This weeken Dennis want go to Tokyo  by car .

Well ! 800 km .....so far away ,, but i drive alone so maybe tierd ...0 _ 0... hope Dennis can change but he not have driving licence yet .

Then thursday 22 th after work we are think starting go to Tokyo soon , huhuhu...how long time ? how many hours can been there ?i dont know ....

i do not know because japanese way not look like other country way , to small to slowly but maybe it is good for me the first time go to far away by car ...

we think going to meet friend too .

ABOUT PITY FRIEND .

We met her on ferry the way when we went to Hokaido from august , she together with husband and 2 kids .7 year old girl and 10 month boy . her husband look do not open mine ...but Ok we only talk to her .

she talking to me about her husband :

He is 32 years old very Carnal pleasure , a month his salary about 350 thousand yen( about 3000 dollar )but he give to her only 20 thousand ( about 180 dollar ) for use any things per month ...lol....for kids , for foods for things in home ,etc......

Still have money he take it all going to sex shop or buy things for women .....finish money he stay home with sex VIDEO .

Now my friend she was transmiting from husband ..maybe Blennorrhoea..or.....!?!?!?  .he got from Whorse she said .

So this weeken Dennis and me going to meet her and the kid ( girl ) Dennis also like her too .^ __ ^

Well Dennis also know them too so We can go to meet together .....very Pitied  for her .....

Drama
Japan 2005
Alternative Titel Always san-chome no yuhi; ALWAYS Sanchoume no Yuuhi;
Always: 3 chome no yuhi; ALWAYS 三丁目の夕日 通常版

Regie Takasgi Yamazaki
Drehbuch Takasgi Yamazaki und Ryohei Saigan nach dem Manga von Ryohei Saigan
Darsteller Hidetaka Yoshioka, Shin'ichi Tsutsumi, Maki Horikita, Koyuki, Horoko Yakushimaru,
Kazuki Koshimizu, Kenta Suga, Masaya Takahashi, Kaga Mochimaru, Toru Masuoka

Länge 133 Min.
Molodezhnaja Altersempfehlung o. A.

Humor	Spannung	Action	Gefühl	Anspruch	Erotik
		.			..

©  Text Marco, molodezhnaja 17.6.06
©  Bilder Toho / Robot, Screenshots molodezhnaja

STORY
Tokio 1958: Die Schülerin Mutsuko Hoshino (Maki Horikita) zieht vom Land in die Stadt, um ihre Stelle bei Suzuki anzutreten. Zu ihrem Erstaunen ist ihr neuer Arbeitgeber aber nicht ein Automobilgigant, sondern die kleine Werkstatt von Norifumi Suzuki (Shin'ichi Tsutsumi) in der dritten Strasse. Mutsuko, von der Familie bald "Roku" genannt, lebt sich trotzdem schnell ein bei Norifumi, Ehefrau Tomoe (Hiroko Yakushimaru) und Sohn Ippei (Kazuki Koshimuzi). Gegenüber betreibt Ryunosuke Chagawa (Hidetaka Yoshioka) einen kleinen Süssigkeitenladen. Seine wahre Ambition ist es jedoch, als Schriftsteller den Durchbruch zu schaffen. Momentan schreibt er jedoch erst Kinder-Abenteuer, die in der Nachbarschaft belächelt werden. Ryunosukes anderes Interesse gilt der schönen Hiromi Ishizaki (Koyuki), die in der Nähe eine Bar eröffnet hat. Als er eines Abends betrunken im Lokal sitzt, halst sie ihm den heimatlosen Buben Junnosuke (Kenta Suga) auf, den Ryunosuke zähneknirschend bei sich aufnehmen muss. Überrascht erfährt er, dass der Bub ein grosser Fan seiner Geschichten ist!
 

REVIEW
Takashi Yamazaki ist Japans Vorzeigemann für Special-Effects-Filme. Sein Debüt Juvenile und sein auch international erschienener Returner legen davon Zeugnis ab. Mit "Always  - Sunset on Third Street" versuchte er nach eigenem Bekunden etwas "Neues": Die Spezialeffekte würden nur zu einer Komponente des Films und einzig dazu dienen, die Story voranzutreiben. "Anders als in Hollywood", wie Yamazaki geistig etwas umnebelt festhielt. Die Liste von Hollywoodfilmen, die das auch schafften, ist lang - Robert Zemeckis ("Cast Away") ist zum Beispiel ein Meister darin. Aber wenigstens bei der eigenen Einschätzung hat er nicht gelogen: "Always" nutzt CGI- und physische Effekte, die sich nie in den Vordergrund drängen, sondern nur dazu dienen, das Tokio des Jahres 1958 wieder auferstehen zu lassen.

Die Absicht dahinter: Melancholie, Nostalgie, Sentimentalität. Der mit 12 Millionen Dollar Kosten überaus teure Film nach einer seit 1973 laufenden Manga-Serie von Ryohei Saigan zielt auf die Tränendrüsen und die Herzen der Baby-Boomer-Generation. Dies tut er derart konzentriert, dass Zyniker hier bald ins Zuckerkoma fallen. Doch mir gefiels - und den Japanern offensichtlich auch: "Always" spielte sich mit über 30 Millionen Dollar Einspielergebnis in den Jahrescharts weit nach vorne und holte bei den japanischen Academy Awards alle der möglichen 14 Nominationen! Gewonnen hat er davon satte 13 (*), nur die beste Hauptdarstellerin ging an Sayuri Yoshinaga, die für den ebenfalls 14-fach nominierten "Year One in the North" den Preis abstaubte. Der einzige andere Preis, der nicht an "Always" ging, war jener für den besten ausländischen Film (Million Dollar Baby).

