Crying In Trees

I promise myself that this visit I will make it up to Turtle. I will go to her neighborhood and give this book to her, I will go and play with her everyday, and when there is no one else around, I will take her hand without her having to ask me. 
This time I will tell her that I love her very much, such a big love, and the reason why the last time I didn’t dare express my love in a natural way is because I thought I was about to die. I will tell her the story of how the doctors misdiagnosed me, and that is why I didn’t return to the village. In this spot, I will lie to Turtle a bit. I am not yet ready to mention the real reason that kept me in Sài Gòn for three whole years. The story of her origin, I will tell her later so she knows. 
I will also tell her that during that last interminable period of absence, I would often visit her in dreams. I dreamed of us sitting beneath the white butterfly tree with her head resting on my shoulder, with her raising her hand up to point at Orion above our heads to tell me about her grandpa with a voice humming like a song.
I will tell her that it wasn’t just a few times I dreamed of us entering that waterfall to play with the small animals in the distant hills. And that while she was sitting with the baby deer beneath the umbrella palm tree, I went along the rivulets to pick lantana flowers to weave into a crown for her hair. 
Then I will tell her I will not go away from her for that long ever again. That’s right, there will never be something like that again.

Author: Nguyễn Nhật Ánh

Publisher: The Publishing House

Released Date: 2023

ISBN: 9786041237117