"Sai Gon to me is..."

Once, a friend named Chi who lives in Da Nang asked me, "Huy, what does Saigon mean to you?"

I nonchalantly replied, "Nothing."

So she spent a few hundred words scolding me for not loving where I live. Why blame me, Saigon is just a gray, crowded city. Not everyone has free time to pick up every little good thing of Saigon to force themselves to love it.

Suddenly, Chi ended her presentation with a question: "Do you know Luong Nhu Hoc Street?"

" Of course!" Who doesn't know that lantern street? When I was a kid, my dad always took me there every Mid-Autumn Festival to play. Now there are still six or seven blue-and-red lanterns in the corner of my house from a few years ago.

"It's mid-autumn in the next three weeks!" She texted me with a cute smiley face icon. "Don’t forget to go there and take a picture and send it to me!"

"OK!" I didn't think much, answered as briefly as I could in order to do my homework, nor did I know how much responsibility I had taken on.

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It's seven o'clock. I stand on the side of  Tran Hung Dao Street, looking at the land of light in front of me. There are only lanterns, why are people crowded like that?

I remember there was a tea shop which was owned by a Northern woman. After waiting many hours to buy the star lantern, my father and I always came to her shop and had a cup of tea, which made us feel better every time by its cool and sweet tastes . I haven’t met her for a long time, and I don't see the tea shop now, I don't know where she has moved to. 

The September wind blows over the top of my head, causing my hair to fly. For a moment, I stop as if I could see something fluttering in front of me. "How long has it been since I've been here yet?" In the star-colored twilight, a whole road of Luong Nhu Hoc Street lit up like a dragon's body running along, shimmering, brilliant and very dear. I look up for a moment, something which has hidden deeply inside me gradually appears in my mind, making me freeze in some seconds. 

When my father wasn't addicted to work, he used to take me around five or six times before going home. We used to visit the bald old man's shop the most. In fact, that man wasn't bald. I heard he was sick and his hair was gone. The bald man didn’t sell the kind of star lantern I like, but he had several beautiful carp lanterns. My grandmother liked carp, and dad bought her some to decorate our house for the Mid-Autumn festival.

The bald man died a few years ago, I know by asking a salesperson. I reply to her indifferently and then buy three carp lanterns. One for dad, one for my grandma and one for Chi in Da Nang. 

"Mom, Mom!" A child’s calling out from inside the store. I think he's the woman’s child. He asks, "Can we go out now, Mom?"

The owner pays me the money, the lovelingly replies:” Ok, wait for me to close the shop!”

Looking at them for a while, I suddenly say to her, "It's a pleasure to be your child, you are such a good mother when you can be patient and treat your son well ."

"Ha ha!" The owner smiles and wipes her sweat with her hands. "He's young now, and I'm still healthy. I'm taking him a little bit away. If I don’t spend my time for him now, it will be too late when I get older"

After a few words, I left so that the owner would close the shop. The flow of people has gone away, but the color of the lamp is still shimmering. I heard somewhere the drumming of the lion dance troupe mixed with the crunching laughter of the children. The kids will grow up later. They will no longer be interested in dolls, trains, shimmering lanterns... They will get caught up in the flow of life. And this little street, perhaps, will become the old film of a distant time. Maybe they'll put it all away and move forward or maybe they'll pack up the video, put it in a discreet compartment in their heart, save it.

I remember something important, and I quickly take out the camera. Suddenly, Chi's message passes through my brain for a moment.

"Huy, what does Saigon mean to you?"

I looked at the nose of my shoes. It seems that my eyes are being blurred, tens of thousands of shimmering lanterns turned into sparkling colored spots. The wind made my coat swell. I abruptly know the answer for Chi’s question. 

“Saigon to me is my beautiful childhood memories.”

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