Diese Auszeichnungen sind weitgehend gerechtfertigt: Yamazaki zaubert mit seiner Trick-Erfahrung, liebenswertem Cast und einem sicheren Auge für nostalgische Inszenierung ein Film fürs Gemüt. Der Bau des Tokyo Towers, der zu Beginn erst halb fertig ist, dient als Klammer um die Ereignisse, die während einem heissem Sommer und einem zauberhaften Winter spielen. Ort des Geschehens ist ein kleiner Abschnitt an der 3rd Street, der niemals nur annähernd real wirkt. Yamazaki hat sich zwar mit der Ausstattung immense Mühe gegeben, doch der Look, die Tricks und die Sets wirken so proper und künstlich wie in einem Studio der 50er. Das dürfte Sinn und Zweck sein, denn Yamazaki lag es nicht daran, das Japan der späten 50er wirklichkeitsgetreu zu inszenieren. Dafür ist man sogar in den Gangsterfilmen von Kinji Fukasaku besser aufgehoben, deren Themen hier tunlichst verschwiegen werden: Die Welt von "Always" kennt zwar Trauer und Rückschläge, doch keine Gangster, kaum Bösewichter, keine Korruption. Es ist die verfremdete, idealisierte Nostalgie, in der die reizenden Alltagsgeschichten passieren.

Die Akteure spielen die Ausschnitte aus dem Leben ihrer Figuren mit Hingabe. Auffallend sind neben dem amüsanten Shin'ichi Tsutsumi (Lorelei) und Ex-Model Koyuki (The Last Samurai) die Kinderdarsteller. Wenn etwa Junnosuke eine Füllfeder zu Weihnachten bekommt, leuchten seine Augen und sein Mund strahlt voller kindlicher Freude. Momente voller Unschuld, in der einfache Menschen ihr kleines Glück zelebrieren, machen "Always" zum garantierten Publikumsliebling. Dass manches davon kitschig daherkommt, nimmt man nicht nur in Kauf, man geniesst es. Spätestens jedenfalls, wenn am Ende mehrere Gelegenheiten auftauchen, mal so richtig in die Taschentücher zu rotzen. Ein gewöhnliches Happyend liefert der Film indes nicht, denn zum einen sind solche Filme, die Einblicke in das Leben verschiedener Menschen geben, selten auf ein einziges Ziel gerichtet, das man "happy" abschliessen kann, zum anderen gestattet sich Yamazaki doch noch einige Wehmut - massgeblich in der Story von Hiromi.

Empfehlen kann ich den Film allen, die ihren Zynismus auch mal aussen vor lassen können und sich gerne melancholisch-nostalgischer Unterhaltung hingeben. In diesem Bereich ist "Always" ein Abräumer. Wenn das halbe Quartier gebannt vor dem ersten Fernseher sitzt und einen Match von Rikidozan bestaunt, wenn die verschrobene alte Kiosk-Dame ein Getränk namens "Coca Cola" trinkt, das "aussieht wie Soja", oder wenn zum ersten Mal ein Kühlschrank in einer Wohnung auftaucht und der Eismann nur einen wehmütigen Blick auf den entsorgten Eiskasten wirft, dann sind das kleine, feine Szenen, die Yamazaki zu einem 133-minütigen Trip in eine semi-imaginäre Vergangenheit verwebt. Eine, an der wir uns alle erfreuen und an die wir uns gerne erinnern, selbst, wenn wir sie gar nie erlebten. Movie Magic, in der Tat.

(*) Bester Film, Beste Regie, Bester Hauptdarsteller (Hidetaka Yoshioka), Bester Nebendarsteller (Shin'ichi Tsutsumi), Beste Nebendarstellerin (Hiroku Yakushimaru), Bestes Drehbuch, Beste Musik, Beste Kamera, Beste Beleuchtung, Beste Ausstattung, Bester Ton, Bester Schnitt, Bester Neuer Star (Maki Horikita) - der letzte Preis wird manchmal nicht mitgezählt, da er an alle sechs Nominierten ging.

MEINE DVD (Regular Edition)
Japan, Code 2, NTSC
Anamorphic Widescreen
Japanisch 5.1, DTS und 2.0 mit englischen und japanischen Untertiteln.

BESTELLEN 
Yesasia (Japan: Regular Edition)
Yesasia (Japan: Deluxe Edition)
amazon.co.jp (Japan: Regular Edition)

EXTERNE LINKS 
imdb.com

SCREENSHOTS

The dam of Yen-Phu, one summer afternoon.

It was the beginning of the rising, and the waters of the Red River were so tumultuous that they seemed to be on the point of swirling away the small island in the middle of the riverbed. Tree trunks and dead branches, torn away from the forest, floated adrift in the middle of a current of reddish water and formed like a continuous chain of small boats slipping at full speed toward an unknown destination.

Standing on the dam, Thuc, the mason, followed the wooden fragments with a glance take care of Bo?

- I'm going home now ... You come along with me also. What's the use for you to stay here?

- All right! Go ahead first. I will join you a little later.

Obedient, the young woman returned to the village of Yen-Phu.

° ° °

The wife of artisan Thuc stopped at the doorstep of her house. The miserable aspect of the small, humid and gloomy house wrung her heart.

On a plank-bed, devoid of mat, the three children were very agitated, calling their mother with loud cries. Bo howled to claim his sucking; he had nothing in the stomach since noon. Nhon, not having succeeded in calming him, was at hair, that from her head, now let loose, hung down her back in a dense mass, and quite covered her bottom, so that she might have sat on the end of it, whereas her belly, it is almost impossible to describe it, except by calling it a veritable "Forêt N do you cry? He gently asked her, very touched in his heart.

- Because you want to go and seek wood without me.

Thuc reflected. Scrutinizing the sky and the river, he said:

- You c anything to eat and don't even have any milk for you!

The little boy, drunk of tiredness, fell asleep shortly after. As for the their small, humid and gloomy house, at the inner lower part of dam Yen-Phu, nothing attractive had come to fill the insignificance in the life of this miserable couple. Their existence became even more miserable, when they had given birth, in three successive years, to three children. At a time when work was rare and wages were thin, although they toiled all day long, they did not manage to join the two ends to nourish the whole family.

