Listen, Slowly

The detective finally arrives the following day, and Mai scrambles out of bed, hopeful that he comes with news that will allow her to return home. The detective is alone, and Mai disregards the rules and asks him where the guard is. Bà dismisses her to change her clothes, so Mai must eavesdrop on the conversation while she pretends to catch flies in the window. Mai cannot understand the detective, so she uses Bà’s responses to try and understand what is happening. From what she can tell, the guard is still in Hanoi and wants Bà to travel to him. She refuses, saying “[…] he must come to me to release his past” (72). Bà goes on to explain that she has already waited a lifetime for her husband to return, and she will go on waiting if the guard cannot accede to her terms. The detective agrees to speak to the guard again. Minh arrives to translate for Mai and tells her she need not catch any more flies for Út’s frog since it is overweight. Mai goes out to formally introduce herself to the detective, but she uses the wrong words since there are rules for language based on someone’s age. Mai is perplexed by all the formality and emphasis on manners in Vietnamese culture. The detective explains his relationship to Mai’s family, and Minh translates. The detective’s name is Ông Ba which means he is the third generation in his family. Minh goes on to explain to Mai that Vietnamese is a phonetic language, and the use of diacritical marks represents the tone and inflection change for certain situations. Mai still struggles to hear the difference, so Minh offers to teach her more about the language. The detective begins to speak quickly, and Minh cannot translate, but he takes notes so he can go back later and learn.

Later over a breakfast of rice porridge with fish, Mai tries to convey her sadness to Bà using her limited Vietnamese, but she struggles to get the words out properly. Bà, having always understood when her granddaughter is suffering, holds Mai’s hand and tells her not to worry. She tenderly explains that she does not want Mai to suffer, and she does not want the trip to cause her grief. Bà encourages Mai, saying that she is stronger than she thinks and that if she can endure a while longer, she would cherish Mai’s companionship throughout the journey. Mai feels guilty for her selfishness and is grateful for how her grandmother always knows how to comfort her when she is upset. Mai agrees to stay with her knowing that she cannot change what is happening back home. After breakfast, Bà tells Mai a story that has always been a way to bring her comfort.

Bà’s story begins with the day officials came to tell her Ông was missing in action on April 10, 1966. When the war forced the family to flee the country, Bà used that date as her birthday for the immigration forms. In the old times, people used the year and hour of birth to signify a person entering the world, so Bà never knew her day of birth. Bà tries to recall the last day she saw her husband in person, but she has forgotten whether she touched him or not. When each of their seven children was born, Bà and Ông chose names for them from their letters to each other such as Longing, Missing, and Rain. Mai considers the absurdity of naming someone Drop or Rain but then remembers Montana and her sister named Wyoming. Mai enjoys using a play on words when speaking to her father, sometimes calling him Thunder or Monsoon. Though her father changed his name from Rain to Ray when he moved to America, the family still calls him Mu’a.

The detective stays at their home since he and Bà stayed up late into the night discussing the meeting with the guard. All Mai can think about is getting back home as she obsesses over whether her crush is interested in Montana. She is so upset that she cannot talk with her mother on the phone and only communicates through text messages. When she steps outside, Mai notices the weather is not as hot, and it reminds her of how much she loves Laguna Beach’s temperate climate.

Minh arrives, having stayed up all night to translate the detective’s speech from the previous day. Minh explains that the detective’s speech is long and unnecessarily wordy because he wants to be a poet, so he gives Mai a paraphrased version. The guard does not want to travel to meet Bà because he does not want people to think he is doing it for money. The guard says that in addition to himself, three other men saw Mai’s grandfather on the day he was taken prisoner. The Communists took them to an underground prison, and the other men were eventually released.

The guard is in Hanoi, but Minh is doubtful Ông is still alive. Mai wonders why they persist in trying to get the guard to meet them if there is no hope. Minh explains that Bà needs closure, and the guard may be able to provide it. Mai selfishly wonders how long it will take for Bà to gain closure and she can return home. Minh cannot provide a definite answer, but he knows Mai’s father does not want Bà to travel to Hanoi. Minh does his best to encourage Mai, saying the detective is doing everything he can to get the guard to agree to meet in Saigon.

The detective stays for two days, and Mai is frustrated with what she views as their circular, pointless conversation. Anxious for a new development, Mai feels trapped in a cycle of sleeping and eating. Her text conversations with her mother become clipped as it is evident her mom is angered by Mai’s bad attitude and constant pleas to come home. Mai knows her mother is tired from the stress of her work as a lawyer, and her whining about leaving is not helping. Út arrives with her mother, Cô Tâm, whom Mai calls Aunt though she is uncertain if they are related. They bring food and awkwardly watch Mai eat her breakfast. Minh translates as Cô Tâm invites Mai to the embroidery circle’s monthly meeting.

