We're a Wonderful Wife Ch. 02

"I don't think that's going to help," said Lanh morosely.

"My oldest sister Clara says that's the best thing to do," advised Sydney sagely.

"Your sister Clara is pregnant with her second child and she's never been married." Lanh crossed her arms on the cafeteria table and rested her forehead on her arms sadly.

"See? There's guys out there for all of us!" For a smart girl, Sydney McCloskey could be pretty dumb.

Mai came to visit Don in those first pain filled days after the beating and asked him if he had any regrets, he answered slowly and painfully "No ma'am, if it saved Lanh, I would have died happy knowing I protected her." And that's when Mai's tears started.

A month and a half later and the injuries mostly healed and lost school time made up, the two found their relationship more confusing. They were suddenly afraid to talk to each other, Lanh was terrified that Don was going to hold the pain he received against her, and Don was terrified that Lanh would think he's a wimp for not being able to hold his own, to get beaten like a lame dog. And so, they avoided the topic, and most other topics also. They were starting to avoid each other.

It was a chilly November evening and Sandy Robertson was over for dinner, she and Ralph were in the kitchen preparing dinner and making plans for Thanksgiving which was just a week away. Lanh and Don were at the dining room table, their books and papers taking up too much room on the table, but their usual banter and teasing was gone. They were stoic, silent, obviously avoiding eye contact with each other and it was painful to watch so Sandy threw them out of the house.

"That's it, I've had it. Up! Out! Go! Hats, boots, coats, mittens, now!"

"What?" Don asked, confused at what their infraction was.

"You're too quiet, that's never good, and since you're not stealing kisses, it's bad. Now GO! Go walk back to the pond and back, and if you're still not talking, do it again!" Sandy's voice was strong and her will was absolute, Don and Lanh could no more refuse her order than could they hold their breath for a half hour. Sandy, a widow, raised four rambunctious, rowdy daughters and she knew what silence between a boy and girl meant, and she didn't want to see these two break up for any reason. Sandy firmly believed that a good long walk together is the best solution to any argument.

The sun was setting but they knew every step of the route to the pond, and as they stepped away from the big, rambling farmhouse, a gentle snow began to drift down from the sky. "It so pretty," whispered Lanh, her Vietnamese accent was cranked up to 10 and Don was beginning to realize that when her accent is pronounced, something is wrong. "My angel watch us..." Lanh started, and then with a little sniffle she silenced herself.

Don groaned inwardly; she's going to dump me! I was such a wimp and then she had to play nurse... I suck so bad...

"They look so sad!" whispered the blond angel whispered.

"Ssshhhh! Listen to what they're going to say," the angel with the purple tinted hair tips ordered.

The two teens, tearing themselves up with self-loathing and dread finally reached the camp site, little flakes of snow spiraled down from the sky failed to energize the kids at all, their hearts were both knotted in agony. They reached the picnic bench and snow was starting to accumulate, Don brushed the snow away from a spot and sat down, pulling Lanh down next to him. They sat silent for what seemed like eternity, then Don whirled and knelt in front of her.

He took her hands and pled "Please, please don't dump me. I'll take boxing lessons, I'll work out, I promise. I'll protect you and I'll never embarrass you again. Please... I'm sorry I was weak..."

Lanh couldn't believe what she was hearing, he wasn't dumping her? "I... I... think you were hating me," she gasped, her accent fueled by her emotional trauma made her nearly unintelligible. She slid down to her knees in front of the kneeling Don. "You not hate?"

"No," said Don, "I was afraid you were hating me for being so weak."

"No, I was afraid you hating me because of pain that my fault." Her tears were flowing but a nervous smile graced her face for the first time in weeks.

"No, I have to protect you, you're my em yêu and if that is what it takes to protect you, I will do it every time, every day... and why are you talking so weird?"

"Hug me, tell me we ok... please."

He held her tight and through tears of relief from both Don said, "We are very ok."

"Don à, chi yêu em."

"Lanh à, em yêu chi."

Then, suddenly, they began laughing and crying at the same time and as they held each other tight relief washed over them. Little kisses and big hugs and so much love. The night took on a luminescence, although there was no moon or stars, there was enough illumination to see where they were going. They stood at the edge of the clearing and looked down on the pond, holding hands and staying close. The falling snow was starting to accumulate in the middle of the pond meaning that it was starting to freeze. They should be able to skate and ice fish soon. "Right here is where I was when I saw you swimming with your sisters. You were swimming right there," he pointed to the floating dock pulled up on shore.

