When Saigon Surrendered

by James Aura

  Uncle Wallace said he drove to Clarksville the next day, and they delivered Soo Jin to him in a big burlap bag, all tied up like some damn varmint. He said he drove out into the country awhile with her in the back seat, wheezing and squeaking, then decided to pull over into a roadside park and opened up the bag. Soo Jin was inside, bound and gagged with a big thick length of rope. He said he took the gag off first, and she seemed grateful because the rope was hurting her mouth. He could see why. Nearly all her teeth had been knocked out a few days before. Her chin and the rope were bloody. He said he told her something like “I am here to help you, I would never hurt you and I will take care of you, if you let me.”

  She spoke very little English, but something in his voice seemed to calm her down, and that was the beginning of the story with Soo Jin. They lived together in his trailer after that. Grandma never knew about Soo Jin.

  I wondered whether Grandma had been suspicious of something, since she had taken most of Daddy’s things, including those letters and dumped them in the trash ditch. Grandma was generally a collector. Wasn’t like her to throw things out like that.

  And she hadn’t told me about Uncle Wallace helping out on the farm, either.

  Our family had too many secrets. I wondered what else was going to jump out and bite me. I called Tommy. He had a newly-installed phone at his shop. I told him I wanted to meet with him and his sister; that it was a big deal and I needed their help and it might be dangerous. But I provided no details. He took the bait immediately.

  “Is this about the dog shooting, Russell? Tell you what; come by Evelena’s place tonight. I am staying there now, in the basement.”

  As I drove the pickup into town I decided to swing past Kim’s place, then the hospital and did a slow idle down Main Street. I would never again in my life, forget how to get to that hospital. Our town was quiet this time of day. A few kids from high school were starting to cruise around the block. They seemed so young, and stupid. Did older folks think that about me?

  Tommy was sitting on Evelena’s front steps when I pulled up. His Mustang was parked at the curb. It looked like red and black lightening, freshly waxed.

  “You moved in with your sister?”

  “Well, she is good with finances and she figured out if I paid her a little rent instead of that downtown landlord, I would save a bunch, and we’d be keeping the money in the family, at least.”

  “How ya’ll getting along, then? She trying to run your life like she used to?”

  “Let’s say we are at a truce. My mechanic business is booming, I’ve hired Jimmy Bartholomew to help out. I’m doing all right, and I got to say, she’s the reason. These high toned women flock together like chickens. Cosmetics and perfume. Mercurys and Lincolns; Oldsmobiles and Caddys. Cars like that don’t often need major repairs. But we can change the oil, lube them up, rotate the tires and have them back to the ladies in a couple hours. We’re even doing pick-up and deliver for some of the older folks. I may have to rent a bigger space for the garage.”

  Evelena appeared in the doorway. She looked unusually relaxed, in shorts, barefoot, holding a beer. “I’m not running his life, Russell. I’m just coaching a little. How you doing? Tommy says you have some kind of top secret dangerous mission going on.”

  We went inside and sat at Evelena’s dining room table. It was a pretty fancy place. She had some modern art on the walls, paintings of flowers and landscapes and people dancing around some kind of bonfire, as best I could tell.

  I told them we had tracked down the people who had held Soo Jin captive and we had good reason to believe they were holding a bunch more women, forcing them to do who knows what. And if the women didn’t cooperate, they would kill them. I left out a few details, like Daddy’s apparent involvement. When they asked how Uncle Wallace and I had figured this out, I said we’d get to that. Evelena didn’t pry further, although I knew Tommy would be chewing at the bit.

  Evelena leaned back from the table. “So what is your plan Russell? Bring in the FBI? I wouldn’t trust the local cops, they are probably on the take, or that awful place would have been shut down by now.”

  “I want to meet with the bad guys. Tommy and me could tell them we’ve got a bunch of Vietnam gals coming in, part of the refugee program. There’s something else I haven’t told you about.”

  It was hard to share my theory about my Dad’s role in this. But I laid out my suspicions. They were both floored.

  “So, I need to talk to these guys directly, see if I can find out if my Dad really was in on this awful thing. I have to know. It just doesn’t sound like something he would do. We could record them, if we get it set up right, then turn it all over to the FBI.”

  Evelena let out a sigh.

  “Russell Ray Teague, you sound like you’ve been watching too much James Bond. That would be really dangerous. And I sure wouldn’t want my baby brother in on something like that. They could cut your throats and put you in that landfill. But we do need to stop anyone who would do that kind of thing to Soo Jin.”

  Tommy blushed. He always got angry when she went into the ‘baby brother’ routine.

  He leaped to my defense. “Sounds like a great plan to me, Evelena! I admire Russell for wanting to go the extra mile to find out about his Dad. It’s the manly thing to do. Not something I would expect a woman to understand.”

  I saw a brother and sister blowup coming so I jumped in again.

