Min Thein Kha - Collection of Short Stories

Those who don't know will surpass those who know.

One day, a young man named Maung Sein Win from the Tamwe Post Office came to me and asked me to sign for a long brown envelope. I accepted the brown envelope that had been sent to me by the post office. When I opened it and read it, I found the following:

To

Your Excellency...

The twin sisters, Ma Ein Ma and Ma Ein Ngo, from Ein Mee, trust and respect the teacher's astrology and send the following incident in writing.

My two sisters came to the teacher for a fortune-telling session two years ago. At that time, the teacher told us, “We are likely to be cheated of three hundred, three thousand, thirty thousand. We will have to talk to our uncles and aunts. We will hear bad news from far away. We will benefit from our grocery business and business.” The teacher’s words turned out to be true.

My two sisters and a close friend gave me three hundred baht to buy a bag of rice, and I still haven't gotten it back. An uncle in the village told me to sell the house we were living in and live with him. We won't go anywhere except to Ein Mee. He said he wouldn't sell this house either.

At that time, my two sisters had a long conversation with my uncle. Finally, my uncle got angry with my two sisters. In the same month that my uncle came, I heard that one of my cousins ​​in Myitkyina had drowned. I saw that all the teacher's words were coming true one by one. Now, my sister has opened a dry goods shop in the market and is doing quite well. When I first opened a clothing shop, it was not only not profitable, but also suffered losses due to debts.

But there was one thing that surprised us about what the teacher said. The teacher told my two sisters, “We have an inheritance in 1981.” At that time, we told the teacher, “Our mother passed away when we were young. Our father passed away last year. He didn’t leave us anything except the house we live in.” But the teacher said, “I don’t know about that. Both of you sisters will receive an inheritance from your parents this year. It’s a very valuable inheritance. But you two sisters won’t get to enjoy that inheritance.” Our two sisters were also surprised by the teacher’s speech. This is because our father never did any work or earn anything since we were young. My sister opened a clothing store in the market and started a business.

At that time, the clothing store was doing well, but my father was not doing well because he was a prostitute. I found my father walking around in the morning. He would stay in his room all day and all night, working on the stove. When my mother died, my two sisters were only 10 years old. My father took my two sisters out of school and forced me to sell them to the clothing store. My sister was made to cook at home. My father would not even leave his room or walk around in his own way. He would work on the stove all day.

The strange thing is that my father has no friends. He has been sitting in his room for years, and even his neighbors often ask if he is still there. Since we were young, we have never seen any of his friends visit us. When relatives come to visit, he usually doesn't come out, and none of his relatives come. But three or four times a year, large parcels arrive from the post office. We don't know what is in them or who sent them. When we ask him, he says, "It's nothing to do with us. It's something from a friend of yours." He stopped eating food a year before he died. He also stopped drinking water. We asked, "Why aren't you eating?" and he said, "There's food in your room. Don't worry about me, my daughters."

And so it went. One day, my father came out of the room and stood by the window on the top floor of the house. He was looking at the tamarind tree and talking to himself. My two sisters thought that my father had gone mad and were very worried. When I looked behind my father and looked at the tamarind tree, I saw a big owl sitting on the tamarind tree. My father was talking to the big owl. My father spoke, and the big owl replied, and I think it was about half an hour. But I could hear my father talking, but I didn't know what he was saying. We had never heard such a voice before.

What was even more strange was that at that time, the lizards were making a lot of noise in the whole house. When I looked up at the ceiling, I thought there were more than a hundred lizards. We don't have that many lizards in our house. We have never seen so many lizards in our life. What was even more strange was that owls come out at night, right? But the owl that was talking to my father | We couldn't figure out why we saw it in the daytime. After about half an hour, the owl hooted and flew back to the east from the tamarind tree. My father called out three times, "Sadhu...Sadhu...Sadhu."

We also watched our father's condition. My father did not go back to his room. He locked the door from the outside. Then he told my two sisters, "Daughters, I want to offer alms to the five monks today. Please arrange it quickly." We also went to the market and bought some food to cook. The monastery sent a water carrier called "Yanku", who my two sisters called Tauk To, to give alms to the five monks. So that day, we offered alms to the five monks. When my father returned to the monastery, my father called my two sisters and said, "Daughters, my father's health is not very good. If my father dies, do not cremate him. Just bury him in a grave. Make a hole about an inch wide at the top and bottom of the grave."

