Nguyen

Nguyen Thi

Kim just had a quarrel with her husband. So she took a week vacation in a resort in Mexico. At this resort, she could do her favorite thing: watching the big, giant, red sun gradually diving into the sea over the horizon. She had amazed the scene of the sunset since she was a child. She thought there was something special that she could not spell it out. A moment later, the first star started to shine and the moon appeared from nowhere. She sat motionlessly while she mused about her life. A shooting star traveled across the sky and Kim wished that she had never met her husband. The sound of the waves crashed down the beach silently and the wind started to rest at night with tender wind. Lying in the hammock, Kim thought that she could take a nap for a while.

The thunder suddenly broke the sky and there was a blue magical cloud that descended directly toward the beach where Kim was resting. Kim was startled and looked at the sky. She stood on her feet now and stared at the cloud. From the middle of that cloud appeared a genie that came toward Kim.

“Who are you?” Kim said with fear in her voice.

“I’m a genie, the shooting star that you just wish” genie tried to keep his angry of being annoyed. He continued, “I just give you one wish and I’m done in here.” The genie was in a rush.

Kim didn’t know what to wish for. Then she remembered her wish. She thought that it would be great if she had not met her when they were in college. She still remembered every detail of that day-the day she met her husband. He thought she was so down on earth that he fell in love with her at first sight. It was impressive to look back at how fast their relationship had grown and broken. They used to have arguments sometimes. But recently their arguments had been more frequent and more intense. Most of the arguments came from her husband, but there were countless times she started the argument. She blamed that all the problems were her husband’s fault.

“You can wish whatever you want, miss” he reminded her.

She thought for a while. With a hesitation, she finally spelled out her wish, “I wish I had not met my husband!”

Suddenly a blue magical cloud brought her to a strange place where she had never been before. She looked around and there were just the sky with myriad stars hung on it and the silence of the desert. Around her, people were sleeping in their sleeping bags. She figured that she was at the army base in the Middle East. Far away, an explosion and gun fired broke the night. She realized that if she had not met her husband, she probably would end up a reporter. Meeting her husband changed her life completely. He had persuaded her to be businesswoman rather than to be a reporter. His reason was that she could not stay at home with the family and their children; and he was going to miss her a lot. They lived happily for the first 2 years. Then later, her work and his dominated their time that they didn’t spend much time together. This time their argument was so intense. The rebel group had attacked the base. She didn’t know what to do. She just stood and stared at the soldiers fighting back. Another explosion broke not far away from the base. Corkscrewed smoke flew toward the dawn sky. She prayed and looked for help, but everyone was so busy. She found herself helpless and started to cry.

She woke up with the crying. She heard her heart beat in the silence of the morning. It took her a while to take her consciousness back. Then she realized that it just had been a dream. She looked around and blew a breath of relief. She wondered that how her life looked like if she had not met her husband. The rays of dawn broke the spell of the night. The sun gradually came up from the ocean and finally appeared in a giant red ball. Everything woke up from the sleep from the night. Birds flew out their nest and searched for food. The waves crashed down the beach. The wind started to blow and caress Kim’s hair while she ruminated on her question.