Golden fur heron

written by Chakriya PHOU

There was a heron living by a pond. It had magical golden fur which could double the amount of things. The heron usually gave its golden fur to lion, rat and ant. Each got one fur per day.

One day, the heron fell sick. Golden fur became normal fur; moreover, the fur fell off of the heron’s body.

Three animals heard about the poor heron.

Ant thought, “I am a small animal. I cannot help. So, I better help myself.”

And the lion thought, “I am kind enough to let it live.”

Only rat brought food to feed the heron. It did everyday without complaint until the heron got well. 

After the body was free from illness, golden fur came back. Heron decided to fly away. Before it moved, it gave lots of golden fur to the rat to pay for its kindness.

Lion and ant heard that the heron had golden fur again; hence, they quickly came to ask for golden fur but they could not meet even a shadow of the heron. The two went back home sadly.

As for rat, it lived happily with full food forever.

 

Hotpot night

In the front yard, I sat on a chair, Robert sat on a chair and crow sat on the table. We were having soup.

“Thanks Robert,” crow said.

“Why did you thank him?” I asked.

“Because of him, I can join the two of you tonight.”

I looked at Robert. He didn’t say a word and pretended to focus on taking beef from the soup pot.

“I am who invited you to this dinner and I am the one who prepared all of these. Why didn’t you thank me?”

“Because you were the one who caused me this,” the crow said and pointed to her forehead that was wrapped.

“Why me?” I asked.

“At that time, I was flying back home then I saw Robert was arrested, so I hurriedly flew to tell you but you didn’t wake up. You know I knocked on your door for more than ten minutes, but you were so lazy. Because I was frustrated, I decided to hit the door on purpose to break it into to wake you up. And it caused me this.” She pointed to her forehead again.

I looked at Robert, “You see? It’s the cons of being in love. I am innocent, but now I turn out to be a bad guy.”

Robert showed me a grin, “This is your favorite meatball.” Then he put it in my bowl.

What could I say? Nothing besides, “Let's forget it.”

Robert is arrested

In the early morning, I heard bang bang on my house's door. When I opened it, I saw the crow was laying on the ground.

“What’s happened?” I asked.

The crow covered her wing on her forehead and said, “Your dog was arrested. I came to inform you.”

I was surprised to hear that, “What was  going on?” 

“I don’t know. Go to ask him yourself. He is in the police station in the village.”

Quickly, I ran to the police station. When I arrived, I asked for the cause of arrest. After I heard the story, I was mind boggling. 

It started before the sun rose. An owner of a farm heard his chicken crying, so he went to check and saw Robert was inside the pile of dry hay in front of the chicken cage. The owner of the farm thought Robert wanted to steal his chicken, so he called for police to arrest him. 

When I asked Robert, he said that he ran following a car, but because last night, there was rain, the road was muddy. As he was running, he slipped and went to hit the pile of dry hay in that farm. He tried to explain, but the owner of the farm didn’t believe him, so he called the police and he got arrested.

Though the misunderstanding was solved, I had to pay the bail.

Along the way home, I asked Robert, “Why did you chase that car?”

Robert dropped his face down and stayed silent for a few seconds. Then he raised up his eyes and said in a tone of shy, “She was inside that car. I heard she would go back to her hometown, so I ran after her on purpose to tell her about my heart.”

I cocked my head and unlocked my mouth big, “Because of a female?”

Robert expanded his lips in a manner of shyness.

“Robert, I don’t mind if you love someone, but that one is human, not a dog.”

“I know. I don’t want anything from her. I just wanted to tell her how I feel about her.”

“Oh god.” I looked up at the sky and shook my head. “Love is strong. It can make not only humans but also dogs become a blind and a dumb.”

Robert asked what content which can get one million views

I looked at Robert who was laying on earth but his lips grinned ear to ear.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Uh huh,” he said, then he continued smiling.

“Don’t you have any questions?”

“Well,” he raised his face, “I am afraid that you can’t answer, that’s why I don’t ask you.”

“What is it?”

“Do you know what content can get one million views?”

“I am searching for it as well.”

“When you find it, share it with me.” He returned to lay on earth and smiled his lips.

 

Robert loves a human

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Shh…” Robert did this to me, then he pointed to the two women who were standing about three meters from our fence. I walked to stand next to Robert and listened to the human’s talking.

“Here are photos of the two men who are chasing me.”

“Okay.”

“I think both of them are good, but I feel it is hard to make a decision. If you were me, which one would you choose?”

“I can’t say it because I am not you.”

“I know, I just want to hear your opinion; however, I will make a decision by myself.”

“It’s best for you to make a decision by yourself.”

“I told you already. I just wanted to hear your ideas.”

“I won’t express my idea because it’s not good action. You must think and consider and make decisions by yourself. If I show my ideas, it will be able to distract your decision. It might impact you without your consent. So, I urge you to make a decision by yourself - because it’s your own life and happiness.”

“Pig,” Robert whispered, “I love her. The one who tells her friend to make decision by herself.”

Hearing it, I opened my mouth big.

 

Pig works hard to survive herself

“Pig,” Robert walked to me, “are you still typing?”

“Yes.” I nodded.

“What are you writing?”

“Skills that sellers should learn and train themselves.”

“What is it about?”

“It’s about the people who are in the selling role. Most of them like to sell because they think they are a seller; they don’t care about capacity development; and I am showing them that they should upgrade themselves though they are a seller and why they have to do it.”

“Can I read it?”

“Sure, you can, but you have to click on it because I posted it on another website.”

“Why do you make yourself busy like this?”

“You  can see that I don’t have any family to help me, I don’t have any friends who I can trust and rely on, and I don’t think I need anyone to depend on. I want to depend on myself, rely on myself, and help myself. So, I have to work harder and harder at this time to live easily when I get old.”

Why pig deletes Instagram account

When the sun set, there was a small rain. When it stopped, I came out to sit in my lounge in my front yard. Robert came to join me. It was a cool night and it was good.

“Tonight, you don’t update your social media, do you?” Robert said.

“If you want to talk about Instagram account, no I don’t. I deleted it already,” I said.

“Why?”

“Because it is harder to use than before. It demands that I have a Facebook account; if I use email to sign up, I need to verify with my face. It gives me a headache.”

“But how did you sign up for your account?”

“I used a Facebook account. However I didn’t feel it was secure and I felt annoyed since I usually got a notification asking me to pay to advertise my account to get views. Hence I decided to delete it.”

“Why do they have to make it complicated like this?”

“We can’t put blame on them. Many users have created fake accounts to scam other users and to cause trouble to the society so Facebook or Instagram companies need to be careful and protect. Furthermore, they are doing business, they need money to run the company, and the source of money to continue running their company is advertising, so they have to go for it. They are not wrong.”

“I understand.” Robert nodded his head.

The sky was dark blue and the wind became cooler. Over the bush before my house, there were a lot of lights, like tiny bulbs, and once they were bright once they were weak.

“Beautiful,” I said with a smile.