Chapter 3 — After Forgetting Your Husband

Instinctively, I hugged Tue Tue tightly in my arms. The IV line was yanked, causing sharp pain on the back of my hand. Blood refluxed into a transparent plastic tube. Tue Tue shouted: “Mom is bleeding!” Tham Duat Hanh paused. The nurse rushed in, held my hand tightly, frowned and said: "Do not provoke the patient. After the accident, you need to rest and recuperate!" Tham Duat Hanh's face was extremely ugly, but he didn't say anything more. The nurse processed the needle again, Tue Tue stood next to her in tears, eyes staring at my hand without blinking, as if afraid I would break. The empty hole in my heart was filled with her tears, filled with bitterness. Waiting for the nurse to leave, I looked at Tham Duat Hanh.

“Are we divorced yet?”

He seemed annoyed: “Not yet.”

“So I want a divorce.”

Finally, cracks appeared on his face. He looked at me and said every word: "Diep Tri Chi, do you know what you are saying?" I don't know why I was so resigned before. I also don't know what this man in front of me ever gave me, so that I was willing to marry him and give birth to Tue Tue, so patient that I had to swallow cold rice balls into my stomach. But at this moment I know one thing clearly: *I don't want to follow him home.* I said: "I'm losing my memory, not dying. Listening to you talk, I feel uncomfortable. Seeing my child afraid of you, I feel even more uncomfortable."

“So I want a divorce.”

The corners of Tham Duat Hanh's lips tightened, his eyes became colder.

“Don't regret it.”

Tue Tue grabbed my sleeve even tighter. I looked at him: "I don't even remember who you are, so what do you regret?" 【Chapter 3】 Only when Tham Duat Hanh left, did the air in the room become easy to breathe again. Tue Tue closed the door carefully and pulled out a chair to insert it behind. The little girl was tiny, the chair legs dragging on the floor step by step, so tired that her forehead was sweating. I said: "There's no need to insert it, he won't come back again, right?" Tue Tue shook his head: "Dad will come back." My heart sank: "Was it like that before?" She climbed back into bed, carefully avoiding my IV line: "When dad is angry, he will come back to get things. He may not scold mom, but he doesn't bother to talk."

“What's it like not talking?”

Tue Tue thought: "It was mom talking to dad, dad acted like he didn't hear. Mom cooked rice, dad didn't eat. Mom asked dad if he was coming home, dad said it depends. Mom waited until the rice was cold, dad came back to get his coat, then left again." She told everything with a very calm attitude. A child should not talk about their parents' marriage with such equanimity. I asked: “What did you do at that time?”

“I'm waiting with mom.”

The little girl raised her hand and made a small circle: "The rice ball was about this big. Mom said she wasn't hungry, so she gave it to me to eat. Then I woke up in the middle of the night and saw mom sitting alone in the kitchen eating cold rice." My throat is choked. There was a knock on the door. Tue Tue immediately jumped down from the chair and spread her arms in front of me. The door opened and a nurse brought in medicine. The girl breathed a sigh of relief, but her shoulders still did not relax completely. The nurse looked at her and said softly to me: "For the past few days, your daughter has been standing by your side, but no one advised her to go home. At night, when she gets sleepy, she falls asleep. As soon as someone walks in, she wakes up immediately." I reached out and rubbed her hair, she looked away, her ears were slightly red. After the nurse away, Tue Tue took out an old tablet from her backpack: "Mom, let me show you this." Screen is cracked, startup is very slow. She opened the photo album, most of which were photos she took herself. There was my back sitting at the dining table, on the table were three sets of bowls and chopsticks, one set was clean and never been touched. There was a birthday cake, the candles had burned until only a short distance remained, the little girl was wearing a paper crown next to her, her eyes kept staring at the door.