Aperture on the East (9 page)

Ivan felt an anger rising from his
chest, and he almost wanted to shout at Ana for being so
absentminded. He tightened his fists, but managed to say calmly,
“Just hanging out with friends. I’m going now. See you later, Ma.”
Ivan grabbed his skateboard and left the apartment.

He went almost everywhere in Nha Trang
on his skateboard. From his apartment, it took him almost an hour
to get to the Institute of Oceanography. He made several stops
along the way to examine all the sights, even though he encountered
pretty much the same stores and the same vendors with the same
trinkets every day.

After he arrived at the Institute of
Oceanography, he spent two hours cleaning the saltwater pools with
corals and tropical sea creatures including a variety of fish, reef
sharks and sea turtles. He thought about Sofia as he worked. Ivan
wanted to hold her hand when they walked on the beach, but he was
always too nervous to do it. He thought about asking Misha or
Viktor for advice, but he was afraid that they would just laugh at
him, telling him that she was way out of his league. He sighed, and
after a few minutes of agony he decided that it was good enough to
be able to see Sofia every day for half an hour before sunset, walk
on the beach together and share a durian smoothie
afterward.

“
We’ll see you later,
Vo.”

Ivan heard a voice behind him. He
turned around and saw the camp counselor wave goodbye to a tall
black man and a petite, presumably Vietnamese, woman.

Vo Nguyen walked up to the saltwater
pools when Ivan was putting away the cleaning equipment.

“
I see a big smile on your
face. Are you seeing your girlfriend later?” said Vo.

“
She is not my girlfriend,
Mr. Nguyen,” said Ivan. “We just hang out.” He felt warm all of a
sudden.

Vo chuckled and said, “A boy and a
girl go walking on the beach every evening just to hang
out.”

“
Well,” said Ivan after
some hesitation, “I do sometimes wish that she were my
girlfriend.”

Vo looked at Ivan with a serious
expression and said, “Aren’t you a little too young to have a
girlfriend? I don’t think your parents will be okay with
it.”

“
My mother wouldn’t care.
She doesn’t care about anything I do, as long as I get good
grades.”

“
I’m sure your mother does
care.”

“
You don’t know my mother,
Mr. Nguyen. She didn’t even notice when school was out for summer
and that I had started coming to camp here.”

“
Wait,” said Vo, “she had
to know when she signed the registration form and paid the
fees.”

Ivan looked away for a
moment, and then said, “My mother is very forgetful. She registered
me two weeks before school was out, and then she forgot all about
it. This morning, she asked me whether she could meet my
teachers
,
but
school’s been out a
week.”

“
Perhaps she just has a
lot on her plate. You guys just moved to a foreign country and
all.”

They were quiet for a moment, and then
Ivan said, “So, you don’t think that I should have a
girlfriend?”

“
You care about what I
think?” said Vo, looking at Ivan.

“
Of course, I want to be a
good student.”

Vo took a step back and said, “You
want to grab a Coke?”

Ivan nodded. He and Vo walked toward
the souvenir shop where snacks and drinks were also sold. Vo paid
for their soft drinks, and they sat down on the low plastic
stools.

“
Ivan,” said Vo, “you know
you can’t possibly fail this camp, right? I am not giving out
grades here. And you have been an excellent student. Whether or not
you have a girlfriend, as young as you are, is not up to me, and
you don’t need my permission to do anything outside of this
place.”

Ivan drank his Coca Cola, not knowing
what to say. For some reason, he wanted to always please his
counselor, and he respected his counselor’s opinions very
much.

“
So, tell me more about
this girl you are seeing?” Vo took a sip of his cold
drink.

Ivan hesitated for a few seconds, and
then said, “She is very smart.”

“
And?”

“
She is very
pretty.”

“
And?”

“
She likes durian
smoothie.”

Vo broke out laughing, then said, “And
you like her a lot?”

Ivan nodded.

“
Do you want her to be
your girlfriend?”

“
Well, I guess we are too
young, like you said.” Ivan lowered his head.

“
Young people can fall in
love, too,” said Vo. “I fell in love with the prettiest girl I knew
when I was younger than you are now.”

“
I supposed I am, a little
bit, in love.” The last two words were almost inaudible.

“
Does she
know?”

“
I don’t know how to tell
her.”

“
There are some things in
this world that, if you don’t do it now, you will never get a
chance to do it at all,” said Vo.

“
Are you encouraging me to
ask her to be my girlfriend, Mr. Nguyen?”

“
No,” said Vo. “I’m
encouraging you to be honest with your feelings. I know you are not
a rash young man, so I’m not worried about you getting into
trouble. I just want you to remember that it’s okay to talk about
feelings with the people that you have those feelings for, good or
bad. If they care about you, they will appreciate it.”

“
I feel that you are an
awesome counselor,” said Ivan.

Vo seemed surprised to hear it. “Thank
you so much. I appreciate it. That was good practice.”

Ivan took a deep breath and said, “I
want to hold her hand when we go walking on the beach. I am too
afraid to ask.”

“
What’s the worst thing
that could happen if you ask?”

“
She might leave, and
won’t see me ever again.”

“
What’s the worst thing
that could happen if you don’t ask?”

Ivan thought about it, and then said,
“She might become somebody else’s girlfriend.”

“
Which is the worse of the
two scenarios for you?”

Ivan had the answer right away, and a
bright grin came upon his face. He took a big gulp of his Coca
Cola.

Vo smiled, too, and said, “Well, you
don’t have to tell me. But get your mind off this girl for a few
minutes and go get ready for our snorkeling trip. We are going a
bit far today. I want to leave early so that you can get to your
date on time.”

