Positive Remedies-Cung Thi Lan

Positive Remedies
 
 
Ms. Hu-Vo did not know why she was out of her house by herself in the midnight. Looking around, she was panic because there were no houses, streets, cars, or lights but a huge crowd of people was around her. As a swarm, they chased her up to the hill through the leafless trees of the wood. They were panting and trembling while pushing her to get through the big snowy wind. Ms. Hu-Vo felt terrified but she tried to know what was going on. Looking back, she saw many great waves were chasing fiercely. She then ran as fast as accompanied people. The faster she ran, the higher she felt. She felt the ground of the earth beneath her feet raising up and lifting her higher and higher like when she was taking elevator in the Central Shopping Center.
 
 After many hours, they crossed the high hill and finally reached to the top of the mountain where they no longer saw the big waves or the snowy wind; however, the climate was very freezing. They found a big cave and stayed there. They used their body heat to warm each other while sleeping.
 
 
The next day, it was warmer and brighter by the sunlight. Ms. Hu-Vo realized people in the group were all different races with different types of clothes. When looking at herself, the light brown T-shirt with English words made Ms. Hu-Vo recalled that she lived in Northeastern America with a husband and two sons. Her family had a convenient life that made her children used to have different opinions about learning styles, hobbies, activities, food and everything.
 
In a state of hunger and cold. Ms. Hu-Vo suddenly remembered a day, she and her first son disagreed about medical treatment.
“What would you do if you got diarrhea while you were in the jungle that had only three kinds of trees: mango, guava, and papaya. I mean: what kind of leaves should you choose to eat for curing diarrhea while you do not have any medicine?”
Her son frowned and said, “Mom, why do you always ask me bunch of weird questions?”
Ms. Hu-Vo shook her head:
“I do not see anything weird with my question at all! It was from the reality of life. Long time ago, there were many prisoners working hard on the fields in Re-education camps but they did not have much food to eat. They were so hungry that they could gobble up the live animals that they were able to catch such as: baby fish, shrimps, crabs, mice, frogs… Those raw meats caused bad diarrhea. To cure it, they had to find the wild guava trees. By luck, they were cured by the guava leaves! My great grandfather experienced with that situation! He told us things based on the real stories.”
Her son listened quietly. He did not say any word, but Ms. Hu-Vo was sad.  Her children who lived in convenience, rarely knew how to use the herbal to cure the sickness.  Different from them, she listened to her grand parents’ stories, observed what they did, then tested each thing for getting experiences.
 She also remembered another day; one of her pet cockatiels was bleeding. The right leg of the cockatiel was scratched deeply by a long nail of a decorated basket where she hid to lay eggs. Ms. Hu-Vo ’s second son was so worried. He used a bandage to cover the cockatiel’s wound. He wanted to use pressure to control the bleeding; however, the wound was too deep and the blood from the thigh of the cockatiel dripped down to her ankle. He took the wet bandage out then re-covered the wound by another bandage but result was not different.  Ms. Hu-Vo told him: “Your treatment method doesn’t work! Let me take care of her!” 
 She took the wet bandage filled with blood out of the cockatiel’s tarsus and threw it into the trash can.   
The son yelled: “What are you doing, Mom?”
Ms. Hu-Vo did not answer. She took a jar of turmeric powder, opened the lid, took a pinch, then sprinkled it around the wounded thigh of the cockatiel. The wound was still bleeding but the stream of blood was blocked by turmeric powder.
 Ms.  Hu Vo’s first son came in. He and his brother gasped when they were watching their mother and the bird. One boy shook his head unceasingly while the other one said with disappointed tone, “What are you doing, Mom? It’s crazy!”
 Ms. Hu-Vo looked sad but she did not say anything. She continued adding turmeric powder to the cockatiel’s wound where the blood was still oozing.  A few minute later, the turmeric powder blocked the bleeding and penetrated into the blood stream creating an orange line on the cockatiel’s leg. Mrs. Hu Vo sprinkled the turmeric powder one more time. The wound stopped bleeding but the leg and even whole body of a cockatiel looked awful with messy orange color powder.
Two days later, the wound of the cockatiel was healed and she could fly from place to place in the room. When she flew back into the cage, Ms. Hu-Vo caught her and checked her carefully before she gave her a quick bath with warm water. After the bath, all orange turmeric powder was washed away and the cockatiel looked very clean and healthy. Her quick recovery surprised Ms. Hu Vo’s two sons while Ms. Hu-Vo looked satisfied with the result. She was so proud that she learnt to cure the cuts by many different ways from her ancestors.
 
