Victor over the Past - Chapter 7

From: … Nguyen @yahoo.com>
Subject: Nguyen 's Biography
To: thuyhang606@yahoo.com
Date: Wednesday, February 24, 2010, 9:42 AM

Thân tặng TH quyển hồi ký …

Thân tặng TH quyển hồi ký …

" Về chia sẻ kinh nghiệm với bạn bè. TH cứ tự nhiên. Nếu bài học cuả mình có hữu ích được cho đời thì mình nên chia sẻ. Có vậy thì xã hội mới tiến bộ và phát triển được. Những gì mình có thể để lại trên đời này thì mình nên để lại."

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CHAPTER 7

 Monday the school began. Before I went to school, my father told me not to tell

anybody that I was the mayor's son. He said if people knew it, they might try to kidnap

me, and then they would have power to control my father. After I said goodbye to my

father, I was driven to school in a very shiny military jeep. All the students in the school

looked at me with an unusual look in their eyes. As I walked into the building, I was

wondering how the students in my class would accept me and treat me. As soon as I

found my way to my class and stepped into the room, it seemed that most of the students

were beginning to turn to each other and whisper something. I sensed something

unusual about the atmosphere at that time. I was worried that they would become hostile

toward me because I was a new student in the class. I pretended not to pay attention to

anyone, and I walked to an empty seat at the end of the class and sat down. Finally, one

or two boys came toward me and asked, " Are you the mayor's son?"

I did not know what to say because my father asked me not to tell any one about it,

but I did not want to lie about myself either. So instead of answering their question, I

replied with the question, " What made you think that I am the mayor's son?"

 Then I heard from the background a boy yell," You'll see I told you he is the mayor's

son."

 Then one of the boys asked me," What's your father's name?" After I told him my

father's name, he asked me again," What does your father do?" I told him that was my

family's business. Then he told me," I saw you with your father at the ball game. It was

you walking in at the gate of the main entrance. So don't lie to me."

 At that point I said," I really don't care whether you think I am the son of the mayor or

not. My goal here is to study. If you think that I am the mayor's son, I would be very

honored and proud, but if you think my parents are normal citizens just like your

parents, I feel that is O.K too."

 After that the boys started to go back to their seats and said to each other," He is the

son of the mayor. I knew that." About that time, the school bell rang to begin the class,

and a teacher came in. After he introduced himself as the class teacher, he called down

the list to check for student attendance. Everybody was there, so he started his lesson.

After his class, we had a break, and another teacher came in to teach a different subject.

He went through the same attendance sheet like the other. Then he began to go on with

his teaching. As usual, it did not take me long to get distracted. I have never had a good

attention span in my life. That was the reason I neither related nor remembered anything

the teacher said.

 The first few days I was fine because there was neither verbal nor written tests. All I

got was a lot of homework and lessons to memorize. My father had a tutor come to the

mansion every day to help my third sister and me with our homework. Again he had a

hard time teaching two students at two different levels when both were not too bright.

He was worried that if he did not do a very good job, my father could send him back to

the front line. So again he concentrated more on my sister's study than on mine. I got

bored, so I left him to finish my homework for me, and I went to the other room to draw.

So everyday, I went to school without preparing anything at all. My homework was

already done by my tutor, so for the homework I was covered, but I was never prepared

for either verbal or written tests.

 I knew one day I would be in trouble, but I did not know when it would happened.

Then that day came. A teacher called me up for the French lesson that I was supposed to

know. The lesson was taught only a few days ago. My classmate who sat next to me tried

to help me, but the teacher snapped at him. Then he told me to stand up and asked me,

"Do you know the lesson?"

 I stood up and suddenly embarrassment and shame overtook me, and I looked down

at my table and barely pushed the word "No" out of my mouth. He asked me the same

question again and ordered me to speak louder. I wanted to answer him louder, but

because his voice was loud and full of anger plus I felt very guilty, I spoke even softer.

That drove him even more into frustration. Then he asked me why I did not prepare the

lesson. I did not know how to answer that question so I did not answer him. Then he

screamed at me and demanded my answer, but I remained silent. Finally, he took a stick

and asked me to come up to him.

 As I walked up to him, my classmate who sat next to me said out loud to him," Sir,

don't touch him. He is the mayor's son."

