Helicopter Page 2
It was the next morning on April 18th; I woke up from a loud banging outside. The soldiers were back once again, but this time it was much more than before. I looked at my small window to the outside and to my amazement saw hundreds of soldiers spread across marching through the streets of Phnom Penh, all dressed in a green military coat, each one armed with a rifle ready to fire. On top of one of those green tanks is a flag, different from our Cambodian flag. It was just a red background, with a yellow colored Angkor Wat in the center. The flag flew left and right, back and forth to the flow of the wind, showing what seems to be a new country flag. Outside was hot as if the sun had just risen to its bright peak. The air was dusty, but somehow, I managed to see the hundreds of people on the streets and further back. Hurriedly, I went to call my siblings, all four of them to wake up and see what’s happening outside. To my surprise, they were already wide awake besides Ping, who was still fast asleep. They too, looked out the window and were astonished by the amount of soldiers and tanks they had seen. Never in my life had I seen such a massive crowd of armed men looking as cheerful as ever. They smiled and laughed, and loud drums were banging, loud enough to be heard inside the house. Moments later, Ping rose from her bed and quietly said, “What’s happening? Are we cheering again? I thought it ended.”
Sakol responded, “Hey come here Ping, look out, there is more people, more soldiers, more happiness!” Immediately after he said, Ping quickly sped to the window pushing both Lynn and Sophea out of her way.
“Where, where? She exclaimed throughout the whole room. Looking past her the soldiers kept on marching, the tanks kept on moving, and the flags kept on flowing. There was never a stop to the amount of soldiers that kept walking through the roads, the line of people stretched out to the horizon where I could see a small gap. Minutes later, I started to see more people go to their balconies to view the streets from above. People starting to watch, stare, and cheer along with the soldiers chanting to what I suppose would be a victory chant. People of a variety of age, old and young, some of the men were not even fully clothed, only with a towel covering the bottom. I kept staring into the vast amounts of people, never before had I seen this much people in one place at one time.
“Hey! Come downstairs now,” it came from a voice below, presumably my mother who ordered to come down to eat. My siblings and I all rushed downstairs in order to eat breakfast. Here, the breakfast was just the normal porridge with dried fish, the usual thing that we eat every day.
The wooden food started to creak from upstairs, I turned my head to look at the stairs and saw my dad slowly coming down holding both of the stair handles to not fall. At this age, my dad isn’t as strong or flexible as he was when I was smaller at around 5 years old. He needs more help to walk around, some of the times he would constantly forget what he has to do or what he was going to say. He is getting too old to work and continue his profession as a doctor. As my dad got closer to the table made out of kra nhoung wood, Lynn went the chair as this is the usual family members in our house. Kra nhoung wood is the most expensive type of wood that could be bought in Cambodia due to the quality and color of the wood. Because of the amounts of money my dad earned due to working as a doctor and being well known in Phnom Penh, he could afford from himself and his family.
“Seang, do you know what they’re doing outside? Are they back again to celebrate the victory?” my dad questioned me.
“Huh, what they’re doing outside? I think that their back again to make people happy. Everyone’s cheering again” I responded. My dad likes to ask these obvious questions throughout the day, in order to get our brains going from a long sleep. It’s his way of “preparing us for the day” as questions usually formulate to a longer conversation during breakfast time.
After finishing breakfast, I stood up and walked to the front door, connecting the dining area to the rusty gates. After opening the door, the noises of laughter and cheers grew and I could faintly hear what they were saying. The chant begins with “Dap Prampi Mesa Chokchey” to what I expect to be the name of the song.
“ The bright scarlet blood
Flooded over the towns and plains of our motherland Kampuchea,
The blood of our good workers and farmers,
Our revolutionary fighters' blood, both men and women.
Their blood produced a great anger and the courage
To contend with heroism.
On 17 April, under the revolutionary banner,
Their blood freed us from the state of slavery.
Hurrah, hurrah,
For the glorious 17 April!
That wonderful victory had greater significance
Than the Angkor period!
We are uniting
To construct a Kampuchea with a new and better society,
Democratic, egalitarian and just.
We follow the road to firmly-based independence.
We absolutely guarantee to defend our motherland,
Our fine territory, our magnificent revolution!
Hurrah, hurrah,
Hurrah! For the new Kampuchea
A splendid, democratic land of plenty!