However, Ms. Hu-Vo now felt guilty. Her children could not learn things from her because she never told them about it. If she explained to her sons each time, she did things, she could share her experience to them. Quietness would create a big gap between the young and old generation from year to year. Ms. Hu-Vo regretted that she now could not have any chances to talk to them again.  She tried to search one by one in the group of fifty people but she could not find any child of hers.
 
Ms. Hu-Vo felt so hopeless because she could not stay in the cave by herself to wait for her children and her husband. She had to stick with the whole group for her safety. Around them, there were no houses but hills, mountains, trees, woods and jungles.  Sometimes, they saw some squirrels, rabbits, deer and even monkeys whom they intentionally followed for finding the edible fruits or plants.
 
 Ms. Hu-Vo suddenly looked up to the trees where the birds are chirping. She remembered the deck and the small forest in her back yard. Whenever Ms. Hu-Vo felt sad, she stepped out of the backdoor and walked outside to the deck. From the deck, she usually looked down her backyard garden with satisfaction. The garden was a place for her meditation in which many positive thoughts sparkled in her mind. She liked watching the birds flying from tree to tree and the squirrels running around the lawn. Ms. Hu-Vo was very glad and content to see the animals so happy and carefree. The robins, wrens, cardinals, blue jays, mourning doves, squirrels and chipmunks got used with her calling voice. They usually came to her garden right after she filled the birdfeeders with the sunflower seeds and millets and spread some of them along the forest. With Ms. Hu-Vo ’s arrangement, the birds, squirrels, chipmunks could eat peacefully and they did not have to fight each other for food.  Every day, early in the morning, they came to their self-assigned spots to wait for food, then ate and socialized. They rarely went to other places in the garden, nor did they go to the garden in the afternoon because they knew that Ms. Hu-Vo provided seeds and pieces of bread in the morning. Ms. Hu-Vo was fascinated their understanding and cleverness. She appreciated their friendliness when approaching to her. She also appreciated her grandmothers and her mothers’ hobbies. They enlightened her to observe the animals and treat them well.
 
 Most of the herbal plants in Ms. Hu-Vo garden were from her grandparents’ houses.  They were sufficient for her family as well as for the wild animals. There were mints, water celeries, oregano, gingers, heartleaves, chives, corianders, lemon grass, marjoram sweet, spirit weeds, green onions, chilies, ramie and perilla. They were reliable medicinal herbs. Long ago, her grandmother, her mother and their friends bought these plants from the Asian markets. Most of them were her childhood friends from their hometown. They came to the United States by different ways and in different time; however, they shared the same cultures and upbringing and lifestyles. They had a habit of using herbs to prevent and to cure illnesses.  Most of the plants in their gardens could be considered as Eastern medicine but they could cook or eat them raw like any vegetable. Depending on the season, specific kinds of plants were used:  water celery for high blood pressure, oregano and heartleaf for asthma, chives for cough, coriander for arthritis, marjoram sweet medicinally for digestion, etc. Even garnishing herbs like cilantro and green onion and mint could be used to alleviate the common cold. For external maladies, perilla leaves for acne, rami leaves for swelling, and aloe vera for sunburns.
 
Ms. Hu-Vo also copied her grandmother and her mother’s hobbies. She spent a lot of time in her garden during the summer. She cultivated the soil, planted the vegetables, trimmed the branches, removed dust, or watered the plants. She always stayed there from dawn to dust. She felt happy when she watched the animals playing around her garden. Every day, she would spend hours watching them eating the seeds that she filled in the birdfeeders, or watching them drink the fresh water that she poured into the birdbaths.
 
