Aperture on the East (24 page)

Ana felt embarrassed, and looked
away.

“
I was joking,” said Vo.
He reached and turned Ana’s face toward him. “I don’t know where
fate will lead us, but if we do get married, it’s not because I
want a child. It’s because I want you.”

Ana was touched by Vo’s words, and she
smiled and kissed him.

“
Hey, lovebirds,” said
McKenzie. He sat down next to Ana.

Vo gave Ana gave a sheepish smile, and
then let go of her hand.

“
Hey.” Ana was surprised
to see McKenzie, too.

“
You don’t have to hide
it. I know what’s going on here. Vo, you lucky dog,” said McKenzie.
He took a drink from his bottle of beer. Ana felt thirsty all of a
sudden; her glass of Coca Cola was gone.

“
Have a beer, it’s on me,”
said McKenzie. He had brought over two additional bottles of
beer.

Vo hadn’t ordered a drink yet, so he
grabbed a bottle. Ana wanted to decline, but said nothing. She bit
her lower lip instead, while running her fingers up and down her
empty glass.

“
Come on, Ana,” said
McKenzie. “At least do me the honor of accepting a beer from me. I
never got a chance to buy you a drink before.”

After some consideration, Ana trusted
herself to not get drunk in front of Vo, and reached for a bottle
of beer. No one noticed the slight tremor of her hand as she took a
sip. Instantly, she felt relieved as her anxiety slowly melted
away. She felt good; she had it under control.

“
Vo,” said McKenzie, “this
was where Ana and I first met. I had every intention to make her my
girlfriend, but you beat me to it.”

Ana took another sip of her beer. Then
she took a gulp.

“
I didn’t think she’d go
for a dork like me, to tell you the truth,” said Vo. He was
smiling.

Ana emptied her bottle of beer and
said to McKenzie, “Well, here’s your chance to buy me another
drink. But I want a cocktail with vodka in it.”

McKenzie returned with a tall glass of
golden beverage and set it down in front of Ana, who immediately
took a sip of it via a straw.

“
Long Island Iced Tea,
extra-long,” said McKenzie.

Ana paused for a moment, and debated
whether she should stop right there. She could handle a shot of
vodka alone, she supposed, but this drink contained a few shots of
other liquors. She was drinking close to a bottle of vodka a day
before, so she calculated that this cocktail couldn’t harm her. She
would stop as soon as she felt a buzz. She took another
sip.

“
You are going to do her
in, McKenzie,” said Vo, drinking his beer, still
smiling.

When the band started playing again,
McKenzie asked Ana to dance. Ana glanced at Vo, who shrugged his
shoulders. Ana finished her cocktail, and then she went off to the
dance floor with McKenzie. The band was playing a song of a famous
American artist. Several people lined up to do the well-known steps
of the dance, emulating monsters. McKenzie was trying to copy them,
and Ana, instead of dancing, giggled through most of the song,
attempting to imitate the gestures only during the last
minute.

“
I haven’t had so much fun
in ages,” said Ana when she sat back down next to Vo. McKenzie sat
down as well, trying to catch his breath. Ana looked at Vo; he was
putting on a long face.

“
The dancing was so-so,
but you sure know how to make a girl laugh,” said Ana.

McKenzie excused himself to go to the
bar. Ana asked Vo if he wanted to dance.

“
We should probably get
going,” said Vo.

“
Wait till the break? I
want to wish my daughter a happy birthday,” said Ana. She was
leaning against Vo and looking into his eyes, begging.

“
Okay,” said McKenzie as
he sat down with three glasses of the crystal clear alcohol.
“Here’s straight vodka, as you like it in Russia. No juice, no ice,
just vodka.”

“
I can’t,” said Vo. “One
beer is my limit. I have to ride the motorcycle home.”

“
Ana?” said McKenzie as he
raised his glass to her.

“
Why not?” said Ana. She
grabbed a glass and saluted McKenzie. “Cheers.”

“
Za zdarovje,” said
McKenzie.

