Aperture on the East

by Meris Lee

  “So you get to name it, if you are the first person to discover it,” said Ana.

  “I haven’t thought about that.”

  They let a few more minutes pass in silence. Ana’s stomach started to make a signal.

  “It’s time for lunch,” said Vo. He pulled out some bread, fruit, and smoked sausages, as well as a large bottle of water.

  “No beer?” said Ana, who had imagined having a glass of wine or champagne on the beach.

  “No. We have to stay alert. I mean, it’s relaxing here and all, but we are in the wilderness. Besides, I have to operate the boat to get us back later today.”

  “Aye aye, captain,” said Ana.

  After the picnic, Vo helped Ana into the front seat of the kayak, and he hopped on behind her. He handed Ana a paddle and said, “Just take us wherever. And you can just let the paddle rest on your lap if you get tired. I will do most of the work so you can just enjoy the scenery.”

  They went kayaking around the small island. The water was calm and inviting. When they came across a small stretch of coral reef, Ana was delighted to see the multi-colored tropical fish.

  “Unfortunately, it’s rare to see reef sharks or manta rays here,” said Vo. “Most snorkelers like to see those.”

  Ana thought it was a good thing not to run into them, even though she heard that they were generally harmless.

  After kayaking, Vo took out snorkeling masks and explained to Ana how to use hers. She was nervous in the beginning, but she felt safe and secure with Vo right next to her. They snorkeled first right on the beach, and then went farther to the coral reef that they had come across on their kayak. Ana was amazed to see the different anemones and starfish. It was hard for her to imagine that all of it occurred solely by chance and evolution.

  When they dried off on land they ate some more, and then both fell asleep under the coconut tree in the glory of the afternoon sun.

  Ana felt a little disoriented when Vo woke her up a while later. She forgot where she was, although she remembered dreaming about abandoning herself to a distant island, where Vo and her frolicked at the edge of the water. Then she realized that the dream was actually happening.

  Vo was lying on his side with his head propped on his elbow, gazing at Ana. For a moment Ana thought that Vo was going to kiss her, but he soon sat up and cast his eyes toward the ocean instead.

  “Is it time to go?” said Ana, with a little disappointment in her voice.

  “Almost, but we can stay a little longer,” said Vo. “I’d like to see sunset, but I don’t like to be out on the water in the dark. We would have to camp here overnight if we want to see sunset.”

  “That sounds very romantic,” said Ana, who then quickly regretted her choice of words.

  Vo didn’t seem to notice. He said, “It’s been a long time since I camped on the beach overnight.”

  Ana sensed some sadness in Vo’s voice. “Who were you with the last time?” asked Ana.

  Vo was quiet for a moment, and then he told Ana about Colette.

  He couldn’t stop once he started. He told Ana about how he and Colette, Vidal’s twin sister, grew up together as neighbors and how he fell in love with her. Colette had started college while he took a year off to travel the world after high school. When he returned, he focused on his study and then his career in marine biology; the thought of marriage never entered his mind.

  “We sailed from New Orleans to Key West once,” said Vo. “We spent a week alone at sea, and we camped on beaches as beautiful as this one. It was unforgettable.”

  Vo looked straight at the wide open ocean. Ana could tell that he was reliving that saga in his mind.

  After a minute, Vo said, “Colette hinted several times for us to get married, but I kept putting it off. It took me years to get my PhD, and then I spent a few more years to work on my postdoc. I got offered a faculty position two years ago, and that was when I finally proposed to Colette.”

  Ana looked into Vo’s eyes; they were dark and sad, like a storm of tears might just pour down at any minute, but she could see not a single drop.

  “She planned the whole wedding,” said Vo. “I was too busy to do anything. We had several fights. She didn’t think I cared, and maybe she was right. I was fine with things the way they were. We had already moved in together, and I thought, what was the wedding going to change? I’d still wake up next to her every morning.

  “Then one day, two months before the wedding, Vidal’s law firm had an office party, and she went with him. She met one of Vidal’s partners, someone who was young, charming, carefree, full of life, a carpe diem kind of guy, the way she put it. They started seeing each other, and then a month before the wedding, she called it off.”