"What?" she shrieked. "You watched?" she wound up and hit him in the stomach. Then she leaned against him, and he put his arm around her. "What did you think?"

"I couldn't really see, I wished I had binoculars," he said, and she hit him again. "It's true! I really couldn't see anything, but I could tell which one was you because your swimming was so good, and when you went underwater and pulled that one girl under, that was funny!"

"That was Tam, she's still mad at me."

"I wanted to come join you."

"I don't think Tam and Kim-ly would have liked it."

"What about you? Would you have liked it?"

Lanh didn't answer, she just gave him that sweet evasive smile that he loves, yet which drives him crazy. The term inscrutable came to mind, but she leaned her head back for a kiss. Their kiss was sweet, still short but it lingered for a magical moment which promised more in the future. "Ok," said Don as he regained his breath, "why were you talking funny?"

"I learned to speak Vietnamese first as a baby, everybody spoke Vietnamese around me, and I guess I picked it up. I didn't start to speak English until just before I went to kindergarten." She shrugged, "When I get upset, I get confused on which language I have to use, and it comes out all muddled."

It was just another thing that endeared Lanh to Don, they paused to catch snowflakes on their tongues. Don found that even Lanh's tongue was cute and sexy, and he nearly wept with joy realizing she was back. They walked back to the house, holding each other close, and singing "Walking In A Winter Wonderland" and now enjoying each other's closeness. They had over a month to make up for!

"This year we do it right," said Lanh, as they entered the farmyard, the snow beginning to get heavy. "I will start the inside decorations tomorrow after school, you get the outside lights, ok?"

"Yes ma'am," grinned Don.

"I have a wreath form; can you get nice pine boughs? And some blue spruce? And some cedar boughs too?"

"Yes, em yêu," Don was so happy that his Lanh was back he thought his heart would burst.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Winter

Don and Lanh considered Christmas Day their day, their anniversary, even though their first dance was weeks before Christmas, and their first skate date was before Christmas, and their first kiss was also before Christmas, all three events had a Christmas theme. It was Christmas when they were snowed in together and it was the first time they slept together. Ok, they napped on the living room couch together, but it was still Christmas first. It was what they whispered to each other as they cuddled on the couch and kept in their hearts as their favorite Christmas gifts. It is what makes it their anniversary:

"Lanh à, em yêu chi." (Lanh, I love you)

"Donovan à, chi yêu em." (Donovan, I love you)

The decorations in the Campbell home were beautiful. This year Lanh had time to plan and dig up more decorations. Her family being Roman Catholic had a multitude of decorations that they weren't going to use because even though it was Mai, Duong, Bao, Kim-ly and Lanh in the house, they were all so busy that they were rarely there. Most nights they ate in the restaurant.

Lanh brought yards of tinsel, garland, and fake evergreen boughs, and beautiful glass ornaments for the tree that Don and Huy would cut down. As far as she was concerned, she was still the lady of the house at the Campbell farm, she was assigned that task to bring Christmas back to a couple of grinches and she was going to do just that, and if turning their house into Santa's workshop every year is what it would take, it's what she would do.

It was not unusual to see Lanh wearing her elf ears, the tips of her faux ears peeking out of her long, silky hair, and her elf hat with a small bell that jingled merrily as she walked about the house arranging the decorations, which were lush and plentiful. Don and Ralph could always figure out where Lanh was in the house by the sound of the bell.

A week before Christmas Huy came out to the farm and went with Don to get a tree. Instead of chopping down a seventy-foot spruce for the top seven feet (and the sixty-three feet of firewood), Don led Huy to an area with young trees that he discovered which were full of branches. "That's it?" asked Huy as Don pointed out a nice eight foot tall tree. This tree was nice and full of branches, a good straight central trunk, and it wasn't covered in pinecones.

"What's wrong with this one?" asked Don as Huy walked around it, inspecting it from all sides.

"I was hoping to cut down a TREE," said Huy.

"You want to do the whole Paul Bunyon thing," said Don.

"Yeah, that."

"You know it took us well over two hours to buck that tree to stove length, and we spent most of Christmas day splitting and stacking that thing."

Huy thought long and hard and in the end, they brought back a tree that was nearly as full as a store-bought tree. "Wise choice counselor," said Don.

Soft light, falling snow, Christmas music on the radio, it was a perfect late afternoon, early evening to trim the tree. Bao, Kim-ly, and Mai showed up to help, and Kim-ly had the all-important task of building the mountain with a sheet and empty boxes for the train to go through and setting up the train was now a ritual that signified that the decorating was complete.

