The Clan Divided

By Prudence Han Tranduc

“Killing guidelines and dogmas of the cunning leaders are so subtly sophisticated.” “If a war lasts many years, not only offenders have usually cruel actions, but also defenders could sometimes commit atrocities. Both sides denounce each other. This makes people confused; and they condemn both offenders and defenders, or they wrongly support offenders or invaders and criticize defenders or victims.” “ . . . Thus, gullible intellectuals like you are more harmful . . . You don’t carry out fact-finding on the reality of the despotical systems which invaders implement in their country . . . but you think on your utopian ideals and read their propagandist books . . . Better I kill you to stop your wrong actions . . .” “ . . . Brutality won generosity and barbary defeated civilization. Now, blindness guides clear-sightedness; dullness rules intelligence, and uneducated teaches educated.” “ . . . Both of us know they’re sly and cruel invaders; but fringe benefits, high positions, advantageous prerogatives, and profitable privileges are given by victors, not by defeat. Be clever to procure them." “ . . . On the other hand, the consecutive governments of this country are implementing pragmatic policies: they welcome us as businesspersons; we bring great amounts of money to this country; they don’t care about our dictatorship. Refugees like you have so many misunderstandings . . . Money conquers everything.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9781682138540

Book preview

The

Clan

DIVIDED

An Epic and Gripping Novel

Prudence Han Tranduc

Copyright © 2016 Prudence Han Tranduc

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

New York, NY

First originally published by Page Publishing, Inc. 2016

ISBN 978-1-68213-853-3 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-68213-854-0 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Author’s Notes

Retrospect

Beloved

Ignoring to Eligible Virtues

Love and Ideal

Warmongers

Works of the Ruse

Betrayals

Regressions and Upsets

Powers and Fatalities

Draw of Eerie Pulchritude

The Banquet

Quite Opposite Guides

Consequences from the Works of the Ruses

Drawn by Pipe Dream Promises

Like Animals in Circus Branches

Unwilling Works

Being Trained

In Large Cage

Single Identity But Two Consecutive Men

Quite the Contrary

Hopeful Mission of the Fleer

Vile Acts of Hypocrites in the Backstage

The Clan Divided

Current of Sweet Consolation

Conquerors vs. Subjugated

Charity Organizations

The Confessions of the Intellectual

Disadvantaged Refugees vs. Influential Imposters

Life Rebuilds

About the Author

Author’s Notes

The stories in The Clan Divided are fictions. Names of countries and characters as well as settings and incidents are the products of the author’s imaginations. Any resemblances to any real stories of actual persons, dead or living, as well as locales and times are entirely coincidental.

1

Retrospect

My name is Wisteria Binhchanh. Based on the confirmations from the family annals my father handed me, I belong to the fourth generation of Binhchanh clan. (Please see the chart at the end of this chapter.)

My great-grandparents were boat-people who escaped from wicked rulers of a faraway country, landed in country Eastnama, and resettled a century ago.

While the people of Eastnama were enjoying peaceful and prosperous lives, the dictators in the neighboring country Kanxono waged the invasion war because of their suzerainty. In the long and ferocious war, one-fifth members of my kinfolk died in grief; another one-fifth became handicapped.

When my country was lost to the hands of dictator invaders, among the one hundred million people of Eastnama, five million risked their lives to flee and four million reached to other countries and were welcomed as refugees; however, one million died miserably on the ocean or the in jungle because of fragile boats on the turbulent ocean or devilish evils in the frightening jungle.

As for my kinfolk, only my eight cousins (the fourth generation) and three ones of our parents (the third generation) reached this prosperous and democratic country Unto-Blumen just after the war.

In my case, though I tasted miserable consequences of the war, the period was short in comparison with my brother Lamarcki. He endured painful indignities in the period of one decade before he reached this country and rebuilt his life. His is an epic story.

We were welcomed here as refugees. This generous and helpful country is aiding us, and we are trying to rebuild our wholesome lives. However, we have a syndrome because of numerous sufferings and resentments we endured. We were also overwhelmed with the uncountable deaths and agonies we witnessed in our country. Thus, we have upset features and frequent nightmares.