  Vo looked down; his body was trembling.

  “Naturally I was furious,” said Vo. “I cursed them. I wanted them to go to hell. And I guess the Devil heard. They died in a car crash two weeks later; he had been driving drunk. There is no word that can describe how I felt. I still loved Colette, you know. I blamed myself for cursing them. I just wasn’t man enough to let Colette be with someone that could give her what I couldn’t. I was so small. I didn’t deserve her at all. And she died thinking that I hated her.”

  Ana could tell that Vo was fighting back his tears, trying to look strong. She didn’t know that there was so much emotion behind the cool face of this man. She sat silently, not knowing what to say to comfort such a tormented soul.

  Vo took a deep breath and rubbed his hands against his cheeks. He turned to Ana and said, “Sorry. I can be a wimp sometimes.”

  “Nothing wrong with that,” said Ana.

  They sat without a word for a few more minutes. The silence was strangely comforting.

  Ana noticed something in the sand and dug it out to show Vo. “Look!”

  Vo took it over. It was an oyster the size of his palm. He opened it with a little force, and was greeted with something shiny inside.

  “It’s a pearl!” said Ana.

  Vo took the pearl out of the oyster and gave it to Ana.

  It was just smaller than a marble, ivory colored with small pits on the surface, not smooth like the ones Ana had seen in jewelry stores.

  “Looks like the giant tears you are trying to hide from me,” said Ana.

  Vo smiled.

  “You know what they said about how a pearl is formed,” said Vo. “Something irritating like a parasite got in the oyster and the oyster tried to ward it off by secreting a substance around it over and over again. The oyster turns something painful into something beautiful.”

  Ana contemplated about the origin of the pearl she held in her hand, and then asked, “So do you bring Kim out here? Did she find a pearl, too?”

  “No, actually I haven’t thought about asking Kim to come out here.”

  Ana set her eyes on the pearl again to inspect it. She had never held a natural pearl in her hand.

  “Let me have it,” said Vo, looking at the pearl.

  Ana handed it over.

  Vo said, “I’ll have to take this back to the lab to properly identify it.”

  “Identify it? It’s a pearl,” said Ana.

  “There is more than one kind of pearl. Don’t you want to know what kind it is?”

  “It’s a beautiful kind, whatever it is.”

  Vo smiled, and put the pearl away. He turned to look at Ana. “Do you want to come out here again with me?”

  “Just the two of us?”

  Vo nodded.

  “People may get the wrong ideas,” said Ana.

  “Is that a bad thing?”

  “I don’t mind it. I’d love to come out here again with you. We get a private island all to ourselves, kayaking and snorkeling. Maybe we can hike up that mountain a little next time.”

  “Deal,” said Vo.

  “Anymore sob stories?” said Ana.

  “I think that was about it. But maybe you want to hear my mother’s sob stories, leaving Vietnam and all. She has a truckload.
”

  Ana chuckled and said, “Thanks, but no.”

  “We have to get going,” said Vo. He packed things up in his waterproof bag.

  “Hey, Vo,” said Ana as she helped push the kayak toward the boat, “we can name this place the Pearl Island. Yes?”

  “Yes,” said Vo. He smiled at her.

  They climbed up into the boat. Ana wrapped a blanket around her and sat down at the bow again when Vo started the engine and pointed his fishing boat toward Nha Trang. The sun began to give its most intensified rays of light before the day dimmed down into dusk, and the South China Sea sang them a peaceful spiritual all the way home.

  Chapter 21

  “This is really amazing,” said Sofia as she perused the floor-to-ceiling shelves of marine specimens inside the museum at the Institute of Oceanography. There were tens of thousands of species of mollusks and crustaceans preserved in various sizes of glass jars. Corals, sponges, sea stars and sea urchins of dizzying array of colors were also well represented. Sofia gasped when she saw a specimen of a sea snake with zebra stripes curled up inside a large jar.