Mai, feeling happy that she learned embroidery from her mother, agrees to attend, thinking it will be a nice break from the monotony of just eating and sleeping. Mai pretends she is excited about the meeting, but secretly, she only wants to go so she can use the family’s internet connection to email her mother and check her social media account for news about Montana and her crush. Bà will not attend because of her poor vision, and Mai thinks she will probably spend her time chanting for Ông. Mai remembers how her grandmother taught her how to chant Buddhist sutras the way some children learn nursery rhymes.

Mai enters a concrete house with a table spread with a long piece of white silk. The 20 girls attending the circle are gathered around other tables while Cô Tâm explains the lesson for the day. They will be working on what is called the caterpillar crawl stitch, an intricate and time-consuming sewing skill. Mai begins her project confidently, but when Cô Tâm scolds her for poor work and tells her to start over, Mai realizes how deficient her skills are compared to the others. She notices Út is not very good at sewing either.

Anh Minh is the only male in attendance, and he begins to translate for the other girls who have many questions for Mai about life in California. The girls want to know if people in California embroider, and not wanting to say no, Mai explains that they do add embellishments to their clothing to express their individuality. This sparks a conversation about self-expression and what it means to be unique. Due to cultural differences, the Vietnamese girls do not understand the concept of trying to set themselves apart from a group through clothing choices.

Mai tries to explain why someone might choose to wear a certain color to express their personality, but Út does not understand who decides what color means. Mai then explains how Montana wore thong underwear to school once and it sparked a trend in her school with all the girls switching to thongs. Minh says there is no word for “thong” to translate, so Mai decides to show them visually. Using a pair of underwear from Cô Tâm, Mai cuts the briefs into the shape of a thong and puts them over her pants. The girls are further confused as to why someone would wear undergarments over their clothes. Mai explains the reason girls wear them is to avoid having lines through their clothing. Cô Tâm appears to be the only one who understands. She also recognizes that Mai can understand Vietnamese.

Mai leaves the sewing circle frustrated as she did not get to use the internet. After explaining the concept of thong underwear, Mai realizes she never liked wearing them because they are uncomfortable. Chị Ngọc emerges from the house in a pink skirt and begins flirting with Minh, who is looking for Lan, Út’s sister. When he runs away from Chị Ngọc, she flips her skirt revealing a thong. Út and Mai walk away bursting with laughter.

Anh Minh is summoned to Hanoi because of a problem with his student visa. Left without her translator, Mai spends more time with Út, who has been studying English from grammar books from a French teacher. Though they still cannot converse, Út can write in English fluently, so they spend their time writing notes back and forth to each other. Út also talks to herself often, and Mai learns a lot about her new friend through her mumbling. Út communicates with Anh Minh via email, and she is anxious for him to return so he and Lan can be together. The budding friendship with Út provides Mai with a distraction from what might be happening with her crush back home and whether the guard will come to the village. Mai’s father has been delayed in his return due to complications with one of his patients in the mountain clinic, and she still speaks to her mother in text messages, though only briefly due to the time difference. Despite Út’s strangeness, Mai admits she enjoys her company. 

The next day, Mai visits Út’s aunt, Cô Hạnh, at the same house where Mai and her grandmother were greeted the first day they arrived. The house sits near a koi pond and is surrounded by fruit trees. Mai is intent on finding the computer but there are many relatives at the house, and they all want to look at her. Cô Hạnh grabs Mai’s face and comments on the poor condition of her skin. The sunscreen her mother sent is causing her skin to break out, and Cô Hạnh tells Mai to stop using it and to wear a hat and face mask instead. She prepares a face wash with rice water and other botanicals and cleans Mai’s face. Cô Hạnh sends Út outside to gather ingredients for a detoxifying tea while she applies a face mask to Mai’s skin. After the treatments, Mai sees a noticeable difference in her inflamed skin and promises to take better care of it. Mai notices that Cô Hạnh and the other ladies talk about how beautiful they were in their youth. Mai notes that “apparently it’s fine to compliment yourself here, as I’ve heard countless other maybe-aunts gush about their youthful beauty” (115).

After all the beauty treatments and a meal, Mai escapes to use the home computer. She answers several worried emails from her mother and deletes the ones from Montana. Út helps her compose an email to Anh Minh asking him to return quickly to help Bà. When she scans her social media page, she sees a picture of Montana with her crush. Mai realizes Út is looking at the photos over her shoulder and is aghast at Montana’s revealing swimsuit.

Mai is anxious to hear back from Anh Mihn, but there is no reply. She begins each day by waking before dawn to prepare tea for everyone in the house but quickly learns her tea-making skills are deficient. Út becomes her teacher, properly instructing her in preparing the fire and boiling the water. The house does not have running water or electricity, and the change has been an adjustment for Mai, but she is learning to become more comfortable with the lack of utilities. Building the fire with coals and straw takes time and patience, but eventually, Mai masters it, and she is quite proud of herself when Bà and Ông’s brother drink approvingly.

