
They say that when your soul ascends up into the heavens you’re given the chance to go back and revisit one day in your life, one day which you find most memorable. I am sad to say that this is true… and that it can in fact destroy your will to live again.
As I stood upon the golden stairs of heaven and was asked to choose a day to go back to in my life. For me, it was hard to even think of a day which I would want to relive - Seeing as how I was only five years old when I died - but I chose the best, and worst day, of my life to go back and revisit. That was March 16, 1968, my 5th birthday … and the day I died.
March 16, 1968 started out like any other day. I woke up and went downstairs to help mother with breakfast. She looked down at me sweetly and smiled.
Mother laid her hand upon my head and softly spoke in Vietnamese, the most beautiful language I’ve ever heard.
“Kai, run down to the market, find papa.”
I nodded and smiled at my mother, not knowing that would be the last time I would ever see her. As I ran out the front door of our small, humble home momma yelled after me: “Happy Birthday, Kai.”
I smiled happily as I ran towards the market, toward my papa. As I came into the center of the market I heard sounds, bad sounds, but I ignored them. I ran over to my papa, who was buying a chicken. I looked up at my papa with wide eyes.
“Chicken? Why are you buying chicken pa?” I questioned him in a teasing way.
Papa looked down at me and pushed my stringy black hair out of my face.
“For your birthday dinner tonight, Kai. I know you love chicken.”
I smiled and gave my pa a hug around the waist. He took me by the hand and we turned to head towards home.
I heard the bad noises again. They were louder and they were mixed with sounds of panic, of distress, of fear. I looked up at papa.
“What’s going on papa?” I asked innocently.
Papa looked all around him. He took me by the hand and knelt down in the sand beside me.
“Kai, I want you to run, as fast as you can back home to momma and get her out of the house. Then I want you to get out of town as quickly as you can. Don’t take anything with you, just leave. Ok?”
My eyes filled with tears, “Papa, is there something wrong?”
He kissed me gently on the forehead. “Just run Kai, please?”
I nodded and hugged my papa tightly for the last time. He kissed me softly on the cheek before he stood up, and I began to run.
Down the road about a half a mile a large plot of grass to my right exploded and then I felt something sharp hit my arm. As I fell into the grass and I saw the blood falling from the wound on my arm. I don’t remember starting to cry, but I do remember how the tears stung against my skin. As I lay in the grass I heard loud voices speaking in a tongue I did not know.
The shadows of the four large men towered over me and they spoke quickly in their foreign language as they stared down at me. One of them men laughed as he raised his large black boot out of the soft grass and kicked me in the rib.
I stopped crying as I felt all the air being pushed out of my chest by his swift kick. I gasped faintly as another boot kicked me in the rib cage. Then the tears began to fall again. These four monsters stood above me kicking me around like a tin can and I could do nothing.
Their laughter stopped and I heard a loud clicking sound. One of the men rolled me onto my stomach as another knelt on the center of my back. I felt something round and cold press up against the back of my skull. Then, I felt nothing.
I stared up at the being who was there to judge me with tears in my eyes.
“Please sir, don’t send me back into that world.” I sobbed quietly as the celestial being smiled and nodded and my soul rose up to heaven, to be with my family once again, in the stars.