Ice Heart Ch. 02

She reached out a hand to wipe his tears away, then blackness descended.

She came to in an American Hospital and again praised Buddha for his gift.

The doctors did what they could, but they could not save her left leg and had to amputate it above the knee. Four days later, the North Vietnamese Army overran the hospital, killing the doctors and then raping and killing the nurses.

The American patients, they killed. The Vietnamese patients, no matter how severe their injuries, were forced to march north. Cam Pao used the crutches the American nurse had given her, had been showing her how to use when the soldiers burst in. When she grew weary, she was slapped and screamed at. She tried very hard not to fall too far back; the stragglers were often executed and their bodies left out on the road, left to rot in the hot sun.

She spent the next eleven years toiling in their fields, toiling and enduring the occasional rape and the more occasional beating; she was not very pretty and was deformed so they would rather beat her than rape her.

She planned and plotted and saved what food she could and what money she could, determined to someday find the land of the blond haired Americans.

One day, word spread through the refugees; it had been determined that it was costing more to feed and house them than they were worth to the People. That meant only one thing; they were to be exterminated. Cam Pao ate what she could and secreted extra morsels in her garments.

As night fell, she slipped into the dense brush behind the hut and quietly made her way toward the river. The old crutches the Americans had given her had been stolen; the wood quite valuable to the soldiers, so she had one crutch she had fashioned out of a stalk of bamboo, then notched for her arm to fit into. It was not comfortable, but it was functional.

At night she followed the river south, hiding in the jungle during the day. Her meager ration of food had run out; she foraged for bugs and plants to eat as she waited for nightfall. The bamboo sank into the mud along the bank, so her progress was very slow, but she pushed herself onward.

She found a man that had a boat and planned on taking some people to America. Eagerly, she gave him what money she had then let him use her body for his pleasure.

She was alarmed when she saw how small the boat was and even more alarmed when there were more than forty people crammed into the small cavity of the boat.

"No money back," the man barked when others complained or voice concerns.

"Better I drown fighting for my freedom than be slaughtered like a dog," Cam Pao said to herself and joined the wiggling, writhing humanity on the boat.

She and several others grew gravely ill on the journey and she prayed for a speedy end to her suffering.

But then the hatch was lifted and she knew her prayers had been answered; a blond haired man in a Coast Guard uniform looked down at the refugees.

She was fitted with a prosthetic leg at the charity hospital and learned how to use it as if it were her own.

A man in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana had heard of Cam Pao and her fellow travelers and offered six of them employment at his crawfish processing plant. She eagerly accepted the employment and was overwhelmed at the fortune the man was willing to pay them. She found the apartment and had been living there for twenty four years. She rode her bicycle, rain or shine, and evens in the very infrequent snow, but never missed a day of work.

"I'm good, Miss Pao, how are you today?" Cris smiled at the tiny woman. Her long black hair now showed some gray strands, but her small face showed no wrinkles, no sign of her age.

And that was the extent of their conversation; she would greet him, and then lock herself in her apartment.

****

Ann Marie looked around the condominium and felt a little wave of jealousy. She was busting her ass day after day and all she could afford was the dilapidated apartment and Nicole sat around all day long and did nothing and she was living in a two bedroom, two bathroom condominium. The furniture was a little loud; nothing she'd ever pick out for herself, well, maybe the table and chairs, but when wouldn't have stained it that color.

But it still looked a lot nicer than the furniture she'd gotten from the discount warehouse on Cameron Highway.

"Okay, kiddo," Ann Marie said to Sophia, fighting down another wave of resentment; the child was reaching out to Nicole. Working the late shift; be back about ten, ten thirty to get her."

"Thanks, Mom, have a great day," Nicole smiled happily.

"You too, baby," Ann Marie said and left with one final kiss for both daughters.

"I don't think she likes me," Fred quietly said.

"What? Why?" Nicole said and joined him on the sofa.

Sophia grunted and gurgled in her strange language; the child was almost a year old; she should be speaking by now, at least saying 'Mama' or 'dada,' but the child just grunted and chortled.

"She never says 'hi' or nothing," Fred whined.

Fred, hold Sophia for a minute, face her away from me," Nicole said and got up.

"Boo!" she shrieked from behind Sophia.

Fred jumped, startled. Sophia did not move.

"What the fuck?" Fred yelled at Nicole.

Again, Sophia did not react to the loud sound of Fred's response.

"I'm going to do it again," Nicole said, tears beginning to stream from her eyes.

She tried to scream 'Boo,' but could barely sob out the word. Fred looked at the beautiful baby and felt his own tears begin to pool in his eyes.

"Sophia?" he asked. "Baby, can you hear me? Can you hear Sissy? Huh?"

****

Cooking for himself was no fun; there was no Nickie hanging all over him, distracting him, no shrills demands to 'taste' whatever he was stirring.

The Mexican class was fun and there were a few women in the class that let him know he could stir their sauce anytime he wanted to, but he just wasn't in the mood.

"Should have taken Chinese," he mused as he rapidly diced the jalapeno pepper for the green Chile sauce.

"Oh well, it's only for two more weeks," he sighed as he whisked the lime juice and cilantro together.

He'd seen Mickie walking to McDonald's yesterday. Her uniform pants were stretched very snugly across her ample haunches and he developed an immediate erection, and then felt guilty for it.

She'd liked it when he tongued her anus, liked it when he drove two fingers into her anus, but balked at letting him stick his cock in there. Nickie had loudly announced that he was always trying to do that to her too.

He wondered if her pussy was still nice and smooth.

"Damn it," he cursed as the chicken began to burn.

****

"She's, and when did you become a God damned doctor?" Ann Marie snapped angrily as Nicole shared her fears.

"Watch," Fred said firmly, not caring if Ann Marie did not like him or not.

He slapped two telephone books together behind Sophia and the child did not even flinch.

The End.