The squirrels and the chipmunks did not care whom the containers belonged to; they remembered well where they could get food or drinks. The rabbits also knew where they could find their food. They used to run straight into the lawn or the water spinach beds. They did not know who their parents were, where they were from or what food or water they should use for their health. They just looked for food when they were hungry and went to find water when they were thirsty.  The more Ms. Hu-Vo watched the wild animals, the more her heart went out to them. She always remembered to provide them with food, clean water and herbal plants for their health.
 
 
Ms. Hu-Vo could not stop thinking what she had in the past.  She did not believe she lost everything even her family members.  The more she thought about them, the more her tears coming out. However, her empty stomach did not allow her to think long. She had to walk fast so that she could be among with people in the group.  They all walked up then down several bare hills until they reached a very thick jungle. Following birds’ chirping, they looked up the branch trees. They happily saw some small apples that the squirrels were snipping.
While people climbed up the trees to pick the fruits, Ms. Hu-Vo had chance to look at them carefully. They all looked skinny, dragged and miserable. Looking back her thin body, Ms. Hu-Vo guessed they had been starving for a long time. Besides hunger, they had to grapple with the harsh climate and lack of proper shelter and welfare.  Despite of how they were, they enjoyed with the wild fruits that they got, then shared them with care and love.
 Everyone was so happy because they could not only calm their hunger down, but also save some fruits for the other days. When they were searching for the other trees that had fruits, they met another group of people that came from the opposite direction. There were many unexpecting family reunions filled of happiness.  But Ms. Hu-Vo was not one of these lucky people. The group was bigger now, about seventy people with elders, adults, teenagers and children but most of them were very sick because of coughing, fever, headache, flu or stomachache.
 
Looking around the jungle, Ms. Hu-Vo thought of how wild animals cured sickness themselves. She believed the wild animals know what kind of plants could be used as medicines. Ms. Hu-Vo remembered by heart the stories about animal instincts that her grandmother told her every night at bedtime. One of the stories that imprinted in her mind was about the hunter who went hunting in the mountain where he saw a baby fox who was bitten by a big poisonous snake. The wound on the baby fox was bleeding so badly that the baby fox could not stand up. He became weak and almost fainted. The mother fox looked so worried but she was calm. She gently went to the bushes, searched each plant and picked up some leaves. She chewed them until they became a poultice, then she put it on her baby’s wound. After a moment, the baby fox’s wound was healed. He stood up then ran happily along with his mother into the forest. The hunter was so surprised that he could not believe his eyes. He hurried to those plants from which the mother fox had picked up the leaves. He took some home with him and secretly grew them in his yard for curing people who were bitten by the snakes. He became rich from selling those leaves as medicines.
 
 
This story enlightened Ms. Hu-Vo about how people long ago learned to use herbal medicines from observing animals. They then passed their experience to their children and grandchildren from generation to generation. As a result, Ms. Hu-Vo believed the herbs could be used when there were no pharmacies or hospitals where people could find the needed medicine.
 
           
Through this belief, Ms. Hu-Vo shared idea about herbal care. People in the group agreed her suggestion. They also shared their knowledge about some plants control the sickness. They encouraged each other to look for the mints, lemon grass, gingers or onions that were common for curing cough, fever, cold or stomachache. They luckily found some wild mints, wild garlic, wild chives, wild turmeric, aloe vera and lemon grass for controlling the common illness, healing cuts, and softening sunburns. By supporting and comforting each other, they safely found a large cave which a long tunnel reaching to a stream with pure water. Each day, the group went out for finding the wild fruits and edible plants. When the sun was set, they returned to the cave.
 
Years passed.
 
One day, a strange oval aircraft crashed into the hill. People in the group poured out of the cave and ran down to the greenfield. Once there were 70 in the group, now there only remained 10: seven men and three women. They were very old and very skinny. They had replaced their clothes for woven leaves, grass and barks. They looked exactly like prehistoric men in the ancient world.  They were very skinny, with many wrinkles and long white hair.  Despite of their ages, they ran down with fast moving feet as the deer’s, to a place where the aircraft landed.
 
