The Women on the Island by Thai Ho Ahn;

Author:Thai, Ho Ahn;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Washington Press

By the end of their meeting, the director of the municipal vegetable and fruit company agreed to buy the two hundred chameleons. Tuong was surprised by Hoa's skill as a salesman. His own artistic talents contributed to the negotiations as well—he'd quickly drawn a sketch as a gift for the director.

“At times like this, I feel almost ashamed when I look at myself speaking the way I do,” Hoa said as they bicycled through town. “But once you get involved in trading and purchasing, you realize that sometimes you're going to have to be pragmatic, sometimes mischievous, sometimes innocuous. I often have to do things which, deep inside, I don't want to do.”

Hoa stopped and gazed down the street. Along the bank of the nearly dry river were several flower shops designed in the old way, with roofs of Chinese tile. Nearby a municipal theater displayed posters advertising new comedies. But Hoa's mind was still on business. “A friend of mine directs an export company in the Vinh Bang district. He became too casual in checking up on his employees, and didn't realize that some of his workers had spilled water onto a batch of drying lychees in order to increase their weight in the shipment. You can imagine what happened. Both the quality control inspector and customs investigated the company when they found out about the spoiled shipment. Everything was returned and the workers had to use brushes to clean each lychee and dry them a second time. Of course, then they were sold for a ridiculously low price. The company lost both time and money. The worst part was, it wasn't until the lychees had been shipped abroad that they received a telegram about the fungus that developed on them. They had to send people overseas to inspect and retrieve the goods and try to resell them at a greatly reduced price. That's how it goes. Just because the company neglected to do one small technical check, millions of dong were lost…”

Late that evening, Tuong and Hoa ate dinner at a small restaurant. Afterwards they went to the home of an acquaintance of Hoa. The house only had two rooms, but their host cheerfully gave them one room, about ten square meters in size, and he and his whole family jammed into the other.

“It might be difficult for you to sleep,” Hoa said, gesturing at the single bed they would need to share. He seemed to hesitate. Tuong was already lying down, his knees drawn up, since he was too tall for the small bed. He noticed Hoa's hesitation and pushed himself against the wall.

“Please take the outside,” he said. “If I lie there, I'll just fall off anyway.”

Hoa lay down, but kept his eyes wide open. His mind still seemed to be on business. He chattered away to the sleepy Tuong:

“For a whole year, what worried me most was not having enough goods to export. Not that importing was any easier. Once I was allowed to import 1000 meters of cotton cloth.

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