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Autumn
Lanh's tongue peeked out from between her lips as she concentrated. She can milk cows alone, she can (almost) birth calves by herself, she can cut hay, she can bale hay, she can stack hay (sort of), why can't she hook this worm? And why is it so active? It's freezing out, it should be almost unconscious. With more effort than it may have been worth, she hooked the squirming worm and cast the line. It was a cold autumn morning in mid-October, the sun reluctantly began to melt the frost from the grass and corn stubble.
They should be goose hunting, the season opens soon, and landowners tend to start early before the "city folk" mess up the hunt, but Lanh is terrified of shotguns, so she will leave the goose and duck hunting to Don and Huy. She was more comfortable with her.22 rifle and woe be to any gopher who dare dig its burrow in the cow pasture and threaten the safety of her "girls." No broken legs from stepping in a gopher hole while Lanh is on patrol.
Lanh's oldest brother Huy fell in love with shooting clay pigeons with Don on a visit this past summer and shooting clays has become a passion for waterfowl hunting for the two. Lanh noticed with some jealousy that Don and Huy were becoming good friends, their seven-year age difference meaning nothing to them. It was interesting to see a first-year corporate lawyer paling around with a high school junior. While Don taught Huy to hunt and fish, Huy taught Don to play golf and play handball up in the hayloft.
Lanh cast the line into the pond off the stern of the rowboat and when the ripples stopped radiating from the bobber, she handed the pole to Don who sat in the middle seat facing the stern of the boat. Lanh then baited another hook and cast her line forward and they sat, side by side, Lanh facing the bow, Don facing the stern. Neither spoke in the early morning calm, they relished their closeness and the last chance to use the boat this year and they weren't going to let anything deny them their chance for one last fish. They leaned on each other, and both prayed that the fish were sleeping in this morning. When they reel in their lines for the day, they have to pull the floating dock ashore and load the rowboat on the trailer and haul it back to the barn for her annual rest and maintenance and that will be it, summer will officially be over.
Right now, the hunting and handball were at a stop, and both Huy and Trung promised to show up and help land the dock and the boat. Lanh looked at Don's bandaged left hand, his arm in a sling yet still holding the pole. He was turned so she couldn't see his left side, the bruises, the swelling, but she knew it was there. She stifled a sob, but he tried to calm her with a "Shhhhh," and he pointed to his bobber in the water indicating she should be quiet because of the fish. She sighed and leaned on his shoulder, a perfect moment on such a horrible day.
It was a few days ago when Lanh was excused early from her AP Lit class and she headed over to the Industrial Arts wing of the building. Don was in class over there and she was planning to wait in the hallway for Don's computer class to let out so they could walk together to lunch and enjoy nearly an entire hour together, a luxury that was becoming rare with their hectic schedules. The computer class was in the old Drafting classroom, and it was here because this wing of the building was the only part of the building that had the electrical grid to handle that many computers and monitors and the only classroom that had enough room for that much equipment.
Lanh was a stranger to the Industrial Arts wing of the school. A different kind of student inhabited these hallways, a rougher, more tactile oriented person than the academic centered students that she meets daily on the other side of the building. Over here the average student was lucky to be able to read their textbooks, yet they could tune an engine blindfolded.
She was leaning against the wall outside of the computer class and was reading a paper she was going to turn in later in the day and feeling entirely uncomfortable in these dim hallways. The sounds that filled the air here did not sound like a school, screaming saws from the wood shop, the banging of hammers from the metal shop, the churning of the presses from the print shop and the revving of engines in the auto shop mate a cacophony of noise that set her nerves on edge and was starting to cause a headache.
Then she heard a gruff voice and the scuff of boots getting closer. "Hey!" She looked up and saw Joshua Grimes approaching her. He was the biggest movable object in the school, he was a senior and stood six foot two and weighed almost three hundred pounds. It's said that he was thrown off a high school football team in Minneapolis for being too violent. He had two hangers-on with him, and all three boys eyed her like a prime cut of beef. "Hey little girl," grinned Joshua. "Is chink pussy slanted like they say it is?"