Then, the previous year, at the time of the rising, Thuc had found a new idea to earn his living: he borrowed some money and bought a small boat, with which, every day, the couple had gone on the river to catch up the floating wood. Two months later, Thuc and his wife had paid off their debts and they even had excesses to spend.

That is why this year, they watched with impatience for the rise of the water level. Since the day before, their livelihood had returned with the swelling of the river.

At this point of her meditation, Lac smiled to hersel

Translated from Vietnamese by Trúc Huy

The dam of Yen-Phu, one summer afternoon.

It was the beginning of the rising, and the waters of the Red River were so tumultuous that they seemed to be on the point of swirling away the small island in the middle of the riverbed. Tree trunks and dead branches, torn away from the forest, floated adrift in the middle of a current of reddish water and formed like a continuous chain of small boats slipping at full speed toward an unknown destination.

Standing on the dam, Thuc, the mason, followed the wooden fragments with a glance of covetousness. Then, turning over, he looked fixedly at his wife the river: the tree trunks always floated and slipped at top speed in the middle of dark reddish waters.

The man had a vague smile and said to his wife:

- How about taking a risk?

His wife shook her head without answering.

- Did you go to Mrs. Ky? He pursued.

- Yes.

- And then?

- Nothing. She says that she will pay only if we bring at first the wood. She doesn't want to lend us beforehand money.

- Oh yeah?

These two words had fallen as firm and precise as the last knocks of a mason's trowel on a brick when he is building up a new wall.

Thuc decided to carry out an extravagant act, so he turned to his wife:

- Listen! Why don't you go home and take care of Bo?

- Nhon and Be are already with him.

- I know, but it would be better if you were there also. Nhon is only five years old; she cannot indeed watch her younger brother and sister.

- OK then. I'm going home now ... You come along with me also. What's the use for you to stay here?

- All right! Go ahead first. I will join you a little later.

Obedient, the young woman returned to the village of Yen-Phu.

° ° °

The wife of artisan Thuc stopped at the doorstep of her house. The miserable aspect of the small, humid and gloomy house wrung her heart.

On a plank-bed, devoid of mat, the three children were very agitated, calling their mother with loud cries. to feed him, she had asked several times Be.

But Be did not want to go. She rolled about on the bed, pushing cries of rage.

The young woman hurried in. She took the infant in her arms and fondled him:

- Oh, my poor baby! Mom left you for a very long time. You are very hungry and you cried a lot!

Then woman heaved a sigh. Her encircled eyes were clouded with tears. She got up and, by pacing up and down, rocked her infant with gesture and voice:

- Oh, my poor baby! I don't have anything to eat and don't even have any milk for you!

The little boy, drunk of tiredness, fell asleep shortly after. As for the two older sisters, the mother had sent them to play outside so that their brother had a little calm to sleep.

Then, sitting in silence, Thuc's wife with certainty that never still, so far, she had been able to enjoy the slightest bit of the well-being and the rest that well-to-do people know.

At twelve, thirteen years old, the got married.

During the five years that followed, in their small, humid and gloomy house, at the inner lower part of dam Yen-Phu, nothing attractive had come to fill the insignificance in the life of this miserable couple. Their existence became even more miserable, when they had given birth, in three successive years, to three children. At a time when work was rare and wages were thin, although they toiled all day long, they did not manage to join the two ends to nourish the whole family.

Then, the previous year, at the time of the rising, Thuc had found a new idea to earn his living: he borrowed some money and bought a small boat, with which, every day, the couple had gone on the river to catch up the floating wood. Two months later, Thuc and his wife had paid off their debts and they even had excesses to spend.

That is why this year, they watched with impatience for the rise of the water level. Since the day before, their livelihood had returned with the swelling of the river.

At this point of her meditation, Lac smiled to herselfy of the space, the Red River, indifferent, let its stream pursue its course, as forever...

BENEDICTION

Lorsque, par un décret des puissances suprêmes,
Le Poète apparaît en ce monde ennuyé,
Sa mère épouvantée et pleine de blasphèmes
Crispe ses poings vers Dieu, qui la prend en pitié:

« Ah! que n'ai-je mis bas tout un nud de vipères,
Plutôt que de nourrir cette dérision!
Maudite soit la nuit aux plaisirs éphémères
Où mon ventre a conçu mon expiation!

« Puisque tu m'as choisie entre toutes les femmes
Pour être le dégoût de mon triste mari,
Et que je ne puis pas rejeter dans les flammes,
Comme un billet d'amour, ce monstre rabougri,

« Je ferai rejaillir la haine qui m'accable
Sur l'instrument maudit de tes méchancetés,
Et je tordrai si bien cet arbre misérable,
Qu'il ne pourra poussa ses boutons empestés! »

Elle ravale ainsi l'écume de sa haine,
Et, ne comprenant pas les desseins éternels,
Elle-même prépare au fond de la Géhenne
Les bûchers consacrés aux crimes maternels.

Pourtant, sous la tutelle invisible d'un Ange,
L'Enfant déshérité s'enivre de soleil,
Et dans tout ce qu'il boit et dans tout ce qu'il mange
Retrouve l'ambroisie et le nectar vermeil.

Il joue avec le vent, cause avec le nuage
Et s'enivre en chantant du chemin de la croix;
Et l'Esprit qui le suit dans son pèlerinage
Pleure de le voir gai comme un oiseau des bois.

Tous ceux qu'il veut aimer l'observent avec crainte,
Ou bien, s'enhardissant de sa tranquillité,
Cherchent à qui saura lui tirer une plainte,
Et font sur lui l'essai de leur férocité.

Dans le pain et le vin destinés à sa bouche
Ils mêlent de la cendre avec d'impurs crachats;
Avec hypocrisie ils jettent ce qu'il touche,
Et s'accusent d'avoir mis leurs pieds dans ses pas.