  “Evelena, you help us out with this, it could lead to some really good things later on.

  Do you know our family friend, Opal Davis? Runs a bunch of nail salons? She is big into sales too.”

  “She was at your Grandma’s funeral, feisty little black woman?”

  “That’s her. You two might have some business interests in common.”

  “I wonder does she own the salon in town?”

  “I believe she does. She has them all over the state and in Tennessee too”

  “That’s a nice little shop.”

  She flashed me her highly polished, pink nails.

  I saw a gleam in Evelena’s eye, the prospect of more sales outlets on the horizon.

  “I wonder where she gets her cosmetics.”

  I told them about the actress out in California who was helping women from Vietnam get jobs as manicurists, and then described all the people stranded out in the ocean on boats and islands. I explained that I wanted to bring some of them here and help them start new lives, maybe some in Opal’s manicure shops. Two of the girls who might be stranded were friends of my Daddy, and I said I believe he wanted to help them escape the communists. This was one of the reasons I found it so hard to believe he would voluntarily work with the bad guys in Clarksville.

  “Evelena, you and Opal might just play a part.”

  Now I had her full attention . in a good way.

  “What is it, Russell, you clever boy?”

  I admit I was stretching a bit. But I had a plan. I needed to work the plan. I needed to get the train on the tracks. To do that I needed to get Evelena and Tommy on board.

  If Evelena needed to see dollar signs on the horizon, so be it.

  “Opal sells a ton of cosmetics through her stores. She would be happy to talk with you about your products, if you help me out with this. She could get some reliable help from some hard working Vietnamese ladies and you could get a bunch of new cosmetic outlets.”

  “When can I talk to Opal, Russell?”

  I had Evelena hooked. But it was a long way from the water to the boat.

  “After we get this done, Evelena. As you can tell this is very important to me. First we size up the sex slave guys, and we go from there. And don’t worry. We’ll be careful.”

  She said she’d have to think it over. I was disappointed but I could tell Tommy was ready to roll. He was stoked.

  He walked me out to the pickup.

  “Russell, what do you really have planned? You didn’t want to tell my sister. I can understand that.”

  As I s
uspected, working as a grease monkey from dawn to dusk was wearing on Tommy. He was ready for some action. This was the high school buddy I remembered.

  “Get your sister on board, Tom. We will need her help with this. I’m still working on all the details.”

  “OK, whatever hammers your nails. If she thinks she can help some people and make some money too, that’ll go a long way.”

  I decided to take a little side trip and drove past the Felton brothers’ place on the way back to the farm. I could have sworn I heard a big dog bark in the distance as I passed by.

  Next day I called Opal and asked if I could come see her. She said she was very busy, that the managers she hired had screwed up her business and she was recruiting new employees. She said they had been penny wise and pound foolish with the hired help.

  “Russell, I will be in your neck of the woods tomorrow, interviewing a new store manager, you could come by the shop around two o’clock, would that work?”

  I said it would, and then decided I had better call Elaine; bounce my idea off her.

  “Armentrout, Reese and Faulkner, Elaine Ravenel speaking, how may we help you?”

  “Elaine, it’s Russell, you have a minute to talk?”

  She did not sound thrilled to hear from me.

  “Well, if it’s about the apartment, you waited too late. My roommate is staying again this semester.”

  “No, no we had a financial setback and I can’t pay the tuition. So I won’t be back, at least not for awhile. It’s about the Vietnam refugees. I have an idea and maybe you can help.”

  “Oh, well that’s something. What is it?”

  I told her about the Hollywood actress who was helping girls from Vietnam get jobs at manicure shops in California and how I knew a lady who ran a chain of shops in Kentucky who might be willing to hire and train a bunch of them.

  “Elaine, this could be a great humanitarian project and the woman who owns the manicure shops is a Negro, an old family friend. She will be extra sympathetic to helping folks who are down and out.”

  Maybe I was stretching the truth a little, but I hoped Elaine would go for it.

  “You know a black woman who owns a chain of manicure shops? Russell that is wonderful! That just gives me so much hope about all of us here in the South. What can I do?”

  “Well, I figure we are going to need some legal help setting up the deal for the refugees and getting them over here, and there are a couple of girls in particular I am very worried about. I think they must be in danger, if they are even still alive.”

  “As soon as we hang up, I’ll call Daddy, and he will probably call some of his connections in Atlanta. I’ll find out what I can, and let you know.”

  So the train was on the tracks and was starting to move. There were a bunch of moving parts to this plan, I had my fingers crossed we wouldn’t have any more screw ups. Maybe, just maybe I could get something useful done for a change and begin to atone for my mistakes.

