One Monday morning, Co Thu didn’t show up to work. I stood outside the shop for fifteen minutes waiting for it to be opened. Co Ha, Thu’s sister-in-law, finally showed up, and told me that Thu wouldn’t be in, but that I was to go ahead and run the shop on my own until Hoa was scheduled to show up around ten. Around 9:30, my first customer pulled up in a black Nissan. Out of the car stepped a very stylishly dressed young woman approximately my own age. She was rather tall for a Vietnamese woman with long black hair and serious looking eyes.
“I’d like a head massage, all right?”
“Okay. You can sit over there. I’ll get some warm water.”
“Do you have a more private place?”
“Sure. You can enter the first room on the left.”
She nodded and went down the hall and into the room where I first met Mr. Duc. I realized the rarity of the situation – not many women come to get only a head massage in a private room. As I entered the room, she sat glibly on the salon chair with legs crossed.
“What’s your name?” she asked abruptly.
“My Phuong.”
“My Phuong, how long have you worked here.”
“Almost one year.”
“I can tell by your accent that you aren’t from around here. Where are you from?”
“Central highlands.”
“Where exactly?”
“It’s not important.”
I didn’t want to remember where I came from, and I wouldn’t let her press me into it.
“So, a facial massage.”
“Yes.”
I got a cloth with warm water and started gently massaging her face. At least she couldn’t talk when I was doing this. After I rubbed with the cloth for ten minutes, I used my hands to rub her temples and then started massaging her head with my fingernails.
“Are you the only one here today?”
“So far. My boss couldn’t make it today. Others will be in shortly.”
“Is your boss Co Thu?”
“Yes. Do you know her?”
“I’ve heard about her from time to time. It seems that she is involved in several different business endeavors, is she not?”
“I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean.”
“Oh, I hear things. I’m sure you know what goes on around town.”
“I’m sure I have no idea what you are talking about.”
“That’s too bad then. I was hoping that you would be able to help me.”
“What do you need help with?”
I stopped massaging her head, and she sat up and looked right at me.
“I heard that there are some interesting parties and get-togethers sometimes. I’m always looking for a good time. I thought maybe you could help.”
“What is your name,” I asked her, keeping myself rather skeptical of her intentions.
“Hue. Nguyen thi Thanh Hue. I’m sorry if you are suspicious of me. Someone told me that I could come to this shop and talk to My Phuong about certain issues.”
“Who told you this?”
“Cuong.”
“Which Cuong?”
“Cuong, one of the aids to councilman Duc. Do you know him? He is rather thin and tall and has a little wiry mustache.”
“Yes, I know him,” I nodded.
“Well, are you going to help me get some action around here or not?”
“Ah,” I hesitated. This was nothing that I should be talking about, and I couldn’t decide if the big black Nissan out front should be assurance that everything was all right or that there was something wrong. A girl trying to get into certain societies usually doesn’t come from money. But at the same time, a person like that does bring some credibility to their story. Why else would they be snooping around?
“What’s the matter?” she asked.
“Nothing. Let me ask my friend when she comes in. She might be able to help. How can I get in touch with you?”
“I can come back tomorrow.”
“No, you shouldn’t come here. You can stop by my place tomorrow evening. I rent a room at the large red house directly behind the district communal house. Do you know where that is?”
“Do you mean the house of Teacher Minh?”
“Yes, I do.”
“I know exactly where that is at. He was my former teacher when I was a student at Hanoi University.”
“Oh, that’s great.”
“You know when I lived in Hanoi, there were all kinds of interesting parties and events going on. I did some crazy stuff and met some people that, well, they’d probably kill me if I told anyone,” she laughed and picked up her purse off the counter. “Actually, do you know what someone told me? I heard that our local councilman Mr. Duc keeps a beautiful young mistress, and he pays her a handsome sum each month just to, well, you know.”
I faked a smile and went to the counter to clean up the water basin and towel.
“Do you know who it is?” she asked as she gently put her hand on my arm.
I shook my head and kept busy.
“Really, I’m sure you hear lots of juicy news in here.”
I couldn’t look her in the eye, and I tried to ignore the question.
“Come on,” she kept pushing. “Do you know?”
I shook my head again.
“You do know, don’t you?”
“I have to get out front and see if I have other customers,” I said as I headed to the door.
“It’s you, isn’t it?”
I stopped dead in my tracks. I didn’t know if I should acknowledge it or not.
“It’s you.”
I turned around and looked at her.
“Why is this so important to you?” I asked. I felt like I was glaring.
She looked me over up and down as if to see if I had the appropriate body and face for a councilman’s mistress.
“It’s not so important. I could see why any man would choose you. You are very beautiful.”
We stood in silence for a few moments as she kept looking at me in a very disturbing manner.
“My Phuong and Mr. Duc,” she said somewhat under hear breath.
“It’s not good to spread rumors around. They can be dangerous,” I said still not admitting the truth but certainly not denying it.
