The Refugees

The protagonist is a ghostwriter of biographies for people who are made famous by some scandal or other unfortunate event. She is picked to write a book for Victor Devoto, a man who survived a plane crash that killed his family and is wracked with survivor’s guilt. The protagonist’s mother wakes her early on a rainy morning, claiming her dead son came inside. The carpet is wet, so the narrator assumes her forgetful, elderly mother went outside and came back in; she tells her she must be confused. However, she remains adamant that she saw her son.

The narrator and her mother have lived together since the narrator’s father died. They get along well, but the narrator prefers quietly writing, while her mother loves to talk and gossip. Her favorite stories to tell tend to be morbid—deaths, misfortunes, and ghost stories. She tells the narrator the story of Aunt Six, who died of a heart attack and visited her, as a spirit, to say farewell. She thinks her son’s ghost swam across the Pacific to visit them; that is why he was wet.

The narrator humors her mother. According to her, her son’s ghost looks the same age as when he died 25 years ago. The narrator goes back to bed but cannot sleep. She is haunted by the memory of the look on her brother’s face when he died. Her brother was her best friend, and she has struggled to forget the scene of his death.

When they were kids in Vietnam, the narrator and her brother would play in the village. Their father was drafted into the war, and they feared he would not return. The father dug the family a bomb shelter before he left. During bombing raids, the narrator’s brother would tell her folktales and ghost stories, which he claimed were true. According to him, the ghosts on their land included a Korean lieutenant, a Black American, and a decapitated Japanese soldier. He learned these stories from the ancient, black-eyed women who chewed betel nuts in the village.

Thinking about these stories while lying in bed, the narrator wonders about the irony of her being a ghostwriter. She imagines the black-eyed women chiding her about her life, and she pulls the blanket to her nose as she did as an adolescent. When knocking at her door awakens her at 6:15 p.m., the narrator is terrified. However, she remembers that her brother sacrificed himself for her, so she figures the least he can do is open the door.

The figure of her brother is “bloated and pale, hair feathery, skin dark, clad in black shorts and a ragged gray T-shirt” (17). He says the narrator’s name in an unfamiliar, raspy voice. The ghost has a large bruise on his head, though it is not covered in blood like he was when he died. He smells like the ocean and boats. Even though she is scared, the narrator loves her brother; she lets him in and offers him some clothes to change into, which are much too big for his 15-year-old frame. The narrator tries to talk with her brother, but she is only able to glean that it was a long swim to get there. When her mother returns, the boy disappears, leaving only the wet clothes he had been wearing when he died. Her mother tells her that one must never turn their back on a ghost.

The narrator is perturbed by the incident; she had never believed in the supernatural. Over the next few days, she falls into the rhythm of writing Victor’s memoir, all the while waiting for her brother’s ghost to return. The narrator’s mother buys new, clean clothes for her son’s ghost. She is annoyed about how little the narrator knows about ghosts.

While watching Korean dramas, her mother laments that were it not for the war, Vietnam could be like Korea now. They would never have had to leave, she could have been a housewife instead of a manicurist, and there would be hundreds of attendees at her funeral instead of the 20 or so she expects to mourn her. She worries for her soul after death. She laments her son’s death because sons must officiate a parent’s funeral rites.

The brother’s ghost does not appear by eleven o’clock, so the mother goes to bed. The narrator writes late into the night, thinking of her parents’ screams and her silence when her brother slipped into the ocean. The ghost knocks on the door, and the narrator tells him it is his house too; he does not need to knock.

The brother tells her he has not moved on. The narrator has not moved on either. The day of her brother’s death is seared into her mind by trauma. She recalls how the boat’s engine gave out. Her brother took her to the engine room, bound her developing breasts, and gave her a boy’s haircut to protect her from pirates. When the pirates arrived, they carried off other girls; when one became interested in the narrator, her brother stabbed him with his pocketknife. The pirate smashed her brother over the head with his rifle, killing him, and he raped the narrator. Forced to stare up at the sun during the assault, the narrator has avoided the sun and daylight ever since. Her parents never spoke of the incident afterward, and their silence hurt her deeply.

The narrator asks her brother why he died while she survived. He replies, “You died too […] You just don’t know it” (23). She recalls calling Victor one night and asking if he believes in ghosts. He does and claims to see and hear the ghosts of his family all the time. He is not afraid because “You aren’t afraid of the things you believe in” (23). She knows now what he means. She breaks down, mourning the loss of her brother and all the years they could have had together, but also for the girls on the boat who vanished and her own loss of self after her assault.

The narrator begins writing a book of ghost stories. Her mother tells her that her brother is not coming back because he has made his peace. The narrator writes down the stories her mother tells her for her book.