation. A short while later, the doctor who U Bo Phyu had sent arrived and assessed the situation. He estimated that U Chanchan had died about ten hours ago. At that time, Khin Magi was chatting with some guests in her room, and Ko Chit Aung, a man, arrived first to replace her.

U Bo Phyu looked sadly at the glass of milk he had sent him the night before on the table. The glass of milk, which looked as if it had not been drunk at all, was crawling with ants. Next to the glass of milk, the bowl of rice he had sent him the night before was still untouched. The line of ants from the glass, with the bowl of rice in the middle, had already started to travel to the holes on U Chan’s face, so U Bo Phyu picked them up one by one with his hands. After about an hour and a half, they had all finished bathing U Chan and cleaning the room, when Khin Maung arrived gracefully. Khin Maung was far from shedding tears as she looked at her father’s body, her face not a single tear on her face. He looked down at the body with a look of regret, then sat down on the sofa, and, as if someone who had not been able to rest for many years had just taken a break, he was breathing heavily. Ko Sein Win was angry at Khin Maung, who could talk calmly to a guest at home even though his father had died. He concluded that there was no difference in meaning and concept between Khin Maung's lateness that day and lateness today, and looked at Khin Maung.

Khin Magi was still young enough to be over fifty. Her demeanor was still fresh, with the vigor of a teenager. As she entered the house, her cell phone rang, so she paused for a moment, took the phone out of her leather handbag, and waved it. Then, her brother Ko Aye crossed the aisle and sat down on the sofa opposite U Bo Phyu. She opened the bottle of water in her hand, took a sip, and placed it on the table. Ko Sein Win sat up straight in his chair, watching this with wide eyes. One thing was that even though they were all scattered around the room, their eyes were focused on her.

Khin Magi wrapped a bag of fragrant white incense in her leather handbag and turned to U Bo Phyu. "I'm here."