  We had exactly $350 in the bank after Uncle Wallace delivered the check to the sheriff. I walked down to the mailbox and there, in a brown government envelope, was a property tax bill for the farm. I walked out to look at the soybeans. If the harvest was good, we’d have enough to pay the tax, plant the wheat crop and make it through the winter. If it wasn’t, we’d be up the creek.

  I wondered how Soo Jin would feel about helping us butcher one of the sheep, for meat this fall. Every penny was going to count. And I’d need some money for my plan too. It felt like I was getting close to thin ice, but I decided I could skate around it, with a little luck.

  Next afternoon I walked into Opal’s manicure place a few minutes early. The shop was busy, with mostly white women getting their fingernails and toenails done by white and colored girls. I recognized one of the older ladies, one of Tommy’s regular customers. That was her Imperial out front.

  I felt a bunch of eyes on me. I was out of place. A white gal about my age came up and smiled. She was a bouncy little gal in full bloom, cute as a bug’s ear. I noticed all the girls were nice looking. Most were wearing makeup and there was perfume in the air. I decided I should tell Tommy to check out this place, if just for the scenery.

  “Hi, I’m Myrna. Let me see those hands.”

  She led me over to a chair that had a porcelain bowl next to it and sat me down.

  “Miss Opal told me you would be coming, and she said to give you a little sample while you wait on her. She’s busy next door right now.”

  I felt pretty stupid. These calloused hands that milked two cows, and pitchforked out the barn that morning were soaking in a bowl of warm water that smelled like flowers. I got worried that someone I knew might walk by and see me sitting with my feet up, hands soaking in that place. At least I had taken a shower before I came into town.

  Myrna took a brush and began cleaning my fingernails. I hadn’t noticed how dirty they were. She had on some kind of perfume, too. Smelled a little like Roxanne’s Arpege. She was wearing a short skirt and white nylons, almost looked like a nurse.

  “Myrna I’m Russell Ray Teague, you didn’t go to high school here did you?”

  “No, I grew up just outside Harlan. My momma and me moved here last winter, and I was lucky enough to get into Miss Opal’s training program. I hope to get my 600 hours in by Thanksgiving, and then I can take the exam.”

  I saw Opal come in the front door with a gray haired woman. They were both dressed up in business suits. Opal was carrying a brief case. It was interesting to see her in business mode. She shook hands with the woman and they stood in the middle of the store.

  The white woman said “Hello, I am your new store manager; you can call me Miss Rosie. I have lots of experience and I am sure we’ll all do just fine.”

  She didn’t sound like she was from Kentucky, more like out west. There were five girls working in the shop. They all smiled and clapped.

  Miss Rosie went on.

  “To you ladies, who have been our loyal customers, thank you for being here. We had a rough patch for awhile, but I think you are going to find our service will be better than ever.”

  Opal smiled at me as she and Rosie walked into an office at the back of the shop. I wondered why Opal hadn’t made a little speech, introducing the new manager.

  Myrna started on my other hand.

  “My Momma was upset when she found out this shop was owned by a colored woman, but Opal’s been great. She makes you feel like you’re a partner in the store. She gave us all raises too, last week.”

  I had wondered why the white woman did the speechifying instead of Opal, but maybe the customers didn’t know a little old black lady owned the establishment.

  I told Myrna, “Opal’s been a friend of our family all my life. She is like an aunt to me. Don’t matter to me if a person is black, white or polka-dot. I look at their actions, not their color.”

  I realized I was sliding into an eastern Kentucky way of talking, maybe because Myrna was from Harlan. I liked this little gal. She flashed me a big smile and held my hand a little tighter while she cleaned my nails.

  A minute later Opal came back out and asked Myrna to dry my hands off and bring me back to the office. Rosie was a big raw-boned lady. She began walking around the shop, getting acquainted with the girls and the customers.

  Myrna seemed very sweet and friendly. She stood very close to me.

  “It was really nice to meet you Russell, come back and see us. I liked what you said about looking at people’s actions, not their color. I’ll remember that.”

  I thought coming back to see Myrna alone, would be worth the trip. I wondered if it would be OK to give her a hug after scrubbing up my hands so nice, but decided maybe not.

  I followed Opal into the back room. She sat down in the office behind a small desk. The only other chair was a little stool with wheels in front of the desk. The room was filled with posters for nail polish and cosmetics and there were piles of women’s magazines in one corner, a stack of office paperwork in
the other. She folded her hands and nodded me to the stool. Opal looked like she was still in business mode.

  “I’m sorry the office is a mess. I hope this new lady will shape things up around here.

  You look healthy, Russell. I swear every time I see you, you’re an inch taller. Now that you have thoroughly distracted my girls in the shop, what’s going on with you?”

  I took a deep breath. My plan might go forward or it might run off the tracks and crash off a cliff right here and now.

  “Opal, you know Daddy cared a lot about the Vietnamese people, and so do I.”

  I pulled out the picture of the two little gals, the sisters from Huế.