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Hongvan Nguyen Page 3 The Unexpected Day
He took off his army uniforms and put on a dark-colored shirt and a pair of pants then hid himself in a crowd of civil citizens.
People were hurtling, jostling. some with frightened looks, some with excitements- the celebrating ones and the miserable ones.
At a desolate corner, he wangled off and walked home like a bystander among other bystanders. Flashing traffic lights, ineffective curfew due to the flowing
escapers, the rushing civilians. Aggressive, strange soldiers filled up the streets. The bright sky disturbed by the roaring of the taking-off helicopters hurriedly
flying away. On top of the Presidential Palace, the last helicopter was lifting up, abandoning a line of desperate evacuees waiting to be rescued.
Outside the collapsed gate, some stood still while others were turning their backs to find some open exit to flee. Under the statue of a navy soldier holding
his gun in a fighting gesture, a man lying dead after having shot himself in the head. The flesh flow of crimson blood wound around his head
while a French camera man was filming the suicidal scene, ignoring the wailing crowd and the mourners surrounding him.
In front of the Capitol, a VC, who just pulled down the South Vietnam’s three-stripes flag, angrily threw it on the ground then he let another VC tore it into small pieces while some others were
stepping on the torn pieces. On the pier, people pushed one another, and some even climbed over the bodies of others who had fallen down just to run up onto the ship’s boarding place which was more than ready to sail abroad.
© Copyright, 2014,
Hongvan Nguyen. |