We guarantee to raise aloft and wave the red banner of the revolution.
We shall make our motherland prosperous beyond all others,
Magnificent, wonderful!”
I then went over to ask my dad what this was about until I was abruptly interrupted by Ping. “Hey, hey, what are they singing? Hey, hey, today’s the 18th, we already passed the 17th.” I looked over to see Ping smiling with huge eyes staring straight ahead to the giant green tank moving. It sounded like a rumble of trees and crumbled rocks being crushed together, and felt like an earthquake due to the enormous weight of the tank.
After a few moments I answered, “I don’t know; ask Dad, or Sakol, Lynn, or even Sophea. I have no clue what they're singing about.” I looked at her face, and saw disappointment, letting out a grunt before moving to Lynn to ask the same question she asked me. A little while after, I remembered that I too wanted to know what the soldiers were singing so I went back inside through the door to see Dad sitting on the chair slowly eating his porridge.
“Dad, do you know what their singing or chanting outside? They just keep on repeating the same words, and it sounds like they're singing about Cambodia.”
He then looked right into my eyes and raised his voice, “I can’t hear what their saying outside, my ears aren’t as good as they were before. Singing, you say? It’s probably just another victory song.” I then let out a long sigh before realizing again that my dad isn’t as young as I used to remember. I started out the window once again and went over to my sister Lynn, she knows a lot about songs, I wonder if she knows about it.
“Lynn, do you know what they're singing about? Is it like a victory chant or a song?”
“Look Seang, you think I know everything? Well, I do. Their singing the same song they sang yesterday. Something to do with a ‘better Cambodia’, it could be an anthem, most likely something to do with winning the war.”
“Thanks. I’ll listen to it more.” I responded with a chuckle. I opened the door back and exited to the gate. Unlocking the gate with a slight push, it started to creak loudly. The rust from the gate started to creak and pieces of metal fell from the gate. We should get a new gate; this is starting to get dangerous I thought to myself. As I looked outside, the people were still marching singing the same song. The flag above the tank was similar to our Cambodian flag, but different. “Are things really going back, when it was peaceful?” I whispered to myself. A loud thunk came from the left and saw one of the tanks rising with smoke. Broken, couldn’t move, it was just stuck, blocking the pride, blocking the march from continuing.
It was then when people started to scream or rather much shout “Fix it already. Continue, the great Kampuchea!” I looked up, the singing stopped; the people were rushing to fix
the tank as fast as they could. The parade was ending; I let out a deep breath, and went back into my room. Up there, Ping was on her bed with her eyes stared straight to the ceiling looking at nothing, but a small crack at the top of the roof.
“If that huge tank crashes and breaks down ‘because of nothing, when will this crack break, when will it all crumple down? Huh Seang, when?” Ping asked me in words filled with curiosity.
I sat on the end of the bed and looked out the dirty window to the people going back into their homes. “I don’t know Ping, I don’t actually know. If our roof breaks, will just leave in a new one, a bigger one. Wouldn’t that be nice Ping, that’ll be nice? Yeah, a new house, far away from war.” Ping then looked at me in wonder as if I said the most unusual thing in her life.
Her eyes widen and she started to giggle out loud, “What are you talking about? I love this house.” Thinking back, this house was the only house I’ve ever lived in. It has all my memories, all the things in my entire life. I’ve never left here in my whole life. I’ve been used to living in comfort for as long as I can remember. I lived in this home, this one home, maybe I don’t even want to change.
“I guess you’re right. Anyway, I hope the tank gets fixed soon, so the soldiers can continue marching and singing.” I then went to bed and closed my eyes, imagining the events that will happen to Cambodia in the future. Slowly and quietly with Ping on her bed, and I’m on my own bed, I went to take a small nap.