Our therapists asked us whether we could express our sufferings and resentments in some writings such as our memoirs. We answered we can. To prove our abilities, I handed them two stories—Perfectly Hidden Faces and The Viper Princess, which I have rewritten thanks to my memories. The first one I wrote together with Wiseflora when we were in eleventh grade. Wiseflora was my classmate and closest friend from kindergarten to the day we said good-bye to attend at two different universities in two faraway cities. My brother Lamarcki wrote the second one.

These two stories were selected by the teachers of literature of our junior and senior classes, marked competitors by teachers of our high school, won the first and second prizes of writings in those two years, and received the rewards in the celebrations at the ends of the school years.

Perfectly Hidden Faces

In a small town, there was a man who organized his private estate becoming a small charity center for handicapped orphans.

I had an opportunity to observe and inquire cursorily the man and his center when I went with my classmate to visit and stayed a week in her aunt’s house at the town in the last summer vacation.

Thanks to his outward appearance, including his special beard and mustache, he looked like a philosopher or a sage. Outwardly, the expression of his face was gentle, his gesture was good-mannered, his countenance was dignified, and his gait was deliberate.

He was very well known as a celibate bachelor with high virtues. People in the whole town did not know whether he had any relatives.

I heard some people said he was Socrates or Aristotle reincarnated; some others said he was Confucius or Lao-Tzu reborn. I considered him respectful because of his outwardly altruistic works. I thought that whoever saw or heard his outwardly compassionate and kind activities would have similar considerations.

His estate was not large, only about 4,400 square feet. A half of its front yard was cemented and used as a small parking; another half was a small flower garden with some different groups of herbaceous plants being replaced in every seasons.

Next to the garden were two houses, which were joined together into one double house of 2,600 square feet built on stones ten inches above the ground. Each house had two floors.

Three five-yard high walls of solid bricks at the two sides of the houses and at the far end of the backyard covered the whole estate.

At the backyard, close to the three walls, parapets of solid bricks were built to keep soil inside the one-yard-and-a-half stripes in which several small fruit trees such as java, rambutan, citrus, and pomegranate were planted. The rest of the backyard was cemented. A pair of dinner tables and two dozens of chairs were wedged on it. Only one single man of the town with the duty of buying everything for the center entered in and out to kitchen and the backyard, and he often stayed overnight in the center two or three times a week.

In the week I was in the town, there were sixteen orphans ages ten to seventeen in the center. Seven boys lived in the right house, and nine girls lived in the left one. They all were mute; some were deaf and blind in addition. He explained that those orphans were the most pitiable handicapped orphans. Though a part of the orphans’ activities were restricted because of their muteness, deafness, and blindness, other parts of their activities were normal. Thus, the man was needed only to assign works for the orphans to do.

As I was told, the man received lots of presents and monies. The council of the town estimated their values were about one hundredweight of gold yearly.

Unexpectedly, in the morning of my last day in the town, its inhabitants heard many explosions of bullets at the direction of the center. I and my classmate ran toward it and joined the crowd of several dozen guys standing a hundred yards away. We stared at the flaming center. Four police cars with police officers behind were surrounded the center.

One women who acknowledged as a neighbor of the center told us, "Around four o’clock in the morning, in the second floor of my house, I heard female voices uttering in choked articulation from the backyard of the center. My presentiment told me that something unrighteous was happening there. From the balcony at the back of the floor, I saw the man in nudity was tearing the clothes of an orphan girl and dragging her into the house. Immediately, I called the police.

Two police cars arrived in front of the center, and a loudspeaker called the man to walk out. However, a gun was shooting out, one policeman fell down; two other police cars came and surrounded the center. After one minute of shooting, the fire flared up in the center.

Suddenly, seven orphans—five girls and two boys—ran out; their clothes were in flames. The police officers took wet blankets, covered the seven torches, and stamped out the fire. An ambulance transported the injured teens to the hospital nearby.

When the police officers were sure that the man was dead, they came to the ruin, called a special truck to transport the corpses, and collected the vestiges.

Because we were not allowed to come near, we walked home. Then we heard a rumor saying that a team of police came to the backyard of the ruined center and excavated the soil in the stripes and found out several secret things.