Sa femme va criant sur les places publiques:
« Puisqu'il me trouve assez belle pour m'adorer,
Je ferai le métier des idoles antiques,
Et comme elles je veux me faire redorer;

« Et je me soûlerai de nard, d'encens, de myrrhe,
De génuflexions, de viandes et de vins,
Pour savoir si je puis dans un cur qui m'admire
Usurper en riant les hommages divins!

« Et, quand je m'ennuîrai de ces farces impies,
Je poserai sur lui ma frêle et forte main;
Et mes ongles, pareils aux ongles des harpies,
Sauront jusqu'à son cur se frayer un chemin.

« Comme un tout jeune oiseau qui tremble et qui palpite,
J'arracherai ce cur tout rouge de son sein,
Et, pour rassasier ma bête favorite,
Je le lui jetterai par terre avec dédain! »

Vers le Ciel, où son il voit un trône splendide,
Le Poète serein lève ses bras pieux,
Et les vastes éclairs de son esprit lucide
Lui dérobent l'aspect des peuples furieux:

« Soyez béni, mon Dieu, qui donnez la souffrance
Comme un divin remède à nos impuretés,
Et comme la meilleure et la plus pure essence
Qui prépare les forts aux saintes voluptés!

« Je sais que vous gardez une place au Poète
Dans les rangs bienheureux des saintes Légions,
Et que vous l'invitez à l'éternelle fête
Des Trônes, des Vertus, des Dominations.

« Je sais que la douleur est la noblesse unique
Où ne mordront jamais la terre et les enfers,
Et qu'il faut pour tresser ma couronne mystique
Imposer tous les temps et tous les univers.

« Mais les bijoux perdus de l'antique Palmyre,
Les métaux inconnus, les perles de la mer,
Par votre main montés, ne pourraient pas suffire
A ce beau diadème éblouissant et clair;

« Car il ne sera fait que de pure lumière,
Puisée au foyer saint des rayons primitifs,
Et dont les yeux mortels, dans leur splendeur entière,
Ne sont que des miroirs obscurcis et plaintifs

Tran Thi Thu Van (pseudonym: Nha Ca) was born on Oct 20, 1989 in Hue, Central Vietnam. She was raised in the peaceful surroundings of the country's last imperial capital and graduated from the famous Dong Khanh High School there. Together with her journalist husband, Tran Da Tu, and other family members, she became involved with the Thuong Yeu and Hai Au Publishing Houses which produced her numerous books. In all she published over thirty volumes, including poems, short stories and novellas. She also contributed to literary magazines in Vietnam before 1975. In l965 Nha Ca won the National Poetry Award and in 1972 she took second place in competition for the President's Literature Award for her prose description of the destruction of Hue during the 1968 Tet Offensive, entitled Giai Khan So Cho Hue (tr. Wear Mourning for Hue). The author is noted for her sensitivity in portraying the effects of the war on the lives of ordinary people.

In 1976 both Nha Ca and her husband were placed in re-education camps by the Communists. After nine months Nha Ca was freed, but her husband remains in confinement as of this writing. Nha Ca returned to Ho Chi Minh City to be with her children.

The following story takes place in the city of Hue at the time of the 1968 Communist offensive. It begins as a typical New Year's celebration-with ceremonies and prayers for the ancestors, games and visits with relatives, young love, and dreams of the future. Then the war comes and changes all these things forever.

° ° °

Diem ¹ parked her bicycle in front of her uncle's house and rang the bell. Cousin Be Ty ran out smiling with a rattan basket in her arms.

"Cousin Diem! Come in and pray with us!"

Diem shook her head violently.

"No, I've got to get back home. Tomorrow morning I'll come by to visit Aunt and Uncle and my cousins to wish them a happy new year. We're praying at my house, too, today."

Cousin Be Ty stared at Diem's hand firmly gripping the handlebars of her bicycle.

"Oh, that's nice! You're wearing a ring! Getting married in the new year?"

Diem lowered her eyes shyly.

"Yes."

"Let me be a bride's maid!"

"Yes, please."

"Aren't you afraid your friends will laugh at you when they see you wearing a ring?"

"Phan gave it to me."

Cousin Be burst into laughter.

"You're supposed to wear one after you get married. Now everyone will talk! Will you still be going to school?"

Diem's face darkened.

"I'm not sure. Phan's papa says I should continue."

"You monkey! How can you study there?"

Diem put on her conical hat.

"I have to go home. Mama's waiting. Today we're praying at the house."

She turned her bike, made a circle around the yard and climbed on the saddle. She adjusted the skirt of her ao dai ², tying the back panel to the back of the bicycle seat and wrapping the front between her legs. Then, jerking her hair out of her face, she pedalled off, traveling at an easy pace.

It took some effort for Diem to worm her way off Tran Hung Dao St. along Nguyen Hoang Park close to the bridge by the flower market. All she could see were the golden plum branches rising high above the heads of the crowd. She rode across Trang Tien bridge, turned by the Post Office and went down some smaller roads to Doat Lane. She was certain if she went down that street at this time she would see Phan. Doat Lane was the emptiest and also the most beautiful street She would never forget the twilights there when she and Phan rode their bicycles side-by-side and talked. Nor could she forget their fear and embarrassment as they turned to ride apart from each other, one slowing down, the other pedalling faster, whenever a stranger came their way. There were numerous vestiges of their love's history on this little road. Like the day she came riding down the lane and the chain of her bicycle fell off. She herself propped up the bike and tried to fix it, but to no avail. Fortunately Phan lived nearby and it was not hard to make his acquaintance. Half an hour later, Diem was on her way home. It was evening and the street lights were on. Phan escorted her from behind. As she approached home, she slowed down and said, hiding her face behind her conical hat, "Thank you. I'm home." And she rode into the alley of Chinese tea shrubs. Later Phan told her that he fell in love with her from that day, when the panels of her long dress and the bicycle were lost behind the green, cleanly pruned trees.

