Free Anguli Ma by Chi Vu Page B

Đào got up.
    â€œWait!” Bác said, listening. Her old ears keener than her eyes.
    â€œ Sao ? I’m going to find out where the money is.”
    â€œIt might not be him.”
    Sinh looked up from the table at her landlady. “Let’s call the police.”
    â€œThey don’t want to hear from silly women afraid of the trees and empty houses; idiot migrants with their tongues full of foreign troubles. I will go check.” She pushed her jade and gold bracelet up into the flesh of her forearm.
    â€œI’ll come with you,” Sinh said.
    â€œNo!” Đào looked back at Sinh in horror. “No,” she repeated softly. She would not involve this innocent. Đào took the meat cleaver from her kitchen drawer. “I am old and ugly enough to scare the monster away.” She stepped out in the backyard and told them, “Lock the door after me.”
    ÄÃ o passed the studio, and slowly patrolled the backyard. No sign of movement. She looked across to the garage window; it was dark inside and out. The concrete felt rougher than usual beneath her feet, the side fence was a profusion of malevolent splinters as she walked by, and from beyond the back fence an eeriness seemed to reach out to her with its velvety substance.
    â€œAnguli?” Đào called out. No answer. She gripped the meat cleaver tightly, and dragged her heavy feet towards the bathroom-outside.
    â€œ Ai đó ?” but heard no reply.
    She pushed the door open slightly, and caught a glimpse of a dark shoe behind the door. Đào stared as the shoe shifted slightly. Then she heard a movement of air from the bathroom – a fart.
    Without thinking, Đào used all her strength to pull back on the door handle, closing the door tightly. To trap the monster inside thebathroom. Đào’s forehead was warm with sweat. She felt her hands moisten and the meat cleaver began to get heavy. Inside, the toilet flushed. Water flowed, for what seemed a long time. A river of waiting.
    With a violent force, the intruder yanked the door open, dragging Đào’s arms and body into the bathroom. He punched her head with a square fist. A burning pain rang in Đào’s cheek and nose; she dropped the meat cleaver. His smell emanated from the toilet.
    â€œI knocked on your door earlier,” the intruder told her.
    He was broad across the chest and head and had thick black hair. His ears were swollen and shrivelled up like dried fungus. So this is thằng Cowboy that she had been warned about.
    â€œâ€¦I was out all day,” Đào backed away from him, both her arms covering her face and head. He shoved her off balance and she fell onto the concrete.
    â€œWhere’s the money?”
    â€œI don’t know where it is. It was taken – ”
    He lifted his foot and got her just below the rib cage. He kicked her in the liver. Her eyes turned glassy with pain. Đào tried to scream, but she couldn’t even breathe.
    â€œThink harder, or this will really hurt.”
    â€œI’m not…I’m not hiding…I swear.” Her bracelet scraped on the concrete as she tried to crawl. Her voice sounded like a collection of other people’s voices all talking at once, fluctuating up and down.
    She tried to stand but her legs were shaky.
    The back door flung open. “ Cô ,” Sinh’s voice called, and light from the kitchen was thrown over a corner of the backyard. “ Cô Đào!” Sinh ran out with a torch, shining it straight into the intruder’s face.
    He had an unusually large forehead, and his eyes were focused somewhere in front of it, like a dog following the scent of meat. He stood and stared at the girl’s long black hair swaying in the cold darkness.
    Sinh let out a scream, “I’ll remember you – thằng vồ ! I’ll describe you exactly. You’re as tall as that