Eight men wearing astronaut’s suits stepped out with three robots and one dog.  They looked in surprise at the “cavemen” and asked: 
“Who are you? How could you stay here?”
One caveman replied:
“We are people! We lived here after the climate changed. How about you? Do you come from another planet?”
“No! Not from the other planet. We came from another area of the earth. We’re human beings like you! How could you live on this island?”
“In the island?”
“Yes, you are in a big island!”
“Oh no! We never thought so!  It is a very long story! I guess we were thrust here when the earth was transformed! Anyway, we are blessed to meet fellow people.”
“We’re happy to reunite you, too!”
“And… are you here to rescue us?”
“Yes, we will! We have been rescuing people year by year right after the earth had lot of disasters.”
One voice was loudly heard from the group of cavemen:
“So what year are we now?”
“2200!”
“2200?”
“Yes, we are in year 2200!”
“That means It took you almost 40 years to find us??!!!”
“Yes, that’s right! We tried best as we could.  Since the earth changed its shape, it was hard to create an accurate map of the world. Jungles became temperate forest, deserts became mountains, and fields were flooded to become ponds and bays. We hope to find you sooner, but now our plane is out of fuel. We have to wait for the other rescued teams.”
 
Ms. Hu-Vo looked at the group of people whose wrinkled faces filled with tears. She did not know their tears with hope or despair. Her heart became beating harder and harder. In a state of apprehension, she felt as though there were countless voices in her ears.
A whining weak voice was spoken out from one old “cavewoman”:
“I knew it! Our earth has no more fuels because people had used materials wastefully! If everyone cared the earth’s materials and used them properly in the past, we could deal with any bad situation!”
Another caveman replied
 “Don’t be so disappointed! We were lucky to meet these rescuers! The plane and the robots confirm that the world still has many smart people. They might have been rationing the few raw materials left while planning to save our society and civilization!”
Another whispering:
“That’s right! No reason to be sad! We have overcome many obstacles for years! This is a good sign for us to reunite our society!”
Ms. Hu-Vo silently appreciated what she heard. She stared at a pilot taking off his suit, thinking it might be her son. She was then startled by a loud cry:
“Look at the robots! They are carrying the injured pilots out of the plane.  How intelligent! They have their own will! Will they help you contact another rescue team?”
“Oh, yes! They already did! They’ve contacted the World Rescue Organization for us. In the meanwhile, we need your hands to take care of these three injured pilots and give us some water and food.”
“Of course! Follow us!”
 The new comers followed the “cavemen” into the cave.  They laid the injured down on flat rock beds. The cavemen and cavewomen whispered each other for their tasks. Two went down a deeper tunnel to collect water from a cool stream. Two looked for the turmeric powder from the set of bamboo tubs that were organized on the high stage of the cave. Two rushed to the cultivated land to scrape the barks of Dragons Blood tree for its resin essence. And two walked to the field for picking the strawberries and bananas. Ms. Hu-Vo and another cavewoman folded the banana leaves into small slings to hold the fruits.
Few hours passed; the injured people admitted that they felt more comfortable. Their wounds were covered by the turmeric powder while fractures, sprains were casted by the resin of Dragons Blood. The cavemen helped them with their skillful fingers. Their swift acts amazed the patients and pilots. While three injured people happily said they felt much better, the pilots enjoyed with the offered fruits.
 One caveman proudly said:
 “We collected and saved these goods for years. We planted them nearby this cave so we can get them easily when we need!”
 Another caveman looked at a dog, and said:
“We don’t have any meat for him! For years, we did not eat any meat of animals. We consider them to be our friends! While they are rare, they guide us to find food and herbs.”
A pilot said:
“Never mind! Don’t you see my dog is eating the bananas? These fruits truly helped us! You made many remarkable things for us today! We appreciate you!”
These words made the cave people happy and content. They decided to treat the pilots as guests of honor. That night, they set a fire in the big hearth then roasted the sweet potatoes for the diner. Around the flames, hosts and guests talked all night.
 
On the next day, the host led the guests to visit some fields and some planting areas. The guests were bewildered by the fields of corns, potatoes, strawberries, and other tropical plants as bananas, wild small apples, or lucuma. They paid special attention to the medicinal herbs in the herbal gardens so that they asked for some seedlings.
 
