Tập truyện ngắn viết về phân phận đàn bà. Mỗi câu chuyện đem đến cho người đọc những cảm xúc khác nhau. Có đau khổ. Có bất hạnh. Có khắc nghiệt. Có hạnh phúc. Có thất bại. Tuy nhiên, cái mà làm cho những câu chuyện của Nguyễn Anh Đào khác là có chút huyền diệu trong đó.

Thường thì chúng ta đọc về cách đối xử khắt khe của mẹ chồng đến với nàng dâu nhưng Nguyễn Anh Đào sẽ cho chúng ta thấy một khía cạnh khác. Sự hy sinh của mẹ chồng dành cho con dâu tuy không thể nói ra lời.

Hoặc một người vợ bị thằng chồng khốn nạn phá huỷ nhan sắc nhưng hằng ngày vẫn lên rừng hái thuốc bán đem tiền về cho thằng chồng chơi gái. Nhưng cô vẫn nuôi hy vọng tìm được loại hoa cỏ có thể chữa những vết sẹo trên mặt. Dĩ nhiên là chỉ có tiên mới chịu sống trong hoàn cảnh như thế và Nguyễn Anh Đào đã biến cô thành tiên dưới cây bút huyền diệu của mình.

Đúng như trong lời ngỏ của tác giả, mỗi câu chuyện vẫn lắng đọng lại sau khi đọc xong quyển sách. Riêng cá nhân tôi, bài mà khiến cho tôi nhớ nhất là “Lon bia trong tủ lạnh.” Dù bia ôm hay bia nằm, bia trong tủ lạnh nhà mình vẫn là niềm hạnh phúc. Theo lời Nguyễn Anh Đào viết, “Hạnh phúc là ngồi cùng nhau ăn bữa cơm chiều trong căn bếp nhỏ, gia đình là những người cùng nhau đi qua cuộc đời. Đơn giản vậy thôi.”

Càng già nỗi lo âu càng tăng. Mấy hôm trước tôi vì lo sợ mấy cái vòi mới thay bị rỉ nước nên đắn đo ngủ không yên. Chuyện nhỏ như thế mà đã khiến cho tôi phải lo lắng. Mọi chuyện nhỏ nhặt trong nhà điều khiến tôi phải âu lo. Lỡ có chuyện gì xảy ra thì sẽ ảnh hưởng đến những người ở trong nhà nhất là đám con.

Đám nhóc là nỗi âu lo lớn nhất của tôi. Từ học hành đến chơi iPad đến bệnh hoạn đến những điều không may, tôi vẫn bị phân tâm mãi cho dù bọn nó cũng phát triển bình thường không có gì phải lo ngại.

Mẹ. Công việc. Tiền bạc. Tình thân. Tình dục. Cơn nghiện. Sức lực. Nhà bề bộn. Xe cộ. Từng chuyện nhỏ nhặt khiến tôi rối loạn lo âu. Tôi cứ tự nhủ với bản thân đừng lo lắng nữa. Chuyện gì đến thì giải quyết đâu cần phải lo ngại làm chi. Biết nói với lòng như thế nhưng đầu óc vẫn không thể nào gạt bỏ đi được. Biết làm sao bây giờ?

Mấy hôm trước trong lúc còn lo âu đến cái vòi nước, tôi uống một chai bia bỗng nhiên đầu óc nhẹ hẳn ra. Nỗi lo âu tạm thời tan biến cho tôi có cảm giác sống cho hiện tại. Chuyện của ngày mai để mai lo. Chất men rượu như liều thuốc chống trầm cảm. Tôi vui vẻ và lạc quan hơn khi có một chút rượu.

Trong những âu lo của tôi may mắn rằng không có vợ trong đó. Tinh thần của vợ mạnh mẽ hơn tôi nhiều. Đó là sự an ủi lớn nhất trong đời sống của tôi. Vẫn biết rằng sự lo âu cũng chỉ thừa thãi nhưng vẫn không thể nào bỏ được.

This week’s photos featured graffiti arts with the message: “Fuck Trump.” He has been fucked by the Supreme Court two times in a week. The poll numbers are slipping and some Republicans are turning against him. Let’s hope he’ll get fucked this November.

Tập truyện ngắn về chủ đề xã hội, đời sống, và cách cư xử với nhau. Những câu chuyện không quá phức tạp cũng không quá não nề. Lối viết văn của Y Ban có chút mập mờ và huyền ảo. Không rõ ràng cũng không có câu kết luận như Có thể có, có thể không. Vì thế những câu chuyện không lắng đọng lại sau khi đọc. Chỉ nhớ mang máng những nhân vật và những khúc đoạn khác nhau. Đọc cũng tàm tạm thôi.

