CHANGE
My eyes were moistening with tears when I figured out what mom had tried to say to me for last three days. OK, maybe I was just overreacting with the situation, but this was bad news. She had just said, “We will move to a new house, Flora.” Just the last few weeks, I was so happy with my new school, my new class and my friends studied with me, and now, I had to move away after 3 years of being best friends with them. Besides, I had tested and was chosen to study in the best class, I couldn’t miss that chance to be a better student.
My house was in district 3, a noisy and sleepless district. It’s right in the center of Ho Chi Minh City. Who doesn’t love her house if it is right in the center of the city? My family lived in Hanoi, and we had moved to Ho Chi Minh City when I was four years old. We lived in the apartment in district 3 for three years. I was impressed by the big streets and how crowded the city is. I thought I would be lonely by myself with no friends, but soon I realized that people in Ho Chi Minh City were friendly. As soon as our family moved to my house in District 3, we were welcomed by the neighbors near our house. There were children about my age. At first, they were shy but then their feelings changed to happiness when they see me like they had waited for the moment to come. Thinking of what my mom said to me, I was really sad because I had to leave Alicia and Lily. Alicia is a nice girl, we started to talk and study together when we were 10 years old. Lily lived next to my apartment, and she was a quite and timid girl. I giggled when I remembered our time we spent together.
That afternoon, after my mom made me surprised, I was sitting in my room and looking out the window. I contemplated what life would be like in the future, when I moved away. I saw Mrs. Katie, Alicia’s mom. As I saw them through the window, she was watering her plants. Her garden was the most beautiful garden in the building. It reminded me of the garden in my house in Hanoi. Her garden smelled sweet as a candy, plus, the wind brought the fragrance to every side of the building. It made me feel homesick. Mrs. Katie was a very nice woman, she offered me candies and cookies when I came and played with Alicia. Each family had a different way of making cookies, but these were the best cookies I have ever tasted, better than in restaurants. They were dark brown, the color of chocolate and there were pieces of grapes jam cover the whole surface of the cookie. The candies were sweet at first, but when you swallowed it, it made you feel warm, like you when you eat ginger. Mrs. Katie taught me English, too. She even asked my mom to let me have a sleepover night with Alicia, which confused me because I didn’t know what it was. I imagined would there be any woman like her in my new place.
My mom came in and seeing me sad made her feel bad. She sat by my side and began to talk.
“Honey, our new house will be great. You will love it. You will make new friends and …”
“I don’t want any new friends!” I interrupted her. I expected an angry face from my mom because I had never interrupted my mom while she talked before. But what surprised me was she wasn’t surprised by my reaction at all. She always used ‘honey’ when she did something wrong or she knew she would hurt me.
“I understand Flora, but, we need to have a better life, we don’t need to rent house anymore, and we will build our own house. You will soon have to move to have a new life otherwise you will be the one who say good bye to your friends because their life will change, too. So it’s better if we move first, right?” She calmly explained.
“It’s OK if we don’t change, we can just live like this for the rest of our life. What is wrong with being just like what we are in the presence? Why do we must move away?” I said bitterly. My tears flowed down to my cheek and they were very salty. My vision began to grow dim. I couldn’t see how my mom looked at me, but I could tell that she wasn’t going to answer my questions. Didn’t answer my questions, which meant she would not take ‘no’ for her question.
“Come over here. Give me a hug. Everything is going to be fine. Now, you might want to tell your friends.” She comforted me. Deep inside my heart, I knew she was right. Sooner or later, I will have to meet on move but I still have the feelings I didn’t want to leave. I stood up and called Alicia and Lily to the terrace on seventh floor. When they heard ‘terrace’, they knew there would be a big announce coming up. They went to toward me and their faces looked terrified maybe because they saw how upset I was. Alicia has got blonde hair and blue eyes, a picture of an angel. Lily’s hair is brown and her eyes are black, more Asian than Alicia. Her mom is Australia and her dad is Vietnamese.
“Ok, girls! I afraid we no longer can live together. My mom said to me that we will move away. We still keep contact with each other, right? I will visit you every weekend, we can hang out if you want or we will have a sleepover night in the first day in my new house!” I tried to talk as fast as I could to avoid seeing my friends sad. However, my trick didn’t work. I still saw their faces stunned even in the dark. “WHAT?” they yelled at the same time. I didn’t think they would react surprise like that.
“No, Flora! Why? Who can we play with when you move away? No, tell your mom that we will move, too!” Lily said but I knew she couldn’t do it.
“My mom said that we need to change. We have to keep moving up, to live a better life. I’m so sorry. I can’t be selfish. My parents have their new jobs and those jobs are what they have wished for. I just can’t destroy their dreams. I am so sorry. But as I was saying, we can still contact and visit each other, right? Because we are far away from each other doesn’t mean we can’t be friends, right?” I tried my best not to hurt them. This was the best time for me to offer a hug, to energize my friends.
“Come here! Let us hug each other, let us be strong!” I pretended to act bravely. I saw Alicia was crying in silent. I comforted her by holding her hands. “Don’t be sad, Alicia. We are best friends, aren’t we? So please, seeing you cry make me cry. You don’t want my mom to see this, right?” I asked and in response, Alicia nodded.
The next morning, daddy drove us to our family’s new house. I was excited about seeing my parents’ achievement, our new house, what they have worked so hard to make our life better. How big is this change going to be? My daddy’s car stopped. To my left is a house about three stories, the house that my dad had been describing when he told me about his dream. I looked at my dad’s eyes and saw how proud he was when he looked at his house. I was pleased that my parents were happy.
Until now, we still live in this house. The house is considered as a big change in my parents’ life, it was my parents first time to build and own a house. My friends, Alicia and Lily, they both study abroad now, so we don’t contact each other anymore. Thinking of the day I struggled with moving to this house, I knew everything in our life couldn’t last for long but our life is just changing, non-stop, sometimes up, sometimes down. Saying goodbye to something is also the start of something new.
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