Vo stood up, and left Ivan there in
the souvenir shop, drinking his bubbly with a silly hopefulness. He
would ask Sofia this evening, and he would not regret it even if it
turned out to be a total disaster. Mr. Nguyen was the best, and at
least for the summer, he would have Mr. Nguyen to talk to and
confide in, like he used to do with Eduard. But for now, he had
better hurry and join the other camp students for another day of
adventure at sea.

“
Bye, Mr. Nguyen,” said
the students as they got out of Vo’s fishing boat at the Nha Trang
Port after their snorkeling trip. Some of them were picked up by
their parents, and others were just going to walk home on their
own. The sun was still up in the late afternoon, and Ivan was in a
hurry to go north on the beach to meet Sofia. He tripped over a
step and fell, but got up without much apparent injury.

“
Be careful there, young
man,” said Vo.

Ivan gave a sheepish smile, and left
on his skateboard.

Vo shook his head, and then sat down
to survey the other boats in the port. He had bought a fishing boat
as soon as he arrived in Nha Trang, one that had the traditional
blue paint and red trims with a small pilothouse on it. He wondered
if his late father had a fishing boat like this before the conflict
between the two Vietnams escalated into war.

He thought about how his father had
taught him to operate a boat when the family settled in New
Orleans. He and his father sailed all along the Louisiana state
line portion of the Gulf of Mexico, and sometimes they ventured out
even farther. They caught amberjacks and groupers, fish too big for
Vo to wrestle with when he was a boy. They brought the catches back
to their family restaurant in the Village de l’Est, and his mother
would prepare them fresh for the customers the very same day. She
would cut up the big fish to make a traditional Vietnamese stew
with tomatoes and coriander. For the small fish, she would just
deep fry it whole in a wok and serve it with a lemongrass sauce.
Occasionally they caught shrimp, crab, or crawfish, and his mother
would prepare them in a boil with cayenne pepper, potatoes, and
corn on the cobs, a recipe she learned from her Cajun
neighbors.

Vo was already hungry after an
afternoon of snorkeling with eight very energetic students, and
reminiscing about his mother’s cooking made his stomach growl even
more. He wiped himself down with a wet towel, changed into a white
linen shirt and a pair of khaki shorts, and confirmed that he no
longer carried the smell of ocean and sweat with a quick sniff of
his elbow. Then, he tied up the boat, got on his motorcycle and
headed to Quan Bien Dong.

When he arrived, a large group of
tourists were in the middle of selecting their dishes with the
assistance of all three waiters currently on duty. Vo could tell
that they were speaking Chinese, because he also had encountered a
fair number of Chinese tourists at the Institute of Oceanography
and at the Sailing Club. Mr. Tran was busy chatting with the
group’s Vietnamese tour guide as well. Ana saw Vo come in and
signaled him to take a seat in the back of the restaurant. He sat
and waited patiently for the Chinese tourists to finish. It was
another fifteen minutes before all the waiters left the group and
went to the kitchen. Mr. Tran came and greeted Vo with a hand
shake, and then hurried into the kitchen, too. Vo was starting to
get antsy when Ana finally emerged again.

“
Sorry about that,” said
Ana, nodding her head toward the Chinese tourists.

“
It’s no big deal,” said
Vo, smiling at Ana. “They got here first. At least there is no one
else here yet, except for me.”

Ana smiled, but didn’t say anything
right away.

“
So how’s your day?” said
Vo.

“
Not bad,” said Ana. “I
started teaching Russian and I got three students already. Well,
one of them is Mai, you know, the head chef here.”

“
You should consider
teaching me and my associates at the Sailing Club, too. We get a
lot of Russian customers. I’ll recommend you to my
boss.”

“
I don’t know. If it’s too
technical in terms of diving, I may not know how to say it in
Russian, or English, for that matter.”

They were silent for a moment, and
then Ana said, “I totally forgot to ask you what you’d like to
have.”

“
I’ll have two fried
spring rolls, the grilled snapper, stir-fried pumpkin flowers with
garlic, and a bowl of steamed rice.”

“
Do you want a Saigon
Beer, too?”

“
Not tonight,” said Vo. “I
only get a beer occasionally when I’m out with a friend. I’m really
not much of a drinker. I’ll just have a glass of iced water,
please.”

“
Good. Alcohol only gets
people in trouble. I will be right back with your orders. Wait, I
need to take care of those people first.” Ana nodded toward the
Chinese tourists again, and then disappeared into the
kitchen.

Vo was peering at the Chinese tourists
who were all engaged in animated conversations when McKenzie came
in and sat down in front of Vo.

“
Hey. Mind if I join you?”
said McKenzie.

“
Of course not,” said Vo.
“What brings you in here?”

“
Same as what brings you
in I suppose.” McKenzie chuckled. “What’s on the specials tonight?
I am famished.”

“
You are going to have to
wait till those folks there get served.” Vo looked toward the
Chinese tourists as the waiters set down the plates on their table,
which hardly had enough space for everything, with the chopsticks,
spoons and glasses competing to stay on the surface as
well.

“
Ana,” McKenzie shouted
when Ana finished serving the Chinese tourists. She came
over.

“
What are you doing here?”
said Ana. She smiled at McKenzie.

“
Doesn’t anyone know that
when a man shows up at a restaurant, it’s usually because he is
hungry?” said McKenzie with a serious expression on his
face.

“
All right then. What can
I get for you?”

McKenzie pointed to a picture on the
menu and said, “I would like to have the frogs with curry sauce,
the mango salad, and iced coffee with condensed milk.”

After Ana went to the kitchen, Vo and
McKenzie whispered and started plotting a plan to lure the Chinese
tourists to the Sailing Club Dive Center. They were laughing and
joking when Ana returned with both Vo’s and McKenzie’s orders ten
minutes later.