A vase of yellow orchids

He greeted me politely:

'Excuse me, sir, is this the house of the writer...?'

'Yes, I am the writer. Do you have something for me?'

He closed the car door and carried over a vase of forest orchids.

'My paternal grand-father asked me to give you this vase of yellow orchids.'

I quickly took the vase from the young man's hands.

'He included a letter for you. Here you are. And by your leave, I've got to go now.'

'Please give my regards and thanks to your grand-father.' It was all I could think to say to the young man.

I put on my glasses, pulled a chair into the middle of the yard and read the letter in the dim light out in the open air because I could not wait for the electricity to turn back on.

His letter was written in an elegant, orderly script. It looked nice. If the writer had not introduced himself as an 87 year old man, nobody could have guessed it was written by someone so old because there were no quivering lines in the letter. His name Nguyen Duc Van was abbreviated. He wrote that he had enjoyed orchids since he was very young. By chance he had come across some of my stories about orchids, which he had enjoyed and so wanted to send me a vase of yellow orchids. He also invited me to his home to really get to know me aside from just reading my stories.

I was so moved that unshed tears filled my eyes. His telephone number was included in the letter, so I phoned him to express my thanks in a nervous voice. I promised him I would visit him in a couple of days and present him with my books.

'I would like to see you soon,' he replied.

***

Old man Van received me in his first floor living room. It was a very old house on an old street. Two layers of tiles covered the roof. It still had a hardwood floor and staircase. The offerings on the altar, including a horizontal board inscribed with Chinese characters, parallel scrolls and a carved wooden bed, had all faded with time. Van was tall and as thin as a rake. His short-sleeved pyjamas were made of a coarse material and all but fell off his frame. Knots of veins were visible from his elbows to his hands. He showed me two vases of orchids on the varandah, and said:

'I have loved these two orchids since I was a child. The plants only bloom during Tet. The flowers are not particularly beautiful, not so radiantly colourful, but they have leaves all year round. The leaves have to be cleaned almost every day. Yet, I've been hypnotised by them. You know, at first, I followed my father to the countryside to select soil on freezing winter days. He always told me that cold, dry days were the best for selecting soil because the fields were ploughed to dry and it was easy both to select the best soil and it took less time to dry. We broke the soil down into smaller pieces then dried it again. We also washed the leaves and vases. When I became an adult, I was still so enamoured with the plants that every day after school, I sat there contemplating the plants, touching them and cleaning the leaves before I started preparing my lessons or marking my students' exercises. Whenever I was away from home, I always thought about getting home as soon as possible because I was afraid that my orchids needed care. Once my wife got angry with me because I was giving such good care to my orchids and ignoring her and our children.

'Young people these days have tens, even hundreds of vases of orchids covering their terraces. As for me, I have only had three orchids in all my years, one vase for ‘dai mac’ and two for ‘hoang lan’. Many people have asked me why I haven't expanded my precious orchid collection. It's easy to use one plant to create several more orchids, but how I could give good care to so many, that's what counts, you see. At first, my father said he only had one ‘hoang lan’ (yellow orchids), but it died. Then one of his friends told him he should also grow ‘dai mac’, because ‘hoang lan’ belonged to Yin and ‘dai mac’ to Yang. Heaven and earth need Yin and Yang to survive. So father went in search of ‘dai mac’ orchids which later grew into the most beautiful orchid in the city. It had large black petals, with a red head and a yellow tongue dotted with pink spots. And his ‘dai mac’ orchids were second only to those from Phuc Xuyen in Son Tay. One of the typical features of the Phuc Xuyen ‘dai mac’ orchids that makes them more beautiful is that they're tongues are not solid red – they are lined with a strip of yellow. They are quite amazing, you know.'

As Nguyen Duc Van said, our ancestors placed great value in the ‘dai mac’ orchid, which was regarded as an emperor, the king of the country. If a garden has only ‘hoang lan’ orchids without any of the great ‘dai mac’ variety, it is something like having a country without a king, a house without an owner, a wife without a husband. I had heard vague rumours of this idea, so I decided to go on a journey to take a survey. A fellow soldier from my war days had moved to Nam Dinh. He told me he annually sold several hundred million dong worth of ‘hoang lan’ orchids. I could not believe my ears, so I asked for clarification:

'Did you say annually you could earn several hundred million dong from orchids?'

