Anguli Ma by Chi Vu

much else of the news.
    At midday, Anguli Ma staggered gently from his garage across the yard, passing the old woman, who looked at him with cold eyes before going back into her studio room. Đào confronted him in the kitchen.
    â€œWhose animal did you steal and kill?” Đào screamed.
    â€œWe did not steal it. It was on the road, injured.” Anguli answered in a neutral tone. He was staring at the almost bare laminate table.
    â€œYou brought it here?”
    â€œCalm down. What have we done wrong?” He suddenly turned to her, and drank in her rage.
    â€œWhat, are you stupid?” Đào stumbled and recovered, “This is not our country.”
    Then he laughed at her, “You take everything so seriously, don’t you? You’re so funny. You live by yourself, you’ve forgotten how real men are?”
    ÄÃ o refused to be unsettled by his dismissiveness. “Everything we do is suspicious to them. They turn their noses up at our fish sauce, our green oil, our large gatherings, our tightly knit way of living.”
    â€œHow’re you going to settle in here, if you get scared of everything that happens? You’re always smiling and obedient,” he said, watching her humiliation rise. “How are you going to make anything happen over here?”
    â€œMy neighbour can call the police about this,” Đào offered her threat indirectly.
    Anguli’s smile froze. “So we got drunk – but it was already on death’s door and nothing could have saved it – I know about these things.”
    ÄÃ o looked at him.
    â€œYou can believe me in this…Yes, it was inconsiderate of me to leave the mess, I shall clean it up,” he reassured her. Đào found herself beginning to soften under his apology. The doorbell rang, then rang again.
    â€œ Trời Æ¡i! ” Đào cursed.
    Her son Trung called out from the front of the house.
    â€œI will clean everything up. Yes,” Anguli Ma said.
    â€œIt’s already been done!” Đào snarled at Anguli. “I cleaned it up so the others didn’t have to look at it, you shit. I’m waiting for the day you leave!”
    Trung was unlocking the front door with his keys, so she had to puther anger away, and make sure that all was clean and presentable for her hụi meeting. The hụi meeting!
    ÄÃ o walked away from Anguli, to attend to her hụi scheme and all the people who were part of it. Anguli Ma’s black eyes remained on her, eyeballs rolling. Đào watched his body grow tense, blowing up bigger with red anger. He was going to erupt if she walked away from him now.
    ÄÃ o got to the front of the house and ushered Trung and little Tuyết into the living room and closed the frosted sliding doors.
    â€œIs anything wrong, Má ?” Trung asked.
    â€œNo, no, nothing. I’ve just been doing a lot of cleaning this morning,” Đào managed to both summarise and omit the truth of her blood-stained morning.
    â€œSo I’ll pick her up after work.” Then, to his daughter, “Okay, see you Tuyết. See you tomorrow night.”
    As he was walking back to the front door, Trung asked Đào, “ Má , look how crowded it is in here. Why do you keep everything?”
    â€œI need them.”
    â€œWe don’t need to hoard this stuff over here. How do you manage to find anything?”
    â€œMy memory is still good, don’t you worry.”

The Brown Man
    Abased, he runs to the plateau with the gnarled, weeping tree hoping to see the monk. He is covered in nervous sweat and upon arriving, finds the bench empty except for the monk’s cloth pouch resting on a tussock of grass.
    The man continues his rash search for the monk. Then, in the distance, he notices the flattened rushes by the water. The man approaches and is met with invigorating air from the river. Then, the bank of the river comes