“I wouldn’t dream of it. So, I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said and exited out the door before me. As she got in the black Nissan to drive off, Hoa entered in a hurry.
“What was she doing here?” Hoa said.
“Who?”
“That woman. That’s Mr. Duc’s daughter.”
I suddenly felt dizzy and weak-kneed. I nearly fainted, and Hoa caught me and sat me down in one of the salon chairs.
“What was she doing here?”
“I’ve been tricked. She knows that I’m Duc’s mistress.”
“Oh my God. What are we going to do?”
“We have to talk to Co Thu. Why didn’t she come in today?” I said with a sick feeling in my stomach, and I ran back to the bathroom and threw up. My head was spinning, and my heart pounding. What was I going to do? Hoa entered the bathroom, handed me a damp wash cloth and rubbed my back.
“We have to talk to Co Thu. When is she coming in,” I said.
“She’s not. She was arrested this morning.”
“Arrested? For what?” I asked in shock.
“Societal corruption. My guess is that someone is getting squeezed from above, and someone else is going to take the fall for it. This is bad. Really bad.”
“What are we going to do?”
“We need to be patient and wait this out. Maybe nothing will come of it.”
We heard the door buzz as someone entered the shop.
“Come on. Now we have customers. We can sort this out later. Don’t worry,” said Hoa.
It was too late. I was already well beyond worry.
Visitors
Nothing out of the ordinary happened the rest
of the day, but I felt nervous and sick to my stomach the whole time. I never received a text message from Mr. Duc to meet him that night, but that fact was not anything terribly out of the ordinary. I never saw him every night anyways, but for some reason I attached great importance to not receiving a message that day. I tried to think rationally about everything, but the more I thought about it, the more anxious I became. At around 8:30 PM, Thu’s sister showed up again.
“I’m going to close the shop now,” she said as she dangled a large ring of keys.
“How is Co Thu? Is everything okay?”
“Yes, no problem. She is feeling a little sick today. She’ll be back to work tomorrow.”
I glanced slyly over to Hoa, who shook her head very slowly telling me not to let on that I knew anything.
“Okay, so I’ll see you at nine in the morning.”
Co Thu’s sister grunted a ‘yes’ and Hoa and I were off to try and get through the night and see what would happen tomorrow. We would most definitely be using the bottle opener on my keychain very liberally tonight.
Hoa and I both went into the shop around nine the next morning, but it was still closed. We waited. We waited until 9:30 and then 10 but no one ever came, so we finally went home. We wondered the meaning of this, but decided that we would just need to wait everything out. Hoa used her free day to visit her sister in Hanoi, so she caught the 11 AM bus while I headed back to my room and went back to bed. I was still feeling the effects of a restless sleep coupled with too much alcohol. I was gone to the world in about five minutes.
At about 12:30, I heard the outside gate swing open and the teacher’s dogs started barking and yipping. The chickens scattered , but I paid little attention and turned over to go back to sleep. A moment later, I heard the door to my room open, and I turned my head slightly, barely opening my eyes to see who it was. There was a quick movement across my room to my bed. Someone grabbed my hair and yanked it back quickly. Pain shot through my head.
“You little whore.”
I looked up and Hue, Mr. Duc’s daughter stood over me pulling my head back with my hair.
I let out a scream.
“Shut up, whore,” Hue yelled at me.
Another young woman was with her. She came and stood directly in front of me.
“This is what you get for seducing our father.”
She took her nails and ripped them across my left cheek as Hue continued to hold me up by the hair. Blood started running down my face and they mixed with the tears and screams that I kept yelling.
“Go ahead and scream you bitch. But you are going to pay for what you did.”
The second girl then ripped her nails across my neck and Hue let go of my hair and punched me in the eye. I fell back down into the bed, my legs and arms flailing as they forced themselves on top of me. That’s when I glanced up and saw a third woman in the room – an older woman dressed very fashionably.
“Stop,” she said as she came towards me. Both of the girls stopped fighting with me and stood off to the sides as she approached. I sat up in the bed trembling, a broken animal cowered in defeat, but I looked straight at her.
Suddenly the door to my room opened again, and in walked Teacher Minh looking concerned. He stopped cold when he saw the three women around me. Mrs. Duc looked back at him and motioned to the door with her head. He looked at me for a moment, and then he looked back at Mrs. Duc, nodded slightly and turned around and left. I would have no salvation from my fate. I was at the mercy of Duc’s wife and daughters.
“So you are the skinny little whore who has been sleeping with my husband?” she asked and glared at me as I shook uncontrollably. “I will not be made a mockery of. You think you can use your pretty face and young figure to woo away a prestigious man like my husband? I know the likes of you. Money. Always looking for money. They say politicians are corrupt, but no, it’s the low class whores like you who seduce with evil intent – you are the corruptors. You will get what is coming to you.”
She held in her hand a bamboo stick.
“Turn her around.”
