Aperture on the East (34 page)

Vo looked at the cabanas full of
people and said, “I didn’t know I had all these
friends.”

A few people came up to talk to Vo
right away, and within a short time they displaced Ana, Zoe and
Ivan. Ana decided to head toward the beach, and signaled Zoe and
Ivan to follow her.

The Spanish guitar player was set up
in the corner of the bar, and Zoe decided to go and check out his
fingerpicking techniques.

“
Wait, who’s going to make
sure that I don’t pick up a glass of vodka or something?” said Ana,
feeling a little nervous.

“
Think of it as a test,
Ma. You can do it,” said Zoe as she took off.

Ana looked at Ivan and said, “You are
staying with me, right? I don’t know anybody here.”

“
Well,” Ivan looked toward
the sand where a few teenagers were playing beach volleyball, and
he said, “I kind of want to go over there.”

“
Okay,” said Ana. “I guess
I’ll just wait here by myself.”

Ana stood and watched as Ivan walked
away. She shook her head, and then she found an empty lounging
chair on the patio to sit down. She admired the elegant décor of
the restaurant and bar, with the simple but stylish furnishing and
romantic lighting. A waiter came by and she ordered a glass of
passion fruit juice. The place was well occupied with, she assumed,
Vo’s friends, but because someone had the foresight to make it a
private event, there wasn’t a suffocating crowd. Most people were
chatting in small groups, and a few were dancing to the music when
the guitarist switched to bossa nova. Young kids were running
around chasing one another, while their parents monitored from the
side and exchanged advice and anecdotes.

“
Ana.”

Ana turned to see who was calling her
name, and was surprised to see Kim.

Kim seemed to have gained some weight.
Her face was fuller and her abdomen was still showing signs of
recent pregnancy. When Ana stood up to greet her, she gave Ana a
hug, American style.

“
I’m so happy to see you,
Ana. How have you been?” said Kim. Her English was much more
fluent, even though the accent was still heavy.

Ana was not expecting to see Kim, and
she was beyond astonished. She managed to say, “I am fine. I am in
a much better shape than I was last year.”

“
Good,” said Kim. “Have
you and Vo been hanging out? He would only talk about you when he
called home. We were all getting very jealous. At least he
remembered to call us every once in a while.” She smiled at
Ana.

Ana swallowed hard. She felt a chill
creeping up her spine.

“
No, no,” said Ana, “we
haven’t spent that much time together.”

The waiter returned with Ana’s juice.
Ana took a sip and tried to change the subject by saying, “How is
your baby? Where is your baby?”

“
Oh, my baby is doing
fine,” said Kim. “I am so glad to come home with the baby so my
parents can see him. They are already spoiling him.”

Kim paused, and then pointed toward
the other end of the patio. “Right now he’s with my mother-in-law,
over there. Can you see?”

Ana looked, and saw Vo’s mother, Lan.
Lan was cradling an infant in her arms, and chatting with a few
other women. Ana folded her arms across her chest, trying to calm
herself down.

“
Do you want to go and see
the baby?” said Kim.

Ana wanted to decline, but it would
have been considered rude. Reluctantly, she agreed.

Kim held Ana’s hand as they weaved in
and out of the crowd to reach Lan. Lan’s face stiffened up when she
saw Ana, but she stood up to say the proper greetings.

“
Ana wants to hold the
baby,” said Kim. “Right, Ana?” Kim took the baby from Lan’s arms,
and handed him to Ana.

It took Ana a moment to hold the
infant comfortably in her arms as it had been so long since she
held one. She rocked the baby back and forth a little, and examined
his face. Something about the baby looked a little odd to
Ana.

“
And this is my
mother-in-law, Adele,” said Kim, pointing to a black woman sitting
next to Lan. “Mom, this is Ana, the one Vo talks about all the
time.”

Adele stood up to give Ana a hug and
said, “Don’t worry about Vo’s mom. I’ve got you covered.” She
winked at Ana, and sat down with Lan, resuming the conversation
they were having with the other women.

