Journalist Mamalay - 6 short stories

Coffee

Journalist Ma Ma Lai

Daw Long pounded her chest. As she pounded her chest, she screamed, “Ko Bo Chet... Oh, Ko Bo Chet!” The neighbors who heard Daw Long’s voice immediately knew that U Chet was dead. Suddenly, as the sun was setting, a loud cry filled the air. The whole place was filled with panic. A window opened from the upper floor of the house on the corner of the street, and three women peeked out of the window, looking down at Daw Long’s little girl. People were also looking out of the back windows of the houses in front of Daw Long’s little girl

"Le.... You left me, who am I going to live with.... Ko Bo Chet..." he cried out in a voice that was filled with pain and hurt.

Daw Long Magi was so shocked that her husband had died. She was in a state where she could not express what was inside her. She couldn't control herself and she was screaming and talking so fast that her voice was mixed with the sound of her heart breaking tears. The ears of those who came out of the house rang loudly and they all groaned. Among the three women on the top floor of the house, the young girl was the last to come.

The body of the deceased, lying on the tent with his head towards the road, was so large that his stomach was swollen from the moment he died that he could see the south from a distance.

The entire lower part was hidden. The dead man was writhing with a face of excruciating pain. His mouth was half open as if he were in pain. The remaining body appeared old. He also showed a sick look. The most obvious thing was that his heart had stopped beating.

Especially the feet and hands were not like human hands and feet, but they were curved and bulging like the feet of a person. The chief, who rarely wore clothes, did not wear clothes even when he died. The short-sleeved linen shirt that he had to wear when he went out was still hanging on the wall of the tent at his feet because it was too loose to be put on. A piece of red-and-white cloth was hung over the shirt. The cloth was

It was worn out, and it was something that people wore around their heads when they had to go out and about, so that was a common item in the clothes of U Che Gyi. The worn out, soft cloth was hanging from the wall of the tent and was abandoned by him, so he could not untie it, it was loose and falling apart, and he cried. He had been wearing nothing in the three seasons of summer, rain, and winter, and the skin on his chest was as dark and rough as buffalo skin. Since he had been working as a night watchman since he was old and weak, his eyes showed that he had lost his life and had been sleeping in the night.

They had entered the cave. Next to the body was a pole leaning against the wall of the tent and a small hand-held lantern that the owner had given them to use to look around the warehouse at night.

"The staff and the hand-held lamp are also thrown away, so who will we live with?" She followed Daw Long, who was crying and crying, as if tears were flowing down her face. Daw Long raised her head from the tent's sash, threw her body back, and cried out, "What a terrible death... Oh... Ko Bo Chet!" She was about to cry again when she heard the sound of footsteps running down the stairs, and she turned her head to look at the body that was about to fall back onto the door. Two women were galloping into the courtyard on a horse-drawn carriage. Before they reached the tent, they shouted in unison, "Father... Father!" and ran up.

The voices that came out were like a burning wind, burning the heart of Daw Long, who was covered in fire. She didn't know how everyone who heard her would feel, Daw Long heard her voice and stood up, crying, and only then did she focus on the place, and now she believed that the place was the only place to worship. Ma Kyaing and Ma Myaing looked at the people who were coming out of the back door of the building from where I was standing. Seeing that people were watching, she wanted to cry even more and cried again. Ma Kyaing, while crying, touched her mother with her eyes and said, "Father... Father, please stand up and look at your daughters... Father's." She couldn't help but cry until her heart was broken. In fact, she wanted to stand up and look at them. With the words that were on her lips, she wanted to cry because the guests came and showed her how much she wanted to cry. As soon as she saw the woman, who was dressed in a child's clothing, coming down from the house to the front of the house, Daw Long quickly ran down to the tent and greeted the traveler. "My dear daughter... My mother is a widow... Do you still dare to see my mother's suffering... Please save us, my daughter?" The traveler greeted the traveler with a trembling voice that could be heard even below the threshold of the tent. The woman who had asked for news stopped before she reached the tent and stared at Daw Long with a bad face.

"Grandmother... Father is no more... Grandmother, Grandmother, thank you for giving me sugar, Father, please tell me, Grandmother, Father." No matter how much Nagor was in Ma Myaing, he could not hear him there, but he understood him with a shadow, and he could speak fluently.

"Grandma... come up, come up," he begged.

