The Lotus Eaters: A Novel (33 page)

"Ask me to leave her."

"Very romantic, but impractical."

Darrow kicked the door, and it bounced back into the wall. She flinched. The knob left a fist-size indentation in the wallpaper. "I'm ending this marriage now, regardless of if you're here when I get back." Her back was to him, and he stood in the door frame, catching his breath. "Be here when I get back."

A military jeep roared
past Darrow in the street. Three ARVN soldiers sat in the front, two squeezed in the passenger seat. They had just finished a good dinner, with ample quantities of beer, and insisted on driving him to his hotel so that less liberal-minded soldiers didn't hassle him for being out past curfew. Apparent that if he didn't oblige,
they
, in fact, would be the ones to hassle him. He got in and offered cigarettes all around. Satisfied, the soldiers forgot about him and gossiped among themselves. Darrow sat back in silence and smoked.

Helen was right, of course. He didn't reveal himself, or rather the limited facts of biography never seemed important, always giving an arbitrary, confining version of the truth. He smiled in the darkness, realizing this was a liar's rationale. His wife's father owned the major newspaper that he had first worked for; he knew that fact led to surmises about his integrity. What it meant in reality was that he worked much harder to prove himself, that he had doggedly achieved on his own merits despite that.

But the withholding had started even earlier. He had never even told his wife about his name change. At the time, he had felt it gave him a foolish and vaguely embarrassing vanity, an adolescent stunt. Now too much time had passed for the truth; they had been married six years, even though he hadn't spent more than a few weeks at a time with either her or the boy.

No, not telling his wife had involved something deeper that he wanted to hide. She fell in love with Sam Darrow, the famous war photographer, but he was still the insecure young man determined to create this mythic persona. When he told her the first time that he was leaving for the Middle East, she sobbed. Wanted him to move to features, take pictures of politicians and movie stars. Not understanding that the creation now demanded its due, demanded to be played out.

He sat her down on the chintz-covered sofa in the living room. The marriage a terrible mistake, he offered an immediate divorce--an annulment for her sake. But she insisted on waiting till after the baby. Which was the way she announced her pregnancy to him. Much to his father-in-law's displeasure, he jumped when the offer to work for
Life
came, no longer beholden to the paper. He had been gone since; if it made her happy to stay married, he had seen no reason to inflict more suffering on the girl than he already had.

As the jeep swung through the empty streets, the night air blew cool and damp; he was still grimy from patrol but in no hurry to reach his destination. No other place he'd rather be than Saigon, no other life he would choose.

He hardly knew the woman waiting in the hotel room for him. He supposed she was a nice, loving girl and that her marriage to him had been a terrible disappointment. He blamed himself for weakness. There was another reason for his marriage that he hadn't admitted to Helen, which had to do with his fear of not coming back; a kind of insurance policy at the time to leave someone behind, waiting for him. But this woman's love had not weighted him down to either safety or caution.

The jeep stopped in front of the hotel, and Darrow climbed out. He tossed the rest of the pack of cigarettes to the driver and received a happy nod as the jeep sped away.

He felt a hazy discomfort, as slight as a sore muscle, afraid that changing the status quo, no matter how unsatisfactory, would jinx his luck. Helen's love was difficult, took away his lightness, his fearlessness.

Sunlight, broken up and
scattering itself as the leaves of the flamboyant tree moved in the wind outside the window. Helen hadn't slept, reconciling herself to the future of things, and now at late morning, she still lay in bed, heavy, half awake.

She heard the key in the door, and then Darrow stood in the bedroom. Studying his face under half-closed eyes, she imagined she had summoned him with her dreams. The thought surprised her that she would never love anyone as much. His expression defiant as he pulled the wedding band off his finger and threw it across the floor. They both heard the hollow roll of it as it circled down into silence.