My classmate told me that the police would surely organize press conferences to show what it found out from the vestiges and what secret the things were. She suggested me to stay some more days. In truth, I was also interested to know what the police would show, so I agreed to stay.

In the press conference on the next day, the police gave the news that the man—whom people had wrongly believed as a celibate man with high virtues—was dead. The other man who had had duty of buying everything for the center and had stayed overnight in the center two or three times a week was arrested.

Those two men committed at least two sorts of crimes. They raped the orphan girls. When the girls had pregnancies, they punched the bellies of the girls to make fetuses being burst out. The police found out six bags of dead fetuses being buried under the soil in the stripes of the backyard. The arrested man had admitted their crimes.

Under the ashes of the ruined houses, one statue was found; it looked much like the dead man. Probably, he expected after his death that someone would do more than extol and venerate him.

From the vestiges, the police found out proofs of erotic pills and strong brandies. The arrested man also admitted that he himself had brought those things to the center. The two men had taken pills before they raped and boozed thereafter.

In the break, the audience whispered and commented on the slyness of the man. He took only the mute and deaf and blind orphans in because they could not denounce his criminal evils.

Then the press conference continued with the question-and-answer part. One important answer mentioned on the wounded police officer. He was in critical condition, and he died four hours later. The other answer explained the situation of the seven orphans, who survived. All of them were illiterate though the man had submitted schedules of teaching for the orphans to the council of the town. They knew absolutely nothing outside the center. Five of them expressed that they had not been mute, deaf, and blind on the day they entered the center. The man handed each of them two pills. After they swallowed them, their speaking, hearing, and seeing gradually lost; two orphan girls had bruises on their bellies because of being punched.

Having witnessed the incident and heard the news of the police, people were shocked and stunned by their insidiously criminal evils of the two demonic men and their perfectly hidden faces.

rose

A month later, Perfectly Hidden Faces was printed in a magazine. Thereafter, many persons sought and asked me lots of questions related to the story such as where the small town was, where the orphanage was located, how many orphans lived there, who the real man was, and so on.

My answers were roughly explained that it was only a product of my imagination, that everybody has a free imagination. Readers can imagine what they want.

The Viper Princess

In the last century, in the constitutional monarchy country Vita, there was a king and a queen who had one son and two daughters.

During childhood, the prince and each princess had already indicated their different characteristics. Prince Alder was straightforward and conforming to duty, elder princess Beta was altruistic and gentle, but younger princess Yucca was egoistic and cunning. Yucca was often scolded by her father and criticized by her brother. Therefore, Yucca disliked her father and hated her brother.

In a travel, both the king and the queen died in an accident at the age of forty-five and thirty nine. Twenty-three-year-old Prince Alder became the new king. He accomplished thorough funeral ceremonies for their parents.

Thereafter, the new king married Miltonia, daughter of the chairman of the House of Lords and Sirs. Princess Beta married the son of the first king’s minister.

As for princess Yucca, she did not care about morals. Though she aspired to marry, no man was ready to receive her because her egoistic and cunning characteristics were well known in the court. She became resentful against everybody. Then she began to send words that any young man who married her would have a bright future. The young man named Taxus, son of the Speaker of Lower House, stepped into her snare. Taxus married Yucca. For promotions of Taxus and wealth for both, Yucca carried out some cunning plots.

She told her husband, Taxus, I’ll make you to be a minister, and it’s better to be the Minister of Treasury, okay?

Make what you want.

But it’s difficult. The adviser of the king also wants this position. But I can arrange step by step. There are still four months to arrange. You’ll have the position.

Yucca, tell me the steps.

First, I’ll kill the adviser. I’ll put poison in his food. I won’t tell you in details, but believe me. Second, some VIPs will present you to the House of Sirs and Lords as a candidate. I’ll ask my sister Beta; her father-in-law will do this deed. Third, you need a relative majority of votes for confirmation. There are sixty members in the House. It means you need thirty-one. I’m a young princess; it easy to flirt with them to sleep with me. Of course, on conditions of keeping in secrets. I think I need to sleep with ten of them. After each case, I’d intimidate them. If they won’t vote for you, I’ll make them severely harmful. Taxus, give your sincere opinions.