Lanh tried to ignore them but Joshua shouted, "Hey!" again. Lanh simply turned to move away from them, but found herself in a dead end hallway, they had her blocked in. "I was talking to you!" snarled Joshua. He reached out and slapped her books out of her hands, "You don't turn your back on me!" He reached for her again and this time he tore her blouse open.
Buttons flew everywhere and she screamed "NO!" at the top of her lungs. Angered by being told "no" Joshua slapped her which almost drove her head through a locker and that set off a frenzy between himself and his two toadies. Now their hands were everywhere, touching, grabbing, and she started screaming "Không phải anh! Không phải anh!" which in English means "Not you! Not you!" She was reserving her body for only one male on earth, and he suddenly appeared.
Lanh's shrieks of outrage and terror could be heard by Don. He bolted from his computer class with the entire class following and turning the corner he saw it all. When he saw Joshua slap Lanh in the face his blood ran ice cold. His vision went red with rage, how dare they touch MY love! And without thought he put his head down and charged as hard as he could and slammed bodily into Joshua Grimes, driving him into one of his toadies and drove the two of them into the lockers with a loud metallic clang. All Lanh remembered was Don suddenly crashing into Joshua who was nearly twice his size, and she was free.
A surprised Joshua grabbed Don and threw him across the hall where the slim boy slammed into the lockers, the clang of Don hitting the lockers was drowned out by Lanh's screech of horror. Joshua then proceeded to beat Don to a bloody pulp helped along by his two lackies while the entire class who followed don into the hall just stood and watched. Between the sickening thumps of fist on flesh she heard Don say "Lanh, run..." and the beating never slowed. A beating that will cause Lanh nightmares for months.
Even when it was over it was horrible. The cowards ran when they realized Lanh's screaming drew a crowd and Lanh refused to leave Don's side. She stayed through the beating, she heard every thud, every grunt, every crack as Joshua Grimes beat Don senseless. She stayed through those horrible long minutes waiting for first aid to arrive, he wouldn't move, he would only gasp and groan. He wanted to cry but Lanh was here, he had to stay strong. She stayed and hugged him, his blood staining the remains of her pretty blouse. She whispered to him that he was going to be ok and in response he would quietly say "Are you ok? Did they hurt you? Did he touch you?"
Lanh wept when she realized his only concern was for her. Classmates tried to pull her away as the EMTs began to work on Don, but she turned and demanded to know why no one helped him while he was being beaten so viciously. But they didn't understand, and she asked again, screaming, and they just shook their heads not understanding and they started to back away. She was so upset when she screamed at them it came out "Tại sao anh không giúp chúng tôi?" Why didn't you help us?
The firemen got Don stabilized on a backboard then lifted up onto a gurney, the whole time he was babbling incoherently but was calm when Lanh whispered to him. She stayed with them as they wheeled the gurney out to the ambulance but when she tried to get on the ambulance with Don, the younger fireman pushed her aside. The other fireman who had teens of his own realized the emotional trauma these kids were going through said, "Hold on a second Lance." They paused a moment before loading Don into the ambulance. The older fireman crouched to speak to Lanh eye to eye when he noticed the condition of her blouse, it was torn and bloody. She had been holding it closed and covered with her sweater, and nobody noticed, they were all concentrating on Don, now the EMT realized that they had a second victim. He said softly to Lanh, "That your boyfriend in there?"
She nodded her head and tried to say yes he is, but she was so traumatized that it came out "Đúng vậy."
"If you sit quietly and stay out of our way, you can come with us, ok?"
"Ok," Lanh replied, and Don didn't release Lanh's hand until after the ambulance was on its way.
The EMT who was treating Don called to the driver, "Let the ER know that we are transporting two victims and have a detective ready with a rape kit."
When they arrived at the hospital, several policemen and a social worker was there to meet Don and Lanh. She was so devastated that she could barely speak English, but luckily someone recognized her from the restaurant and in a matter of moments Duong was heading to the hospital for his little girl.
Lanh tried to explain that Don saved her but being so stressed her language was fractured and the cops got the idea that it was Don who attacked her. A cop was sent to Don's treatment room to place him under arrest, which sent Lanh into spasms of fear and anger. Finally, her daddy arrived, and she saw him through the doorway as he walked up the hall. She darted out into the hall, her torn, bloody blouse streaming behind her, and she threw herself at him.
