Page 98 - Demo

1865 Redefining Americaenvy resurfaced nearly every day of Vivien%u2019s visit, for her father was behaving completely unlike himself, as if he were competing to win Vivien%u2019s approval. Without questions or criticism, he followed Vivien%u2019s plan for visiting temples and cathedrals, shopping malls and museums, beaches and resorts, south through the Mekong Delta, west to Vung Tau, north to Da Lat, and, within Saigon, from the dense, cacophonous alleys of the Chinese quarter in Cho Lon to the glamour of downtown%u2019s Dong Khoi, where Nam Kha was the most expensive restaurant on the boulevard.%u201cThis is like the Saigon of the old days.%u201d Mr. Ly smiled fondly, gazing on the restaurant%u2019s velvet drapes and marble pillars. During the war, he had owned a shoe factory, a beach home in Vung Tau, a chauffeured Citro%u00ebn. Photographs from that time showed a dapper man with pomaded hair and a Clark Gable mustache.2Now, as far as Phuong could tell, he wore his sadness and defeat in a paunch barely contained by the buttons of a short-sleeved shirt one size too small for him. %u201cL%u2019Amiral on Thai Lap Thanh. La Tour d%u2019Ivoire on Tran Hung Dao. Paprika, with the best paella and sangria. I always used to go to those restaurants.%u201d%u201cNot with me,%u201d Mrs. Ly said.%u201cWhat do you want to do tomorrow?%u201d Mr. Ly asked Vivien.She refilled his glass from the bottle of Australian merlot and said, %u201cI left it blank on my schedule. I always leave a day or two for surprises.%u201d%u201cCan we go to Dam Sen?%u201d Hanh asked. Phuc nodded vigorously.%u201cWhat%u2019s that?%u201d Vivien refilled her own glass.%u201cAn amusement park,%u201d Phuong said. She was drinking lemonade, as were her mother and brothers. %u201cIt%u2019s not far from here.%u201d20%u201cI worked at one when I was sixteen,%u201d Vivien said. %u201cThat was a crazy summer.%u201d%u201cWe can save Dam Sen for later,%u201d Mr. Ly said. %u201cSince you%u2019ve seen where your sister works, let me take you on one of my tours tomorrow.%u201d%u201cOne hundred percent.%u201d Vivien raised her glass, using the classic toast he had taught her.He clinked his glass against hers, gazed on his sons affectionately, and said, %u201cYours is a lucky generation.%u201d%u201cI wouldn%u2019t say we were so lucky,%u201d Phuong said.%u201cYou%u2019ve never appreciated what you have.%u201d Her father waved his hand over the meal, and Phuong squeezed her glass, bracing herself to hear the stories of her parents one more time. %u201cYou want to talk about bad luck? After the Americans abandoned us and the Communists sent me to the labor camp, we lived on roots and manioc.3 There were worms in the rice, which was mostly water. People caught dysentery or malaria or dengue fever like the common cold and just died. It was amazing we had blood left for the leeches.%u201d%u201cIt wasn%u2019t so much better at home,%u201d Mrs. Ly chimed in. %u201cI sold everything to survive after the war. My sewing machine. The record player you gave me, and the records too.%u201d%u201cThe dumbest part was the confessions.%u201d Mr. Ly stared into his glass, as if all the lessons learned in the labor camp, once distilled, merely served to fill it. %u201cEvery week I had to come up with a different way to criticize myself for being a capitalist. I wrote enough pages for a whole autobiography, but every chapter said the same thing.%u201dPhuong sighed, but Vivien was listening 25 intently, chin cupped on her hand. %u201cThere%u2019s 302A reference to Rhett Butler, one of the protagonists in the novel Gone with the Wind. In the 1939 film, he was played by actor Clark Gable.%u2014Eds.3A root vegetable, similar to the potato, that grows in tropical climates.%u2014Eds.Characterize the relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Ly.33Copyright %u00a9 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. For review purposes only. Not for redistribution.