On the following day, two small airplanes came. The cave people were asked to get on the airplane for going back to the homeland. Most of them were happy but the two oldest men. They decided to stay there until their last breath. Their decision made Ms. Hu-Vo hesitated. She was unsure if she could reunite her husband or sons again. She asked the rescuers:
 
 “In the future, if we want to get back here, will you help us?”
“Yes, we will! As the matter of fact, we will come back here more often to honor what you guys built.”
 
Ms. Hu-Vo nodded her head with appreciation, then followed the team.
 
 In the airplane, she dreamt of reuniting with her family, although she could hardly imagine how they would recognize each other after so many chaotic years.
 
Ms. Hu-Vo accepted that things would be different. But she could not believe her eyes when the airplane landed. Home, of which she had strong nostalgia for, was not the place she saw now.  Houses, buildings, cars, and the streets with traffic lights, that were in her mind, did not exist anymore. Instead, everything was light gray: buildings, cars, metros and traffic light, etc. Everyone walked around in the light gray jumpsuits exactly like the rescuers from the island.
 
In response to her and her accompanies’ surprised eyes, one rescuer explained:
“Since the earth was ravaged by the climate change, earthquakes and tsunamis, the world population had dropped by 70 percent. The survivors, led by the combined efforts of scientist and remaining billionaires, reconstructed all buildings and city infrastructure under the climate- controlled system with built-in greenhouse for agricultures. Even the clothes that you are wearing now. You can adjust the temperature for moderate temperature how you like!”
 
Another one said:
 “You will now go here to receive your identification card and welfare package. You can remove your outermost suit layer, then go to the booth to fill your information. There, the robot will process your ID, which you can use to search for your family members. Or, if you want, you can save the information of all citizens into the memory cards those are in your gray bag. The robot will give you the gray bag right after you get the ID.” 
 
  Following the guidance of the robot, Ms. Hu-Vo made her ID, received a bag then hastily searched name of her husband and her sons on the screen, but she did not find any. Tears streamed uncontrollably down her face, yet the social service staff remained impassive. Almost as if he’d seen countless times before, the worker told Ms. Hu-Vo steps to adapt to her new life. He reminded her the necessities such as the map, her residence address, free public transportation card, free food card and information about jobs openings. But the most important thing was the evacuation map.
Ms. Hu-Vo quietly listened to him then followed him and “her accompanied team” to their residence.
Two women and she was arranged to live in the big and convenient condominium with three bedrooms, a living room, restroom, a kitchen, wash machine, dryer machine, stove, and refrigerator.
That evening Ms. Hu-Vo ate the dried vegetable pellets as well as nuggets made of some indistinguishable meat mixture.
 
Although her soft mattress was comfortable, she could not sleep. She missed her rock bed in the cave and the smell of the dried banana leaves that covered her body during the cold night. She missed the green fields, the stream and the ways that led to the forest. She missed everything in the “magical island”, she also missed her old homeland with her house, her garden and the small forest in her backyard. And she mostly missed her husband and her sons. She cried all night while she deepened in nostalgia.  She suddenly thought of her great grandparents who left Vietnam by boat and came to the United State by refugee status. They must be through lots of physical and mental obstacles like her now.  She wondered how she could be still alive in this postapocalyptic world. She felt lucky that she was in the island where naturally provided plants and accommodation to raise her and her companions for almost 40 years. With love, sympathy and respect, everyone shared ideas and experience. Everyone treated each other with fairness and understanding so they could overcome the difficulties for remaining alive.
 
She also remembered people on the ways she got her residence. They did not wear the different fancy clothes or expensive jewelry like she saw in the past, but they were the same color in light gray or white. Difference from the old time, everyone in this era focused on how to deal with the harsh climate, the world climate change, natural disasters, and society protection; so that they could preserve the bright and beautiful environment for their future generations.
 Ms. Hu-Vo decided not to go back to the “magical island”. She would volunteer to work in the greenhouses to contribute a little back to the futuristic society.
Wiping her tears, Ms. Hu-Vo imagined the world of the year 2200 would start to heal and flourish again.
 Cung Thị Lan
Maryland, USA
 
 
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