Chapter 19 — Voices Behind the Dark Room

Next to it, she scrawled a line of text. Mother and Duong Duong's house. I lowered my head to look at those words, tears fell from my eyes, then quickly smiled again. Duong Duong reached out to wipe my face. "Mom, I'm not crying." I held my child's little hand. "Yes, mom, I'm not crying." I took my child towards the house. There is a person selling balloons on the side of the road. Red, yellow, blue flying in the wind. I bowed my head and asked my child: "Duong Duong, do you want one?" She looked for a long time, then pointed to the brightest red ball. "Want." I bought it and tied it to her wrist. The ball gently flew up, the girl looked up and laughed out loud. That laughter was clear and bright, as if it had finally flown out from behind that black door. I looked at my child and smiled too. Before, everyone said her whole life would be like that. But they don't know. My daughter is not unable to speak. She's just waiting for a safe world. Now, she can finally wait.