Despite their words, the woman who had come to ask for news found it difficult to climb onto the tent. Even with the large body of U Che Gyi and his two daughters sitting there, the tent was almost full, so she did not want to climb onto the tent, but instead sat down with her legs dangling outside the tent and leaning against it. She did not dare to look at the large body, fearing that she would see it in her eyes when she went to bed at night. She did not dare to look at it, but only looked at it. Then, the sad expression on her face, showing how she was calm and peaceful, seemed to comfort Daw Long and the rest of the family. “I can bear it... I have been sick for about three months, and you, “Khin,” did not even come to ask for news.”

Even though she didn't say anything to apologize for not being able to come to U Che Gyi's house before he died, she swore that Daw Long never remembered the fact that she had never been able to come and ask him about his illness while he was still living in the house. Only when the people on the house were sick did she go and visit him at any time. The owners were very kind and consider it a great blessing to be able to enter and leave the house.

After cooking breakfast, Daw Long Magi had not slept all night, and had to leave her tent and her big head, who was sleeping soundly, and wander from house to house in the village. With her sweet mouth, she could flatter the rich and famous, saying that they were inferior to humans and that they were not known to them, so there was hardly a house in which Daw Long Magi had not been massaged. However, she was not the kind of massage that was used to massage people.

"Are you feeling well....my daughter, are you not feeling well, my daughter, come on....I will wash your breasts and relieve the heat," he would say and press her as hard as he could. While pressing her, he would tell her the news of the houses that were coming and going, so that the weak and weak would not get bored. His hands would not stop pressing her, and his mouth would press her with his thin lips, raising his eyebrows and lifting his chin, and he would press her tirelessly. If she did not want to be pressed, he would force her to kiss him with a stone. According to the owners of the house, he had short arms and long legs, and his buttocks were too light, so that they would not be able to keep up with the age of the old and the young.

In this way, they would go from house to house all day long, carrying the five kyats that each house gave them, and they would return home in the evening. Daw Long's sweet, sweet words were sweet to the ears, but not to the heart. When she spoke, she would often call herself "mother...mother", and even though she didn't mean it, she would respond with "mother...mother". "I'm sorry for you, my dear...

"Please wash me, mother..." he said, "Don't be angry... My dear, if you have anything to ask, just call me. I know that my mother is not a prostitute, and I will wash you anyway... My dear," he said, making you talk more carelessly than you need.

It is not easy for a rich person to treat someone as lowly as their own daughter, son, or grandchild. They are too shy and too timid to conform to their age, so this mentality is already ingrained in them.

When U Che Kyi was still young, he didn't even look back, but when he heard the sound of crying, Daw Lone Ma Kyi asked the man on the roof who had come to ask for news. She had nothing she couldn't forgive. She was a classmate who couldn't forgive, and a rich woman with diamonds and gold came to the hut, making it seem like she was blessed even in a time of great misfortune.

"How could you not come, my dear daughter... My dear daughter has many problems... Mother knows, I came here because of you, my dear daughter, I am the only one who can rely on you, who else has left me? My dear daughter is already in trouble..." Daw Long wiped away the tears that were trickling down her cheeks with her sleeve, and cried without raising her head.

As I was talking, I felt extremely sad. When U Che Gyi was sick for three months, he could not do the darwan, so the rich man immediately hired a man to replace him. For three months, they had no income from anywhere, and they had to go from house to house to earn a few kyats. There was no one to keep him close to the sick person, so he had to fight with the sick person for bribery. The money he could give to his children was almost negligible. For the sick person, it was too far to go to the government's free Myanmar medicine clinic to ask for medicine, and the journey was too long, so he had to walk on foot, and his knees were already sore. I thought that U Che Gyi would have died before he died because of the suffering of his old mother.

When she died, she had to pay for the funeral expenses. Daw Long was over 60 years old, so she had to pay for the funeral countless times. The deceased was dead, he had passed away, and I was left with the burden of suffering that would come my way until I died. I was shocked and saddened as I looked at life from the perspective of the world.

Daw Long was sobbing and crying with great effort. The sobs were coming out of her body one after another, and it seemed like a child was sobbing softly. . “Khin” from the mainland who had come to ask for news was very uncomfortable to see Daw Long shaking and sobbing so hard. The doctor had diagnosed her with heart disease, so she didn’t want to know or hear about things that were not good for her heart, so she had to avoid it.