Ana was speechless. The presumption
she had held on to for months was shattered in a matter of seconds.
She felt a little faint. She almost dropped the baby when Vidal
walked up and tapped Ana on the back to greet her. Thankfully, her
instinct as a mother saved her from such a catastrophe.

Vidal gave her a puzzled look and
said, “What’s the matter? You look as if you’ve seen a
ghost?”

Ana opened her mouth, but no word
came.

“
She’s just too surprised
to see us tonight,” said Kim. “I don’t think Vo told her that we’d
be here, too.” Kim took her baby back from Ana.

Vidal gave Kim a kiss on the lips and
said, “I’m going to find Vo. They are about to bring out the cake.”
Vidal turned around and left.

“
You and Vidal got married
last year?” said Ana.

“
Yes,” said Kim, looking a
little embarrassed, “we fell in love so quickly, and before I knew
it I was pregnant. You’d think as a nurse I would have been more
careful. My father naturally was very angry. He wanted to sue Vidal
and threatened to cut me off from my family. Vo had to go and talk
to my father so many times, trying to reason with him. Eventually
Vo’s mother stepped in and talked to my mother. Vo’s mother vouched
that Vidal was a trustworthy and dependable man. The law degree
helped. My parents finally gave in, and Vidal and I got
married.”

Ana nodded her head. She was feeling a
little less anxious. Instead, her mood was starting to swing toward
the other direction. Vo was unattached. She had been such a
fool.

“
It’s been like a dream,”
said Kim. “Everything happened so fast. Vidal said I was his lucky
star. He got a job as soon as he got back to America. He’s not
doing corporate anymore; he’s an environmental lawyer, fighting the
companies that are polluting the Gulf of Mexico.”

Even in the dim light Ana could see
that Kim had a twinkle in her eyes as if she were talking about a
god that she worshiped wholeheartedly.

“
I am so happy for you,”
said Ana. “I was very sorry about breaking you and Vo up last
year.”

“
Oh, I was not sorry about
it at all,” said Kim. “I pretty much fell in love with Vidal as
soon as I saw him the first time. He said he liked me from the
beginning, too, but he pretended that he didn’t because it was his
duty to help Vo and I get married. After Vo ran away from the
engagement dinner that night at Quan Bien Dong, Vidal came to see
me the next day and confessed his feelings to me. I was so happy
when I found out that he had been in love with me, too, all that
time.”

Ana and Kim were laughing when Vidal
returned. Vo and Ivan were a couple of steps behind.

“
What did I miss?” said
Vidal. He put his arm around Kim’s waist.

Vo bowed to his mother, and gave
Vidal’s mother a hug. He greeted the other women whom his mother
was talking to as well.

“
And this is Ivan,” said
Vo to his mother.

With a serious expression, Lan fixed
her eyes on Ivan.

“
Ivan? Do you ride a
skateboard?” said Lan.

“
Yes, Mrs. Nguyen,” said
Ivan. He seemed to be studying Lan’s face as well, as if trying to
recall something.

Lan stood up immediately, and put her
hands together to bow to Ivan. She said, with a big smile, “You are
the Ivan who helped me when someone tried to rob me last year.” She
proceeded to recount the event for everyone present. When she was
finished, all of her friends came up and hugged Ivan as well. Ivan
smiled, looking embarrassed.

Ivan never told Ana about the event,
so Ana was surprised as well as proud of Ivan. She gave Ivan a pat
on the back. She glanced at Vo, who was shaking his head,
indicating that he didn’t know anything about it,
either.

“
Ana is Ivan’s mother,”
said Vo to Lan.

Lan looked at Ivan, and then looked at
Ana as if trying to confirm the resemblance. She shook her head and
said, “This is fate. I give up.” She took a step forward, and gave
Ana a hug. “I give my blessing to you and my son. I will be happy
to have you as my daughter-in-law.” She folded Ana’s hands inside
her own.

“
Mom,” said Vo, “don’t
embarrass her. We are just friends now.”