Ana was surprised and said, “That
sounded really good. Wait, I don’t remember teaching you
that.”

“
I learned some stuff on
my own,” said McKenzie.

Ana finished her glass of vodka, and
reached for another. She said, “I’ll take this for Vo.” She drank
the second glass of vodka in one gulp.

“
Another dance?” McKenzie
held out his hand, and Ana took it.

They danced until the band took a
break. Ana returned, feeling hot in the face and euphoric. She had
locked arms with McKenzie on the way back. They didn’t separate
until Vo gave a disapproving grunt.

Ana’s face became a little serious
when Zoe came and stood in front of her. Zoe gave her a severe
stare, and then she turned toward McKenzie.

“
You need to stay away
from her,” said Zoe. She was looking at McKenzie while pointing at
Ana.

“
Zoe, he’s my friend,”
said Ana. “Be nice. It’s McKenzie, remember?”

Zoe turned toward Vo, “And who’s
this?”

“
That’s your mother’s
boyfriend, Vo” said McKenzie. He took a sip of his
vodka.

“
Did you let her drink?”
said Zoe, staring at Vo.

“
She wanted to celebrate
your birthday, Zoe,” said Vo. “It is your birthday today, isn’t
it?”

Zoe didn’t respond.

“
Happy birthday, Zoe,”
said Ana. She stood up, trying to give Zoe a hug. Zoe backed away.
Ana lost her balance and nearly fell. Vo caught Ana in time, and
held her in his arms.

“
You should leave, and
stop drinking,” said Zoe.

Vo handed Zoe the gift bag and said,
“Your mother picked this out for you. Happy birthday. I’ll take her
home now.”

“
Wait,” said Zoe, “you are
not, staying overnight, are you?”

“
No, I’ll just drop her
off,” said Vo. “She would love for you to come home, though, if you
are worried about her.”

“
My brother is there.
He’ll look after her,” said Zoe. She turned around and
left.

“
That Zoe is one tough
cookie,” said McKenzie.

Vo led Ana out of the nightclub
despite McKenzie’s protest, and took her back to her apartment on
his motorcycle. He waited while Ana tried to open the door to her
apartment building with her key; she scratched at the keyhole
several times before she inserted the key properly and unlocked the
door.

“
Should I help you go up
the stairs?” said Vo.

“
No,” said Ana, “I can go
up myself. I’m too exhausted to explain to my son who you are
tonight. I think I will just go up and lie down. Thanks so much for
being patient. Zoe never liked anyone I dated. But I think she will
like you. You are different.”

“
Different in a good way,
I hope,” said Vo. He held Ana’s face, and kissed her.

When Ana got into her apartment, Ivan
was already asleep. Ana was glad because she knew that if Ivan had
seen her with alcohol on board, he would be upset. Ana gave herself
a pat on the back as she jumped into the shower. She had managed
not to get drunk. She started and stopped drinking at will. She
even had a little bit of fun. She could do this. She didn’t have to
completely give up alcohol after all. She could just replicate what
she did tonight, having a few drinks and then stopping before she
got tipsy. She would sleep like a baby now, and then, first thing
in the morning, she would go and buy some vodka. Maybe she would
get a small refrigerator for her bedroom, and keep the vodka there
so that Ivan wouldn’t see it and get worried. He wouldn’t
understand, Ana thought, as she closed her eyes and drifted into
her dreams.

Ana opened the door and let Vo into
her apartment. It was just after noon, and Vo had brought her some
sandwiches and sodas. Ana quickly picked up the papers and books
scattered on the floor and stacked them on a bookshelf, and then
she gathered the dirty glasses and plates from the coffee table and
the television stand and took those to the kitchen.

Ana returned to the living room with
two cups of hot tea, and noticed that Vo was inspecting the floor
around his seat. She set the cups down on the coffee table and
said, “I spilled something there the other day. I haven’t got the
chance to wipe it down properly.”