Going past Phan's house, she did not dare look inside, but she knew he would see her. She lowered her head so that her hat covered all but two tufts of hair falling by her shoulders. But she waited, her cheeks growing warm.

"Diem."

"Yah."

"Where've you been?"

" I took some fruit to my uncle's to offer to the ancestors. Mama sent me there."

"Back home."

Their talk was uneventful, but Diem found it very familiar, as if she had known beforehand what he would ask. Every time it was the same. The two rode from Doat Lane, winding down Nguyen Hue St. past the Office of Public Works and down Tran Thuc Nhan St. But this time it was different. Phan spoke on.

"I'll just take you to Ben Ngu garden and come back by the bridge where it's dark. Today, my family is doing its New Year's Eve prayers."

"Same with us."

"I'll come by the morning of the Second, okay? New Years I'm going to Truoi, where grandpa lives."

"Yah."

He looked at her hand scratching the handlebar.

"Diem."

"Yah."

"You're wearing the ring?"

She threw him a quick glance, then winked.

"That's weird!"

Phan smiled and lowered his eyes a little.

"Tomorrow I'll start wearing mine too."

"Oh, that's really weird! You're going to start imitating me?"

"What's weird about that?"

"It's so crazy! Move away! We might run into somebody!"

"So what?" Phan responded softly as he turned away. "We're almost married."

Diem pushed her hat back on her head and looked over to where Doat Lane met Nguyen Hue St.

"Mama says wait until we get married."

"Those old women!"

" Haven't you noticed? Every time you come over, she makes you go out for water or to do this or that — Ah, could you come over today for prayers?"

" No. Papa'll give me hell. The altar is set up today. My uncle is doing the offerings at noon. It's at my house tonight"

"Too bad."

"Huh."

Phan's hand strayed from his bicycle to take hers. Diem remained still, but shook her head hard.

"You do that and we might fall. Tsk! Crazy!" Phan's finger explored her ring finger.

"Em." ³

"Yah, what, Anh"

"Do you care about me?"

"Always. If this ring should ever fall off my finger, I'll die."

"You won't take it off and throw it in the Perfume River or up on Ngu Mountain, will you?"

"No way!"

"Em!"

"What Anh?"

"Tell the truth."

"You're crazy. Only a few days and you get all worried."

"How do you know? This morning I went to ask your mother if we could be married in the first month before I go to Thu Due ⁴. There's less than ten days left"

"I haven't said anything to my friends. They'll say I was keeping a military secret"

"During the first days of the year, we'll go visiting and tell them."

Diem shook her head.

"Anh, we're coming to the bridge. Go home now."

"Are you afraid of the dark?"

"No. This part of the road is bright. Past the bridge and up the slope a little, there's a policeman on guard, Anh."

"So, I'll go home?"

"Yah, go home."

So saying, Diem lowered her eyes and rode straight ahead. Rows of Chinese tea trees could be seen here and there in the distance by the palace. As she turned into her house, the street lights were on. Diem's mother was washing her hair on the porch. The girl parked her bicycle by the starfruit tree Her mother looked up.

"Did you take the offerings to uncle, Diem?"

"Yes, Mama."

"Change your clothes and go wash your hair. You can go out to the garden to pick some limes to make your hair silky. Oh, and clean off the wooden bed for me. Tonight we'll play cards."

As Diem went inside, she heard her mother add," In a little while, tell Uncle Bay to take a pedicab to Aunt Thi' s to pick up Grandpa. You can go out back and call. No need to run across the way."

Diem retired to her room, changed and lay sprawled on the bed. Shortly she would go pick limes to wash her hair. She looked at the small vase filled with hedgeroses that Phan had brought that morning. The flowers had a bright, rosy color, but Diem felt a mixture of happiness and sadness. She thought back on the past springs, seasons totally different from this one. This year, she did not feel excited about greeting the new year, but, rather, she felt she was growing older, beginning to change. Diem was about to open a new chapter of her life. She was to be married- and to Diem being married was like stepping into a phase of her life both long and filled with strange and distant things. She was to live with someone new until she died and this made her anxious even though that person was the one she loved. Her past had been quiet and she had nothing to complain about. How would her future be? She was like a little child standing in front of a huge house that she knew she could never fully measure.

She looked at the ring on her finger, lifted it to her face and rubbed it against the softness of her lips. Well, it is over. An ordinary dream. There we will be happy.

She bit her finger.

"Anh Phan, no matter how sharp my teeth are, I could never bite off this finger!"

She opened her clothes hamper and stared at the soft white dress lying there. This was the dress she would wear when she greeted Phan on the second day of the year. "Who made it?" he would ask and she would be pleased to respond that she herself had cut and sewed the dress. She would make a good housewife.

"Surely! If you don't believe it, well...," Diem smiled to herself.

Then she remembered she had to go wash her hair and at the same time she would call Uncle Bang. She skipped into the garden. The delicate white dress still fluttered in her mind. She pictured herself with a long-sleeved white gown, embroidered with roses on the breast and her hair combed long. But, oh! How could she have roses like a heart embroidered on her breast? She burst out laughing.

"It would look nice," she thought, "but that dress hasn't any embroidery on it!"

Red was not her color. It represented the unknown, the wicked to her. That is why she preferred getting married to studying to be a midwife. Nearly all her friends had applied for training in that field already.

The lime tree appeared before her. Diem needed only to look up, reach and pull down a branch and she could pick whatever she liked. Her happiness was so simple, something easy and within her reach. She thought that tonight after sitting and watching the others play cards, she would lie down by the wooden bed and before going to sleep she would eat all the roses Phan had given her that morning.