A loud bump and crash when I’ve realized a slept for an hour or so. I looked around and did not seem to see Ping or any of my other family members. I wonder where their gone to, did they go out and left me here. After a long yawn I slowly regained my conscious after the short nap and silently got up from the bed. The noise grew louder and surely I understood that the marching continues. The soldiers probably fixed the tank by now, and I quickly went to look out the window. They’ve continued and below I saw Ping running around in circles trying to catch Sakol. Walking down the stairs to the first floor and opening the door to the gate, I heard the singing once again. They sung the same song at the same pace at the same volume. The song was about our great country, our great Kampuchea. I quickly found out that the song wasn’t any regular song, but of a victory against the Americans. A victory that will be in the history books of Cambodia, it was a song about a new Cambodia, a better Cambodia. The song filled my body with pride and joy that all these people, these soldiers, were all singing about being a part of Cambodia, a part of a country that could win, a country that proved its strength over any other country. We were the strongest; we were the best, the best country. “Hey, where is everyone Sakol? Did they go somewhere, buy something?”
“Oh, you’re finally awake, don’t worry, they only went to the market to get some more food, they won’t take long.”
“Everyone went? Why didn’t you guys go, did you want to watch the soldiers marching.” Due to the loud noise of the tank and the voices of hundreds of soldiers, both Sakol and Ping ignored my question. After opening the gate to the outside, I could feel the sun heating up my entire body. The tank produced a great amount of dust blinding my eyes for a second. I started to rub my eyes when I focused clearly and saw that each soldier had a smile on his face. Each soldier looked identical, a green suit, a smile on their faces, a firearm in their hand, a krama covering their face from the dust of the tanks and the dust from the ground, and finally a hat, a black and green hat, similar to the color choice of their uniform. It all looked like pride and strength formed into one human being, one human born from Cambodia. I was in awe of the amazement of the crowd, of the orderly fashion each soldier was moving in. I wished I could have been a part of that, I wish I could’ve been part of them, part of the soldiers. I want to be proud, strong, and happy every day of my life. I want to be them, the soldiers, the people who fought for Cambodia during times of pain and fear. I looked at Ping and Sakol still running around, still with Ping trying to chase Sakol from behind. Instead of here, I could be there, singing along their anthem, singing about the great Kampuchea. I sat down on the dirt floor below the frets of the soldiers, below the tanks, and below the people. I watched them from the beginning to the end of the march; it took a few hours or so, maybe even more just watching them. Ping and Sakol left to go back inside the house two hours back, and the rest of my family also came back to the house filled with baskets of food an hour ago. However, I was still sitting here until the very last tank past my vision and into the horizon, no, until the very last smiling soldier marched away. That was it, it finally ended today, and I wonder if they’ll come back tomorrow, I hope they come back tomorrow, that would be fun to watch them again. I went back to the house and it was already in the afternoon, the sun was already going down, the heat was already lowering. I walked inside my house and saw my dad sitting on the chair looking into the distance, into a white wall as if he was thinking of something.
“Dad, Hello? What are you looking at, what are you thinking about” I asked him directly.
“Ah, hello Seang, you’re finally backed from watching the soldiers? Did they finally leave?” he questions me back.
“Yeah, yeah they left just now, it’s amazing right, and all those soldiers marching together, all these soldiers were people who helped Cambodia gain its reputation of being the strongest, strong enough to beat the Americans. I wish I was there Dad, I wish I could have been one of those soldiers fighting for Cambodia.”
“Well try your best, workout and become stronger, smarter, braver, those people out there, they aren’t scared of no cockroaches,” he replied as he left out a quick laugh. Dad’s always like this, always teases me about my fear of bugs, he usually even tries to scare my along with my siblings by hiding cockroaches throughout my room. Ping isn’t scared unlike me, so she can handle stuff like that, it’s only me who’s scared, frozen when I see the sight of a cockroach so close to me.
“Sure Dad, I’ll be braver, I won’t have any cockroaches scare me anymore. I’ll man up enough to be one of those soldiers out there. I hope they come back tomorrow.” I then went up to my room, and was surprised to see Ping and Sakol playing marbles together. I got back on my bed and waited another day, waited until this day passes in order to see those soldiers again.
A few hours later, my mom called me downstairs to go and eat dinner. I went down and saw the feast on the table. There was fish, vegetables, rice, and a cooked pig roasted deliciously. I could smell the food all the way from upstairs, it was certainly something unexpected. Coming down I asked, “What’s the occasion, what’s all this food for?”
“It’s just a celebration feast for the victory against the Americans. Isn’t nice and tasty?” my mother replied back. After, a long dinner talking about what we had done today, it was nighttime and I finally went back up to my room in order to go to sleep. Tomorrow they will surely come again I whispered to myself before closing my eyes and going to sleep.
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