Bom and Cuoi

The adventure in the remote forest









The sparkling sun was shining above the top of the bamboo. In Bom’s torn clothes, Cuoi quickly ran toward the village. A black crow saw Cuoi and followed him, loudly shouting:
“Cuoi is home! Cuoi is home! Catch him!”
It was the Rich Man’s ugly crow.
From the green field, a group of kids were pointing at Cuoi singing:
Sitting by the banyan tree
He left the bulls eat rice, calling Daddy
His dad was cutting grass in the sky
Mom rode the horse to see the mandarin!
Stopping by, he listened he was so worried. The whole village already knew that he left the bulls eat the rice on the Rich Man’s paddy. This time it was rather difficult for him to avoid the Rich Man’s cruel revenge.
Meanwhile, at the uncle’s home the couple was also afraid that the Rich Man would force them to pay for Cuoi. They thought of the plan of handing Cuoi over and letting the Rich Man decide what to do with him.
As they didn’t love the poor nephew, they followed their intention without any hesitation. At that time, Cuoi was just home. The couple quickly hid themselves behind the straw pile in the front yard. As soon as Cuoi entered the yard he was immediately covered by a net. He tried to escape but it was impossible. The couple approached, showing big gladness in their face:
“Cuoi! You’ve left the bulls eat the rice on the Rich Man’s paddy! We have to catch you and hand you over!”
They put him into a bamboo cage and carried it to the Rich Man’s house.
On passing the kapok tree, Cuoi saw the woodpecker pluming. He winked at the bird, rising his voice:
“Dear my woodpecker, I am handed over to the Rich Man’shouse Could you please tell Bom that I hid ten gold coins in the straw pile in the front yard and ask him to come and collect them?”
Catching Cuoi’s idea, the woodpecker nodded his head saying:
“Ok! Don’t worry. I will notice him right now”
Then the bird flew away. On hearing that, the uncle’s greed raised. They immediately ran home to look for the ten gold coins.
At that moment, the Rich man passed by. He turned to be surprised on seeing Cuoi in the bamboo cage. Forgetting about the fact that Cuoi left the bulls eat the rice, he stepped toward Cuoi and asked:
“Kiddy, why are you lying here?”
Pointing at the sky Cuoi pretended to be worried:
“The sky is going to collapse. I have to hide myself here”
The Rich Man then became so frightened. He looked around for place to hide himself butt he found nowhere. He hastily opened the cage’s cover, violently threw Cuoi outside and hurried into the cage. Just waiting for that moment, Cuoi tied the cover tightly and ran away leaving the Rich Man who burst in anger when he learnt to know that he had been tricked, behind.
Cuoi ran to the forest edge where Bom was waiting for him. Bom fanned Cuoi with the spa fan. They looked at each other and giggled as they were together again and enjoyed the cool breeze from the miraculous fan.
After a big laugh when retelling the story of the Rich Man’s being tricked, Cuoi sadly looked back to the village, said to Bom with a gloomy voice:
“We have to leave the village, Bom”
“Yes, the Rich Man is so cruel. He will catch us by all means”
Then both hand in hand ran into the forest, shouting:
“Yah……yah! Let’s travel!”
The sky above was so blue. Some yellow leaves were falling. Bom and Cuoi passionately played, picking the flowers and catching the butterflies. All of the animals seemed to be mixed into the two friends’ joy. All the worries completely flew away. Their laughter was sounding over the forest.
When the sun was fully bright at noon, Bom and Cuoi began to feel tired. They lie on the green grass. The gentle gust of wind lulled Cuoi to sleep. But Bom could not sleep because of the hunger. With one hand tightly holding his friend’s hand as if he was afraid to be blow away by the wind, Bom held his empty stomach with the other hand and moaned:
Cuoi! I am hungry, I need something to eat.”
To look for the food, they had to go into the remote forest. However, it was too far and the way was full of trees, too difficult to go. Then they saw a herd of wild horse running toward the forest. Cuoi asked Bom to climb on a tree and wait. When the horses passed by, two of them threw themselves on the horses’ backs.
Yah………yah! Bom and Cuoi turned into the two skillful horse– riders, speeding