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“It wasn’t so much better at home,” Mrs. Ly focused her attention on the crowded conditions
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chimed in. “I sold everything to survive after the of the aging bus, whispering complaints into
war. My sewing machine. The record player you Phuong’s ear about the long-haired, budget-
gave me, and the records too.” minded backpackers who jammed into the
“The dumbest part was the confessions.” Mr. Ly thinly cushioned seats and made their father’s
stared into his glass, as if all the lessons learned in company a success. Then, embraced by
the labor camp, once distilled, merely served to fill clammy weather once they stepped off the air-
it. “Every week I had to come up with a different conditioned bus at Ben Dinh, Vivien could only
Redefining America
way to criticize myself for being a capitalist. I wrote mutter that this was not exactly her idea of fun.
enough pages for a whole autobiography, but every “I don’t even like camping,” Vivien said as
chapter said the same thing.” the sisters trailed behind the other tourists,
Phuong sighed, but Vivien was listening winding their way through the eucalyptus trees
intently, chin cupped on her hand. “There’s and bamboo groves where the fabled tunnels
something I’ve always wanted to know.” When of Cu Chi were preserved. “I’d rather be in
their father looked up, Vivien said, “Why give a shopping mall or a museum, but even the
your children with your next wife our names?” museums don’t have air-conditioning here.”
This was the question Phuong had never 35 “Father wants you to see him at work,” Phuong 40
asked, fearing the answer she always suspected, said patiently. “He’s good at what he does.”
that she and her brothers were no more than “Don’t tell him I said anything, okay? I don’t
regrets born into flesh. Vivien’s forthrightness, want to hurt his feelings.”
however, did not appear to surprise or daunt “So we have a secret?” Phuong teased.
their father, who merely raised his glass and “Sisters have to have secrets,” Vivien said.
said, “If you hadn’t come back to see me, I “Oh, my God. What is it, thirty-four degrees?”
would have understood. But I knew you would “This isn’t so bad. It’s not even that hot.”
come back to see the one I named after you.” “I’m being bit. I can feel it. Look at my legs!” 45
Vivien glanced at Phuong, who maintained a Vivien’s shins and thighs were studded
stoic expression. After all, it wasn’t Vivien’s fault with the pale bumps of fresh bites and the red
their father behaved the way he did, playing kernels of fermenting ones. For a pediatrician
favorites and pitying himself. “So here I am,” and seasoned traveler, Vivien had proven
Vivien said. She returned her father’s gaze and woefully incapable of caring for her own body.
clinked her glass against his. “And here’s to us.” While Phuong wore gloves extending to her
“One hundred percent,” Mr. Ly said. upper arms and nylons underneath her jeans,
her sister wore brief shorts and a T-shirt that
• • •
exposed her bra straps and the waistband and
In all the years that Mr. Ly had worked as a tour thong of her panties, which today were lavender.
guide, he had never asked Phuong to accompany Despite her bared skin, Vivien neglected to
him. Although she had never asked and had never use mosquito repellent, and she complained
thought of asking, she realized the next morning whenever the weather was hot, which was,
on the tour bus that she would have liked to according to her, nearly every second of the
have been asked before now. Vivien did not day and night. Her sister’s vulnerability was
seem to appreciate their father’s special regard alternately a source of annoyance and a source
for her, or her fortune in even being a tourist of endearment to Phuong, rendering Vivien less
on this day, the boys left behind at school and intimidating and perhaps more deserving of the
Phuong’s mother busy at work. Instead, Vivien secret Phuong longed to entrust, what she had
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Copyright © 2021 by Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Uncorrected proofs have been used in this sample chapter.
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