Spike Lee’s new joint for Netflix takes four Black-American veterans back to Vietnam to recover their soul and gold. The journey takes on a dark path once they found what they were there for. Lee joined forces Black actors (Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis, and Isiah Whitlock Jr.) with Vietnamese actors (Johnny Trí Nguyễn, Ngô Thanh Vân, Lê Y Lan, Nguyễn Ngọc Lâm, and Sandy Hương Phạm). Lindo gave an unforgettable performance. He looked so damn menacing in the red MAGA hat. Perhaps you don’t want to fuck with a Black veteran who voted for Trump. It’s missed opportunity with one-sided perspective.

Đây là lần đầu tiên tôi nghe giọng hát của Hà Lê nên cũng chẳng rõ lai lịch của em (mới Google biết em 35 tuổi nên nhỏ hơn tôi) nhưng tôi thích ngay cách em biến hoá nhạc xưa với âm hưởng hiện đại. Từ “Huế, Sài Gòn, Hà Nội” được đổi mới qua giai điệu reggae, đến “Biển nhớ” với electronic hip-hop, đến “Ở trọ” với không gian ambience, Hà Lê cùng những nhạc sĩ hoà âm thổi vào ca khúc Trịnh Công Sơn những luồng gió contemporary. Đã lâu rồi mới được thưởng thức nhạc Trịnh với những thay đổi mới lạ.

Last year Đán told me that his two friends taught him some bad words. Yesterday I had the opportunity to talk to one of them.

The issue came up when Đán asked if we could listen to hip-hop since they already knew all the bad words. I asked Đán what bad words he already knew and he spilled out, “Bitch, ass, dick, fuck, and shit.” I asked his friend where he learned these words from and he responded, “Just go to YouTube and type in bad words.” Kids nowadays know exactly where to get their information.

I can’t recall how the middle finger came up in our discussion, but the friend told me that his dad uses his middle finger a lot. I was a bit surprised; therefore, I asked him to clarify and he said, “When my dad teaches senior students, he uses his middle finger to point on the board.” I then remembered that his dad is a high school math and science teacher.

I played them some JAY-Z’s, but couldn’t help to wonder if I could show them George Carlin’s infamous “Seven Words” routine. No, I’ll let them discover on their own.

Đạo, Đán, and Khôi (their cousin) are tight. Unlike when they were toddlers, they played together more than fought or argued against each other. They would spend all day on their digital devices if we let them. Because we live close by, they wanted to have sleepovers every weekend. Every time they had a sleepover, they would wake up at noon, ate brunch, then played video games while my wife and I redid our deck.

Last Saturday, we had no water in our house because we replaced our shut-off valves. All of us went over to my sister-in-law’s house to sleep. I was dead tired by 8:30 pm and just wanted to crash on the sleeping bag in the living room, but Đạo insisted that I should go to sleep in one of the bedrooms upstairs because the boys wanted to sleep together on the coaches. With my sister-in-law’s family, our family, and my mother-in-law, all the bedrooms upstairs were occupied.

By 9 or 9:30 pm I already passed out on the sleeping bag. Around 2 am, I heard voices whispering. I looked up and saw Đạo and Khôi chatting with some lights glowing. I got up to tell them to go to sleep and I was shocked to discover that they were playing on their iPads.

The next day, we had a parents-children discussion and we found out more shocking confessions. They had “secret iPad” time at night when they were supposed to be sleeping together in our house. No wonder they woke up so late. They secretly played on their iPads at the wee hours. My heart broke a little. They broke our trust. This is a sign of addiction. With the coronavirus and house-fixing projects, we let them loose for a bit with screen time and now they are sinking even deeper into digital addiction.

Now I feel so guilty for letting this happen. We need to get out again soon. Before the coronavirus hit, we limited screen time only on weekends. We would go out skiing, ice skating, swimming, or other activities. Nowadays Đạo hardly picks up his book to read. The only thing they have on their mind is screen time. We need to wean them off again.

Chappelle is on fire on 8:46, which was his birth time as well as how long George Floyd’s neck was blocked by the police’s knee. Chappelle is thoughtful and provocative on the murder of George Floyd. He calls Laura Ingraham a cunt and calls out the stupidity of Candace Owens. I have not seen any living comedians can speak their minds like Chappelle. Given his status in the comedy world, I respect him even more. He’s a comic who does not afraid to speak the truth and he does not back down whether you agree with him or not.