° ° °

Dear Anh Phan,

So, you are held up in Truoi and cannot come back. Oh, Anh, I am so tired. While I write this, I am living in a crowded shelter. It is above ground and built right beside a house with 14 people. Every day there are noises and we are scared. Since New Year's Day and the morning of the second day, we have all been stuck here and cannot evacuate. Now it is the 14th day of the year and we have been in this cramped shelter for 13 of those days, Outside, my friend Thach was shot and we buried her right away in the garden. In our house, a neighbor is staying in the next room for shelter. They brought in two wounded who cry and scream every night. The first few days, some of those people brought medicines and bandages, but lately they have not been here. Probably they are now all dead, Anh, and their ghosts haunt our house.

Several times, the enemy forced me to carry ammunition and wounded people on a tricycle to Tay Thien. Each time I was so scared I almost fainted, with the bombs falling from Phu Bai. A lot of those who went with me died. I carried ammunition for five days and the wounded for two days before I kept fainting constantly. I ran back with some others and we were searched. They came to our house. Mama rubbed turmeric on my face and fig on my eyes to make them swollen so I would look sick and they wouldn't take me away. But I wish I was really sick, sick from worry, grief and love. Mama cried as she raised her hand to slap my face to make it swell up. I could not keep from crying either as I watched my brother, Van, hiding up on the roof for days. Sometimes he could eat and sometimes he could not, scared to death all the time with grenades falling from all sides around Ben Ngu and the Tu Dam Temple.

There has been a lot of heavy shelling the past few days. I lie close to the ground and still people fall on top of me because of the house and earth shaking. I feel like my chest should be broken to bits, but strangely enough I do not feel any pain or shortness of breath. I can still breathe, but it is heavy. I can eat the rice that we are able to cook. Sometimes before I get a chance to eat, I have to throw the bowl aside and get down quickly or grab onto someone. When the explosions stop I see stars. I have to pinch myself to be sure I am alive.

Anh Phan, I will probably die and not see you again. Death is certain, Anh. They are shooting over the heads of the people in the middle. But, Anh, in these terrifying moments, when I lie waiting for the bomb that will fall right on this shelter, even now sometimes I get romantic thoughts. I miss you more and get more excited. Now I see how my love is more important. I remember our little ride down Doat Lane on New Year's Eve. So dreamy, so beautiful, wasn't it, Anh? And I gave you my vow. Do you remember? Oh, Anh, if I die, find my body and look at my ring finger. But I am so afraid of dying. If I die, who will you have to love and to marry? But if you marry someone else, I will be jealous and even if I am dead I won't close my eyes! Hue girls get jealous so easily, bitter jealous, like hot pepper! Oh, Anh, we have a garden of hot peppers, but every meal my mouth waters to have one! I would like to eat a bitter hot pepper before I die so I will turn into a horribly jealous ghost! But I joke too much.

The shooting has started again, Anh. How can we take food up to Van? How can we help him escape? We are running out of lamps here. We have to conserve fuel. I have to turn this light out. When I lie down in the dark, I will remember you, remember you like crazy so that if tonight I die, I will still be able to imagine you - do you hear what I am saying? The lamp is dying. Maybe my writing is going up and down like the mountains around Hue now.


Dear Anh Phan,

It has finally happened. Early this morning my sister, Tu, left to take some rice up to Van, afraid that if she waited too long she might be seen and searched. Just as she went out the door she was hit by shrapnel from a bomb. There was a lot of bleeding. I had to tear up a new dress to bandage her. Right now she is lying quietly at my feet. And as for Brother Van, he is dead. Not from the bombs, but after staying up on the roof without food for so long he felt hungry and faint so that he fell off and died on the spot. His body is lying on Grandpa's wooden bed, together with my grandpa, who is still alive. Mama cried a lot and asked some of the ones outside to bury him for the time being in the garden, but they said if the airplanes saw them digging they would be shot at.

By midday today they had fallen back about half way. Mama says maybe we can escape. But before we can go, we have to find a way to bury Van. The best thing would be to leave him in the shelter until we return. But another problem is Tu and Grandpa. Tu is wounded and hard to carry and Grandpa is determined to stay here. Everyone cries, but he will not change his mind. Tu says it is better to die at home and she begs everyone else to leave.

Oh, Anh, why is my family so sad? No, it is not just my family. Everyone in Uncle Bang's family is dead. Their shelter caved in. One of the children ran over to tell us. Out on the street there are a lot of unburied corpses. Tho says now there are only two ways to ecape. One is by Ben Ngu Bridge, then along the other side of the river where they say the Americans are. The other way is back to Tay Thien. But if we meet "them" in Tay Thien, we will never survive. Madame Minh, cousins Vy and Cao, Uncle Hick were all taken away up to Tay Thien. In our family Brother Van is dead. Only Mama and we kids are left. They have not yet taken me and that's why Mama says we should make a run for it. Last night they brought some students in "for judgment" behind our garden. I heard the rifle fire and people shouting. They came in and asked for mats, but all the mats were gone. I heard them digging in the garden. They filled in the graves and left. The bombs were still falling. Mama says when dark falls and the bombing lets up, we will all go and try to escape. Here, no matter what we do we will die. But Grandpa is afraid to die in the street. I do not like his ideas. At least going out and trying to escape is better than just dying at home. Under the bridge there are a lot of people running and a lot dying. This morning while I was crying for Van, I looked out the gate and saw a lady thrust her baby in the Chinese tea shrubs, then run away crying. Before I could scream I had to get back inside because the explosions were too close. Meo went outside to look and said the baby was dead with red ants all over it and a black dog standing there ready to eat it. The dogs are starving. They have come into the house. On Grandpa's wooden bed there is a big pile of bricks. Grandpa throws them at the dogs to protect Van's body. Ever since morning, Grandpa has been mourning and reading prayers and sometimes he just bursts out in curses. One bomb fell in the middle of the yard and shrapnel flew all over, but missed where he lay. Grandpa says the bombs are afraid of him. His only worry is the dogs.