'Yes, five hundred million dongs. All of my assests together are valued at 700 million dong.'

'Why so little?' I asked in surprise.

'This city is now very calm. It only has a single railway crossing. Trains only stop at the station for about five to ten minutes. Nothing to sell, nothing to buy here. I thought about moving last year. I planned on selling this property to buy land in Xuan Mai. It would have been convenient for me and for my children. After they graduated from university, they got married and none of them wanted to return and settle down in Nam Dinh. But in the end, the land in Xuan Mai was so dear that I couldn't afford anything. For now I have to stay here. Growing and selling orchids in Xuan Mai would be much easier and better.'

I gazed at his fifteen beautiful ‘dai mac’ orchids. I politely inquired about their price.

'Do you want to buy them for you or for somebody else?'

'For me, of course.'

'Why don't you buy ‘hoang lan’?'

'Because they cost one million dong each, so I can't afford them.'

'Well, to tell you the truth, even if you offered me more than ten million dong for that vase of ‘dai mac’ orchids, I wouldn't sell it!'

'Why not?'

'If I sold it, all my ‘hoang lan’ orchids would wither away.'

'What? Really?'

'Because ‘dai mac’ orchids are the master, the only ‘man' in the garden. So without the vase of ‘dai mac’ orchids, all the ‘hoang lan’ would be widows! They would eventually die of sadness. That's why the vase of ‘dai mac’ orchids is placed in the centre and surrounded by all the ‘hoang lan’ orchids. Sometimes I have to move them around so they call all feel the love from the ‘dai mac’ orchids.

'How terrific these orchids are!'

'Yes, very terrific!'

I later told this story to my father.

'If you were not an insider, you wouldn't believe it, would you? I have told this story to many people, but they did not believe it, saying that these flowers were only for decoration,' Van said in a smile that revealed his even teeth.

***

'My youngest daughter was a partner in a joint venture with a foreign investor,' Van continued. 'Whenever her partners visited from Taiwan, Japan or South Korea, she always brought them a vase of orchids from my garden to welcome them, always to their surprise. Her partners were also orchid connoiseurs. When they saw and touched the leaves, they always knew the flowers were precious. They generally insisted on visiting me, but my daughter always refused. When her partners left, her interest in the orchids lapsed and she put them in the corner without looking at them again. Once I was so sorry for my orchids that I took a taxi to pick them up and bring them home. During Tet, I ask my children and grand-children to place the vase of ‘mac lan’ orchids in the middle of the carved bed to worship our ancestors.

'As we enter this year, I feel so weak from old age that I can barely carry a vase of orchids. You know when old age is coming on, you can feel that the day you'll go to the other world is approaching. For that reason, I met my children and told them that my lifetime fund was running ever shorter. Then I allowed them to take their favourite orchids home. My daughter said the orchids were so beautiful and precious, but they needed good and fanciful care, so she could not take them. My oldest son, on the other hand, said that without a vase of orchids in the house, he felt empty and sad because the flowers had been such a part of his life for many decades. The orchids are actually older than my children! But my son stressed that he did not know how to care for the flowers, nor did he have the time. I was so sad to hear it. You can't grow orchids if you don't love them. My orchids are not for sale. I recently read some of your stories about orchids and I was very moved. I knew you must really love and understand orchids to be able to write such good stories about them. So I phoned the Vietnam Writers Association and asked for your address because I wanted to give you a vase of orchids as a gift from one orchid lover to another.'

Once again I expressed my sincere thanks to the old man and said:

'In the last few years, a movement of orchid enthusiasts has arisen who are actively searching for new strains of orchids, but to me, any orchid that is beautiful and fragrant is to my liking. And I believe my yellow orchids are the most beautiful of all!'

I sat there in silence for a moment because I was so emotional. I tried again to say thanks to him but words failed me.

'I told my family that if anything should happen to me, these two vases of yellow orchids had to be given to you, not sold,' he added.

My hands held his bony hands tightly and my eyes became scratchy and welled up with tears. (VNS)

By Duong Duy Ngu

Translated by Manh Chuong