Last year, we had a plumbing inspection by Home Service Doctors. The plumber recommended that we replace shut-off valves. He estimated a few hundred dollars for the three that were worn out and no longer shutting off water. I declined the service because I wanted to replace all of them (eleven total) and that would have cost me at least a grant. I thought I could replace them myself.

This weekend, I decided to take on this project. After looking up YouTube for instructions, which were straightforward, I went to Home Depot to pick up 11 one-forth-turn angle valves. Saturday morning, my wife and I dropped the kids over at my sister-in-law’s house so we could shut off our main water valve. Taking off the shut-off valves were as easy it looked on YouTube. Unfortunately, the most challenging part, which did not emphasized in a few videos, was how to remove the compression sleeves. We ended up buying a compression sleeve and faucet puller. It worked for some sleeves, but not for others, especially the valves underneath the sink with pop-up drains in the way. For those, I just left the old nuts and sleeves on and just replace the valves. If I have to do it again, I would do it that way instead of trying to pull off the sleeves. Initially, I was going to replace all eleven valves, but I only did nine for the three bathrooms. Each bathroom has two valves for the sink and one for the toilet. These are the critical ones anyway. I didn’t replace the valves under the kitchen sink and the bathroom in the basement. It already took the whole day with just the three bathrooms.

After new the valves were in place, we turned the water back on and that when the horror began. Water sprayed and leaked everywhere. The project turned into a disaster. One particular valve had water came out of the pipe. I might have pulled the sleeve too hard that I cracked part of the pipe where it was soldered. It was already late into the day. I was overwhelmed and exhausted. We called it the night. We went over our my sister-in-law’s house to have dinner and to sleep. I was half dead. I couldn’t even eat dinner. My mood was gloomy. I crashed on the the sleeping bag in the living room with my kids. Fortunately, my wife was not as worried as me.

Sunday morning, I woke up with a mild headache. I did not want to continue the job. I wanted to call the a plumber, but my wife was confident that we could do it. Apparently, she did some research on repairing the pipes using SharkBite materials, which do not require soldering. Of course, I went along with her. We let the kids stayed with my mother-in-law at my sister-in-law’s house and we headed to Lowe’s to get more materials. We went back to our house and we went straight to work. I cut the the drywall where the pipe was leaked. It turned out the pipe was more complicated than we thought. It has an elbow connect to a tee fitting, which meant we have to replace both. I gave up and called the plumber guy who used to remodeled my sister-in-law’s bathrooms. Unfortunately, he was unavailable. My wife went back to Lowe’s to pick up more materials to replace both the elbow and the tee while I stayed home tried to tighten up the screws as much as I could to stop the leaks. After tighten up the one with the leaking pipe, I turn the water on to test and to my surprise there was no leak. The pipe never cracked. The leaked was from the screw, but the water shot out too strong that it gave the impression the the pipe was leaked. My mood changed immediately. My headache was gone. I couldn’t wait to tell my wife the good news.

When she came back from Lowe’s, she also brought back a few SharkBite’s shut-off valves so we can try out. With the two valves that I could not get the leak to go away, I took them out and replaced the with SharkBite’s. When she installed SharkBite’s valves, I was amazed how simple it was. She simply marked the copper pipe and pushed the valve all the way in to meet the mark and that was it. There was no leaking and no tightening. If I could have done this project all over again, I would just go with SharkBite’s valve. It saves time and hassle. Actually, I did come across in my research about the SharkBite, but I ignored it. It seemed too good to be true. Now I am beating myself up for not considering it.

Once again, my wife saved the day. This lady is amazing. When I am pessimistic, she’s optimistic. With our next project, I will run by her first before I do anything. I told her, I am just going to be her machinery—a pretty bad one. Nevertheless, I’ll just do whatever she tells me to do. Unlike me, she does much better research and she does not feel down when things go wrong.

We dodged another bullet. I thought it would be a disaster, but it turned out fine. I truly despise house maintenance. It takes time away from my days off to relax. It also takes time away from our kids. I told my wife that for next project we will contract out, but she wanted me to do it and we will include the kids so they can learn to do as well. They need to learn how to do fix things around the house. It will be beneficial to them. I have to agree with her. In retrospect, I could have learned so much from my dad. He built houses, theaters, and temples before he retired. And yet, I know nothing about construction or house maintenance.