  “Yeah, I don’t think I could inspect all of them before camp is over,” said Ivan. He was giving Sofia a guided tour.

  “Ivan,” said Vo as he entered the museum.

  “Mr. Nguyen,” said Ivan. He introduced Sofia to Vo.

  Vo took a good look at Sofia, who was blushing at the moment.

  “Thanks for letting me borrow Ivan for an hour so he can show me the place,” said Sofia. “There is so much to see here. I like the aquarium, too. The stonefish was the best.”

  “No problem,” said Vo. “We do our best to spread the passion for marine biology. Ivan is doing a great job.” He looked at Ivan and said, “Ivan, take your time, but don’t forget that we are going fishing this afternoon. There are a few things we need to wrap up before we go to the port.” Vo turned and left.

  “What a camp! Fishing?” said Sofia.

  “Fish is part of marine biology, no?” said Ivan.

  They held hands and went for a walk in the garden where the flowers of plumeria trees were blooming and casting a sweet fragrance around them. The bougainvillea bushes completed the visual with brilliant magenta, pink and orange bracts. The Institute of Oceanography was south of the center of Nha Trang, and it was quiet except for the chirping of the cicadas. The scent of the ocean was wafting in and out of the air, which was humid and warm.

  “Mr. Nguyen seemed like a really cool guy,” said Sofia.

  “Yeah, he’s awesome,” said Ivan. “I just want to hang out with him all the time.”

  “Really? I thought you want to hang out with me all the time.”

  “You know what I mean.”

  They were silent for a minute before Ivan said, “Sofia, what’s it like having a papa?”

  “Are you still mad at your ma for lying about your birth father?”

  “Of course I am mad at her for that. I thought I knew who my papa was. Now I guess I would never find out. Anyway, is it nice to have a papa around?”

  “Sometimes, when he is around,” said Sofia, lowering her head. “My papa is too busy with his work. He doesn’t have much time for me. At least your ma is around a lot.”

  “Now she is, but she used to not be around much. Anyway, she cares more about my sister, Zoe, than she does for me. After I found out how she got pregnant with me, I also figured out why she always favored my sister. She loved Zoe’s father, whereas she didn’t even know who my father was.”

  “I am sure she loves you, too. She just hasn’t had a chance to show you properly.”

  “I fell while skateboarding the other day and got this huge scratch and bruise on my arm,” said Ivan while showing his right arm to Sofia. “My ma didn’t even notice it. She never asked me about it. But Mr. Nguyen noticed, and he was so worried that I was going to break my neck one day skateboarding. He examined my arm this way and that way and it took a long time to convince him that I was okay. He was a lot like Eduard.”

  “Why did Eduard divorce your ma? He sounded like a great guy, too.”

  “My ma did something stupid, what else?” said Ivan. “I was supposed to have a baby brother, but he died in my ma’s belly a week before he was to be born. It was horrible. My ma had to push the dead baby out, you know, like how women normally had babies. And then her bleeding wouldn’t stop, and she had to have surgery. She had bags of blood hanging by her bed when I visited her in the hospital. When she was strong enough to come home, Eduard packed up and left. And my ma has had this nightmare ever since. It’s crazy how she screams in the middle of the night. She’s paid even less attention to me after that.”

  “How was that your ma’s fault? Some babies don’t make it. Everyone knows that.”

  “I can’t answer that. I just know that Eduard wouldn’t have left if my ma was innocent.”

  “Maybe Eduard was not as nice as you thought,” said Sofia. “He might have been a jerk.”

  “No,” said Ivan. “Judging from my personal experience, I’d say that it’s more likely for my ma to be the jerk. Anyway, I did wish that Eduard would consider taking me with him, but it didn’t happen. He left me with my ma, who couldn’t even take care of herself.”

  “Well, I am glad that she decided to move you and your sister down here, so we could meet each other,” said Sofia with a smile.

  “Yeah, this is definitely the best thing she’s ever done for me.”

  Ivan and Sofia were walking toward the souvenir shop to get iced tea when a group of preteen boys showed up. They were Ivan’s skateboarding friends. They called out Ivan’s name.

