The sound of the door open and a soft footstep cause Aom to wake up and quickly open her eyes. The inside of her room change, so she has to catch up with herself a bit before realizing her new status. The chaos from yesterday ceremony, made Aom thinks she is in a dream, if only she would close her eyes and sleep for a bit more this situation that she’s in would disappear. However, after being fully awake, everything become so clear, she is at the point where she can’t go back and change anything now.

The gentle voice that Aom hear outside of her room is saying something around 3-4 words and then disappear. Aom fling her blanket out of her body and walk over to the other side of the partitions, that person fold the mat and blanket neatly on the floor. The partitions is still at the same place without moving an inch, which mean that person has keep her promised like she said she would. Aom thinks to herself how much longer would she has to bear with this kind of situation. The white uniform that is place on the writing table chair is still at the same place since last night. Aom hesitates a bit before picking it up with her two figures like it’s something she shouldn’t touch and put it on the table. She puts away the mat, blanket and pillow to its original place before walking out of her room.

The soft footstep of her daughter made Mrs.Orn look up,

“Oh…it’s you Honey, I thought it was Grandma. Kimhan lefts not long ago, she said she is going to the camp”

The sound of metal banging came down the path of the river, now the duty of that person in this married is over between that person and her!

Mrs.Orn didn’t notice anything out of an ordinary, she was busying cooking. She only asked before cooking dinner,

“Honey, is Kimhan going to come and eat dinner here?”

“No she won’t!”

That answer is so sure that it causes Mrs.Orn to pause a bit. But what her daughter said was true because not long after that, the soldier from the camp come and said something fast in Japanese to Aom.

“Honey, what did he said?”

“He said, these are the wedding gift that arrived today and Kimhan told him to tell me that she has urgent work that need to get done”

Aom’s face is emotionless, so Mrs.Orn can’t tell what her daughter is really thinking. The soldier brings mountain of presents to the house and bow his head as a sign of respect before he leaves.

The sound of metal banging like rhythm in a song and the bell from changing shift of worker rang at the same time. The tall figure that sit at the same drawing table for many hours already still keep on trying to draw the blueprint without looking up. Her attention seem like it’s on the paper but her mind is somewhere faraway from all those blueprints. Kimhan just gave up trying to focus on work and push the door open to stand on the balcony, her eyes look far into the darkness of the wood, like she wanted see through all of those tree to the bedroom of that petite girl, a room that is neatly arrange but for Kimhan it was probably the last time that she can step in it!

At that moment, Aom also looks at the uniform that she placed on the table this morning. It is a big uniform with broad shoulders, show that the owner of the uniform is a lot taller than her, there is handkerchief hanging out of the front pocket a bit that is still a little wet and wrinkle. It shows that Kimhan still used this handkerchief again this morning to wipe her face because she didn’t dare to step into the other side of the room to grab a bigger towel.

A loud knock at the front door of the house.

“Who is it?” asks Mrs.Orn which made Aom quickly turn to the direction of the knock. The heart beat faster wondering who can that be, but when she knows it’s not that person it quickly sink down, when Ta Pol speak out.

 “ Mrs.Orn we’re screw, where is Aom?”

Aom quickly push the door of her room to come out and asks, “What happened? Did someone get hurt?”

“Aom, this is bad real bad”

“What’s wrong?”

Mrs.Orn walks over to the two old men curious about what happened as well. The two old men sit down on the floor, look left and right.

“Is the Head Engineer here?”

“No” Aom answers and sit down slowly not too far from them, it’s not that urgent anymore for her because now she knows it’s not about that person.

“Aom, we’re all screw, it’s all Bua’s fault. Last week, Bua stupidly bring a white guy to the cabin. At first we didn’t want to tell you, because we thought we got this down, we knows those guys who was working with us last time so we thought we are good. That white guy came and stayed with us like Waden. So we talked about the plan that we did last time and think we gonna do the same”

“So how did you contact the guys that you worked with before?”

“Well since last time, they told us if we have something we can go tell them so we did and yesterday we ask them to come pick the white guy up, but the white guy won’t leave with them. We later found out that the guy is German not American”

“Oh my god, so what did you guys do?”

“We ran, what other choice do we have? Those two guys ran away too, so me and Bua come straight to you”

Ta Pol said it with a soft voice like a kid who is in trouble and Ta Bua’s face is as white as paper.

“How the hell would I know what country he’s from, all white guy look the same geez, he was standing like he’s hiding from something so I bring him home to hide and he didn’t hesitate to come”

“Wait, so now that German know what we did before?!?” Aom balls her hand up into a fist with worry. “Geez guys, what have you done!!!!”

“Why the hell would he followed me home in the first place? How would I know this would happened? Like I said all of them look the same to me”

“You’re right, we’re screw, so is he still at the cabin?”

“I think so, so what are we going to do Aom? Take him back to where I found him?”

“If we do that and the Japanese soldiers found out, it’s going to be a bigger problem”

“Your dad would also be in big trouble too” said Mrs.Orn while giving out a long sigh.

“That’s true Mom, what could we do? What time is it now? I should go to Dad’s house in the city right now”

“It’s already 8PM, don’t go Honey, it’s getting late and you’re a girl, it’s not safe. Just go in the morning, maybe those two guys already went and told your dad already”

“But we’re not sure about that, I think morning would be too late, I want to go talk to him tonight”

“I don’t think its doable tonight”

“I’ll go with Ta Pol and Ta Bua, I’ll be ok”

“Please don’t go…”

“But I have to Mom” Aom’s voice shows that she already made up her mind, “Wait here a second guys, I need to go change before we go”

Not long after that, Aom came out with long dark color pant and long sleeves shirt. Her hair is put up in a ponytail and her hand is holding a big flashlight.

“Honey, if you’re gonna to go, I’m going to go with you”

“Mom, you have to stay with Grandma, I go with Ta Pol and Ta Bua you don’t have to worry about me. I’ll try to get back as fast as possible, so Dad can prepare himself about what’s going to happen. It’s not just us here, everybody’s life is at stake”

“You have to be careful ok, if it’s too late just stayed over at your dad’s house. Let Ta Pol and Ta Bua come back and tell me the news. You guys take good care of my daughter ok, don’t walk on big street, you don’t want to see the Japanese soldiers, try to not let them see all of you”

“We promise, we would take care of Aom with our life”

Mrs.Orn looks as Aom and the two old men disappeared from her sight. She closed the door tightly and come back and sit down at the same place as before. She’s counting every second until those three that just left to come back to the house again.

Aom walks ahead holding the flashlight, and the two old men walk closely behind. But when they’re about to turn to the right, a tall figure step out of the wood and was about to bump into her.

“Excuse me…” said the tall figure

Ta Pol moan out from behind, “, this time we are really screw!”

The tall figure step aside showing good manner, so the person with the flashlight quickly continue walking. When Kimhan real