Oh, Anh, I am sure I will die and all my family will die. I cry so much and it just makes me sad to think that when everything quiets down, you will come looking for me and you will not find my body anywhere. My arm will be inside one dog's belly, my face inside another's. Anh, how am

I so evil that I cannot be buried in a grave? Brother Van and Grandpa....

I want to remember the day they died and I want somebody to remember and pray for them. Now I understand why every family prays for its dead onNetv Year's Day, why there is incense and wandering souls and ghosts.

Just now I heard everyone say that at 6:00 tonight we will flee to another place. Grandpa is staying. Sister Tu will stay, as well. Van's body will be kept in the shelter. Mama, Ut, Tay, Bang and myself will try to escape. Meo will go along. Uncle will stay with Grandpa and take care ofTu's wounds. Grandpa and Tu will stay in the shelter to keep the dogs away from Van. I will place this letter underneath the wooden bed which they will soon place in front of the entrance to the shelter. If I die, Mama will show you where the letter is. I think that Mama will live and I have to live. The ring has been feeling loose the past few days, but I still have it on, like a lucky charm. Oh, Anh, are you in Truoi? Or where? I am so worried. Tonight I will go. I do not know if I will find life or death.

Today the lamp went out There is only enough food for two people to eat for a couple of weeks. I pray and hope it will be peaceful soon. They say the Americans have taken back the Public Works on the right bank. Can you go there?

I have eaten all the hedgeroses you gave me on New Year's Eve, my medicine that makes me immortal, my love potion. I have to get ready to go now. This letter will be under the wooden bed.

° ° °

From the model school ⁵ Phan tried several times to get up to Ben Ngu, but lately the artillery shelling was heavy in that area. One time he got to the river and the Americans drove him back, so he stood beside the road to meet all the evacuees and ask about the city, but he received no news. Then he found a man fleeing from Ben Ngu to Tan Lang and Phan learned that half of Diem's family was caught there and the other half was following the railroad tracks to An Luu. But they had not yet made it when a shell hit Diem and her body was thrown into a thicket When Phan heard this, he buried his face in his hands and wailed. He had not the strength to inquire further about the family. A couple of weeks later, after Ben Ngu had been recovered, Phan was the first to go along the railroad tracks there. On the way he found Diem's body. Her face was bruised and her corpse stank. She was stuck among the bushes where her body fluids had drained out. Her white dress was in tatters, but on her breast the two letters "PD" embroidered together in white thread remained untouched and that was how he identified her body. She was missing one arm and on the other Phan could not find the ring. Her finger had been cut off. Phan searched all over but could not find any sign of the finger or the ring anywhere.

When her body was taken to be wrapped for burial, they found her ringfinger lying in her entrals - no one knew why this was so - and the ring was gone.

After burying Diem, Phan looked for her mother, who was lying in an American hospital. He went to her old house. Grandpa was dead. Tu was also dead. Their and Van's corpses had been eaten by dogs, an arm or leg missingfrom each. While moving away the wooden bed to pull up their remains, Phan discovered Diem's letters.

Her bicycle was still in good condition, standing beside a wall that had not collapsed. Phan took the bike away, walking beside it, not sitting down to ride.

Phan's house had been hit in only a few places. The following days, Diem's surviving friends passed by Doat Lane and they could see Phan riding his bicycle, leading another alongside him. On the handlebars of the passengerless vehicle there was tied a gold ring. No one dared ask about it or try to comfort him, because Phan would not answer. Nor would he stand and listen when anyone mentioned Diem's name.

Now Doat Lane is beautiful once again and in the evenings lovers can be seen riding their bicycles side-by-side down the street. The image of Diem, like the pile of broken bricks and traces of the bombing, has faded from the minds of her friends. They grew used to seeing Phan ride along with an empty bicycle beside him. No one had time anymore to ask him about his love.

La sottise, l'erreur, le péché, la lésine,
Occupent nos esprits et travaillent nos corps,
Et nous alimentons nos aimables remords,
Comme les mendiants nourrissent leur vermine.

Nos péchés sont têtus, nos repentirs sont lâches,
Nous nous faisons payer grassement nos aveux,
Et nous rentrons gaîment dans le chemin bourbeux,
Croyant par de vils pleurs laver toutes nos taches.

Sur l'oreiller du mal c'est Satan Trismégiste
Qui berce longuement notre esprit enchanté,
Et le riche métal de notre volonté
Est tout vaporisé par ce savant chimiste.

C'est le Diable qui tient les fils qui nous remuent!
Aux objets répugnants nous trouvons des appas;
Chaque jour vers l'Enfer nous descendons d'un pas,
Sans horreur, à travers des ténèbres qui puent.

Ainsi qu'un débauché pauvre qui baise et mange
Le sein martyrisé d'une antique catin,
Nous volons au passage un plaisir clandestin
Que nous pressons bien fort comme une vieille orange.

Serré, fourmillant, comme un million d'helminthes,
Dans nos cerveaux ribote un peuple de Démons,
Et, quand nous respirons, la Mort dans nos poumons
Descend, fleuve invisible, avec de sourdes plaintes.

Si le viol, le poison, le poignard, l'incendie,
N'ont pas encore brodé de leurs plaisants desseins
Le canevas banal de nos piteux destins,
C'est que notre âme, hélas! n'est pas assez hardie.

Mais parmi les chacals, les panthères, les lices,
Les singes, les scorpions, les vautours, les serpents,
Les monstres glapissants, hurlants, grognants, rampants
Dans la ménagerie infâme de nos vices,

Il en est un plus laid, plus méchant, plus immonde!
Quoiqu'il ne pousse ni grands gestes ni grands cris,
Il ferait volontiers de la terre un débris
Et dans un bâillement avalerait le monde;

C'est l'Ennui!—L'il chargé d'un pleur involontaire,
Il rêve d'échafauds en fumant son houka.
Tu le connais, lecteur, ce monstre délicat,
—Hypocrite lecteur,—mon semblable,—mon frère!