“
You don’t have to clean
on my behalf,” said Vo. He was smiling. “My apartment is a pig sty
compared to yours.”

Ana sat down on Vo’s lap and they
embraced each other and kissed.

“
You sure did make me
jealous last night, drinking and dancing with McKenzie,” said
Vo.

“
Did I?” said Ana. “I
vaguely remembered dancing with somebody. I thought it was you. Did
we dance?” She left Vo’s lap but squeezed in next to him in his
chair. She took a sip of her tea.

“
I am not very good at
dancing,” said Vo, “so I usually sit and watch. You had a great
time dancing with McKenzie though. I thought that perhaps you
forgot who your boyfriend was after that Long Island Iced Tea
McKenzie bought you.”

“
Next time,” said Ana,
“remind me to say no to McKenzie and his drinks. He was probably
plotting to get me drunk so that I would act like a fool and you
would dump me.” She pursed her lips, pretending to pout.

“
He wouldn’t do such a
thing. He was just trying to get you to relax and have some fun,”
said Vo. He pressed his thumb onto Ana’s lips, and then he leaned
forward and kissed them.

After a few minutes, Ana said, “My
daughter seemed to think that McKenzie was up to no good. She kept
giving him the cold shoulder and telling him to get lost. You don’t
know him that well, either. You barely worked together at the dive
center for a couple of months.”

“
You and I barely met just
a few months ago, too, and didn’t really talk to each other until
the last couple of months, either. Should I be worried about you?”
said Vo. He raised an eyebrow at first, and then he
grinned.

They were laughing at each other when
the phone rang, and Ana went to the kitchen to answer it. When she
came back to the living room, she said to Vo with panic, “My son
just got arrested.”

They hurried out of the apartment and
flew to the local police station on Vo’s motorcycle. Ana felt sick
with concern for Ivan, a rare thing since Ivan was born. She had
anxiety about her own troubles and Zoe’s problems all the time, but
she never had the slightest stress when it came to Ivan. He was the
smart, independent, and self-sufficient child.

When Vo and Ana got to the police
station, the police officer on duty gave them a curious look, and
then took them to the cubicle of another police officer, the one
who arrested Ivan. The latter police officer verified her and
Ivan’s passports, and then informed Ana that her son had been
arrested on account of obstructing traffic by running onto the busy
Tran Phu Boulevard while skateboarding, after he accidently
collided with a child who suffered a bloody scalp laceration. The
child’s wound had been closed with staples, but he had to be
admitted to the hospital for observation. The police officer
explained to Ana that he and his colleague had warned her son as
well as the other skateboarder on multiple occasions. Today’s
incident was the last straw.

“
How can I get him out of
here?” said Ana. She was afraid that Ivan might get charged with
some kind of felony, tried in a court, and be sentenced to
prison.

“
You can pay a fine,” said
the police officer. “The child’s parents agreed to settle for one
thousand American dollars in cash. You will have to pay an
additional one thousand to the city for violating the traffic
codes. Your son can go home after you pay the fine, and that would
be the end of the story.” He assured that Ivan would not have a
criminal record from this event as long as Ana could pay the fine
promptly.

Ana was relieved to hear that she
could resolve the crisis with money, but she frowned at the amount
of the fine because she did not have that much money on hand. She
asked if she could pay the fine in installments, and the police
officer told her that her son would be released only when the fine
was paid in full. Ana fought back the tears that were welling up in
her eyes. Her face was getting warm and her heart was pounding
fast. She knew that the police officer had probably just made up a
reason to put her son in jail and fabricated the amount of the fine
out of thin air, but she couldn’t afford to hire a lawyer to get
Ivan out of this jam, and she couldn’t let her son stay
incarcerated for days or even weeks while she sorted it out through
legal channels.

Vo held Ana in his arms and said,
“Ana, listen. Stay here and wait for me. I will be right back with
the cash.” He left before Ana could protest.

The police officer let Ana talk to
Ivan in a small room behind a locked door. Ivan looked frightened,
and had obviously been crying.