After dinner, everyone retired to the living room to relax and enjoy the ambiance. "You did a wonderful job, little one," said Mai looking at all the wonderful decorations in the old farmhouse. But Mai didn't get a response from Lanh. She looked over and saw that her daughter was curled up on Don's lap in the wingback chair, fast asleep.

Kim-ly sighed, "I'll stay the night so she can sleep upstairs."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A week later Lanh had just finished rearranging decorations on the mantel piece and was now standing on a stool hanging up a gay sprig of mistle toe encased in a lacy bell in the doorway between the dining room and the living room when her parents and Don walked in the front door. Don had been tasked with picking them up for a Christmas Eve dinner at the Campbell farm and Lanh finished touching up the decorations in the house while they were out.

Suddenly the stool Lanh was standing on began to wobble. "Let me help you," said Don as he hurried over to Lanh, as the stool was starting to wobble even more. But when he got near her, as practiced, the stool slipped, and she fell backwards... right into Don's arms.

"My hero!" she sighed with a grin wrapping her arms around his neck, ignoring the cackling admonishments in rapid fire Vietnamese from her shocked parents.

He didn't know why he said it, it was the corniest thing that any male has ever said especially when he and his absolute best friend had been practicing their faux-fall for hours to shock their complacent parents. "I'll always be here for you."

It wasn't the line they practiced; it wasn't close, but it was what came from his heart. In return Lanh whispered, "I'll always be here for you too." He slowly lowered her feet to the ground, their eyes remained locked, their arms remained around each other, and then unconsciously their lips met. It was a little peck like they've done dozens of times before, but then their lips met again and opened. The little closed lip pecks and smooches of the past were gone. Their tongues gently explored each other and suddenly, like a silent explosion, their friendship blossomed into a passionate, all-consuming love. They broke for a breath, and she gasped "Tighter, hold me tighter. I won't break."

Again, another kiss, more hungry and more loving than the first, their tongues dancing together, and Don did indeed hold his tiny love as tight to him as he could. Their kiss seemed to go on forever, heads spinning, hearts beating in unison, they heard their parents loudly clearing their throats but that didn't matter.

Then Bao and Kim-ly entered the front door and saw the kiss and Kim-ly shouted "Whoo hoo! That's what I'm talking about! Yeah, baby!"

Reluctantly they broke the kiss and Don whispered "Em yêu," as their eyes searched each other's for that glowing spark of love.

"Em yêu," responded Lanh. The term simply means "my love."

Unseen, a blond and a blond with her hair in a mullet and the tips tinted purple watched the scene unfold, as Mai, Duong, and Ralph watched, each wearing an "I told you so" smile. "Took 'em long enough to figure that out," muttered Ralph with a smile.

"You've never raised daughters," scowled Mai, "now it gets dangerous."

"Yes, it does," agreed Sandy whose four daughters each taught her the meaning of danger.

"Tam! You missed it!" shouted Kim-ly, "It was sooooo awesome."

"What?" asked an utterly confused Tam as she stepped through the front door and kicked the snow off her boots.

"Your little sister just got a tonsil massage!" grinned Kim-ly.

"We go," insisted Lanh as she huffily dragged Don out of the room by the hand, into the kitchen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The ice on the surface of the pond wasn't as smooth as glass, but it was as smooth as it will get in nature. The wind had come up the other night and it blew the loose snow off the surface of the pond leaving the ice bare and smooth-ish. All the Nguyen siblings joined Don at the pond for ice skating on Christmas day and it was like the pond was prepared for their skates. On the shore closest to Don's campsite a roaring fire burned merrily, and wooden benches were set up around it offering a place for the skaters to rest and warm up. Don and Lanh even plowed the path back to the pond and pulled the family back to the pond in the hay wagon, a hayride in which to keep warm. The skaters found an old-fashioned silver artificial Christmas tree set up in the warming area, and a boom box played Christmas carols. They wandered down to the pond as a group and the family pulled on the skates,

As Don and Lanh skated hand in hand out on the ice, the cold didn't bother them because the white-hot passion that burst into flame yesterday burns just as hot now. They skated far out on the pond and kept going, as far as they wanted. The sound of the family and the music was far away. When their brothers and sisters were specs in the distance, Don stopped and pulled Lanh close. "Happy anniversary love," and when their lips met, and their tongues sought each other's out, and again something inside burned warm and loving. Finally, when their lips parted, Lanh whimpered from the passion she felt. Don searched her beautiful dark brown almond eyes and asked, "Where do we go from here, chi yêu?"

"Wherever it is, I will be with you em yêu," and Lanh pulled his head down for another blazing kiss.