TWELVE
A Map of the Earth

Months passed. Robert's assignment
was up; he was being promoted and sent to Los Angeles as bureau chief. When he invited Helen for a last lunch, they sat at the patio tables of the Cercle Sportif as shy as young lovers with unfinished business. Helen pretended to sun herself, tilting her face and closing her eyes. Although she always enjoyed his company, she wanted to know nothing about his relationship with Annick, which had been going on for the last few months. Annick had indicated that the relationship was less than satisfactory. Out at the pool, the daughters of wealthy South Vietnamese families sunned in French bikinis and ordered drinks from waiters who had been there since the colonial era.

Robert's white shirt and khaki pants were freshly pressed, his face shaven and smooth. And yet there were circles under his eyes and a cowlick that wouldn't settle over his forehead. Something vaguely dissipated about him, as if the tropics had finally had their way. He had aged a decade in the year and a half Helen had known him.

"If ever there was a revolution," Robert said, "it should start here, don't you think? Hopefully that waiter over there is a VC operative, a nephew of Uncle Ho."

"How can you leave all this?" She was teasing but also curious. Reporters were beginning to consider Vietnam a must-have on their resumes.

"I've had more than enough of this place. Two years is a lifetime in Saigon." He looked at her and smirked. "When're you taking off?"

"Soon..." Her hand fluttered toward the pool, the city beyond, before running out of force and dropping back in her lap. Darrow had delayed their departure three times, and the fourth date of departure was still up in the air. "If things would settle down... it's been one crisis after another."

He felt bad for needling her, so clear to him the one-sidedness of the thing with Darrow. "You're both coming to my going-away party?"

"Do we ever miss a party?" The truth was if Darrow wasn't on assignment, then he was buried in a crowd of people, either at other people's houses or at impromptu get-togethers at the Cholon apartment. They were never alone anymore; no doubt he intended the buffer to keep him safe from her nagging.

"Annick and I didn't work out. It's easier this way. Hope that doesn't change your mind about coming." Robert stood up. "I'd better get back to the grindstone."

Helen pushed back her chair to get up. "What happened?"

"She's a crazy one. Another war casualty. But it's ungentlemanly to kiss and tell.... Stay and enjoy your coffee."

She sat back and shaded her eyes to look up at him. "That's too bad, but I've missed you. You haven't had any time for me. I'm almost a lady of leisure now. Feature work. I've been sticking close in."

He wondered if part of his attraction to her simply had to do with being rejected, but now that the possibility was long past, he thought himself probably lucky. "I worry about you. I've kept my mouth shut because it'll sound like sour grapes," Robert said. "With Darrow, the war's different. I've seen it in other guys. He can't let it go. He's searching for more than a picture when he goes out, do you understand?"

Helen picked up her coffee cup and held it in mid air, then set it back down without taking a sip. "What are you saying?"

"He's taking risks he doesn't have to take anymore to get a cover," Robert said.

"You're wrong. He wanted to leave for Angkor awhile ago."

"For your sake, I hope I am."

"Anyway, we're leaving here right after you. He's got a replacement coming."

"But do you think he'll stay away? A man like him living in a house with a wife and a dog, taking the garbage out Monday nights?"

Helen shook her head. "There are other things to do. Stories that don't involve war, like the Angkor piece."

"His choice?"

"Our choice. We both want this."

Robert sighed. "So why have you stopped going out?"

Helen shrugged. Since Samuels, she had not ventured into the field, making excuses to Gary, which he all too readily accepted. Samuels's picture had gotten a lot of play and had been copied for numerous articles. Each plane of new soldiers coming off the planes at Tan Son Nhut a weight on her. "I'm taking a break. You know--do no harm."

"Just don't let him take you down with him." He bent to kiss her cheek, but she turned her face and kissed him on the mouth.

"Don't worry about me," she whispered. "I'll save both of us."

But days passed each
other in a succession of delays and excuses, fights and lies. As if Robert's words, spoken aloud, had taken on a truth of their own. Darrow bewitched, enchanted, and nothing Helen could do.

As one of their last assignments, Gary had arranged for them to cover a Red Cross center for children. Darrow went there for a week while Helen made arrangements for their trip back to the States. The day he finally took her, she noticed a strange excitement in him.