"You have sons and daughters....what's the use?" Daw Long looked at Khin's face as he encouraged her, feeling ashamed. She knew only her own heartache to rely on him for saying that she had children. When U Che was still alive, her children would come to her every time they could not earn enough money from their small salary as a street vendor. Daw Long's eldest son worked as a carpenter at the "Kho Saing" shop, and her younger son worked as a mechanic's assistant at a car repair shop in Ba Zan for 2 kyats a day. Both daughters were married, Ma Kyaing was a widow with five children, and the mother of three was a widower. The mother of three children worked as a municipal road worker, so they could feed a large family with the small salary they earned. On the other hand, every morning, I have to go to the village to boil beans and sell them. Ma Myaing is still poorer than Ma Kyaing. When she had two children, her husband took her away. The mother and the children, who were about to run and suckle, were still dependent on her mother-in-law's house. She was so naive, so naive that she would come to her mother-in-law one day and take refuge in her. Daw Lone Ma was a person who relied on her mother-in-law, so she said, "Who else can I rely on?" "Mother....What's wrong with you? You are also there." If she had heard such compassionate words of encouragement, she would have been very happy at this time. The woman who asked for news did not have the heart to comfort her with words.

Ma Kyaing and Ma Myaing saw two men walking towards the tent and immediately started shouting, “Brothers... Father is no more... Our brothers!” When they saw their sons, they pressed their big balls and said, “Sons... Look at the suffering of mother, my dear.”

The mourners, who were unable to find a place to stay, cried out with their daughters. The old man sat down next to the body, his nose dripping with tears, his face expressionless. He looked around at the small lantern and the stick that the old man had thrown away. As he listened to the cries of Daw Long, his heart ached, and he thought about the plans for the old man, which were his responsibility as the eldest son. The old man lit two lanterns in the basement.

I need to borrow some. I was thinking about bamboo and reed mats to make a canopy in front of the tent. When I was roofing the monastery next to the railway station, I saw bamboo and reed mats stacked under the monastery. I thought about going to the monk and borrowing some. It is also important to reserve the head in advance. Since the head will be quite large, I think it would be better to buy the planks myself to save money.

I informed the elders of the town, U Aung Ba, that if the people gathered to have a good time, and if the wine was good, I would extend the stay by 3 to 5 days. I was worried about whether I would be able to cover the expenses from the collection. When the rickshaw driver Hla Htun died, I remembered that he had not only covered the expenses but also made thirty to forty baht, and my anxiety eased a little. I would have to fight to win the lottery.

Ko Ba Zan stared at the large, dark-faced corpse. He imagined the figure of the deceased, who had been struggling and groaning until he finally lost all his strength, and he kept saying to the body, "It's better for my father to die...". It was getting a little dark outside. The blue and green colors were creeping up and covering the dead man, and a strange and moving atmosphere had descended upon him. At that moment, the darkness was suddenly dispelled by the brilliant light of diamonds and emeralds. Ma Kyaing and Ma Myaing, who were in tears, looked at the place where the blue and green light had come from, with their hearts beating wildly.

The 'Khin' who had come to inquire was stretching his waist and holding the sweat jacket bag with his right hand, which was adorned with a diamond and emerald bracelet. His fingers did not come out of the bag very much. As he was carefully digging inside the bag, his waist, which had been kept straight, gradually tilted to the left.

Ma Kyaing and Ma Myaing couldn't help but stare at the hand that was about to come out of the bag.

As they stared at each other, the sparkling diamonds and emeralds gradually faded. Tears streamed down the cheeks of the old woman's face from her blurred eyes. Her face, which had been wrinkled and wrinkled because she had experienced so much suffering, had become as small as a plum leaf as she listened to the man who was carrying the bag. As they looked at the hand that had not yet come out of the bag, the thoughts that they had been waiting for were still swirling in the old woman's heart. She still felt the excitement that had come from the shaking.

The five bills that she had taken out of her sweat bag with her fingers and thumbs did not come out all at once, but fell onto her lap one by one. When she had finished with the five bills on her lap, she gathered them up and said to Daw Long in a soft voice, “I’m donating them for my uncle,” and handed her the five kyats of cash. The thoughts that had been running wild in her mind all the time were suddenly gone. At this age, and with the constant work of helping out at home, and the situation of the poor, and the thoughts of 1, 2, and 2 kyats of cash, Daw Long forgot about her own situation.

There is no greater misery than having to reach for the 5 kyats that are being offered to you.