 The teacher said," Be quiet. This is not a funny thing to joke about."

 But my classmate said," I am not joking at all, sir. He is the son of the mayor. You may

be in trouble if you touch him. If you don't believe me why don't you ask him." Having

heard that, the teacher put the stick back where it belonged and asked me who was my

father and why I did not tell him about my family's status. I had no other choice but to

tell him the truth, and I told him that I was not allowed to tell anybody about my family.

 Then his voice started to calm down significantly, and he said," So you must be the

new student around here then."

 I said," Yes, sir."

 Then he said ," Why don't you go back to your seat. But this time I want you to sit next

to Diep Can Duc and Duong Tai Nang so you can learn a lot from them. They are the best

students in this class, and next time if you don't know your lesson, let me know ahead of

time. Don't wait until I call you up and tell me, O.K.? And Duc and Nang both of you

need to make sure this friend of yours knows what he needs to know. O.K? I hold you

both responsible for your friend's performance." Then he sent me back to my seat and

resumed his lesson. I was kind of relieved that I was not punished for that and instead I

was put in a better situation in the class.

 After the class, every student in the class talked about the incident and how fun it was

to see the teacher change behavior from aggressive to passive in front of a boy. They said

to each other, " How nice to be the mayor's son. Next time if any teacher wants to

discipline me, all I need to tell him is that I am a mayor's son, and I can get away with it."

 I smiled when I heard them talking about it as I walked out of the class. Suddenly, a

lot of boys followed me and wanted to be friends with me. I looked around me, and I had

two completely conflicting feelings fighting inside my heart. Part of me felt very great,

very proud, very special, and very powerful. But the other part of me felt very sad

because unfair treatment exists in this world. That meant children from a prominent

family could get away with being lazy while others from disadvantaged families had to

pay the full price. I asked myself what if I was not a mayor's son. The incidence before

could have turned out to be one of the worst things in my life. For the first time, I

witnessed a fact of life that no one wants to talk about. From that time on, none of the

teachers called me up for verbal tests any more. Every time a teacher walked into the

class, he asked Duc and Nang if they had helped me with my homework. They told the

teacher that they had, and the teacher collected our homework, and no more questions

were asked. My teachers always gave me very high scores on every subject without

checking my work. Soon, I was among the top ten students in the whole school without

hitting the books. My father was very impressed and proud of me. He bragged on me

everywhere he went. He did not know that my performance was poor, and my grade

was just another political game that people play.

Once my classmates found out about me, they always gathered around and played

with me. Everywhere I went they followed. They always invited me to go with them

sight seeing. If I did not have a ride, they all volunteered to take me. If I needed

something, they went out of their way to get it for me. Their families always insisted that

I come to their houses and spend time with them. If I showed an interest in seeing

movies, the theaters would provide complimentary tickets. If I liked a necklace or other

jewelry, the jewelry store would offer it to me as a gift. But I was instructed by my father

not to accept anything from anybody. He said that people wanted to do nice things for

me because they wanted to gain favor with my father. He said that people normally

wanted to get close to him to influence the mayor and to gain an advantage over the

others. He told me that he did not want to be controlled by anybody because if he did, he

could no longer be fair and just to the rest of the city. He wanted to serve the people and

to make their lives a little bit better. He said that he did that because he truly loved his

country. He said that he would rather live poorly with a clear conscience than enjoy a

luxurious life in a dishonest way. So no matter how much people offered me, I always

turned them down politely.

 Another incident happened the first few days after I arrived in Tra Vinh. I wanted to

go to church and prepared my confession before I could receive communion at Saturday

and Sunday mass. After locating the church, I went with my bodyguard. When we

arrived, we found out the church was closed for the day, and the confession schedule

was closed for that week. My bodyguard had to knock on the door and ask for a priest to

sit in for my confession. Soon the church door was opened and there was a priest in the

doorway who asked us, " What is happening?"

 My bodyguard answered, " Father, I am sorry to bother you at this time. I know that

your schedule of confession for this week is closed, but would you please for this time

only sit in for this boy's confession because he just arrived in this town today, and he

would like to receive communion at Sunday mass."

 The priest then said, " If you read the schedule, you should know that I would not sit

in for anybody's confession this week anymore. And if this boy wants it, he needs to

make sure to come back here next week during the time on the posted schedule."