The courtyard, a converted villa, was filled with the "healthy" ones, children merely missing limbs but who could still sit or crawl or hobble about. They threaded their way around children sitting in the fine white dust of the yard; Helen watched as a small boy picked up a fallen red bougainvillea flower and popped it in his mouth.

Inside, the unlucky were hidden away--the ones paralyzed by mortar fragments or burned from napalm or white phosphorous, flesh and muscle melted away.

"I was walking through the wards when I caught sight of Lan. You'll know when you meet her. What I'm thinking is narrow the focus to one child and stay with her through the entire rehab so that people get caught up in her story."

Darrow walked quickly, pulling Helen along by the arm. They entered a long, low-ceilinged room that was hot, like the dark insides of an oven, crowded with beds, two children in each one, sardine-style, head to feet. The sheets smelled of sweat and urine. One harried nurse, a Scotswoman with a sunken face and wide, maternal hips, was in charge of thirty children. The more fortunate ones had family who brought food and cleaned them; the others languished in institutional neglect. Lan was a single-leg amputee flown in from a free-fire zone west of Danang.

Darrow led Helen to a small cot by the shuttered window. He crouched down and spoke softly. "How's my sweetheart?"

A small mound stirred under a grayed cotton sheet and a delicate face peered out. The girl had enormous eyes and perfect almond skin, hair pulled back by a white lace headband, and thin gold hoops that accented her petal-like ears.

"Won't donations pour in for this face?" He smiled like a proud father.

Helen tried to see the girl in front of her, but no matter how lovely she was, Darrow saw something more than the child in front of him.

"I'm thinking we stay until enough donations are collected so she can make the trip to America with us. Document the prosthetics, rehab, the whole thing."

Helen sat down on the dirty floor between the filled cots and pulled out a bag of candy. "That could take at least another month or two. Or more."

"But this can make a difference."

"So why don't we pay for her plane ticket?"

Darrow shook his head. "No, no. Don't you see? We'll collect enough to send dozens of kids."

"So you're going to make her your poster child? Delay her rehabilitation?"

"What's another month? I want to accomplish something tangible, and here's my chance."

The girl rocked herself over to lean against Darrow's chest, her wiry, twiglike arms supporting all her weight. When she saw the bag of candy, she lunged across his knees and snatched it, scratching Helen's hand.

"Hey!"

Darrow laughed as Lan tore the cellophane and greedily unwrapped the candies, stuffing them in her mouth. The boy sharing her cot whimpered, holding out an unsteady arm.

"She's wild as a stray," Darrow said. He unwrapped a caramel and handed it to the boy.

"Do you think it's wise... singling out one child?" Helen asked.

He grimaced. "I know the power of pictures." Darrow held Lan's chin. "Some Iowa mother is going to fall in love with that face while she's feeding her family eggs and toast for breakfast. She's going to send ten, twenty dollars."

Helen got to her feet. "Let's take some pictures."

After several hours, they had finished for the day and packed up. A Vietnamese woman approached with a bamboo basket of food and spoke to Lan. She looked Helen over carefully.

"Is that her mother?" Helen asked.

"No. Linh's sister-in-law, Thao. I paid for her to care for Lan."

The words flew out of her mouth before she could think. "Don't you think you're getting a little too involved?"

Darrow stiffened. "This is one of the perks of the job. Being in a position to act."

"So why don't we all go to the States now?"

She had become like all the others, like his wife. He had worried when she went out alone on missions, but having her underfoot was worse, and now the jealousy. "We need to draw it out a bit for publicity. Then we'll have a story to work on in California. Maybe we'll end up helping a lot more kids. You can't be against that?"

"Of course not." He had pitted her against an orphaned child. How could she not look bad in the comparison? But if they were staying till every last orphan was tidied away, well...

When Darrow lifted his bags to leave, Lan let out a howl. He sat back down, and she clung to his chest. They rocked together while he hummed a song. But as soon as he tried to move away, she whimpered.

"I come back tomorrow, okay?" Darrow said. Slowly, the girl strained up and gave him a small kiss on the cheek.