Stories

The Tailor by Nguyen Quoc Thanh

Mr Xuyen has to be back at 8.00 every morning, because his wife is home alone and waiting. He takes a shower, then puts on a three piece grey suit and goes out for breakfast. There are two street restaurants around the corner of his house that he usually goes to. One serves “pho ga” a noodle soup with chicken, and the other “pho bo” with beef. His wife, Mrs Lien sits on her sofa in their room on the first floor at the back of their house. She makes very sweet strawberry flavoured hot tea for her husband. She has a lovely soft, pale skin. She never leaves the house.

Mrs Lien was raised in a family with strong tradition. 52 years ago she lived at number 16, while Mr Xuyen lived at 16E in the same street, but they never saw each other until they were presented to one another by a traditional match maker. They married in 1957 and their first child was born one year later. Unfortunately he passed away. Since then they have had four more children. The couple still live in the same house today.

Mr. Xuyen was trained to be a tailor at the age of 15. He got a job at a state company that was located in Hang Trong street. At the earlier years of Socialistic Republic of Vietnam, there were not so many good tailors. By the time Mr Xuyen was 24 in 1960, he became the head of the shop. There were always long queue outside his workplace. Of course everything was on coupons. Now, when retired, Mr Xuyen still likes to cut men suits. But the shop is not his. The couple rent the front room of their house for the tailor shop, run by two sisters, so they could have some money for living costs.

Every morning since his retirement, Mr Xuyen comes to LENIN park around 6 am, in the summer even earlier, at 5.30 to play badminton with friends. Their club - "Outdoor Health Club" was formed around 20 years ago. Now at 72, Mr Xuyen is the second oldest in the club, younger only to a 81 year old man called Phuc. The women adore Mr Xuyen, because he always looks so sharp despite his age, and elegant, too. “If you are a mechanic, your hands must be dirty with oils” he said “but when you are a tailor, you have to wear a nice suit”.

Every Friday at 4.30 in the afternoon Mr Xuyen leaves his home and goes to a school to take his youngest grand child home. The traffic is horrible at these hours. It takes him nearly half an hour to get to the school. He usually goes pass the Hang Da market to Hang Bong street, then briefly around the Hoan Kiem lake to Ly Thai To street, where the school is located. The boy's name is Thien. He is 8 years old and he has just started taking English and Vietnamese literature lessons after school near his granddad's house. When Mr Xuyen and Thien get home around 5.30, Mrs Lien is sitting outside her house with one of her neighbours, waiting for them. This is the only time during the day when she steps out her house. As usual, the dinner will be served at 7.00.