 Then he glanced at me, and he glanced at the bodyguard. It seemed that he detected

something different in the way we looked and dressed. He asked, " Is this boy your son?"

 The bodyguard shook his head and replied, " No, father, this boy is not my son. I only

speak for him because he is small and because he just arrived here, and he does not know

his way around here yet."

Then the priest said, " Next time you should ask his parents to come here to check the

schedule, so they can bring this boy to church at the proper time. Now, if you will excuse

me, I have to go take care of something else."

Finally and reluctantly the bodyguard told the priest, " Father, please help this boy

with his confession. His father is the new mayor just arrived, and he asked me to bring

his son to church for his confession, so the boy will be ready for his communion this

weekend. I am instructed not to tell anybody about that. I am just the bodyguard for this

boy."

 After the body guard finished explaining, the priest said, " Is he really? Well in that

case, why don't you come in and wait for me at the church bench. Let me put on the robe,

and I am ready to sit in for his confession."

 Then he opened the church door for us, we came in, sat down, and waited for him on

the bench. I went through my confession very easily. I left the church with something

troubling my heart. I felt very disappointed. I did not know whom to trust anymore. That

day I witnessed a side of life that I was not taught nor had ever seen before. A man with

all the great respect and expectation from people in the town had discrimination and

difference in his heart. Then I asked myself if I could not trust the priest's words and

behavior, how could I relate to his gospel testimony. From that time on, I lost interest in

going to church, and it seemed like my father understood it. He never forced me to go to

church anymore.

 I received special treatment from everyone in the town. That started to trouble me

because I had a lot of privileges while other children from a lower social status did not

have any. But whenever there were privileges, there came the expectations. I felt like I

had to show others that I was just as special as people expected.

 One time my father was invited to a party which was organized by military

personnel. My father took me with him to the party. After introducing me to other

officers, my father left me there with a group of younger officers. He had to sit at a

different table with a more prominent group of people. As the party went on, these

officers at my table brought out another boy about my age, and they dared me to prove

that I was stronger than the other boy by outdrinking him with liquor. I told them that I

could because I used to drink with a few soldiers around the house before, so they

poured straight liquor in my glass and the other boy's glass. Then they clapped their

hands and dared me to match the boy. I took the glass, held my breath, and swallowed it

quickly. The boy drank up his glass without a problem at all. As soon as we finished,

they poured us another glass and dared us again. When I saw the second glass, I began to

worry because I knew that I would not be able to last more than three glasses. But I did

not want people to know that. I prayed that the boy would give up after the second glass,

so I would not have to face the embarrassment of being a loser. But before I could think

any further, the hand clapping sounded again. Then the urging noise started again. I

then took the second glass and finished it again. Right after I finished the second glass, I

began to feel something different. I prayed that the other boy would feel worse, so I

could be a winner. But that boy still finished his glass with no problem, too. Then more

people came to our table to see the match between the boy and me. Then they filled our

glasses again. Then the cheering started again. My head began to feel heavier every

second, but I could not give up now that the match had begun in earnest.

 Suddenly, the crowd started to split and there I saw my father who stood and looked

at me very upset. I could not utter a word. I was scared because I was not supposed to

drink at all, but now in front of him, I could not deny it. Many witnesses were there, and

the evidence was there too. I expected a serious punishment after the party. But he

looked at me and said, " Duc, I want you to wait for me in the car." So I went to the car

and waited for him.

He said goodbye to everybody at the party, and after he stepped into the car and

commanded the driver to go, he turned to me and said, " Duc, I was very disappointed in

your behavior tonight. Do you know that you are not supposed to drink at your age? "

I said, " Yes father, I knew it, but those people excited me to do that."

 Then he said, " I could spank you for what you did tonight, but you are older now, and

I expect you to learn to think and to reason in anything that you do. I want you to

remember tonight's incidence. And from now on don't let anybody excite you to do

anything that you don't want to do. A smart man would choose to excite people into

doing things that he wants. But he would not let others excite him to do things that he

doesn't want. Can you remember that?"

 I said, " Yes father, I will not forget that." Then he turned his face in a different

direction and tried to calm himself down; whereas, I turned in the other direction and

breathed a big sigh of relief for not being punished.

To be continued ...