Linh opened the door and noticed that something was missing. Her black prom dress was missing. She could have sworn she left it on her bed. She frantically rummaged through her room. Her room consisted of posters of Aerosmith, Gun N’ Roses, 2Pac and other celebrities. CD cases lay scattered on the floor next to her stereo, which was positioned in the corner of the room. The bookshelf, positioned against the wall adjacent the door was filled with Teens and Seventeens magazines. In fact, the top shelf consisted of every issues of Teens and Seventeens since 1989. The second shelf was filled only to 3/4 of its capacity. A yellow book, The Story of Buddha, and a red book, The Complete Story of Vietnam placed lengthwise served as bookends. Linh turned her room upside down, but with no sign of her prom dress. The only thing she managed to find was her mother’s old A’o Da`i, a traditional Vietnamese dress. It was a true sky blue, plain with no fancy decorations or straps. She tried on the dress. It was wearable, but it did not quite fit as she has hoped. The slleves was a little long and it was too loose around the hips. It was so different from the prom dress. However, the prom dress did not fit perfectly either. The top was too tight and Linh thought it made her look fat. She thought to herself, "I can never fit into anything.

Nhan climbed out of the family car, a leather briefcase under his arm. He turned toward the edge of the field, then followed the narrow path between two sparse rows of bamboo dotted with golden leaves.

Here and there along the way he turned to ask the servant coming with him, "Are we close?"

"Not too far, sir."

Nhan was a former university student. First he had studied at the medical school, but twice he failed looking every bit like a debtor whose time had come when he had no way to come up with the money.

Meeting Nhan so suddenly, the man's face paled even more. In all those parts, who did not know notorious reputation of Clerk son? Nevertheless, the man forced a smile and invited Nhan into his home.

Without malice, Nhan spoke Nhan spoke easily and curtly.

"I've come to collect the alcohol money."

The debtors face contorted as he described to Nhan his family's predicament- their girl was ill, they had just been wealthiest man in the area. ¹ weeping and entreating.

Meanwhile, Nhan's eyes coldly and aimlessly wandered to the family's bamboo bed with brown curtain, old and patched with pieces of Western cloth, a wobbly table and their goods numbered in the hundreds, the thousands, and they daily the musty odor of the damp ground, and the smell of smoke from the kitchen did not cause Nhan to frown in disgust If he had been in this circumstance two years earlier, he would have shut his nose shut his nose and run away, troubled about the poverty and of the peasants. Today as he looked around, he was used to it all.

Waiting until the couple had finished speaking, Nhan politely repeated his first statement

"I've come to collect Surely he would see to it he continued.

"Five hundred was borrowed, less 300 in security, leaves 200."

In distress, the man and his wife begged and explained once more. Nhan remained unmoved. More unmoved. More than that, he did not seem to hear anything, his eyes cold and lips twitching narrow and deficient ideas of his parents. After two months of insistent begging and pleading for permission from them to enter medical school, he gained their notarized. Once the contract is finished, tomorrow you will have alcohol to sell."

Realizing that they could not move Nhan's heart of stone, the couple looked at each other and streams of tears flowed from their eyes. These tears were sincere and spontaneous, not forced to implore the Nhan quit medical school for law, it was his father's turn to be happy. Clerk Phan believed it was the hand of Heaven acting and from then on his son would enter a political career and gain renown for his family and village.

But after forcing his son to follow his own grand aspirations and expending nearly 10,000 piasters while won't matter. In a couple of days I'll send the alcohol owner back to confiscate your house and fields."

The seller's face fell.

"I of nature which prompted them to act as they had done, and recollecting that I had promised to each of them that they should never want for that, to which they were then treating themselves, I decided to say nothing about the matter, unless merely to give beg you, sir. Have pity- "

"Pity?" Nhan interrupted him. "I pity no one"

Then he jumped to his feet and stormed out of the house.

The man and his wife, still holding wife, still holding the child in her arms, followed him outside pleading.

At that moment, a girl appeared at the gate. She had a pleasant, set in a traditional environment, diminished, changing so much that eventually they disappeared in a country dress of four pieces dyed browa

Nhan stopped in his tracks and looked at looks and youth of the country girl awakened in him the feelings and sentiments of the past All at once Nhan saw the sordidness, the degradation and the pettiness of the world in which he was living.

The which he was living.

The girl did not cause a disturbance or quarrel in the family. Watching his father lend at an outrageous interest rate and cheat the poor who came to pawn their property, Nhan made many suggestions, and when that proved futile, he raised his voice.

Ah, but in only two years he was already a totally different man, from his character to the way he lived and acted. His wife, a loose girl from Hanoi he had married for her looks, was cultivated by her environment until she The man's face appeared thoughtful.

"Nam can stay out here," he told his wife. "I need you inside for a moment."

The two passed through the gate, leaving their daughter alone in the woman had utterly captivated him. Now he seemed not a bit captivated with anything, but rather, indifferent to all that happened, so much so that he no longer cared to distinguish between good and evil, and he often committed offenses which previously he would never have allowed his father to perform.

Noticing his son's change in character, Clerk Phan beamed.

"You thought his schooling was so rough," he said to his wife. "But now he's learned and achieved something. He ought to find business a snap!"

From then on, Clerk Phan around anxiously.

"Where are your parents?"

"Sir, they left."

Nhan was startled as he realized how they were using their pretty daughter to try and influence him. And in down the road that his father had traveled blindly for twenty years of his adult life. Oh, a couple of times those liberal, free and easy thoughts from days gone by flashed into Nhan's mind, but they soon dissipated in the practical realities of doing a job and making a living.

One day Clerk Phan sent his son to collect alcohol money at a small shop. He had already given the job to a servant, but two trips had brought no results. He said to Nhan, "I have to rely on you to get it done of the man to whom it was owed.

Coldly, he opened his briefcase and handed Nam a note for the debt payment and a permit to purchase alcohol from his house. Then he hurried back to his car.