2008年6月1日 上午2點57分41秒TIME OF FURY

                                                           
                                                    Dedicated to Lady Veronica
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In the summer I came to my 11th class, I was living in a small town of the Central Vietnam. I had three
friends, very close, although we're not all classmates, two of them were from another high school.
I was the youngest - I was always the youngest in every class, every school I attended. Almost all my  
friends at that time were two to four years older than me.
We used to exchange school lessons, do exercises in martial arts and take strolls together around the
town at night, some time till 4 o'clock in the morning. Seldom passed a day we're not together.
Then one day, a friend didn't come. Then two days. At the third day, the three of us decided to come
to his home, as he was living far from us. Just as we were leaving, he came with a devastated face
and a terrible news. His elder sister had killed herself.
I loved that sister a lot. She was a young and very beautiful girl, three years older than me, gentle and
kind. Sometimes, when I came to her house, she had  some talk with me, caressing my hair or giving
me some cakes she had made herself. A man seduced her, got her pregnant and dropped her. In this
small town we're living, where rumors spread like wildfire and traditions highly estime the chastity, her
situation was real hell. Desperate and deeply hurt, she jumped into the river and got drowned.
My friend cried, and the three of us were all dazed as he told us this sudden news. We sweared to
revenge for my friend's sister.
We knew the guy who seduced her, he was the son of a rich man, named T., handsome and tall. He
didn't know us, so we could find him and approach him. But he had fled after this event. We roamed
every where, every quarter in our town during all our vacation time. He was nowhere. But we didn't
forget our promise.
Then one afternoon, as I was on  a bike behind one of my friend, and he was pedalling through a
deserted road, we surprised the guy, he was playing kind of handball with some other guys. They
were four, so we would have to fight two - to - one. But we're not afraid. My friend dashed the bike at
the guy, he evaded but we still brushed him. The guys shouted and we stopped. A dispute exploded
between my friend and T. - that base guy who seduced and dropped out an innocent girl who had
loved and trusted him, and caused her death.
Eventually, in his anger, T. gave my friend a slap. That was what G., my friend, awaited. He jumped
down from the bike, told me to hold it, then said to the other three guys, "You see, he slapped me.
So let me and him solve this between men, with no one intervening, ok?"
G. was smaller than me though he was older. But he was a better fighter. So that afternoon, he used
the  Shaolin Houquan - a kind of boxing called the Monkey Boxing, beating that guy ruthlessly. At the
end, when T. fell down and couldn't rise up, his friends rushed in to his rescue. I threw my bike at one
of them, knocking him down, and fought another one, while G attacked the third. They all fled, perhaps
to call their band. G. seized T.'s collar, raised him up, and said with a very harh voice:
"That's for Miss C.! Understood, coward?"
He stammered indistinctly "Yes...!... give... ... give me..."
G. shouted, "What?"
The guy kept on stammering, "... give...  forgive me!... please..."
I looked at his blood-stained face and said to G., "It's ok, G.! Let's go home."
We rode our bike back home. We talked about the fight for some while. Then at one moment, I looked
at the sky, and couldn't move my eyes away. It was a blue, very clear sky, with just some touches of
white  clouds, a mild sky of happiness. Suddenly, I felt a sort of sadness invade my heart, sweeping
away all the joy of having revenged for our friends.
Two weeks later, I fell into an ambush set by T. and his band, one night I walked back home. They were 
about ten guys, armed with sticks, clubs, chains, even daggers. I was beaten savagely and had to stay
in bed for two months, abandonning my class. My friends wanted to fight back for revenge, we had enough
force to beat them out. But I told all my friends to stop. It was really hard for them to accept that, but in
the end they agreed. The second day after that ambush, my cousin, the one I loved the most in my life,
came to pay me visit. She burst into tears as she looked at my face. I rubbed her hair, and knew deep in
my heart that my adolescent years had come to an end.
    

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