I Will Always Remember You - Hmong Sad Love Story

Chapter 3: My New Life

I never once in my life felt this happy and relieved before. 7 years have passed, I am now 17 years old living with Grandpa Va. Ever since he took me in as his son, he has been teaching me many things such as hunting, cooking, fishing, fixing, and repairing houses. I am very grateful to him, I owe him my life, if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't even be alive by now. "So did you get any squirrels or deers yet, Cheenou?" Grandpa Va says. "Yes grandpa, I got 5 squirrels but no deers sadly." I say. "It's alright son, as long as it's enough for us to eat and serve." Grandpa Va says. "So, have you ever thought of going out in public when Hmong New Year comes?" Grandpa Va says. "No grandpa, I'm just an orphan and some of them might see me and remember me. I also don't have any new clothes to wear so it will be embarrassing showing up looking like this" I say. "Well, looks like you're just going to stay here and hunt with me then. Just to let you know, it will also be hard to find you a wife too if you just stay here." Grandpa Va says. "It's alright grandpa, as long as I have you. I won't need anyone else, my parents already left me anyway." I say while looking down at my rifle. Me and grandpa's conversation went on for what felt like an hour before we started hearing some footsteps nearby. "Shhh, do you hear that son, it might be a deer." Grandpa Va says. I remained silent slowly raising my rifle to where the noise was coming from. About 4 minutes later, the noise stopped and we saw a white deer slowly walking up, looking around eating the grass on the ground. I raised my rifle and aimed at it ready to shoot, but Grandpa Va stopped me. I look at him confused wondering why he was stopping me. He got up, held my arm and walked away not saying a word until we were gone and the white deer was out of our sight. "Hey grandpa, why did you stop me?" I ask, making a confused face at him. Grandpa Va sigh and say. "Son, that is not an ordinary deer, white deers are known to be Zaj, (Dragon or God) Remember they like to turn into white deers whenever they go out to explore, so shooting it will bring bad luck for you." Grandpa Va says. I stood there quietly not knowing what to say. "Ok Grandpa Va, I won't shoot any white deers that I see then." I said quietly. The next day I went out trying to catch some fish and as I was on my way to head home, three boys around my age came up to me and one of them said "Hey orphan kid, you stealing our fishes now?" I look at him and say "No, I do not steal, I got these fishes because I caught them." All of them laugh and the other one says "Hahaha, why would a poor orphan kid like you know how to fish? Maybe all you know how to do is steal from everyone." As they all laughed. I tried to walk away but they stopped me, one pushed me and punched me onto the ground, the other one went to go pick up my fishes and they all started kicking me on the ground. I begged and cried for mercy but none of them cared to stop. They still wouldn't stop kicking me. About a couple of minutes passed, they finally stopped and took all my fish and ran away. I slowly got up and made my way back home. When I got back home to Grandpa Va and he saw me he was shocked. He ran to me and looked at me. Having dirt and bruises all over me. "Hey son, what happened to you?" He says coming over to me to wipe the dirt off me. "I'm fine grandpa, I wasn't paying attention and fell down on my way back and sadly I couldn't get any fish today, sorry." I lie. "It's fine son, I'm just worried about you not having any food to eat. Go shower and clean yourself, then put medicine on you ok?" He says as I walk out to go shower.