The two daughters grabbed my arms and tried to twist me over onto my stomach. I resisted fiercely until Mrs. Duc smacked me across the face with the stick. I then relented and turned over. One of the girls grabbed my shirt and ripped it off revealing my bare back. Then Mrs. Duc started slashing my back with the bamboo time after time after time. I cringed with every lash. She kept hitting me perhaps three dozen times. I had lost track. I moaned in pain and cried in my pillow. Then one of the daughters, and it didn’t really matter which one, took their nails and started ripping them firmly down my back. The pain was unbearable. I could do nothing but cry. After another five minutes, they turned me over. My back burnt with pain and blood dripped all over my bed. I cried and cried as I covered up my bare chest with a sheet.
“The girl looks sad,” Mrs. Duc said smugly. “You should be sad, whore.”
I looked down, afraid to glance at their smirking faces.
“Will you ever see my husband again?” she asked.
I kept looking straight down. Hue slapped me strongly across the face.
“Answer her. Will you ever see my father again?”
I shook my head.
“You aren’t as stupid as you look. If you do, then this is what you can expect.”
The second daughter punched me twice in my right eye.
I felt dizzy and wanted to pass out.
“Okay, whore, I believe you. But if you are foolish and try to see him again, I’ll kill you.”
Mrs. Duc glared at me with intense hatred. I didn’t doubt her word. Then she held up the stick high once again and hit me with all her might across my face. I fell onto the bed and just closed my eyes in a state of semi-consciousness. Apparently they left at that point. I lay in bed for several hours before I finally came around and tried to pull myself together. My back throbbed in pain. I lightly put a thin cotton shirt around my body and went out to the spigot in the courtyard to clean up a little. I stood over the spigot for a moment and looked around the courtyard. I noticed Teacher Minh looking at me through the slits in the slotted glass windows of his living room. When he saw me looking back at him, he closed them quickly. I squatted down and wet a towel rubbing it slowly over my face. My back was too raw to touch and the thought of water on it pained me even more. It would have to remain as is for the moment. My thoughts zoned out for several minutes and I don’t know how long I squatted there with the water running. I finally, got up went into my room, and ripped all of the blood stained sheets off the bed. Then I sat down and again wondered what I was supposed to do. It was at that moment I noticed all of the contents of my purse emptied onto the floor. I looked for my wallet, but it was gone. All my money was gone. I had nothing. I couldn’t even escape Thai Nguyen if I wanted to. I sat back down and held a mirror in front of me, seeing for the first time my two black eyes which were swollen. I also had red puffy fingernail scars down both of my cheeks. I wanted to die. Co Thu couldn’t help me, and Hoa was away. My instincts told me to run, but I had nowhere to go and very little money. I sat and pondered my slim prospects when Teacher Minh came to the door.
“My Phuong,” he called in.
I tightened up my clothes around me and closed my eyes as pain pulsed through my back as the shirt came in contact with it.
“Yes.”
He stepped two feet inside the door. The room was rather dimly lit, so it was doubtful that he saw the extent of my injuries.
“I want you out of here. Tonight.”
“Teacher Minh. Please, I need you to help me. Please.”
“You need to get out of here. Be out by eight.”
“But Teacher, I have nowhere to go. I…”
“Out. I cannot be associated with these kinds of things. I need to have respectable tenants here.”
He turned around and left. He and his family had always been kind to me. Over the past year, I had offered s
everal times to cut his children’s hair free of charge, and I always enjoyed talking in English to Teacher Minh. But this obviously was too much to handle. Mrs. Duc showing up at his house and raking over a girl was a powerful message. He had become too closely associated with messy business and wanted no part of it. I couldn’t blame him, but his actions and words hurt me deeply. I had no one but myself, and at that point I doubted I would ever rise again. I just wanted to die.
At that moment, a text message beeped on my phone. I reached over and pressed Read.
“Meet me tonight at 9. I want to see you. Duc.”
The Last Meeting
I had nothing more to lose, and I held dearly to the belief that I had an ever so slim amount to gain by meeting Mr. Duc one more time. Perhaps he would show me some sympathy if he saw this pathetic, battered figure coming towards him. Perhaps I was more than just an evening fling to him. I clung to nothing else but this dim hope.
From the time Teacher Minh left my room, I had spent every moment in a painful daze. I slowly tried to collect my things, but I ached all over and I couldn’t even remember what items belonged to me and what to Hoa. Around 7, I finally got up the courage to call Hoa. I told her everything, and she was in tears pleading with me not to go anywhere till she got back. I told her I wouldn’t be there much longer. She yelled at me to not go to Duc’s that night. She asked me to put Teacher Minh on the phone, but I couldn’t bear to go and face him again, so I refused her. She was furious at me. Finally, I hung up on Hoa, unable to put up with her frantic talk anymore. My life precariously teetered on the brink – one last night – one last meeting. I realized that I could be dead by midnight, and it didn’t seem like such an undesirable outcome.
Beauty Rising Page 10