Yucca, your plans are good. I’ve nothing to complain. Do what you’ve planned.

The scheme of Yucca to make Taxus Minister of Treasury was unsuccessful. However, he was employed as an important staff in the National Central Bank. He spent his maximum of time and energy in public works. He carefully inquired stores of gold and cash reserves.

At the same time, Yucca contacted several embassies including two ones from unfriendly countries.

After a year, Taxus and Yucca vanished. According to the spokesman of the government, the stealers embezzled two millions of money in cash and took ten tons of gold from two central reserve stores and sneaked to an unfriendly country.

In that unfriendly country, Yucca and Taxus put the embezzled money and gold to their account in National Bank. A month later, Yucca betrayed Taxus. She had affairs with the prime minister of that country and appropriated all the money and gold. Taxus was slandered as a criminal and sentenced six years in prison.

***

This second story was also printed in a magazine. Then some reporters asked my brother Lamarcki several questions roughly that in fairy stories, all princesses were nice and lovely, why the princess in his story was different? His answer was that he wanted to write something different from traditional fairy tales to make readers surprised.

However, at random, his story foreshadowed a beautiful girl of a noble family. In a decade after his four years of study at a university, this girl drew him into a wrong way that caused many problems to him and made his life afflicted in many miseries.

rose

After reading my two stories, the therapists encouraged us to write sufferings and resentments. They explained that retrospect or catharses would release grief.

We exchanged views and agreed with one another that we would write not only our sufferings and resentments but also agonies, deaths, and so on of my fellow country people as well as ruins, destructions, and so on in our country during the war. Furthermore, we will also describe domineering, cruelty, despots, and so on of the rulers after the war as well as miseries, destitutions, and so on of our people.

After two months, several of my cousins showed me what they have written. Then we also received some writings from our parents’ generations. I realized that they cannot arrange writings. Theirs were only facts in disorder. After my contacts, they accepted their negatives and signed agreements to let me use the facts and write for them.

After reading all my writings, the therapists suggested me to arrange them as a manuscript of a book. They promise they will try to find an agent or a publisher for the manuscript.

Our published stories are our catharses. They will be efficacious medicines to us.

rose

Binhchanh Clan Tree

|

Great-grandparents

|

Grandparents’ generation

|

Chubac – Gaco – Nhatla – Ronita – Virini – Tridom – Tabina – Butchi

Children (my cousins)

Chubac M. Gentiana Abies: Cripa – Carito – Abellia

Gaco M. Stellata Campbelli:Lamarcki – Wisteria

Nhatla M. Davidi Rubrum: Lusitania – Ilex

Ronita M. Vossi Larus: Sekimori – Serrata

Virini M. Alba Sargenti: Ballota – Itea – Kigari

Tridom M. Obassia Kumquat: Mahonia – Cider

Tabina M. Sorbus Fortunei: Kausa – Titila

Butchi M. Longifollia Populus: Spinosa – Fargus

All the names in the chart are the first names of our kinfolk, members of our clan, and the ones that have endings –a are females.

rose

Dear readers, when you read or think about the stories of our writings, please visualize lives in those times had only telephone and telegraph. They had no modern technologies of yours such as computers, cell phones, iPads, and so on.

2

Beloved

In the last year, my five cousins and I met several former schoolmates and talked about memories and events in the past. Almost all of them expressed the same nostalgia that the periods of attending school, from kindergarten to the days of receiving our high school diplomas, had been the most beloved times since we had enjoyed our youth and simplicity as well as the peace and prosperity of our native country Eastnama.

We had learned in the set of the private schools established by the generation of our grandparents illustrated in the last page of chapter 1.

Our great-grandparents were originators of the bank system in this country Eastnama a century ago. They were successful and became very wealthy. Then they bought the virgin peninsula of five hundred hectares, three hundred miles far from the capital Eastnama City. Their three descendant generations, including eight families of our parents’ generation, still built their dwellings within the peninsula.

The generation of our grandparents established the business center named Yacht Town, and the set of private schools named Binhchanh Schools consisted of one kindergarten, one preschool, one elementary school, one middle school, and one high school adjacent to a large city. The great majority of customers of the center and the great majority of