He said.

My two sisters thought that my father had gone mad. At that moment, they heard a voice from the basement, “Come in, Ma Ein Mee and Ma Ein Mee,” and my two sisters ran downstairs. When they got downstairs, there was a crazy man at the door. When they saw this crazy man, my two sisters were scared and shouted, “Father.. Father, come in.” But my father did not come downstairs. The crazy man looked at my two sisters in turn, and said, “Hey, twin sisters, don’t forget the words of the elders, who know you better than you,” and left.

We had never seen that crazy man in our hometown before. And we couldn't help but wonder why this crazy man knew our two sisters' names. So our two sisters went upstairs to tell our father about it, and he was asleep on the armchair. At first, we tried to wake him up by calling out, "Father, father." But when he didn't wake up, we held his hand and shook him. Finally, when we couldn't wake him up, we became suspicious.

So we called the doctor and sent him to the doctor. At that time, the neighbors also came. The neighbors said that your father was no longer alive. But my two sisters did not believe it. After a while, the doctor came and examined him. The doctor said that he had died of a heart attack, so we believed him. So we buried my father in a tomb without cremation. Just like my father, we made a hole at the top and bottom of the tomb. I don’t know what it means. Since my father passed away, we have never opened the room where my father lived. Because if we open the room, we will remember my father and cry. Sometimes we hear footsteps and snoring in the room. We think that my father has not passed away yet.

Last month, my two sisters were sitting around chatting about this and that, and we came across the teacher's fortune-telling. "Teacher Min Thein Kha definitely predicted that our two sisters would inherit their parents' fortunes this year. I wonder if our father left valuables in his room. It must be because he didn't have time to tell us," our two sisters thought.

At that time, the water carrier Yanku arrived and it was a good time. When I couldn't find the key to the room, I asked Yanku for help. Yanku broke the lock and opened it. When the door opened, we both went inside. There was nothing in my father's room except a big teak box. I didn't want to sleep on a bed, mosquito net, or mattress. I didn't need any clothes or anything special. When my father said to put it outside, he took a long time to put it outside. But it was surprising that there were no old pots or pots in the room that my father used to make alchemy. So we asked Yanku to break the lock on the big teak box and open it.

There was nothing valuable in that big box. I only found a notebook with notes about alchemy and a small bottle with ashes. At first, I thought it was my father's stuff to keep as a souvenir. But the water carrier, Yanku, insisted on giving it to him, "He wants to learn about alchemy." So I gave it to him. That shell had been in our neighborhood for five years and was selling water to houses. At night, he slept in a tent. He was a homeless rat. Because he was kind and honest, the whole neighborhood called him Tauk To Ra and gave him food.

I think he's about 40 years old. His personality is also pure and clean. Although he's a water carrier, he seems to have a lot of knowledge. He's not a naive person. So, don't tell me that Ko Khun Ku jumped up and down as if he had found gold when he found the notebook and the ash bottle that his father left behind. My two sisters said, "He's also a genius."

Ko Yanku left after saying goodbye to us and has not been seen since. He has not been seen in the town of Einme either. Strangely enough, that night, the crazy man who had come when my father was about to die came to the door and said to our two sisters, “You girls, you are a stranger to me, and I am not talking to you in vain.” So we were scared and drove him away. The crazy man said he would follow the stranger and left.

Last week, my two sisters thought about Sayar Min Thein Kha’s sermon. This year, we should have our parents’ inheritance. But we didn’t have to experience it. We thought about the notebook and the ash jar that our father left behind. They weren’t precious. But when we thought about the water carrier Yan Ku who jumped up and down as if he had found gold, we stopped thinking about it. So we wrote a letter to the teacher with all the reasons. Are the notebook and the ash jar that our father left behind really precious? If those things were precious, then the teacher’s sermon was right.

With respect

Not staying at home, not staying at home

Hometown