Holding her father tight she explained in Vietnamese how Don saved her from being raped and now the cops think he did it, her Vietnamese was so rapid and broken even Duong had a hard time understanding. He eased her back into her examination room and as she calmed, she was able to explain everything and Duong translated it to the hospital staff and the police and the handcuff was soon removed from Don, who never knew he had it on.
Ralph arrived moments later, and Duong met him in the ER and explained what happened. "Thank you, Ralph," said Duong, "you raised a good man. He saved my girl."
Ralph was about to respond when Lanh came flying out of the treatment room again and threw herself at "Poppa Ralph." Dressed in an oversized hospital gown, she didn't speak, she just held on to the closest thing to Don that she could touch until Duong and the social worker and the detective that were questioning her convinced her to go back and finish up.
Don was released from the hospital the next day and Lanh was heartbroken that she couldn't stay with him. She couldn't even go out to the farm to make sure Don keeps up with his schoolwork while he convalesces, so she took his work shifts at the restaurant. Ralph told her to take it easy, he had help to cover for Don at the farm. "Maybe on Saturday." she thought, "I can get up early and go milk my girls."
Saturday morning, she woke dressed quietly and slipped out of the house long before sunrise and peddled her bike out to Campbell's farm in the frosty pre-dawn cold. The eastern horizon was barely starting to lighten up and she knew she was late for morning milking, so she rode her bike straight to the barn, where she found Ralph and the hired man Cliff finishing up the last six cows, but there was someone else cleaning the now empty stalls in the milking parlor, and that was her job. She walked past Ralph and Cliff bidding them good morning and when she got to the stalls being cleaned, she found herself staring face to face with Duong Nguyen.
"Daddy?" She threw herself at her father, hugging him tight. "Why are you here?"
"It's the least I could do for the fellow who protected my baby."
"Oh daddy," and she hugged him even tighter.
"Why don't you go inside and see if you can round us up some breakfast?"
"K' daddy," and she dashed to the house. Entering the big kitchen, she found it was already occupied and warm, and it smelled like the kitchen in the restaurant. "Momma?" Mai turned around, she was busy chopping celery, carrots, and onion, and on the huge stove simmered a pot full of ox tail broth. "What are you doing here má?"
"Your boy earned himself some more free soup," she said trying not to cry. He nearly got killed trying to protect her baby again, how do you thank someone like that? How do you reward something like that?
Now his glasses are taped together, both lenses inexpertly glued in place, face swollen so badly his left eye is closed, jaw swollen and aching and wired shut, three ribs cracked, and several bones in his left hand were broken from Joshua repeatedly stomping on his hand, left knee and ankle wrapped, those bastards went for the exposed joints on Don's body. Now Don's chance of making the varsity swim team is over for this year.
Lanh fared better physically, she has a black eye from Joshua's slap, and a sprained wrist from where one of Joshua's thugs twisted it trying to pull her back when Don crashed into Joshua. Lanh's major injuries are mental, she relives that assault every night, waking up screaming "Không phải anh!" Not with you. The only good sleep she gets is when she can steal a nap with Don.
Hours later, after a breakfast of that hearty beef broth sipped through a straw, Lanh took Don fishing one last time before the winter set in. Lanh saw ripples radiate from her bobber, probably a torpid blue gill nibbling on her worm. Fish gotta eat too... then finally, her light Vietnamese lilt thick with anguish "Why you do that? You could have been kill!"
"And you... raped," he muttered through his wired jaw, it was so hard for him to talk.
"But I would be alive," she insisted.
"I couldn't live... with... myself if I let... happen," insisted Don through the pain. "I have to be... the man you deserve... who will protect you..." His words were slow and slurred.
She looked him in the eye, the one that was still open, and drew near. He flinched thinking she wanted to kiss, but she rubbed her nose against his. "I think you are."
"Hey! What are you doing with my sister?" called Huy as he and Trung arrived at the pond.
"Please tell them this was a diving accident," she whispered to Don as she waved at her brothers. "Trung will murder them for real. Please em yêu?"
