“You are really very seductive in a black shirt…contemporary and youthful, too…in a black shirt, you look ten years younger…that way you cheat life out of ten extra years,” Vu had told him once during a lunch break at a conference when all the delegates had sat down at their tables. Sau had appeared shocked, he couldn’t believe all that his ears had just heard. But Vu had carefully added: “I think that it’s the way you use colors to shine over the others. It’s an old game, been around since the beginning of the century, actually, nothing new to it at all. Furthermore, what you do is already enough to create an impression. The mechanisms of power are in your hands — with the power of life and the power of death. Why do you still need to wear black shirts?”
“You, you…” Sau had stuttered, his face pale with anger. The people around them were also pale from fear. But Vu had calmly looked at him. A split second passed; Sau smiled. Responding to this smile, Vu had smiled, too, the smile of someone about to step up to the gallows. In that moment of dead silence and cold animosity, Sau had said with warmth and friendliness: “Have you been stung by a bee? How does the wearing of a black or white shirt have any influence on the people’s welfare?”
Vu had smiled cynically: “It does! Wearing black shirts saves on soap. That way, you are a good role model for young people. The only thing is, ten kilograms of soap cost less than a bottle of French perfume, which I see you bring home from every trip abroad. You carry a suitcase full for your primary and secondary ladies inside and outside your home.”
“I give up,” Sau had politely replied but then added: “You need to be more understanding of others. Not everyone can live like a monk as you do. Men are like roosters; they must know how to show off their combs and wiggle their tail feathers.” At this, he smiled faintly and left. The other delegates had sat dead still while shuffling their chopsticks and passing bowls around…
Three weeks after this, Vu’s oldest brother came up from the countryside. He didn’t rest after the drive and together they went to the flower garden by West Lake, where the rock jetties are covered with duckweed roots and dead ephemera. Right away, without any hesitation, his brother said:
“Someone told me everything. Do you plan to die?”
“I am still alive because I don’t fear him. Otherwise, my grave by now would have been covered with green grass.”
“He is an unusually dangerous type. His kind only comes along once in a while. Have you already forgotten the lesson of Le Dinh?”
“I have not. But I am not in the same situation.”
“I am very worried for you…If something should happen to you…”
Vu squeezed his brother’s hand and looked at his face with great warmth and trust:
“Dear brother, in such a situation, we can only rely on family loyalty. We will do all that we can. Success or failure is up to heaven.”
The elder brother choked with emotion: “I only worry about you; as for me, I will pass. In our family, you are the only one with hair, I am bald. They won’t pay any attention to me.”
“I am no different from you. We have no line of retreat.”
They held hands and said nothing more, because at that moment, from the Quan Thanh temple, a couple emerged. They crossed Co Ngu Street and walked toward the brothers.
Sau’s voice suddenly rose and startled him: “Why, by now you must be able to assess things accurately, yes?” Immediately Vu put down his cup of coffee.
“Good! Indeed, it’s very good.”
Sau leaned completely back against the chair, in a posture of commanding nonchalance, his arms positioned symmetrically on the arms of the chair.
“Are you hooked on coffee or on tea?”
“I like both, but I’m not hooked on anything. Now, tell me what you have to say.”
“Obviously something’s up.”
He stopped as if waiting for Vu to continue asking.
Fully familiar with Sau’s tactics, Vu distractedly looked out the windows, as if he had forgotten the matter, or the subject was nothing to be concerned about.
Finally, Sau drank the last of his coffee and said:
“The office just informed me that the Old Man has requested to go down the mountains and visit with some citizen.”
“What citizen?”
“A woodsman who fell into a ravine and then died on a stretcher on the way back to the village. I’ve asked you to come so that you can go and advise the Old Man to give up this idea. Right now we are in the middle of a hundred, a thousand things to do. The Old Man shouldn’t complicate matters.”
“The Old Man is president of the country. He established the Party…How can I mentor him? Who came up with this weird idea?”
“This is not a weird idea but an intelligent recommendation. Brother Ba has decided on this. It is also Ba who had the idea, right now, that you are the only one who can explain things to the Old Man.”
“Explain things to the Old Man!”
Vu dropped the cup of coffee and sprang up. An anger burned away inside his body, spread to his veins, pulled at all his muscles, and tightly squeezed his heart. He suddenly found himself shaking, his voice also shaking accordingly.
“What are you saying? For me to tell the Old Man what to do?”
“No…No…I apologize.”
Sau also jumped up and he suddenly stuttered, out of some confusion:
“I spoke badly…I forgot the right words…I sincerely apologize to you. But Brother Ba said, at this time, you are the one closest to the Old Man, the one who can sway him.”
“I am not the only one, the whole people are close to him. That’s the honest truth. If all of you have forgotten that, then I want to remind you.”
“I know! I know!” Sau replied, and all of a sudden his lips turned white, the drops of coffee forming clear brown spots on them as he drank.
“I am sorry I used the wrong words. This happens to lots of other people as well, because we are just Party cadres, not thinkers or writers.”
“What do thinkers and writers have to do with this? They’re just clowns who dance around in roles written out for them,” Vu shouted inwardly, wanting to spit this out into Sau’s face, but an intuition about the need to be moderate stopped him. Pretending not to pay any attention to what Sau had said, Vu lifted his coffee cup and sipped to the last drop. Then, as if he had regained his equilibrium, Sau cleared his voice and said:
“The truth is, I am thoughtless sometimes because I am too busy. I keep thinking that the Old Man is convalescing, so it’s best to let him rest. Besides, at the moment all helicopter units are activated for combat duty. The Old Man needs to be understanding toward us. The country is at war.”
Vu looked straight into his face: “You really think that I can tell the Old Man what you told me earlier? Do you think that’s possible?”
“Oh, no! I don’t want to say that you must report back to him those naked concerns just like that, but in a different way and with different words.”