Two Birds on a Wire

Lecturer: Keo Nakren

Group 6
Pich Chansocheata Heng Chanrotha Ke Chandavin
Soun Chandararas Sreang Mengsrun
Hen Sreyli
 On an early morning in February 1937, the sun ray intrudes onto the surface of the
earth, a Chevrolet the Imperial Landau was steering along many carpets of golden
rice fields heading towards Battambang, a bordering province of Cambodia. During
the colonization by the French, Battambang was the most developed region in
Cambodia outside of Phnom Penh. The chauffeur, Albert Griezmann alongside his
wife and daughter had been driving for ten hours straight. Monsieur Griezmann was
assigned to lead the railway project connecting Battambang and Phnom Penh. The
trip family finally arrives in the land of BTB because they were too fascinated by its
geographical layout along the way.

There was a business meeting arranged between Monsieur Griezmann and the
village’s chief, Pich Omrith at his villa the same day the family was set to arrive. As
if the scenic beauty of the side road was not alluring enough, the chief’s massive
traditional wooden house took the family’s breath away. From the moment they
enter the chief’s property, their breath was momentarily taken away; following the
villa's exterior to the interior covered with the finest quality timber furniture with
unique ornaments arouse with cool wind and warm welcome from the homeowners.
They were greeted by the family’s cordial auras and comfortably seated.

In the midst of the meeting, Alice, Monsieur Griezmann’s daughter met face-to-
face with Amara, the chief’s daughter. The contrast in their appearances seem to take
control over their curiosity (doused their young minds with curiosity); Amara had
black glossy hair hovering over her shoulders and was fair-skinned while Alice was a
blonde, paper white skinned with freckles all over her face, and smile par with that
of an angel. Amara had never seen a little girl look so different from her and neither
did Alice. Alice did grow up in Phnom Penh but was never allowed anywhere near
the irksome Khmer kids or as her father put it. Alice learned to pick some Khmer
words despite never being allowed to communicate with anyone besides her parents.
Even though they are both shy Alice built her courage and makes the first move in
their communication. Despite their language barrier, Amara feels close to Alice and
shares her favorite toys with her. Eventually, they try to learn each other’s language
by picking up words from their parents (they are smart and quick-witted). As a
promise for their friendship, they gave each other nicknames like Alice calls Amaya
May and Amaya calls Alice Malis. They then teach each other languages and
cultures. That jasmine in Khmer is called Malis just like Alice’s nickname, Amara
decided to teach Alice how to make jasmine bouquets as a remembrance of their
friendship. Unfortunately, in the year 1953, which is Khmer independence year, Alice
and her family had to move from Cambodia to France. 5 years later, Alice and Amara
both became adults and had their own families such that Alice and her husband lived
in the Western Country, and Amara and her husband lived in Cambodia. Both
families had luxurious life in two different nations. During the time Alice and
Amara were apart from each other, the feeling of longing for reconnection with
Amara was too hard to bear for Alice. She always talked to her husband about her
childhood friend and her time in Cambodia where she grew up. In 1965, Alice’s
family had a discussion and decided to visit Battambang for a short vacation in
April. Returning back to her childhood hometown, Alice noticed that many things
had changed which was vastly different from her memory. Alice had been trying
desperately to search for Amara for days but unfortunately, the house that Amara
used to reside in had a new owner. She even tried going to the places that they used
to go. In one afternoon, she was walking along the Stung Sangkae to refresh her
mind when she saw a Khmer woman selling Num Banh Jok. Alice walked up to her
for a bowl of taste she had missed for years. Suddenly, Alice saw a familiar face that
she had been yearning to gaze upon. Eye contact was made and a rush of excitement
took over Alice. She hurriedly ran towards the recognizable figure to hug. “Malis!
It’s you, isn’t it?” said Amara. “May, I have been searching for you.” Small talk was
made to catch up with each other. They exchanged their address and decided to meet
up again the next day.

Alice and Amara spent the entire day together discussing and recalling their
memories from the past. Alice hid the fact that she had been having a serious illness,
and she only has a few days left to live. This is the real reason Alice came to Khmer.
Alice felt like she wanted to see her dear friend for the last time. Two days after they
spend time together, Amara decided to give Alice a jasmine bouquet as a welcome
gift, so she went to Alice's place. Tragically, she did not get to meet her friend.
Instead, she only saw Alice's family, who dressed up in all-white clothes with
soulless expressions and surrounded by a dull atmosphere. Seeing this, Amara stood
stunned in front of the doorway. A few seconds passed, and finally, Amara handed
the jasmine bouquet to Alice's husband and walked away.

Word count: 885 words

 Reflection

Two Birds on a Wire is about a friendship between two female characters who were totally
different in appearance. In 1937, Amara and Alice met each other for the first time in Battambang,
Cambodia. Later on, they became close friends for many years. Sadly, they had to be apart from
each other by the reason that Cambodia has got independence, so Alice had to return to France. In
1965, Alice decided to come back to Cambodia to visit her childhood friend, Amara. They finally
met each other again after many years. Unfortunately, Alice died due to her illness.
This story has shown the real friendship between two women, Amara and Alice. Even
though they were apart from each other for many years, they still remember their friendships and
find ways to meet up again. The genre of the story is historical fiction and drama. The social issue
in the story is colonization and racism. Amara and Alice are willing to be friends despite of their
different races and appearances. As we all know Cambodians were controlled by the French, so it
seems to be difficult for them to have friends. Unfortunately, after Cambodia got independent,
their friendship also ended due to their inability to communicate and their lack of technology. The
intended purpose of the story is the unchanging friendship between two people. At the end of the
story, Alice’s last wish was to see Amara one last time before she died. Narrative structures that
we have used in the story are orientation, complication, series of events, and resolution. Literary
devices that we have used are character, setting, theme, symbolism, and situational irony. The
developed parts of the story are that the story developed from February 1937 during Cambodia
was colonized by the French to 1953 when Cambodia is independent.
For our working process of the story, the ideas and information that we got to create this
story are from our group members. First, we had group discussions to admit a consensus opinion
on what kind of story we were interested in writing. We shared ideas and gave each other options
to make up the story about social issues and make the conflict in the story in order to attract the
reader’s attention. After that, we devised the work into two parts to make it easier for group work
and let the group member volunteer which part of the story that they want to do. After discussion,
one group carried on the story part which has three members (Socheata, Rotha, and Mengsrun)
who worked on writing the story through the contents. Another one is to respond to the reflection
part (Davin, Dararas, and Sreyli). After finishing the first draft, we had group editing and reviewing.
Then we got peer editing with group 3 and got some comments and worked on the final draft. For
the last, we worked on reflection. For the score, we should get an equal score, but we prefer
Cheata to get more scores than us because she has been working hard on this assignment as she
designed the cover of the story and the idea of the story is mostly from her.
All in all, after writing two birds on a wire, we were able to benefit from a variety of new
things from the story. This story has given us good lessons in our lives as well as knowledge from
writing this story which is such a good experience for all of us.

Word count: 578 words