On his overseas escape route, he was a second Lieutenant of the Striped Tiger battalion. But now John Kim was a successful business man of first class in Spielberg. His only disgrace was his being childless.
He had come to many famous doctors, many types of women of different colors, white, yellow, black, red… but still helpless. The single millionaire just wished to have a drop of healthy blood of his manhood - energetic and macho - left behind that he used to possess in Bình Phước.
His home visit bearing the meaning of source discovery had been very carefully arranged. He had sent notices to his relatives, friends, whores, lovers… those who had had love affairs with him, that once young lieutenant twenty years earlier, which had resulted in a child who would surely be sponsored to immigrate in the States where to have an opulent life!
It was like the case of "shoe trying" in a folk tale - half a dozen women who had had the honor of… losing their virginity or selling their womanhood, kissing or flirting with him took their children to call him "Dad!" Of course, they had to prove it. Two world class doctors were there to make the tests of blood, sperm.
Half a dozen "fake children" were denied by science. In return, they received a $100 gift each. As for the would-be father, he was in despair. Five days later, the last woman came with a child. She refused the blood test and approached John Kim, "You recognize me?"
The millionaire cleaned his glasses, looked up at her. His complexion turned pale and his voice out of tune, "Madame, if I am not mistaken…"
"You can't be mistaken," retorted the woman. "Seven times raping me in the prison camp would surely be more impressive than it was in a whore house. The scar made by my teeth on your neck is still there - Lucky you, this blood of hatred did bear a fruit: your child". She pointed to a young man in the corridor.
John Kim stood up and went to the door. The young man's face was John Kim's copy. He rushed up and put his two hands full of diamond rings on the robust shoulders of the young man.
"My son… my son!"
The young man's proud and silent look forced him to take his hands off. "Why don't you say anything?
I'm your father. Your mother did affirm it.
Don't you believe it?
Please tell him, Madam!"
"He believes but still hesitates… He wants a blood test.”
"No need. The blood presentiment proves to be more precise than any testing devices!
Nevertheless, it's my business. Don't you worry?"
"Don't you think that I'm not afraid of wrongly accepting as father a millionaire?"
"Sorry. I'm to respect you. I'm only afraid that machines go wrong, causing us trouble! You follow me, please."
The young man stayed silent. His mother had to speak up "Half of our relatives told him to stay with us - other half advised him to go with his father. His ballot is neither.”
"How about you? Please forget all about it and be on my side. In spite of everything, please give me the permission to consider you as my wife. I'll make arrangements for you two to go with me."
"The past never changes. On the other hand, I don't make it a feud, or vendetta. Taking the child here, for me, is to end off a period of woes. I won't stop him if he accepts to go with you. As for me, you already know I had been married and had borne children before I was in your hands. Nothing of love to follow you, for me."
"But, you see, I have my responsibility for my son's mother. If possible, allow me to see your husband to make legal papers, both ethically and financially satisfactory."
The woman smiled, "Of the old days, guns, bullets and bombs could not prevent our deter-mination. And now it's your turn to buy our souls? Bringing up a child is my obligation. Now he's yours. Erasing an old debt does not mean to allow you to hurt us in the present and future."
Some time later, his mother and older sister saw the child and brother off. He was going to Spielberg. The woman still had a secret kept to herself, not to share it with her children and the child's new father. It was John Kim who had killed her husband in a bloody battle twenty years and three months earlier. Jesus Christ offered to bear the burden of woes for all human beings. The woman now kept her own suffering to keep peace for the two families of hereditary blood feud to be together in the same shelter. She was kind of second - ranking God!
- Triệu Huấn