Chapter 25: Chapter 24 – A Daring Escape from the Cu Chi Tunnels

I stand behind a tree trunk, watching the chickens scratching the ground at the foot of the wire fence of a house. I reach my hands out to snatch the nearest chicken when a young lady comes out of the house, carrying a container of food. The chickens stop scratching and run away.

The lady is setting up a stand selling only rice soup served with a mix of different meats. She sets down a container full of shredded meat on the counter and then walks back into the house. I dash to the stand, grab a handful of the meat and stuff it into my mouth. The lady again appears at the door, and I run away.

She shrieks, "Who took some of the meat?"

Her voice sounds familiar, so I stop and then walk back. "Oh, Bong, that's you. Where's the baby?"

Bong says, "Oh, Mai. I'm happy to see you again. My baby girl is in the house with her grandma. We moved from Danang to here."

I smile. "If I were not in a hurry, I'd take you and your baby home to Mom. I'm sorry for ruining your business by eating some of the meat."

"It's OK. I'll make do with what I have," Bong says.

She ladles the rice soup into a bow, puts a lot of meat on top of the soup, and pushes the bowl toward me. "Go ahead and eat."

The backyard of Bong's house joins the backyard of a big house. A tributary of the Gold Nuggets River runs through the other house's backyard. There're glowing rocks in the tributary. I say, "What! How did the glowing rocks get here?"

Bong says, "Climate Change has caused the Gold Nuggets River to push the glowing rocks into this tributary."

"Can I take some of the rocks here?" I say.

Bong says, "The rocks are on someone else's property. You need to ask the owner. I have never seen the owner, but I've seen the VCs running around on the property. But why are you interested in the rocks?"

"I want to make cosmetics with them, and sell the makeup."

Bong says. "I guess no one cares if you take them. I'd like to bring my baby to show her to your mom after I'm done selling the soup today if it's OK with you. We'll see you at your house."

I say, "I'm sorry I can't be home today. "The VCs kidnapped me and my friends, Hoa and Tin, and put us in the Cu Chi tunnels. They had kidnapped a woman and her daughter into the tunnels ten years ago. The mother, Mrs. Hen, is now a cook in the tunnels, and her daughter, Miss My Lai, is now teaching at our school. Mrs. Hen has been thinking that the VCs are holding her daughter somewhere else when her daughter has already escaped. Mrs. Hen, Tin, Hoa, and I will escape together. I must go back to the tunnels now because if I don't, I will cause trouble for them. Please tell my mom and Miss My Lai that we will be back soon."

Bong hands me a package wrapped in banana leaves. "I saved some meat for you to take back to the tunnels."

I walk into the kitchen, Tin and Hoa are talking with Mrs. Hen. I unwrap the package and put it down in front of them.

"Mrs. Hen, do you know of a woman named Tien Stilwell?" Tin says.

Mrs. Hen says, "Oh, yes. I saw her in an area of fortified tunnels where there are glowing rocks. Is she your mother?"

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Tin smiles. "When we get out of here, I'll go look for my mom.  Will you please go with me and show me where you saw her?"

"I'll go for sure," Mrs. Hen says.

The VCs walk in on us. The VC Lieutenant Commander glowers at me while pushing a stack of blank sheets of paper toward me. "Our spies reported that an American POW had communicated some secrets to you. You must write a confession of your crimes."

I scribble random alphabets in messy handwriting on the paper. My writing doesn't make any sense. I hand "the confession" to the Lieutenant Commander.

He looks at it. "your confession sounds true, but you have messy handwriting, ignorant girl. But you'll get candy for your cooperation."

I go to the well and see a dog standing at the tunnel's entrance. The dog is holding a white envelope in its snout. I come near the dog, and it pushes the envelope toward my hand. I take the envelope, and pat the dog on its head. The dog wags its tail and runs away. I read the words written on the envelope: To Ma from My Lai. 

I run to the kitchen. "Mrs. Hen, you've got mail."

Mrs. Hen rips open the envelope and looks at the letter, her hands shaking. "My Lai, my daughter. This is her handwriting." She hands the letter to me, saying in a choking voice, "Please read it to me."

Tin and Hoa come over and stand beside me, looking at the letter along with me. I read, "To Ma from My Lai. Tunnel Rats are entering the tunnels soon. Ma, Mai, Tin, and Hoa must escape from the tunnels, to avoid getting caught in an armed struggle. My drawings depict the actions you must do to get out of the tunnels. You must carry out the actions in the well in the bottom tunnel."

The VCs are running around in the tunnels, trying to get into hiding. We go down to the bottom tunnel, and it is deserted. We follow Miss My Lai's instructions.

Hoa says, "The first action is to let a dog get on the handle of the bucket. But where's the dog?"

The dog that delivered the envelope to me appears at the tunnel's entrance, comes to the well, and jumps onto the bucket's handle. Tin lowers the bucket halfway into the well, and the dog jumps into a square hole cut in the wall.

I say, "Let me tie knots on the rope to make handholds and footholds. Then we can take turns climbing down the rope and get into the hole in the wall."

Tin ties the free end of the rope to the iron ring bolted to the wall at the top of the well. Mrs. Hen climbs down into the well and gets into the hole, then Hoa, then I. We stand in the hole waiting for Tin to come down. We start getting worried when Tin comes into the hole.

The hole opens up into a wide tunnel. Tin says, "This is the main tunnel that allows cooking smoke from the kitchens of many tunnels to escape to the outside. This tunnel branches off onto a glowing tunnel." I walk to the end of the glowing tunnel and look through the iron grate blocking the opening. I see my bedroom lighted by my baby Moons and baby Suns. I pull the bolt off the grate, and Mrs. Hen, Hoa, Tin and I crawl through the opening into my bedroom. We walk into the living room, and Bong holding her baby girl, Miss My Lai and Mom turn and look at us.

I say, "Mom, I found sun and moon rocks at a property, with its backyard joining Bong's backyard. there are tamarind shells at the backyard fence of the property."

When we are by ourselves, Mom says, "When we have the time, I'd like to go with you to see that property."

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