  Ivan saw his friends, and let go of Sofia’s hand.

  The boys already saw Ivan and Sofia holding hands before they entered the shop. Misha said, “So the rumor is true. You guys are going out.”

  Ivan was surprised to see his friends, and didn’t craft an answer beforehand.

  “Ivan, thanks for showing me around. I’ll see you later,” said Sofia as she ran off toward the exit, where her father’s Rolls Royce was waiting.

  “Well, we’ve come to check out this place like you told us to,” said Brian. All the boys were holding their skateboards.

  “You could’ve told me ahead of time when you were going to come,” said Ivan. He was delighted to see his friends, but at the same time annoyed that his visit with Sofia was cut short.

  “She didn’t have to run,” said Koji. “I don’t think she cares to be friends with us.”

  “Why would she, when all we do is talk about her behind her back and make fun of her?” said Josh.

  “Can we maybe get some iced tea first? I am parched,” said George, who was exaggerating his British accent.

  They all got some iced tea and sat down on the steps of the souvenir shop. After a few sips of the cold drink, Viktor started by saying, “Ivan, I would be careful if I were you. Sofia’s father is not going to like it when he finds out that you are messing with his daughter.”

  “Messing? I am not messing with Sofia,” said Ivan.

  “It’s too late now. They have fallen in love with each other,” said Laurent, who pursed his lips to make the sound of a kiss.

  “Gross,” said Duong.

  “Anyway,” said Viktor, “it’s never a good idea when a poor guy goes out with a rich girl. I heard that Sofia’s father owns several Russian businesses in town. He might hire an assassin and make you disappear!”

  “Viktor, I think you have watched too many movies,” said Brian.

  “He could be right,” said Misha.

  “Sofia and I are just hanging out. We are friends,” said Ivan.

  “Right, friends who hold hands walking on the beach every afternoon,” said Laurent.

  “You’ve been spying on me?” said Ivan.

  “Chill, Ivan,” said George. “Nha Trang is a very small town. There is only one beach. There are, what, eight of us? I think it’s pretty easy for anyone of us to spot you two on the beach on any given d
ay.”

  Ivan was dumbstruck. For some reason, falling in love was not a cool thing to do for an eleven-year-old boy. It was not something he could admit to just yet.

  “Okay, I am ready to see some sharks. Can we go and do something more fun than talking about a girl and her boss daddy?” said Josh as he stood up. Ivan thanked him silently. He was always the more sensible American.

  The rest of the group got up as well. Ivan showed them to the office to park their skateboards before giving them a tour. Koji and Duong almost fell in as they sat on the wall of the open saltwater pool, trying to get a good look of the reef sharks and stingrays. Ivan’s friends left just before Vo got all the camp students together for their fishing trip to a nearby island.

  When Ivan came home that evening, he saw his mother napping on the bench in the living room. He looked at his watch. It was six o’clock in the afternoon. It was a Wednesday, and his mother was supposed to be at work at four. He thought about waking her up to make sure that she was all right, but eventually decided to just mind his own business. He went to the kitchen, tossed the red snapper that he had caught earlier in the freezer, and sat down to eat the bánh bao he bought from the street for dinner. He was so hungry that he devoured the pork-filled steamed bun in seconds. He spent the rest of the evening in his room reading about the elusive dolphins of the South China Sea. He was thinking about Sofia, who was just about as mysterious as the dolphins, before he fell under the spell of dreams.

  Chapter 22

  It had been almost a week since that magical day on the Pearl Island, and Ana still felt intoxicated by it. She had been thinking about it a lot, but she was not sure how she should feel about the whole thing. After all, Vo behaved like a friend, without any indication of other intentions. Ana felt incredibly close to Vo when they were on that island, and there was definitely something magnetic between them, but since she had decided before she left Russia that she was in no condition for a romantic relationship, she tried to ignore, even suppress, her desires. Besides, Vo was spoken for, his fiancée being the daughter of an important investor who was helping to pay for her living in Nha Trang.