This, That, and the Other

Mai looked up the street to her right and then down the street to her left. Where is everyone? she wondered. She had been selling her produce at this address for years, and while this wasn’t the busiest spot in the city, she rarely had trouble selling most of her stock.

It was early 1968 and the Americans had been in Vietnam for almost three years, and Mai, personally, had never felt their presence. But then the North Vietnamese army and the Viet Cong initiated the Tet Offensive directed at U.S. and South Vietnamese positions across South Vietnam, with Saigon as the main focal point of the offensive.

Word of mouth rumors circulated within the city about the upcoming offensive with warnings that civilians should stay off the streets. But on this day, the 67 year old woman was at her usual spot, unsure if she’d be able to sell anything, since there as absolutely no foot traffic.

No one knows for sure if Mai was simply unaware of what was going to be happening in Saigon or if she deliberately chose to ignore the warnings. But Mai went missing and her bicycle was never found since that last day she showed up at her usual spot that she’d been selling her produce for years and wondered why the streets were so empty.

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Written for Melissa’s Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge. Image credit: Pete Walls on Unsplash.