Everyone gave Vo and Ana a confused
look, but before anyone could say anything, someone had started
singing the song “Happy Birthday” and brought out the
cake.

When the party was winding down and
most guests had left, Vo found Ana at the edge of the water, making
circles in the sand with her toes. Her hair was flowing in the
wind, and her slender figure, wrapped in a white tunic dress,
seemed to be swaying to the rhythm of the waves. It was more than
he could bear not to run up to her and hold her in his arms.
Instead he approached her in a gentlemanly manner. He felt a little
weak in the knees, but managed to gather the necessary
courage.

“
Ana, did you enjoy the
evening?” said Vo. He left his shoes at the bar, and was making
little splashes of water with his foot.

“
Yes. I’m almost hoping
that it won’t end,” said Ana. She gave him a smile.

They stood and listen to the sound of
the ocean, the soft murmur of the Spanish guitar still
reverberating in the air behind them. The moon was not up yet, and
above them was a canvas of dark purple and indigo. The soothing
breeze caressing their skin was at once both relaxing and
invigorating.

“
I was thinking about
taking the boat out tonight. I would love to have some company,”
said Vo.

“
Are you asking me to go
out to sea in the dark? Sounds rather dangerous,” said Ana. She
peered at Vo, who was kicking up a micro-storm at the
shoreline.

“
I didn’t want to ask
anyone else. I mean, there’s no one else to ask,” said Vo. He was
stumbling to find words again.

Ana smiled and said, “I’d love to
come.”

Vo wanted to pick her up and spin her
around out of joy, but he refrained from doing so, afraid that it
might upset Ana. They walked back to the restaurant, and asked
Vidal to take Ivan and Zoe home. Everyone was agreeable to the
plan, so Vo and Ana hailed a taxi to take them to the Nha Trang
Port.

The water was calm, and it did not get
dark until the lights from the city and the residential islands
were out of sight. Vo slowed down the boat and had it cruise at a
leisurely speed when it seemed like he and Ana were the only two
living beings around. The birds of the sea that frequently followed
Vo’s seaward journeys were absent, and Vo imagined that the
creatures underneath the surface of the water were also taking a
rest. Vo offered Ana a blanket.

“
Thanks, but I’m all right
for now,” said Ana. She shook her head to turn down the offer.
There was an exhilarating chill in the air, and Ana wanted to soak
it all in.

Ana didn’t know where Vo was headed,
but she didn’t really care. When she was with Vo, it was beautiful
anywhere in the world. They were not exchanging a lot of words, but
they were communicating somehow, as if their spirits had invisible
tentacles that reached out and in a game of back-and-forth, became
intertwined.

Vo stopped the engine in the middle of
complete darkness and said, “Want to watch the stars for a
bit?”

They both lay down on the deck of the
boat to admire the Milky Way, the stars more numerous and brilliant
than could be seen in Nha Trang. The boat was rocking slightly on
the open water, the waves slapping against its hull quietly. Ana
moved toward Vo so that her arm was touching his. Vo didn’t
object.

When Ana saw a stretch of iridescent
blue starting to peek out above the horizon, she sat up.

“
I think the moon is about
to come up,” said Ana. She wanted to watch the moonrise.

Ana went to sit at the bow and cradled
her knees, gazing into the distance.

Vo watched Ana from behind. The wind
was whispering softly, the silence mesmerizing.

They watched as the full moon
completely rose out of the edge of the ocean, massive and bright
like a silver medallion, veiled by just a few wisps of a cloud. The
sky behind was an electric cobalt, accentuated by blotches of
charcoal with rims of platinum. The water below was sparkling in
the moonlight, and Ana remembered something that she had always
wanted to do.

She stood up, and as if in a trance
she disrobed completely. Before Vo could react to what was
happening, she had jumped into the ocean.

Vo ran to the bow and became worried
when he saw only ripples on the water and no signs of Ana. His
relief came when Ana poked her head out of the water, her long hair
wet and draping over the curves of her shoulders. Her skin glowed
as the moonlight bounced off the water and illuminated her. She
swam with her head above water, away from the boat.