Mai is also learning the Vietnamese way of frugality. They do not waste anything and find uses for even scraps of food. Mai realizes she is becoming more comfortable with the Vietnamese way of living, including using outdoor restroom facilities. She thinks to herself, “The new me astonishes me” (123). Most of all, Mai is thankful for Út’s companionship. Aside from teaching her how to make tea, Út is fun to hang out with, and Mai finds that the more time she spends with her new friend, the less she thinks about her crush and what is happening back home. “Our days run together into a long stream of a few chores, then lots of sitting around. Not much happens, but then everything happens” (123). Út’s house has electricity and running water, but Út does not dress like the other girls in town. Cô Hạnh gives them another facial and inspects Mai’s skin finding it much improved. She gives them hats and face coverings she made, but the girls take them off as soon as they get outside in the suffocating heat.

Mai and Út visit the market in their hats and masks that Mai calls their Ninja gear. She is still amazed that the Vietnamese shop for their food every day instead of her family’s twice-monthly grocery visits. “I can just hear Mom scoffing at the idea of daily grocery shopping. How would anyone get anything else done?” (125). Most families have refrigerators in their houses, but Mai notices they are only used to keep chocolate cool, which they carefully ration. In the market, they see Con Ngọc, who asks if Lan knows Anh Minh will not be home for two weeks. Út lies saying yes, but she secretly knows he has already returned.

They drop their market baskets and run to his house. Út forces Mai to knock on the door since it would be inappropriate for her to approach the house. A grandmother answers and is happy to see Mai, but when Anh Minh appears, he asks why they have come. Mai forgoes all manners and hugs him, telling him he must find Lan immediately and tell her how he feels. Út interrupts, asking whether he saw the frogs that glow in the dark. Anh Minh goes inside and returns dressed in a nice shirt and pants, and as they walk through the village to Cô Hạnh’s house, Út continues to pepper him with questions about the frogs. Anh Minh tells them he was investigating a lie and did not have time to attend to anything else.

There is a large group of women gathered at the house to apply lice-preventative treatment to their hair, and Mai is quickly swept into the mix. Cô Hạnh instructs that each girl must cover their hair in a foul-smelling paste to kill any lice eggs. The paste burns Mai’s scalp, and she learns that two months ago, Út shaved her head to avoid the monthly treatment, causing her mother much grief. Despite her short hair, Út still must endure the treatment. Cô Hạnh explains, “[…] Út shaved her head because she would rather sit in the pond with her pet than here with us” (131). She goes on to explain that Lan never got braces because she was too old, but she is still beautiful anyway.

Mai returns to her house to have lunch with Bà. Today, they are having her favorite bành ít which is a type of cake with rice, beans, and pork wrapped and steamed in a banana leaf. Mai goes back to Cô Hạnh’s house to share some of her lunch with Út, whom she finds paddling in the pond in a canoe as Froggy bakes in the sun on a lily pad. Taking another canoe, Mai paddles over to Út and climbs into her canoe. When she tries to look over the edge at Froggy, Mai overturns the canoe and takes a big gulp of pond water as she splashes to the surface. Út helps her to the shore, and Mai begins to panic about all the bacteria she has just ingested. Mai vomits in front of all the family members, and Cô Hạnh helps her inside to change her clothes and rest. As Mai is changing, she finds a leech on her leg, and she passes out on the floor, hitting her head. When she regains consciousness, she is bruised and in bed. Cô Hạnh brings her a drink that looks like mud. Anh Minh translates that Cô Hạnh removed the leech from her leg, and the drink will help purge her body of whatever she contracted from the pond water. All the family members stand around as Mai listens to Cô Hạnh’s instructions to not eat anything until her body purges the toxins.

Mai awakens the following morning to the smell of sausage cooking. She thinks she is hungry and ready to eat, but Bà encourages her to wait. Cô Hạnh brings another cup of the purgative and forces Mai to drink it. Her stomach is gripped with pain, and she runs to the bathroom with diarrhea. All of this takes place with family members watching and discussing the color and consistency of her bowel movements, and Mai wishes she could have some privacy.

While asking Anh Minh to convey her need for privacy, she asks him about the lie. He tells her that he asked one of his friends about the thong underwear, and the person said it is not true that everyone in America wears them. He is sad Mai tricked the girls in that way. Mai apologizes for the incident, explaining that many girls do wear them, but she hates them. Anh Minh explains that he must be very careful with everything he does because his family and community have sacrificed a lot so he can study abroad. Mai is humbled by his goodness and thinks that she could try harder to be like him. She offers to apologize to the girls.

Út comes to visit, bringing a red fruit with white seeds inside. When she cracks it open, fruit flies emerge, which Froggy quickly eats. Mai is amazed by the display and thinks she is glad to have witnessed it in person and not in a documentary about Vietnam. Everyone in the room shares the fruit except Mai, and Út bows before leaving with Froggy.