"Ok... em yêu." Don hates diving, and if he attempted it, he would probably end up in the same condition. He also knows Trung's temper. Trung is perfectly suited for hockey, he loves to play defense just because he likes to play rough. He'd rip Joshua Grimes' head off if he found out what he did. What Lanh asked Don to do wasn't to protect Joshua Grimes, but to protect Trung Nguyen from a felony assault charge.
They reeled in their lines; the hooks clean of any hint of worm. After putting the rods aside, Don stepped back to the rear seat and Lanh rowed back to shore, to the taunting of her brothers who couldn't see his injured arm. When they finally got to the dock Trung looked at Don and cried out, "What the fuck happened to you? Did you finally take up hockey?"
Don just grimaced through his wired teeth, but Lanh spoke for him as she laid the oars on the dock and held on to the dock to hold the boat steady. "He had a diving board accident, and he feels bad about it, ok?"
Trung practically lifted Don out of the rowboat as gently as possible. Being a hockey player Trung felt a special kinship with Don who was fighting to get on the varsity swim team, and he felt that sports injuries are a badge of courage. "If you need anything you let me know, ok bro?"
Don stood by and tried to direct the effort to pull the floating dock to shore but his injuries prevented him from helping which made him a bit upset. However, Trung and Huy did a good job of pulling the dock on shore without his help and they both pulled the 10 foot Jon boat on shore. As Lanh backed the tractor and flatbed trailer up, Huy took Don aside and said softly, "I somehow get the feeling that there is more to the story going on here. If you want to talk to someone impartial, I'm here for you, ok?"
Don nodded and tried to smile; it was good to know that there was someone impartial to talk with. Lanh has Syd, Don really doesn't have anyone except Craig Lewicki, but Craig isn't the kind of guy he'd be sharing secrets about his girlfriend with. He doesn't have anyone that close except maybe Huy. He sighed as Huy and Trung loaded the Jon boat on the trailer, there's a much easier way than the way they chose, but he couldn't communicate that with his jaw wired shut. Maybe next year.
Don's feelings for Lanh have been in an unsettled uproar since he saw her and her sisters swimming in the pond in August. Sexual desire finally began to encroach on Don's feelings for Lanh, Lord only knows what would be coursing through his mind if he had good eyesight and was able to clearly see the three girls frolicking in the pond instead of indistinct blurry images.
Then came his October beating and spending two weeks at home convalescing while Lanh got his assignments for him and tutored him in the evening. He thought of that beating over and over and received no joy when he heard that the three animals that attacked Lanh and beat him were expelled and the instigator, Joshua Grimes, was facing criminal charges. Those long lonely days were spent watching daytime TV on a tiny TV in his room and dreaming of merely holding Lanh. And then came the joy of their reunion every day at three thirty in the afternoon, but she was quiet, and that was unsettling. She was embarrassed of him, that had to be it. So weak, so pathetic, he didn't blame her one bit.
For her part, Lanh would break down in tears when she got home every night. The sight of his injuries, the memories of that beating, three thugs kicking and pounding on the man she loves and the sound of those blows hitting Don, his grunts in pain... but he didn't cry, he didn't yell, he didn't ask for mercy, he just said "Lanh, run! Go!" She realizes that he took that bloody pounding to protect her, and that's when her weeping starts. Every night when the nightmare of those hits and kicks and stomps come and disturb her sleep, she would begin crying and pleading for it to stop.
Her cries would wake her family. One evening her brother Bao went to see if he could help but all Lanh saw was a man coming at her and she panicked and shrieked at the top of her lungs. Kim-ly tried to comfort her but the fear and sorrow that consumed Lanh terrified Kim-ly. Only Mai could hold her and rock her and comfort her, but Mai was shocked when Lanh finally admitted that she wasn't afraid of being molested or raped, that's not what the nightmare was about. She was weeping for Don's pain, the thought she could have lost him. And finally, Tam came responding to her mother's call for help. Tam spent the night in Lanh's room and sure enough, Lanh's nightly terror woke Tam. After settling Lanh down, Lanh admitted to her that she was terrified that he would blame her for his injuries.
The only person that Lanh spoke to was her best girlfriend, Sydney McCloskey. Syd was a fellow debate team member and has been Lanh's friend since their first day together at Freshman Orientation. But Syd never had a boyfriend, all her advice came from teen dating websites and her only advice was to "get back on the horse and start dating other guys."
