Postcards from Nam by Uyen Nicole Duong

Author:Uyen Nicole Duong
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Literary, Cultural Heritage, Historical, Fiction
ISBN: 9781612180182
Publisher: AmazonEncore
Published: 2011-08-14T18:30:00+00:00

I call Tiep the next day, asking him about the 1980 escape by boat. He has earned a college degree and works in computer technology in San Jose, California.

“My brother…I owe everything to him. I just don’t know what happened to him. About the escape by boat, I can’t remember much,” Tiep stammers at the other end of the line.

“Surely you must remember something,” I plead.

He stammers on to fill me in with details, all about the preparation that went into the escape—how the two brothers traveled to the province of Rach Gia, and then further south to the bay area of Ca Mau, all the way to a small seaport town at the farthest tip of the peninsula, where they were introduced to a seaman who organized the escape. Their mother had sold the last of family heirlooms to secure enough gold taels, which the two brothers turned over to the seaman for two spaces on a fishing boat.

Finally, I have to cut him off. “Skip all that. I want to know what happened on the boat.”

“Not much. We ran into Thai pirates. Many Boat People did.” Tiep lowers his voice.

“Did they do anything to you or your brother?” I can’t help being impatient and direct.

“Nothing.” Tiep hurries his words.

“Did they rob you?”

“Yes.”

“Did they rape women?”

“There were no women on the boat. The pirates just separated us. They took all of our food. They left me with other people on our boat and destroyed our engine. An American boat—an oil rig crew—found us later.”

“What happened to your brother?”

“The pirates took him and sailed away. A year later I heard from him from a refugee camp in Thailand.”

“Is that it?”

“That’s it.” Tiep pauses. “It was a bad experience.” The note of finality in his voice confirms the end of the conversation. I know I am hitting a raw nerve. It is insensitive to continue the line of inquiry.

“Why do you want to know all of this?” Tiep asks. “Boat People are old stories. It’s been two decades.”

“Because…” I hesitate momentarily and then decide to tell Tiep. “For a long time, your brother kept sending me postcards.”

“What? Postcards? Oh no.” Tiep begins to ramble in Vietnamese. This time, I detect an alarming tone in his voice.

“What about postcards?” I ask.

“Just before the pirates took him, my brother turned around and shouted to me. I remember this quite well. In fact, it’s the only thing that I remember well to this day. My brother said not to worry. He knew I would arrive safely in America, and wherever he would be, he would send me postcards. Plenty of postcards.”

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